I left you guys on a cliffhanger yesterday. Sorry not sorry.

Anyway, I entered Bingo in his first Beginner Novice this past weekend at Florida Horse Park! Which was also, for those keeping track, his second event, and my first event with him. He’s a pretty big dude and he’s been schooling great, so I felt pretty confident that BN would be totally fine. He did the Starter last month as his first show, so coming back to the same venue seemed like a easy choice, and I thought that making the jumps a little bit bigger might actually be easier for me. It gives me something a little more substantial to be able to ride him up to, which often helps the big and brave ones a little bit.

We started the day off pretty bright and early since I had a dressage time at 8:42. I wanted to be there about an hour ahead of time so I could unload, get my number, tack up, and have ample time to figure out how he was going to be about warmup traffic. On a regular day I’d say he takes maybe 15-20 minutes to get warmed up well, but I wanted to have extra time just in case he had any come-aparts about all the other horses buzzing around.

I went up to warmup and there were a lot of horses in the ring, so I opted to start out with my walking and trotting in a little grass area next to the warmup ring. I figured I’d see how he was out there by himself and then decide if I felt like he could handle being in the actual warmup. And to his immense credit, he was great. We spent maybe 5-10 minutes out in the grass, during which the warmup ring cleared up a little bit, so I took the opportunity to dip in and see how it went. I was very strategic about my paths to make sure he didn’t get in any tight spots, but regardless he handled all the horses very well, like a little professional, and we were able to finish our w/t/c warmup in there like a real bonafide big boy even amidst kids, ponies, and pros on their other very green baby horses.

I was able to give him a nice little walk break, then picked up the trot again as the person before us was about halfway through his test. Then we headed in, making our way all the way down to ring 3. I trotted left around the ring first, so he could see the judge’s booth, then turned around and came back past it the other way. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to make sure he saw it out of both sides of his brain before we had to trot straight towards it.

This is also the part where I put in a small disclaimer that I learned my dressage test on the way to the show (sorry Peter Gray, I know that’s a pet peeve), I have never ridden Bingo in a dressage ring or any enclosed space this small, and it was precisely his second time ever being in a 20×40 in his whole life. Have I mentioned he’s over 17h tall, approximately 75′ long, and brand new to all this?

Anyway, I thought he was actually superb, given where he’s at.

He was obedient, there were no major bobbles, and he had good forward energy. There were definitely places where the geometry could have been better (that first canter circle was wildly ovular), and getting him a little more up in the base of his neck while also maintaining some bend around my inside leg remains a work in progress. Also, he is so big – and just not particularly supple and elastic yet at this stage – that I can confirm it feels a lot like riding a cruise ship in a koi pond. But, honestly… what more could you want from a kiddo that’s literally just starting out in a new career? He tried his best, and he was steady and rhythmical and consistent in the contact.

When we finished, the judge said he had a lovely tempo and rhythm and that if I rode the corners better he would get significantly better marks. I smiled and said thank you, while thinking to myself “I was mostly just glad he went the direction I asked and stayed in the ring” but ya know. LOL. We will get to the point where we can worry more about the corners and I can actually ride them in a more deliberate way – alas we aren’t quite there yet. Then again, if she thought he looked good enough to where his loss of balance in the corners was our biggest problem, I’ll absolutely take that. Our first dressage test, done and dusted! He scored a 36 to sit 6th out of 20 (the judge was equally picky to all of us, no free points were given away that morning, which I don’t mind at all since she was consistent. Almost half of the division scored over 40 and I thought I saw some pretty decent tests for BN.).

After that he got hosed off and I put him back on the trailer with his fan and his hay net while I went and walked show jumping.

Which is also when it occurred to me that I don’t think he’s ever jumped a 2 stride yet. There was never one set in the ring during the month he was in training, and I’ve never jumped him through one. But ya know, he’s clever and bold so that part should probably be fine, right? My bigger concern about it was that 6ab was right next to the small section of covered bleachers, which I thought might provide just enough distraction to make the 2 stride even a bit more difficult. Bingo is a pretty brave jumper, it’s more a matter of controlling his shoulders and making sure he doesn’t just barrel right through my hand, but I knew I’d have to ride pretty positively there.

SJ warmup was much more chaotic, so I was pretty careful about it. I’m trying to be very aware of the fact that horse shyness is an issue for him, and while I don’t want to baby him and avoid putting him in situations that he’s going to have to learn how to handle, I do want to make sure that I’m being fair to him and make these outings build his confidence rather than take it away. So I looked for little time gaps where things were quieter, kept it as brief as possible, and left the ring to let him stand and chill when I thought it was getting just a bit too exciting in there. While it does mean that our warmup was briefer and more stilted than I would have preferred, particularly the flatwork (I really needed another 5-10 minutes to get that shoulder and cement my half-halt… basic rideability stuff), I do think it was the right choice. He was able to handle it all with no explosions and not too much tension, and I think he’ll be better off for it next time. Sometimes you have to pick your battles.

So I went in the ring with a calmer, not-overwhelmed horse, but I could have used a little more rideability in a couple of the corners. Regardless, he was stinkin cute.

