Resne Winter Fun Show 2023

With Wynnie's bill and Thunder still at boarding school, the budget for showing is not exactly in full force this winter. As a result, when the yard down the road announced that they were having a fun show last weekend, I was all for it.

indeed there are tiny yellow butterflies in his mane

I used to run this yard - it's where Lancey was born - and the new manager, S, is a kind, friendly coach who also believes in a bit more than winning rosettes, so we've always seen eye to eye. She runs low-key, super-fun local shows with a variety of classes to enter. They're chill and informal, usually well-attended enough to be enjoyable, and have a friendly, relaxed vibe that makes them perfect for kiddos' first show or to help them decompress after the hard work and pressure of the SANESA season. What's more, the entry fees are really inexpensive, which made this one accessible for me and also generally means less pressure for the kids.

Thus it was that at 7:30 on Saturday morning, with the whole world glittering white with frost and the sun barely up, I rode out of the farm with Lancey and five kiddos in tow. Three were competent teens and tweens, but I had one tiny tot and one nervous one, who was on Flashy and being ponied. Tiny tot was on Spirit, who was, as usual, totally in command of the situation.

I sent the two teens up ahead on Sahara and Midas so that I didn't have to deal with any hesitance from Lancey while ponying, and we set off cheerfully with DH leading the way in the car to prevent any psychos from driving into us. It's a quiet farm road, but you never know. Spirit followed Lancey, and K and Arwen brought up the rear.

Of course, we had picked the same weekend to go to a fun show that our other neighbours had picked to hold a shooting competition, so DH went ahead to ask the shooters to stop while the ponies went past. They graciously allowed us ten minutes to get by, so, ignoring the protests of the poor nervous child (backed up by a rather rotund Flashy), I shoved us all into a trot and hurried on past. None of the horses put a single foot wrong. Lancey got mildly excited at one point but not so much that I couldn't bring him back to a trot with one hand.

Once we left the road and set off across our host's hayfields, Lancey got a little spicy. Nothing silly, but he jogged which I hated, so I pulled, so he pulled. Flash and his kid compounded the situation by trailing miles behind despite my instructions and doing their best to wrench my free arm from its socket while the other wrestled with Lancey. We were a little frustrated with one another, but after a while I, the dressage rider, realized that my seat existed and used that to slow him down at which point he begrudgingly accepted a nice quiet walk on a loose rein. Amazing how that works.

We got to Resne nicely warmed up and hacked up the hill with more than enough time to unsaddle everybody and turn most of them out in the paddock we'd booked for the day. For most of the morning, I helped kiddos with their jumping rounds. Regrettably, I, too, had a jumping round to contend with. Spirit's kiddo had entered the team jumping only for her teammate to pull out at the last second, and I, unable to bear kiddo's disappointment, volunteered to stand in.

his mane is perfection (and yes he had poo stains)

I was beginning to regret my life choices as kiddo and I dressed our ponies in matching outfits and covered their manes with yellow butterflies. (For clarity, there was nothing whatsoever regrettable about the outfits or the butterflies - they were amazing and deeply satisfactory to my inner child). The team jumping consisted of one round per rider. The clock started when the first rider went through the start and stopped when the second rider went through the finish. Now kiddo is a perfectionist and a little competitive so I felt that Auntie Firn couldn't go trit-trotting around the course the way I so desperately would have liked to, even though the jumps were literally cavaletti-sized.

Thus, when it was my turn to go, I put on my big girl pants, grabbed the neck strap and let Lancey at it and the little dude remembered his showjumper days, threw his tail in the air and proceeded to run away with me for the first four fences. At this point, the course got twisty and my nerve failed me, so I reeled him back in with whimpers of protest and we completed the teeny jumps in a collected canter. At least this meant that we could make voltes from one jump to the next so I cantered over the finish like yelling at kiddo to go and feeling like I had not let her down.

kiddo in the background learning bad habits from Auntie Firn's exceedingly rusty jumping skills

Kiddo cantered through the first two fences with her reins as long as washing lines, failed to communicate which way they were going, and promptly fell off Spirit when pony went one way and kiddo went the other. The judge kindly stopped the clock while I scooped her up, dusted her off, checked her over for major injuries and threw her back on the pony. The clock promptly restarted and kiddo proceeded to pop around neatly, albeit a little tearfully, although her smile returned by the end. We got a first place ribbon and some bruises to show off at school.

photo credit to riding school mom, unnamed for privacy

The other kiddos thoroughly enjoyed their team jumping, except for poor old K, who found Arwen a bit overwhelmed by the fences and had several stops. In Arwen's defence, she's very much in a dressage bod right now. She redeemed herself in the barrel racing, where my adult rider won the class and the respect of her two daughters (also riders). Arwen and K were a close second, so close that K indignantly enquired if it had been hand timed. We then proceeded to the pleasure horse classes.

Flashy and his kid won the younger class in fine style. Lancey and I competed against Flashy and his unfortunate older kid, who came second to Lancey, who was a superstar. I still had his martingale on from the hacking and jumping, which only seemed to make him more fussy, but we trotted around and had a good time anyway.

The final class of the day was the most fun of them all. It's termed strictly come showing, but it's more free than that - more a costumed ride to music. Flashy's kid dressed up as Zorro, compete with cape and cloak; Arwen and K were flowers, and Lancey and I were angels. Our tune was "Through Heaven's Eyes" and we had an utter blast. I thought we had it in the bag, but then Midas' kid had a freestyle that involved flat-out galloping bareback with no hands (which was not in the sedate routine I had planned for her, but I couldn't even be mad because she was wearing a helmet), so she won.

that's some of the cloth we used to avoid our guests getting scratchy butts from the straw bales we used for seating at the wedding, in case you were wondering

At after 4pm, we headed back with six thoroughly tired ponies and equally tired riders. Despite the many drivers hustling home from the shooting competition (of which most were courteous and those who tried to be uncourteous were forced to slow down by hubby), our horses all plodded home quietly on a loose rein. Even when one driver hooted several times just a few metres away from us in greeting, only Arwen dragonleaped; the rest didn't even raise their heads.

ever-faithful hubby in the background, taking video

It was a long, exhausting, silly and perfect day.

God is good.