I'm pretty particular about a facility's footing when showing my young hunter Hannah. | Photo: Alexandra Beckstett/The Horse

I’m sure anyone who’s not a hunter rider themselves will attest that most hunter classes are pretty boring. If you’re not watching a derby that asks horses to jump big scary fences, negotiate tight insides turns, and exhibit bold gallops, chances are you don’t see much excitement on course.

That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to show my hunter, Hannah, in a fun three-phase class at a schooling show last week. The class consisted of a “handy” round and an under saddle in the arena, followed by a course over natural, cross-country-type fences on grass. You even had to jump out of the ring at one point! Pretty exciting stuff for a hunter.

With Hannah’s under saddle prowess and bravery over fences of all kinds, I had grand visions of taking home the top prize in this event. But after I hopped on and walked her out onto the facility’s grass field after two straight days of rain, I promptly handed in my scratch sheet to the horse show office