First Show!

So we survived the first show of the season haha and that's saying a lot!  All I can say is life is never dull with horses they always keep you on your toes!  We arrived in to the show park on Thursday afternoon with enough time to move in before the vet inspection and jog, both went off without a hitch after the jog I took him out for a little ride just walking around all of the arenas, I concentrated most of my efforts on getting him chilled out in the indoor arena (we were scheduled to ride outdoors on day 1 and indoors on day 2) as normally he is spookier indoors than out and the indoor also had a lot of stuff set up around it including a big bar and lounge area next to it as well as full flagging on the fences, a spectator tent on one side and a big electronic scoreboard in the corner which Nico has never seen so I thought he might find that somewhat scary, the outdoor ring was fairly generic just a ring, some plants and the judges tents (apparently I underestimated those tents but more on that later;), he seemed calm enough walking around out there so we called it a night.  On Friday we were due to ride the PSG in the outdoor ring around 11:00, he was incredibly fresh in the warmup which is usually a good sign when he's feeling that way, unfortunately our warm up time got cut short as they decided to groom the warmup ring at that time and shuffled us all off to another arena so I didn't feel we quite got the warmup I would have liked but that's the nature of showing of course so we had to go in the show ring when it was our time, haha it may be my imagination but I am quite certain the second we stepped into the ring the winds kicked up ten speeds and the judges tents started flapping away in the wind, at this point Nico just seemed to go into total overstimulation meltdown, I think the flapping tents were like the straw that broke the camel's back and needless to say he reverted into a deer in the headlights, so as we headed up the centerline I knew this was not going to be a good round but decided we would chalk it up to a schooling round and just focus on getting around the ring and through the test to hopefully get Nico's confidence back up, all the while reminding myself of the stories of great horses like Rembrandt, Bonfire and Salinero who all had tests like this early on in their international careers, the judge was very very nice at the end he said that's really too bad that he was so nervous as he's a lovely horse and commented that I'd handled the situation very well and then he gave me a few minutes to trot him around in the ring to let him relax definitely a good judge and horseman to recognize that he just needed some time to settle in the ring.  So on day two I altered my game plan a bit and was generally pleased with the improvement, I decided to take him out for a light stretchy ride in the morning just to ride him forward and loose to help him relax a few hours before the warmup for the I1 test, this seemed to work really well as he was much more settled in my warmup that day so we had more confidence going in to the very scary indoor arena (scoreboard and all) he was far better that day, still not at our best as we had minor spooks in both extended trots a distraction in the reinback and some general tension through the topline as he was still a bit overwhelmed with the surroundings but overall I was happy that he was much more rideable on day two, still with tension and a couple little mistakes so definitely not our best work but I was still able to interact with him and work him through the tension in a much better way so I was pleased with that improvement over day 1, that being said we've decided to take in a smaller show this weekend just to get him out again to help settle his little case of stage fright and get his confidence back up, of course he is a seasoned show horse but the atmosphere at the shows down here is so much more than anything the horses see back home that it's almost like riding a green horse at the shows again so on that note I am really glad that we decided to come down and get out into the show ring early in the season as there really is no way to simulate this kind of experience other than getting out here and doing it and this is definitely the kind of experiences and growth that we need to take Nico from being an FEI horse at the national level in Canada to being on the international scene where he will be faced with these kinds of atmospheres and more, so all in all although it's not exactly the way I had hoped the first show would go I am satisfied with the improvement he showed over the course of it and feel confident that we made the most of the experience, as we all know with horses it's the little improvements that you have to appreciate the most.  Nico had a day off yesterday to rest and we just finished having an absolutely super lesson with Albrecht this afternoon he felt very very loose and was really moving much better through his back and body in a great way and we focused a lot on getting him more gymnastic in the body with some excellent results so that definitely made my day and it seems he has come home from the show feeling very very good!  After our ride we took a little stroll out on the track which he quite likes, hoping that we can go out for a trot and canter out there in the next couple of days if he's still feeling brave:).