Dressage Queen or Rodeo Queen?

Sometimes with the squirrelly green horses I'm left wondering at the end of the day if I'm a Dressage Queen or a Rodeo Queen.  Last weekend in Greeley at the NCDA show was just such a day.  I took Raven to show at Training Level in tests 1 and 2, which she had done last fall with some success.  The difference this time was that Sara brought Dancer to show as well, and Raven had decided that she absolutely could NOT be without Dancer in the warmup arena.

Raven's temper tantrum at not being allowed to simply return to the trailer to eat hay with Dancer resulted in the following fits of athleticism:

This one cracks me up because you can see me growling at her, but I somehow manage to stay in a relatively straight plumb line from head to heel.

Raven did buck me off in the warmup, but just the one time.  I very nearly landed on my feet, but lost my balance at the last moment and I ended up with my buns in the dirt.  The footing was soft, I was uninjured and unphased, so I immediately remounted before Raven had time to think about the fact that rearing, bucking, and ducking in quick succession actually succeeded in removing her rider.

It was humorous to me, when I was coming off I could hear the spectators and other riders gasping.  Kim H. was taking photos and it all happened so fast she didn't even have a chance to put the camera down before I had remounted.  She said people started rushing over to me, but I was back on before anyone could get to me and Feisty McSassyPants.  I did vaguely hear a few people say, "I guess it wasn't bad" as I resumed trotting Raven forward in an effort to get her to knock off the bad behavior.

Three exhausting hours later we were finally done.  Raven did really well actually riding in her dressage tests and came away with scores in the low sixties (not bad in dressage scoring).  She's awfully fortunate that she's pretty, I can (usually) ride that kind of rodeo, and that she's so athletic and uses it for good in actual competition.

Thankfully, Dancer was her usual peachy self.  She hasn't shown in many years, likely five or more, but she remembers everything, including how much she loved the horse show life.  She took great care of Sara who was suffering from some show nerves, and they rode really well together despite it being only their fourth ride as a pair. Dancer is for sale while I lease her for the show season to use for lessons, and she will make someone a truly amazing dressage mount.