We fly high 2' show course. Runs 1.21.09

[→ Rain ←]

Show Name- We fly High
Entry Fee- $150
Show Dicipline- English/Hunter [Jumping 2']
Dates & Time-
Entry end date- The date entries are no longer accepted, Jan 18/09
Show run date- The day all posts must be in, Jan 21/09.


Weather on day of the show- The weather is suprisingly nice, however there will be light showers, but no need to worry, they won't last very long.
Course Description- Course!
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[Abbi.♥]

G.A.B.R.I.E.L.L.E.
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XX

"Ehmahgod. Goddamn hail!" Slamming down her alarm clock, and grabbing the blankets from the bottom of the bed, Gabi lay down in her light purple sheets, scowling at the ceiling. If only she lived in Hawaii. Somewhere where they hardly ever got rain. When California got rain, it got it good. The hail had been going half the night, and Gabi didn't sleep more than three hours. And, of course, of all nights it had to be the one right before the show. She groaned and turned over on her side towards the nightstand and rolled her eyes. It was 4:50. AM! A couple minutes more couldn't hurt, right? She turned back over and decided to wake up at 5:20. A small cat nap would be good, and hopefully get her starting up better.

"Shit!" Jumping outta bed, screaming to the shower, and taking about ten minutes to take one wasn't exactly the morning she planned to have for the show. She had slept in way too late, and it was now almost 6:30. Forgetting to set your alarm clock? Yeah, not a good idea. At all. Practically scraping herself with her nails from washing her hair, she was out in a flash. Peeking at her clock from the hallway bathroom, it said 6:42. If she just took a few deep breaths, and calmed down, she would be fine. After her hair was dry a couple minutes later, she brewed up her Chai Tea in the microwave and chugged it down. "Great morning, eh?" She said sarcastically halfway outta breath. She was not talking to anyone really, except maybe herself and God.

Gabi slipped on her tan show pants, her light purple collared shirt, and grabbed her dark blue show jacket out of the hallway closet. She slipped herself out the front door, and ran down to the barn, holding her jacket on the hanger high enough to not skid against the floor. She skidded to a stop at the door and shifted everything she had to her right arm, opening the barn door with her left. She jogged in to the stall being used as a lounge, and threw the jacket onto the dark gray couch, not thinking about the barn cats, or dirt scattered there. All Gabi was thinking about at that time was getting to the show, and being ready. Even if they got dead last, they needed to try.

She searched for Freedom, but no luck. Gabi ran outside, and went into her sisters main barn but he wasn't there either. "Are you fucking serious? My god, people!" She screeched. Gabi felt sorry for Josie for a moment, thinking she woke her, but then that guilt ran away and she felt anger. It was her fault basically that she was running late. Last night she had her up for hours watching Gilmore Girls re runs, and that is just one of the reasons she was in a pissy ass mood today. She went back to her barn and grabbed her halter for Freedom, and ran out to the far northern pasture. The FAR pasture, of course. Today was defiantly not her day she couldn't handle much more of this bull shit. Otherwise, she would blow. Calming herself for Free, she smiled and hooked him up, gliding him up to the barn and cross tieing him.

The poor stallion was filthy! Yet another grateful thing to happen to dear Gabrielle Wolfe in the mornings. She went outside with him, and hosed him down. Free hates water, so he kicked and bucked and fought, but only a couple of harsh words and he was good. After the hosing, Gabi led him into a clean stall and waited a little while before the Hanoverian was dry. She checked the time on the lounge wall. It read 7:39. The show started around 9:00ish, so Gabi would be fine. After a while she went into Free's stall with a towel and hand dried him off completely. After he was reasonably dry, Gabi took the stripper brush down him all over and was done with all of that within about fifteen minutes. It was time for the braiding. This would be fun.

Thirty minutes later, Gabi was still only about halfway through with just the mane. "Shit, Free. Hold still!" She scowled at the stallion, and he immediately responded. His head went low, and the sensitive Hanoverian got sad. She patted him on the shoulder and kissed his nose quickly, to show she cared about him still and didn't mean it. She grinned and kept braiding. Her day was getting a little better, but she didn't want to get her hopes up. Knowing her luck, she would jinx the whole day and they would do terrible at the We Fly High show. She scowled again as she finished braiding. Going onto the tail, she finished in ten minutes. After checking him over to make sure he was gorgeous enough to go, she decided it was time to load up.

