Success!

Pipestave was this past weekend, and we had lots of fun. At least me and Justin did. We went down to the barn early on Saturday, and rode our dressage tests in the indoor. It was quite possibly the best dressage test Justin has ever and will ever complete. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the horses up and finishing the barn. After dinner we went out and braided their manes. Two hours and eighteen braids later, we put on their sheets and went to bed.
We were up at the crack of dawn the next morning. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was still dark out when we got up. We went out to the back barn to check and see if the braids were still in, and then fed everyone. Then we put all of our horses out that weren't coming to the show, and wrapped Quinny and Jasmine's legs. We put shipping boots on Justin and brought them all out to the trailer. Everyone loaded up fine and we were on our way to the show. It took about an hour and a half to get there, so we tacked up and started warming up immediately. We had just enough time to walk, trot, and canter before I was called in for dressage. The test was decent, Justin was cross cantering when we first picked up the left lead, but I brought him back and fixed the issue. It was a good test for Justin, and everything was as accurate as possible. We were in last after dressage with a 49, but not by too far. The riders in our split of the division were very competitive.
Next was cross country, our favorite part. Suzie and I ended up running half of the course walk because we needed to be back in time for Kenzie's dressage. There was nothing overly scary, although most of the course was uphill. The warm-up ring was a little crazy, people were standing in the corners while you were trying to approach one of the three warm up fences, and almost running into you. Justin was over jumping everything, and was very excited in general. We settled into a pretty good rhythm once we were on the course, and the only thing he spooked at was the people at the top of the hill. We went clean cross country, and in pretty good time.
We took a little break before stadium and sponged the horses off a little bit. Suzie also went clear, Kenz fell off before the first fence. Those jump judges are actually pony eating monsters, in case you didn't know. Stadium warm up was equally as crazy, but Justin was jumping a little better. We entered, stopped, saluted the judge, and off we went. For the first time ever in his short career as a jumper, Justin went clean! There were no rails down, no rubs, nothing. I was so proud of him, I didn't even care that we had been in last after dressage.
We ended in sixth out of nine people, which isn't bad at all for our first event. I don't think anyone was eliminated in my division, either. Suzie got fifth after having one rail down stadium. Kenz was eliminated due to her fall cross country and another fall stadium. We packed up and headed home, and J-man got several apples for his excellent behavior. You can see the videos of our dressage, stadium, and part of cross country if you search Justin Pipestave on youtube. I think they'll all show up.