BECAUSE I WON FIRST PLACE!
Yes! I've finally won first place in the IHSA circuit! Granted, I've only been to one other show to win a first place at, but I'm so excited that I won today! And I'm even more excited for tomorrow because it's at our home barn and I know the horses. I have three in mind that I'd love to get: Mr. Bubbles (love), Dutchess (super fun) or Cameo (pretty much my twin). It'd also be cool if I got Jimmy. I feel like I owe him a good exhibition since he's helped me gain strength in my leg so I was able to win today!
The horse I rode, Trinny, was written up as "LOTS OF LEG. Crop: Yes. Spurs: Yes (over fences)" so naturally when I saw I had him and the other girl in my division had someone who's description when something like this "LIGHT LEG. Crop: No. Spurs: Definitely not" I was a little worried. But I got in the mindset of something between "Brie just stopped in the middle of the ring again. Hell no." and "Come ON JIMMY MOVE!" and did fantastically. I got a trot and a canter fairly quickly and on the right leads too! Admittedly, I did break stride from a canter into a trot right before the judge called for a walk, but she obviously didn't see me. I did get my diagonal wrong once, though, but I recognized it and corrected it just as one of my team mates yelled at me to fix it from the sidelines (discretely of course).
And I have a confession. While I heard the numbers being called as I walked out of the arena, all I was expecting was 4th place and when my other team mate in the class got called 4th, all I could think of is that I missed my number and was called 5th OR maybe I was excused but as the judge got to 2nd place and it hit me that I could possibly be pinned 1st, I jumped up in the air super high as she called "And first place goes to rider 116, Alexa from Northwestern University! Congratulations!" I can't even explain to you the feeling of joy I felt inside when I heard that and I hugged the first person I could recognize.
Not to mention that I got some prizes =] I got a gift certificate to a tack shop, shoe polish, and a packet of Mrs. Pasture's horse cookies, three, just enough for Harry, Brie, and Nina.
I can only go into tomorrow with extra positive energy. I'm so thankful for today.
