Minerva’s First Blue Ribbon

   As a yearling, Minerva was shy - a surprising contrast to her adult personality. After I purchased her and brought her home, I gave her a week to adjust to her new home in order to prevent over-stressing her. I introduced her to the routine of feeding, mucking, etc. I even introduced her to some grooming tools; thankfully her breeder had done a wonderful job already so it was a refresh for her, essentially.

   Minerva was a bit guarded towards me at first, which I could understand. It took roughly 6 months for her to begin to show her true personality. Once she did, I began to try some in-hand work with her, which, to my excitement, she excelled at. Her movements were beautiful and I knew she was to become my dressage prospect. 

   I eventually entered us in an in-hand competition and so that morning the preparation began, beginning before the crack of down. I had everything loaded onto the trailer and so then I could focus on Minerva. I gave her a good bath and scrub down, ensuring she was clean and inspecting her still developing muscles. Her grulla tobiano coat was shining after her bath and her tail got brushed out but remained unstyled to let it flow naturally. I myself had to clean up as well. I wore a brown riding suit to match Minerva's brown eyes and my blonde hair was braided nearly to keep it out of my way.

   Once we were both clean, and I made sure everything on my checklist was marked, it was time to load up. Minerva loaded up in the trailer wonderfully and I made sure she was secured and comfortable; it was safety first among all things for me. She stood there calmly after I fed her a cookie and I closed her in before getting in my truck. In no time, we were on our way. 

   It was roughly 9 am when we arrived at the arena. To my delight, she appeared very intrigued by her surroundings and interested in what was going on. Her ears remained perked a good amount of the time, observing the other horses and handlers. Before the show began, I spent some time catching up with a couple friends and we showed off our new prospects to each other.

   Once it was our turn in the ring, I took a deep breath, patted Minerva’s neck and walked her into the ring to begin. Just as during the training, I kept the reins slack to allow her freedom of movement and choice. If she became overwhelmed and refused to continue, I wanted to mitigate the risk of injury to either of us as much as possible. This was her first competition and I did not want to force her to compete if it was going to cause her stress. It turned out that she was a natural;  LME Maximum Wager had won her first blue ribbon at her first showing! She blew my expectations out of the water. This was sure to be an amazing mare.