RMCE Northern Winter Classic: Friday

Friday kicked off with an 8am Under Saddle. I rode Teddy and Marieka, our token junior, rode Ellie. The ring was super tight with 14 horses in the class and my heart sunk when the judge, after watching everyone trot for a few moments, pulled five of us into the center. Teddy and Ellie were both in that group. Teddy hadn't had much time to warm up, was a little stiff + managed to forge every single time we passed the judge. Everyone on the rail went through their paces and then a few more were called to the middle and the rest excused. Then we ALL went back out and did it all again.
Teddy pinned second and Ellie pinned fifth- I guess hanging out in the middle was not a terrible place to be!

To the Jumper ring for a quick .70 round to get our motor running. Or not. What course designer puts not one, but two, one stride combinations in a bitty jumper class? Are we heading to the Olympics here? No we are not.
Ellie was game up until the combo and I didn't give her the confident ride she needed the first time.....or in our second attempt. Not a great confidence builder walking straight into Hunter 2.

Our Warm Up Hunter round had a refusal- a spooky judges line that looked different from the others.....because sun happens sometimes.
We got it in gear (complete with a lot of mare glare) for our first round but she fell out in the back coming around to that damn line again. I loved our ride to the single oxer in this round!
Round 2 netted us 5th which I was super please with given the number of horses in the class. Watching the videos gives a totally different perspective to the rides. We FEEL like we're zooming around like bats out of hell, but what I see on the video is a slightly sticky mare (who doesn't look like she got her hocks done just a few weeks ago). We need to get to work at home on some of this 'tude- it just doesn't paint the prettiest picture.
After riding the speed demon I was looking forward to my rounds on Tedster, despite never having actually jumped a full course or made it down any lines on him. Needless to say, our warm up (video below) was a bit bobbled, but still landed us fifth.

Our first round Hunter course, which of course is not captured on video, was like butter. This guy reminds me of the DMV Sloths in Zootopia. He's like molasses but covers a ton of ground- plenty of time to wonder in a brief panic where my next fence was. We found the line- it is a Hunter course after all.
I loved this round and I think it was a well deserved first place.
I found out in our second Hunter Round that Teddy's favorite adult amateur stunt is to drop his shoulder and run through his lead change. So after a few of those scampers throughout the course we wrapped up the class with an 8th.

The inconsistency was probably the most difficult part to manage throughout the show. And there was a lot of it- between horses, days, and trips.

Saturday was our BIG day with a $5,000 2'6" Classic and Hunter Derby!