Still here to complain about the weather but mostly just an excuse to share how freaking proud I am of my horse.
Late April in upstate NY, of course it’ll be fine to show outside. 
We haven’t even gotten enough of a break in the lousy weather to ride outside at home, so I was nervous when show management said they were going to move forward with it being outdoors on Saturday. In hindsight, doing that small local schooling show last month in the bitter cold might have been the perfect prep for this after all.
40°F, windy as hell, and sleeting on and off. We weren’t allowed to school in the show ring ahead of time. He went in and marched around some big flat classes with me without so much as a glance at anything. For a horse who’s struggled with traffic in the past, successfully sharing a ring with 12-15 other horses was a huge win in and of itself. Jumped around his first baby crossrail class afterwards with my trainer and finished 4th, didn’t care one iota about the unfamiliar show fences.
We’ve got our homework of course, but he blew my expectations out of the water, especially with it only being his third show and first outdoors. I’ve posted a fair amount about him here and if you’ve seen any of that, you might know it’s been a long, tough road to get here. I’m beyond thrilled with him.
