The little Champ

This past weekend Ella had fun at her horse show. Yes, she wanted to win at least a couple of ribbons, but most importantly she got it in her head that she was just going to do her thing and not worry about the prize. I guess all those talks from mommy, daddy, and Jacqueline helped. Sure, we want her to be competitive and set high expectations for herself, do better than she did last time, but most importantly, we want for her to have fun and enjoy the ride (not only figurately speaking :)), as this is the THING she absolutely loves.

I found this old picture the other day and put it side by side with one from this show. How cute is that? That is probably the first pony she ever rode, Ricky, at Mahoney Park in Omaha.  Last weekend was Cessna at Sienna Stables in Missouri City.

Now back to the show: we got to the stables bright and early, picked up her bib, and headed for Cessna's stall. On the way there, we ran into Jacqueline, her trainer who gave her a big hug (for good luck, Ella says. :). She looked so darn cute and smart in her black velvet covered helmet, breachers, white shirt, and jacket. It was cold and foggy, brrr!! We watched Cessna eat her breakfast, and talked about why donkeys can't make good lesson "horses" until right before 8 when Hrishi tacked so she  could start the warm-up. The show began a little late, right before 9 as the judge was driving from North TX and was delayed because of the fog.

Here she is warming up and being led in the arena by Jacqueline.

Theory drill:

Our beautiful rider:

This time around, she competed in nine divisions total: five in her age group for walk/trot and poles, and four divisions in the 14 year old walk/trot/canter and jumping.  So all in all from the time she mounted until she was done, she'd been on horseback for two and a half hours. She has incredible stamina and focus. She didn't want to munch on anything just took sips of water and Gatorade during the short breaks.

The Judge:

With the big girls, holding her own:

I'm so very proud of her, watching her do her thing out in the arena: ride that horse like there's nobody's business.

After she was done, we stayed and watched the next division and saw some nice high jumps from the older girls.  The sun came out and it was a beautiful, beautiful day.

Ella got to hang out with a little friend, Rowan who also takes lessons from Jacqueline and rides Cessna:

Aren't they cute?

At home we had a celebration of pizza and sparkling grape juice but not before she added the "loot" to her ribbon shrine. :)

We thought that after all this she was going to be tired, sleep early, etc. etc. But no, she had more energy than ever!!

Now we're talking about "showing" out of town (that means competing in outside shows, in this equestrian language I'm learning faster than I can.) Maybe once a year. It's so expensive. Ouch!