Mudder's First Event

There was an unrecognized one day being held at a farm a couple of hours away that I was thinking about taking Cappy to.  The farm held a bigger, recognized event at the horse park during the summer, but this was at their home farm and a good chance to get Cappy out and start eventing.

We had been working on jumping throughout the winter, mostly in the indoor but there were a few cross country logs, a small bank and the like outside at Crazy But Lotta Fun Farm, so while I didn’t feel super confident, I figured it could go well enough. With it being a one day, unrecognized show there really wouldn’t be much pressure. If Cappy felt over faced at any point…

Klaus’s owner was willing to drive Cappy down, so I sent in my entries and anticipated the big day.

On Friday afternoon I arrived at J’s house, and the wet spring ground gave us pause. Let’s just say that we got the truck and trailer out to the driveway, but not without my getting covered head to toe with a mud from pushing the truck, and…

Cappy loaded fine, my friend Karin and her friend drove my little red car laden with tack and equipment, and our caravan made its way south to the super nice farm. Cappy got settled in to a nice, large stall... probably the biggest stall he’d ever had. It was too dark to see any of the courses, so we left for Karin’s home for the night. I suppose I slept.

The next morning I arrived bright and early, feeding Cap and cleaning his stall while he ate. I brushed him over, looking at his trailer stained socks. A barnie showed me where the wash rack was and told me ship-ins were welcome to use it. 

I scrubbed  Cap’s white hind socks in the hot water wash rack; we were in the height of luxury. Cappy had a surprised but blissful expression during his bathing touchup.

I left Cap to finish up his hay while I figured out the lay of the land. Dressage tests were to be held in the indoor, the show jumping to be held in the outdoor ring, and cross country was… cancelled. The rains had made the going heavy, and the farm did not want to ruin the footing for one small early season event. I was disappointed, but looking at some of the fences I could see from the jump ring, I realized it was just as well.

Cappy would probably not have been prepared for that. Or at least not with ME on him. It was to be my first event, too.

Yes, this was definitely going to be a learning show.