Schooling at the Show Venue

One of my favorite things (besides how relaxed it is) about this show is that they're usually great about letting you come in Friday night to school at the venue! I've done this show probably 6 or 7 times (although not in 5 years, clearly), and they always have schooling in one particular arena, and showing in the other. This time, it was reversed. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal, but boy was I wrong.  

A little perturbed that I put her on the trailer back to back days. If only she'd known what was coming, lol. If only *I'D* known what was coming. Har. 

I had a horse kite on my hands, in a relatively full ring. I also had some VERY uncomfortable bruises on my legs where I got some rubs from the new boots - they were broken in for their previous owner, but needed a little more time to break in for me. I'm definitely not used to full on stiff inner zipper dressage boots after years of relatively soft dress boots with a rear zip. It was probably not a genius idea to ride in them for the lesson and then immediately try to show in them -- after having very ineffective legs for this schooling ride, I opted to show in my old boots last weekend (SOB). I have no doubt they'll finish breaking in just fine over the winter, but I was trying to do too much and something had to give. 

Towards the end of our ride it cleared out, but when I walked in there were probably 6 horses schooling in there. That may not be a lot for some of you, but it's definitely more traffic than either of us have had to deal with in that space. 

Ruby was pretty amped, and I was not being nearly as effective as I needed to be between my legs and my nerves, so I finally just settled on lots of walking on a loose rein and some very chill trot. We did canter a few times when the arena cleared out, but I didn't school very hard. I mostly just wanted to get her in there and get a good look at the atmosphere, which is pretty different than the ring the show is usually held in. 

She did mostly settle in. I also bribed more than one person to feed her peppermints from the judges stand, so that helped lol. 

Bonus Cici picture. 

And DH giving Ruby a good rubdown Friday night, lol. 

I wasn't feeling entirely settled, I was in knots about my show outfit (mostly because I couldn't figure out my stupid stock tie lol), and I had an early morning ride (second of the show), so I finally threw in the towel and went to bed and hoped everything would sort itself out in the morning... lol #adultammyasfuck