Mac's first show!

Well, we didn't enter the show, but we went to the show!

There was an outbreak of EHV-1 recently, and because it is very contagious I didn't enter the show because I wasn't sure if/when it would have been over. The outbreak is over, but it was too late for me to enter the show (that and my dressage saddle isn't here yet), so I decided to just go to hang out and show Mac what it's all about.

I was kind of nervous ahead of time because I didn't know what to expect, but he walked off the trailer like, "oh, where are we today?" No excitement, no shenanigans, nothing. There was a gymkhana on one side of the showgrounds, and a dressage show on the other, and our paddock was under a tree in the middle so we could see a bit of everything.

Put him up, walked around and found my friend who was there, and then went back to fetch Mac. We hand walked around the show grounds for about an hour, grazing, watching the dressage, watching the gymkhana, watching the water truck, checking out all the stuff he doesn't get to see at home. I kept thinking he'd find something a Big Deal but he didn't.

I watched my friend ride her test, then I tacked up Mac and we went for a trail ride through the XC course with my friend and her pony. He found some of the XC jumps pretty interesting, but he marched right ahead with his big swinging trail ride walk. We got back to the show grounds area and went to the warmup ring where we walked around for a bit. My friend decided she would leave and go back to her paddock and I stayed to continue to ride Mac and do some trot work. I was glad for this opportunity to school this situation (friend leaving arena) and while our circles drifted toward the gate, he was really well behaved. We had some good trot work and so I finished with that and gave him a sponge bath and put him up for lunch. Watched a few tests and came home.

So hopefully I'll get my saddle soon and there will be another schooling show that I can actually enter!