Circe’s first show

A short hack away from my barn is Covered Bridge Farm. A really nice private barn that has recently put up a nice ring with lights and everything. They have been putting on some casual schooling jumper shows and Sammy thought she’d take Circe to her first show as one was coming up. Awesome! The better half got off work early to watch (evening show) and i brought my camera, of course i did. The ring was really nice. Good footing, lights for night time riding, and a 2 story observation room! The ring was divided in two (cuz its huge) they had a course set up on one half and two warm up jumps on the opposite side. It looked like my entire barn of Jr riders was there (and they were) Circe was pretty up and nervous at first. She couldn’t hold still so Sammy let her move around walk, trot, canter and a few jumps and find her horsey center. When it was her time to jump round one Circe was presented with all kinds of new challenges, the first being jump one… the gate! Circe had never seen a gate jump before and was really confused by it. She didnt know what to do and it was scarly all 18 inches of it. Sammy got her moving forward towards the jump but at the last minute Circe decide to go up on two legs instead of jumping it. Sammy being a champ hung on, got her back to earth and organized, told her it was alright and Circe jumped the gate. Crisis averted! She then trotted to most of the jumps and cantered to a few others and made the course clear!

She did this in two more times on two different courses. After the first one was done Circe was calm and centered and just hung out waiting for her next round. It just took her the first round to understand what was going on but she did figure it out. She waited until her turn,  jumped clear then when back to waiting for her next turn. She was great and all her nervous energy was gone and she had her game face on and knew her job. The goal was for miles not ribbons but she got a few of those too. For a first time show this was perfect. She jumped clear, she figured out her job and she had fun. Score one for The Circe Effect!