This was one of the worst shows I’ve had. It’s a funny story, though, so I’ll go ahead and tell it 
It happened about 2 years ago-I believe it was my first year showing Daisy and it was probably my 3rd show ever since I started riding again.
We got to the showgrounds and everything was going fine. The facility was HUGE-there was an enormous warmup ring off to the side where no one was around. It had to be a half acre, of course, you know that things get bigger the more you think about them, so it could have been now quite so big 
The stable was about a half block from the warm up ring, and in between wers two huge jumping arenas. They had tons of stuff set up. On the other side of that, there was a field, then the dressage arenas-two of them also. Just HUGE and beautiful!!!
It started off a nice day-the sun was shining and it was sort of warmish, but not too warm so it would be uncomfortable to wear a jacket. This was my first year showing, so I had my brown saddle and a hot wool jacket-I was glad it wasn’t too hot outside! As I was getting ready, the other people I was showing with were waiting on their horses on the sidelines of the dressage arena, so they weren’t even in sight of me. I had a friend walk out to the warm up ring with me after I tacked up and got all spiffy as the clouds started forming overhead. Daisy stepped on the side of my show boots and on my little toe as we were approaching the warm up ring. She CRUSHED my toe!! She actually t*w*i*s*t*e*d her foot as she stepped down to intensify the effect. She actually broke my toe. I could feel it heat up and swell within minutes. To add to that, I’m in riding boots, which are just NOT made for comfort. My toes were already squooshed in there, so there was no way I could take my boots off and think they would go back on the same day. I sucked it up and walked on to the arena. Heather, my friend who was also riding that day, but not at that time, held Daisy while I got on so I could actually get up there with my now-broken toe. She left us in the half acre arena to go get her horse ready-Daisy and I were alone and getting ready to warm up.
I decided I would try to look past the pain and walk her around a bit to get us stretched out and warmed up. The arena is on the edge of the property and there is a semi-busy road along side it. Daisy was not very used to cars at all, so she was looking over there often. Again, it was a huge arena-I just decided I would stay near the other side and try to ignore the cars. The rain started at this point. It was a drizzle at first, then it started to lightly rain for real. No biggie-rain never bothered me before! Well, everything started to get wet. My breeches were sticking to the saddle, my saddle was sticking to the saddle pad, and my wool jacket was starting to get wet. Daisy spooked at a car. Not just a little spook, either. It was a full out HOLY CRAP WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE spook. She TOOK OFF along the side of the arena at a full gallop. I was barely starting to canter her in training because her canter was so off balance, so I wasn’t used to her huge butt moving side to side in a twisting manner like a huge shiatsu massager. She galloped at her top speed as far as she could, reared up at a 45 degree angle and spun at the same time 180 degrees and galloped as fast as she could the other way. God knows how I stayed on. I ended up in about the same spot we started but facing the other way when I finally got her to stop. My legs were both in front of the huge blocks on my saddle and my knuckles were white, clinging on to the reins as hard as I could. I was frozen like this for a good 30 seconds then I got my legs over the blocks and tried to calm down a bit. OK-enough warming up!! Let’s get over to where there are more horses so we don’t have any more freak-outs. The rain is really starting to come down now. Everything is soaked, my toe is swollen and throbbing, and I’m FREAKED out because I was NOT ready for that!!!!
We headed over to the arena where I found Diane on Lucky, getting ready for their class. I walked over to them and told her what happened-she laughed. I was starting to relax a little bit when I realized just how hard it was pouring now. I looked down at my saddle to see how soaked I was and all the rainwater that had gathered on the visor on my helmet rushed down into my crotch. Woooo! Cold!!!! OK-no more looking down….
Daisy was calm now and a little tired because that was actually a LOT of running for her. We got into the arena for our test soon after that and actually did very well. Since it was raining, Daisy didn’t want to get her nose wet so she kept it down and looked very nice doing it We got great scores for both our tests.
We went back into the stable to get the tack off my poor soaked horse and to take the wet clothes off me. My jacket shrunk amazingly fast. I had to peel it off myself. I didn’t realize how fast wool actually shrunk My new white breeches were red on the inside, as was my nice white saddle pad-I didn’t realize that brown leather bled red until then either. We put Daisy in her stall and I took off my boots. It was a good thing I didn’t take them off between classes because I was right in assuming that I wouldn’t have been able to get them back on. I could barely put my work boots on!! I hobbled around the rest of the day.
We had the 2 horse trailer there, and we had 5 horses, so everone went before me. There were 2 trips before me and by the time they had left with the second trip, I was the only person at the stable. EVERYONE was gone. Not even employees were anywhere to be seen! It seemed like an eternity, but Diane finally returned with the trailer. As she was pulling up, I was grazing Daisy by the parking lot. Daisy spooked a little at Diane pulling up, stepped on her lead rope and freaked out. She took off at a gallop once again, lead rope flailing behind her like the tail of a kite. As if she knew exactly where she was going, she turned a corner around the side of the building and left me standing there in the rain. According to Diane, it was about the funniest thing it the world to see me from behind. The utter look of defeat as Daisy galloped away literally into the sunset. My posture slouched, my head hung. I mustered the energy to chase after her 12 hours after I had gotten there in the morning on a broken toe. When I finally reached her, she saw me and decided she wanted to eat more so she trotted away. She can be so mean. I swear I heard her laughing as she trotted down just a little farther. I caught up to her and grabbed the lead rope, walked her back to the trailer and got her on. We drove away-I didn’t know if I should laugh, cry, or fall asleep on the way home!!!
Eventually we did make it back. She went on into her stall and ate dinner. I got back home and slept like a rock. My toe was literally black the next day-all the way up my foot. It was swollen and looked like a big grape for days. But hey-I lived to tell about it, we got some great scores, and I’m still riding. Go figure!
Then I got on her one more time to straighten her out because once Daisy thinks she’s going to get away with anything she learns that it must be ok. I need to squash any idea that she has won before it becomes any kind of problem.
