Took the pony and one of the horses to a schooling show on Saturday. We learned a lot and for the most part they were great!

The pony was in the 2'3" class, and thank goodness he's one of those great ones where you never have to worry about them stopping, regardless of what distance you give them. (I had a couple long spots that I would have preferred to stick in another small stride, but apparently that was not what pony wanted... we were giving the jumpers a run for their money!)
So we discovered pony needs a stronger bit when jumping. We've only had him at the barn about two weeks, so this is a good thing to know. He had been a bit strong at home, but definitely way stronger at the shows, though mentally extremely calm. He has a huge stride - he can do the horse strides even though he's a medium! But of course this isn't what we want. So I have the muscle to haul him back if need be, but a kid may have trouble with that. I mean, the pony doesn't take off, just gets a touch on the quick side. He loves his job, I can tell you that much! So is he a pelham pony? That we shall soon find out... We will start upping the strength of his bit (as I HATE having to haul on him, but I have to make him realize that he just can run like that!!) and we shall see what happens. We pinned in our third o/f class, but I wasn't worried about ribbons - we learned so much about the pony that day!

The horse is an ex-eventer and this was his first hunter show. He's another one where you don't have to worry about stops, but his leads are a touch on the sticky side. He also needs a new bit, but for him it's more of a steering issue - he basically has nothing in his mouth right now (super thick flimsy piece of rubber) and just needs a little more feel.
Anyhow, so first class he gets every lead change, is amazing and I finally convince myself to utterly trust him over fences (I haven't ridden him much and his style of jump kind of threw me off at first) and we win the class. He was a super star! Second and third o/f classes we miss a lead or are late in behind and it really is an attention thing with him at this point, so I'm still very happy with the rounds. We make the strides every time, and all is well. He places in the hack, too. Not too bad for a horse that has only been doing the 'hunter thing' for a couple of weeks!

So over all it was a great day. Long, but good. Pony and horse were amazing, I was happy with myself for being able to adjust to the horse's jumping style sort of on-the-spot and sticking with it... Hopefully I will have some pictures up soon! Very proud of the boys. :)