Road to Kentucky Benefit Show

Today was the Forest Park hosted benefit show for J and her fellow pony clubber to raise funds for their super exciting trip to Kentucky later this year.
Willig was a half-ass rock star. Some of the jumps were a bit more than we're used to (ok, a lot more, like the one that was two trees), and without Shannon, I probably would have chickened out and made more excuses not to ride (I've had the shittiest shit week, which means Willig only got ridden once, by J, during the week) and just watched and then went off and did other things. Instead, I was Shannon's shadow for the first couple hours, which gave me the confidence I needed to finish off on my own.
Here's how I tackled it:
- Lunged. He bucked. A lot. But I kept him working until he cut it out and then went just a little bit longer. He also fell down in one of his tantrums.
- Led and Looked. From the ground. I spent a while (a boring while) doing this. Instead of walking the course by myself (all 14 (!) fences - I'm getting too old for this!), we led him and Holly. He was a cool cucumber, which usually means he's bottling his fear up for once I'm on him and the monsters no longer have me on the ground as the tasty treat (while he makes a getaway).
- Lollygagged. (Just to make another "l" word.) We "schooled" the ground pole course together, at the walk, then at the trot. This took forever, but was very, very reassuring to me. It was also, quite possibly, my lowest point as a jumper, so it was very nice to share that moment with Shannon. You pretty much can't do anything less than this and still be "jumping". I guess you could carry the horse yourself.
- More lollygagging. Then we stood around in the warm up arena for a while, just so he got used to the activity.
- Cross-rails. We just tackled these like with the last lesson - ride every step. He was a little more nervous about it trotting (it's easier for him to shoot out sideways) and the long lines, when he could see several fences in a row, made him want to rush. So we walked the last long line. He just stepped over each cross-rail. Ironically, we placed 1st. The time they wanted you to aim for must have been "tortoise".
- 2'. This was easy breezy. It was fun. He knew what to expect, I knew what to expect, but I rode every step with a death grip on my hands. I could hardly flex them when we finished.
- 2'3". Then my confidence tubed, because they put flowers and flags and cones and brush under every stinkin' fence. Since Mr. W has problems with a single cone, I was pretty sure the good afternoon was about to be shot. But I gritted my teeth, clamped onto those reins, and ... we did it! Hooray for us! Except for one refusal (the combination "rainbow") where he did a classic Willig run out abruptly to the right, which I did NOT feel coming at all. But thanks to how he's been teaching me with numerous examples of what to do and what not to do, I yanked him hard to the right, which was ... right into fence #6, which surprised both of us, so he ... jumped it. And then I was still yanking right, so we ended up making this tiny 10 meter circle with a jump at 3:00, and then at 12:00 went over the fence he refused the first time. I could hear the spectators laughing. They said it looked like it was on purpose (it wasn't).
So I'm really super pleased with how he did. A week off. A change in his own home. A LOT of stuff to look at and going on. And just one refusal, and we rode it. Good job, Willig!
Now if only every show let you have that kind of build up ... and was conveniently located at home.
This day was definitely the high point of my week. And they did a great job organizing and running it, with their creative and fun course. And they had a good turn out, so I hope they raised some good money for their trip.