Gabi took a deep breath and untied the stallion, leading him over to the dark green trailer. She went inside quickly, to make sure that everything was in it's proper place. There was just enough stuff on the ground, and he had some grain in a bowl for coaxing. She almost forgot to check for the hay in his basket. She opened the back door and noticed it was getting low. The show was only about fifteen minutes away, and same back so Free should be fine til then. "Save your hay for when you really need it, eh, boy?" She cooed to the stallion. He whipped his head up and down once, and Gabi smiled. She would have to do this very carefully, so that Free wouldn't spook. She took the grain in her right hand, and Free's lead in her left. Walking slowly into the trailer, she shook the grain and Free easily followed. Letting him snack a bit, she clipped him up, and went out of the trailer, securing the latches properly.

Word Count- --
Status- NOT DONE!
Muse- Okay... I guess.

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[ayla]

JACQUELINE SCHMIDT

Jacqui had gotten a ride with another showgoer the day before, so when she woke up at six in the morning, she went immediately to the kitchen and grabbed a granola bar. Her hair was already in a tight, show-ready braid, so she didn't need to wash it. She munched on the crunchy bar as she walked back up the stairs and changed into her breeches and show shirt. She pulled her light gray show coat off its rack and walked out to her car.

In fifteen minutes, she was at the fairgrounds. Jacqui slipped a pair of sweats over her breeches, so Kerry didn't slobber her. He was happily munching hay as she walked into his stall and checked his tail. "Thank god..." she muttered, seeing that it was still in its tight braid. She pulled it out and stepped outside the stall to get braiding yarn.

Jacqui settled into the regular rhythm of braiding, making sure all the strands were tight enough to stay in the entire day. Carefully, she tied in the loose ends of the yarn and moved to Kerry's mane. She cut lengths of yarn and began braiding small sections of black mane.

In half an hour, Kerry's mane was perfect. Or at least, as perfect as it was going to get. Jacqui sprayed it liberally with hairspray. It wouldn't do for them to fall out halfway through a class. Jacqui checked her watch. It was seven thirty, plenty of time to get breakfast at the food trailer place.

Jacqui's stomach growled at the prospect of having slightly more to eat than a granola bar. She patted Kerry, who had returned to eating, and walked to the small trailer where the food was sold.

"Hey, Miss Jill! Can I have... what's your special this morning?" Jacqui greeted the woman behind the counter. "Morning, Jacqui. Today, it's french toast sticks.They're really good, at least with syrup. Kind of bland without," she said. "Oooh, yes please!" Jacqui said.

A few minutes of small talk passed before Jill handed over the paper plate full of french toast sticks and syrup packages. Jacqui handed over three dollars and walked away. She had to be careful not to spill the overloaded plate, so it took a little longer than normal to get back to Kerry's stall. The gelding was still not done with his hay.

"Gawd, Kerry, can you eat any faster?" she muttered before digging into her breakfast. Ohmygod, Jill was right, these are freakin' amazing! she thought. When she finished, Kerry had managed to finish off his food. How, she wasn't sure; he had quite a bit left when she started eating. Jacqui checked her watch once more. Eight o'clock exactly.

Jacqui looked at Kerry quickly to check his braids (still very secure), then removed his very dirty blanket. Due to her careful grooming in the days leading up to the show, there was very little to do but brush his and apply Showsheen to his haunches.

By the time she was done, there was still an hour and a half until her ride time. Jacqui couldn't just tack up and ride for an hour; Kerry would get tired. She decided on braiding one of the lesson horses.

The first two she passed already had students working on them, but a bay mare in the third stall was still dirty. She checked in the mare's bag and found black braiding bands. It had been a while since she did anything with bands; yarn was her medium of choice.

Jacqui grabbed the bands and made her way into the stall and around to the mare's left side. She began her almost-dance; left, right, left, right, band, twist, repeat. The mare's mane was shorter than Kerry's and took less time to braid. Jacqui was sure whoever rode this mare would be glad; she wasn't even blanketed and desperately needed a bath. Half an hour off prep time would be a blessing.

