We arrived at the show ground and parked win a gold spot which means no backing necessary and close to the arena of competition! Fancy unloaded and put on her show outfit. We went to the arena and walked around. We ran around (she ran around) some and she looked like a horse I could ride, I mounted and the. We discovered one long end of the arena is scary. We made that manageable and returned to the trailer.
YI went into the tack room, hid my phone from myself and forgot that I ever had a phone. I emerged in my knot oitdit looking like a “show girl”!
Fancy powers through seven classes in this, her first rail class horse show. We did have one pattern class, the blessed trail class.
Let me tell you about that. Enter arena, cross bridge and step over poles. Accelerate into canter and this is our first class. She is still nervous about that side of the arena which has something cotton hanging from the roof and the short end where the announcer and entry table live. The “bridge is the narrowest “bridge” I’ve ever seen. Fancy doesn’t hesitate. She steps right up and crosses it perfectly. She steps off bridge and crosses ground poles without clicking a hoof on any one. Plus points here! We chat about cantering down the scary side. Her head goes up in alarm and we canter in a leg yield like canter. She veers toward the center to move away from the scary side. Next is the flat foot walk weave cones. They are a little too close together and we slow down into a trail walk weave. Next is a fox trot and we do get that gait about halfway to the back through poles. We stopped at the two poles. She did an amazing spin turn to get her rear in place. We back through the poles PERFECTLY! We are done. I watched the next horse do the pattern an discovered the sidepass pole. I memorized the pattern without the sidepass pole. Plus I didn’t see the sidepass pole in my laser stare of my memorized pattern. We got fouth.
The next class was Western Pleasure, No Canter. Fancy didn’t read the class list. She wanted to canter. That is frowned upon by the judge. She tried to canter several times. We got fourth.
Now it was time for a bridle change. This was my big worry. I have to dismount, put on a caveson, a bridle, a ribbon and mount. Thankfully Fancy’s first mommy came to watch and was assigned to do everything except the mounting and dismounting stuff, we had two classes in which to accomplish this. I had lost the cavesson, but found it on trailer floor. In a few moments, Teresa had everything on and adjusted. I made it back to the arena before my class was called. Whew!
This class was Open Fox Trot-Will Canter. Fancy loved this class. However, she didn’t want to canter as long as the judge wanted. Another time we were cantering along and she hit a soft spot. That made her go into a cross canter where the back legs and front legs do opposite canter. It’s an upsetting gait for the rider. Since I was the rider, I asked her to stop and start over again. Again, this isn’t approved of by the judge. I got fifth in this class.
(Part of the horse show bragging rule is never mention the number of participants if you ribbon because the number of horses in the class equaled the number of ribbons.)
Fancy had a nice break. I was able to get off and tied her to the trailer where she rested.
Next was Novice Fox Trot. Dang, I was competing against a very very young child riding a great horse. Her legs don’t reach the length of the saddle pad. Sigh. I did get second!
Fancy had a short break and it was time for Junior Horse- No Canter. At this time, she had become an experienced Show horse with a tiny thought about slowing down when I asked during the fox trot. Her scorched earth fox trot started to cool down. She no longer sped up into a canter. Thank You, Lord! Slow down and find smooth! We had about six strides of smooth here and there. We looked great! We placed second and there were three horses in the class!
I entered every class in which she could compete. The show bill said Amateur-No Canter. This is a very popular class with ten horses entered. We had horses on both sides of us. We had horses pass us. I looked back once and saw a horse head about an inch away from the side of her rear end. Lordy. Fancy has turned out not to be a kicking horse….who knows what she would have done if she was in a high state of heat Thank goodness, she had just finished her spring strong heat cycle! Fancy did good in this class. Erin was on the rail to coach me and said she needs five more classes!
The last class was Fox Trotter Championship. Not many people want to enter this class. It’s the last class and the horse is tired. (Not Fancy). The competition is tough, we have several World Grand Champions compete in this class.
Lucky for Fancy and I, we placed fourth in the Championship class. She did good. We needed only four more classes before we would have been competitive!
Two red ribbons, four white ribbons and a pink ribbon was our haul. Plus Fancy is an experienced show horse now. That is worth four times the entry fees.
The best thing was our pictures! Marty Maynard, pro photographer, was in attendance. We have some amazing pictures!
Note: it took me a long long time to find my phone when my nearly dead horse show brain was home.