The first jump was a single oxer, and I could feel that he was slightly wide-eyed taking in the sights of the ring, but he was still just absolutely dead honest and happy to jump what was in front of him. We landed from that one and made the very long turn around the end of the ring and back up the middle to a 6 stride line. He got slightly wiggly through the left shoulder there, but it rode well anyway and he jumped well. Then we landed and turned right to a single oxer, again he was good to that, then up the outside line with a 5 stride line to the 2 stride. A decent ask for a BN horse, especially going past the bleachers. He got a little green and wiggly down that line for sure, and I really had to ride him forward to make sure the two worked, but he kept going. Good boy points.

Of course, because I had to ride him forward to the two stride, he landed a bit strong in my hand, and trying to make the turn to the next jump was NOT EASY. He was a little bit of a speedy train there, I had to reaaaally get him back to even make it to 7, and we definitely were not straight. Again though, he was honest and happily popped over it once I got him steered in the right direction. He landed from that one much more civilly and we just cantered nicely all the way back up the middle of the ring and jumped the last oxer, which was super.

Overall there were definitely some green spots, but I couldn’t have been happier with how willing and brave he was. That was, after all, like… the 5th course we’ve ever jumped together? He had one rail just ticking the pole with his hind toe, but no biggie. I was actually quite pleased with his shape in the air and how well he jumped all the ones we were actually straight to. He’s starting to figure it out. It’s a lot of leg and body to put together. And again, the rideability will come along more with time (especially once I feel like he’s a little happier in warmup and I can spend more time there).

I was trying to beat an incoming storm, so I wasted no time in slapping his XC boots on, putting my vest on, and then heading across the driveway to XC warmup. I started trotting immediately, popped over a little log, let him canter away and came back around to a little house, and then called it good. He was already warmed up from SJ, so it was mostly about him understanding that we were moving on to the solid jumps in the field now. Luckily everyone else was also wanting to beat the weather, so they were just taking people as they came to the start box. The volunteer in the chase cart gave me a 10 second countdown, and then off we went!

And Bingy walked into the start box like “OH – are we doing that runny jumpy thing now?!”. It was adorable. We trotted out, I let him pick up the canter on his own, and he locked right on to his first fence, a little roll top. He landed from that one a little strong (can confirm, there is enthusiasm for XC already) so I had to really ask him to slow back down to a quiet canter. He popped over the log ramp at 2, then we made a turn back to a little house at 3. After that we had to canter past some N and T jumps, one of which featured some dead palm fronds that were very rustley in the wind, and he spooked a bit sideways away from that. Fair enough. Luckily we were plenty far away from our fence 4 for me to get him back off my left leg and onto a straight path, no problem.

Fence 4 was the big hammock, which was pretty wide and airy, and had some hay bales under it. It’s big and spooky for BN. He met that one great though, and jumped it with enthusiasm.

He was very proud of himself for that one, and landed and thought maybe he should take me for a bit of a gallop. I, however, did not think we should go for a bit of a gallop. We had a discussion there about the whoa and whether or not it was required on XC (much to Bingy’s chagrin, it certainly IS), but the discussion was over by the time we got to the next jump, which was the rolltop before the first water. He jumped that great, popped into the water, cantered through, and then we came out around a turn (and past the shaded spot where several people were sitting – he gave them a very slight eyeball of suspicion) and forward to the next jump, a square table.

Then we had to yoink left to head to the half coffin – a ditch with 6 strides to another rolltop. On the way to this he could hear some machinery making noise, and got a little bit distracted looking for goblins in the tree line. Bless him though, he still kept going and jumped everything I put in front of him, it was just a bit less focused. Then it was down to the wagon before making the turn back towards the next water. There we had a house several strides out from the water, through the water, and out over a small hanging log.

My dumb ass almost dropped my whip going into the water, and in my effort to grab it, I managed to get my reins so tangled that I’m pretty sure for a second there I was holding them in the wrong hands. Yes, it’s my first day on a horse. Don’t mind me. It made our trajectory to the hanging log very drunken, but ya know… we got there in the end. Good boy Bingy.

After that it was just a nice canter around the bridge to the last jump, a little log oxer, and through the finish. I haven’t worn a watch since Presto moved up to Modified a couple years ago, so I have no idea where mine even is and definitely did not wear it for this show. I figured we’d just lope around and focus more on how it felt. I had no clue what optimum time was anyway, I had to go look it up for y’alls sake. The online map says it was OT 4:26 with Speed Fault at 3:26, and we came in at 3:57, so pretty close to bang on in the middle.

Gold stars for Bingy! He did pull on me more than I would prefer, BUT he also came back to me every time I insisted. Again these are rideability and balance and strength issues that are all part of it, at this stage. He also got better as he went around, as some of the excitement wore off and he settled into the task. All good things. He ended up finishing 7th, adding just that one rail to his dressage score.

At no point during the day did he ever tell me no, or feel like he wasn’t confident in what I was asking him to do. There were green horse things, sure, but he was just so game and really had his “thinking” brain on. I’m so impressed with him. It was also just a generally easy and drama-free day, with him being a well-behaved creature that self-loaded, hauled and stood like a champ, didn’t do any screaming, etc etc. So pleasant.

I’m also really glad we went ahead and did this on our own, it was SO informative for me to be able to play with all of this stuff by myself, and now I feel like I have a very good idea of exactly what we need to work on at home and in our lessons. It was very informational, which is really the whole point. Very proud of Bingy, and excited to get to feel some glimmers of the horse I think he might eventually be! Fingers crossed the show photographers got something cute.