Unsung hero work done, Jacqui wandered back to Kerry's stall and began tacking up. Usually, it would only take a few minutes, but on show day, Jacqui paid attention to the little things, like bridle straps and making sure they fit exactly right.

She was still done in half an hour. Jacqui discarded her sweated outside the stall door and mounted up. Kerry seemed to know this was big, and responded almost immediately to the bit. Jacqui grabbed her show jacket off its hanger and slipped it on.

Jacqui now had thirty minutes to warm up. It went by very quickly, like the minutes before a class always did. It was almost a surprise when the louspeaker crackled on after a gray gelding and his young rider finished up. "Next, Kehr Carnett, owned, ridden, and trained by Jacqueline Schmidt." Jacqui's head jerked up and she immediately steered Kerry out of the warm up ring and to the show ring.

Jacqui took a deep breath and walked into the show ring. She tightened up on Kerry's mouth momentarily, then leaned forward a fraction of a degree and asked for a canter. Kerry complied with only the slightest resistance. She hoped the judges didn't see the little toss of the head.

Carefully, Jacqui aimed Kerry for the middle of the first fence, a simple vertical. It was the sort of fence they'd jumped plenty of times before, and it showed in Kerry's schooled form. Jacqui balanced him between her legs and asked for a slightly larger stride to make the distance to the second fence. Again, they cleared the vertical with ease.

Jacqui was very careful to take the third fence perfectly straight. Kerry was never good at jumping at an angle. However, it was hard with the unexpected patch of bad footing. The pair just managed to take a short spot and pop over the fence. Jacqui had a feeling that if it was any higher than two feet, they wouldn't have made it.

The combination that came next was easier than the third fence in theory. Kerry had a straight approach into the two stride in-and-out. Jacqui kept him centered and took him straight for the middle. Kerry jumped a little long, and Jacqui really had to encourage him to take just two long strides instead of a very collected three.

The next jump was spooky, and Jacqui had a difficult time keeping Kerry from straying away from it. They did, however, manage to jump it well. Kerry overjumped a little, but that was to be expected. The sixth fence was another easy vertical, and the pair cleared it with ease.

The turn to the next combination was riddled with bad footing, so Jacqui took Kerry in a slightly wider loop to avoid the patches of frozen ground. They cleared the combination with much less fuss than the last one, and started to fence eight.

The loop to this fence was tighter than the last, but with much less bad ground. It seemed that everyone had taken different paths, depending on their horses' ability. Jacqui followed the course as best she could, with only a slight deviation to the outside to allow Kerry more room to straighten out. The vertical, despite the difficult turn, was another easy one; Jacqui was starting to wonder if they all were.

Fence nine proved her wrong, though; with flowers underneath and narrow wings, it was spooky. Kerry resisted for the first time on course, throwing his head up and pulling to the right. Jacqui quickly directed him back on the line and opened up his stride to give him less space to run out. The jump was long on both sides; Kerry really did not want to touch it.

A quick right turn later, and the pair were facing the last fence head on: a triple bar. Kerry had not jumped these before, but Jacqui regarded it calmly and asked him to jump like an oxer. He cut down a little on the far side, not expecting it to be this wide, but the pair made it over with rather good form.

The end of the course was just a closing circle away. Jacqui reined Kerry down to a walk and completed her circle, then exited the arena. The announcer went on to the next rider, and Jacqui walked Kerry back to his stall.

"Good boy!" Jacqui repeated over and over as she untacked the gelding and gave him a generous helping of grain. His part was over; hers was almost done. She still had to wait nervously for placings, and Kerry didn't care if they took last or champion, as long as he got his treats.

Words: 1461
Done? yes

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[→ Rain ←]

Thank-you riders!

Placings;

1st Place to JACQUELINE SCHMIDT on KEHR CARNETT.

Rider is awarded with $2500 and 500 points.

Unfinished posts//unqualified for points/winnings.

Thank-you riders, and Ayla, I am currently updating your money/horse points.

[Abbi.♥]

Uh, I wasn't finished. >=(