Gideon and I were at our very first English horse show together! Once he was unloaded from the trailer it was time to get us ready to go in the ring. The first step to that was filling out and turning in my entry papers. Butterflies fluttered around in my stomach as I left Gideon tied to the trailer. With paperwork in hand I was headed to get this task done. I had turned entries in many times at western shows and barrel races, but this was my very first English show, and I was not completely familiar with all of the classes listed on the prize list. I approached the lady running the entry table. From that point on all I remember is being completely reamed out by this lady. She chewed me up and spit me out. Apparently I asked the wrong question or looked at her wrong or something. All I know was I did not appreciate being treated like this! First of all, I drove that hideous trailer 3 hours to get to this show. Then no one even offered so much as a word of encouragement to get my horse off that ugly trailer. Now I’m running late and might miss my one class and all this lady will do is yell at me! This whole English show thing was not working like I had imagined when reading all of my Saddle Club books.
Though it was a struggle, I got my entries done and made my way back to the horse trailer to find my one source of joy through this entire experience – my new horse, Gideon. I pulled the jumping saddle Patty had donated to me out of my white Chevy Silverado and tacked up my horse. Within a few minutes I was on his back and the butterflies in my stomach were flapping their wings so hard they were making it hard to breathe. I wanted so badly to show all those English people that a barrel racing horse and rider could kick their butts! We made our way to the field where people were warming up their horses. Gideon was a little nervous, but probably only because he could feel the energy emanating from my body. Our class would soon start, but I wanted to make sure we were prepared. We walked back and forth in the field that sloped downhill to the left until I felt like we were both relaxed enough to speed it up a bit. Then we trotted. Uh oh. There it was again – that limping that I had noticed the first day he came to Winterview! Had we come all the way to Tupelo, MS and endured all of this misery for my horse to be lame?! I decided to bite the bullet and show him anyway. Maybe he was only limping because we were trotting on the side of a hill. They called our class and approximately 12 horse and rider combos entered the ring…
Lesson for the day: Keep calm and carry on.
Soli deo gloria
~Sarah
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