Saturday morning started out with feeding Powder around 7:00 am. About 7:30, Powder got her bath with a lot of focus on her white mane and tail. Bath was given by Jenny Vaught who knows a thing or two thousand million about getting a show horse ready.
Show was to start at 9:00 am. We arrived at the show ground about 8:30 am. The show started at 9:30am with Showmanship. This is an online ground class. I do not “love” showmanship. I want to be in the arena riding my horse!
However, it is not that bad with an experienced calm horse like Powder. For many a show horse, the rider has to rise at an unholy dawn hour, ride their horse, give the horse a bath and pray for the horse to be dry with combed out mane and tail by the time the show starts. You can’t ride the horse right before the show starts as the saddle area will be sweaty wet. Yech
Jenny put Powder’s showmanship halter on and coached me in proper arm position and running strategy. Running? Yes, the human has to run at one point and the horse is to fox trot. The arena had been watered and there were a few uneven furrows in the ground. Running was tough for me on the furrowed ground. I did not look like a sleek gazelle with a beautiful unicorn beside me. Powder always looks beyond beautiful with her long mane and tail, plus those eyes! I looked more like a broken freight locomotive. We lined up perfectly for judge.
We set up and performed the showmanship dance with the judge. I backed Powder through the three cones. Sadly, I couldn’t see the cones while standing in the proper position with Powder. That was tough. Maybe I should have practiced! I thought it would be barrels, even though the pattern said cones. I had done this pattern before, long ago, with Nova. It was barrels that we backed through then. So, my mind ignored the word “cone” in the pattern and formed the barrel image. Lordy! My brain is out of control!
The other thing about showmanship is that all participants have to enter the arena, line up and await their turn. All contestants also line up when their pattern is finished and await the judge’s decision. The moment you enter the arena until the judge makes the final decisions, you are being judged. There is no relaxing. I did banter a bit with nearby competitors, but I didn’t move my lips nor my razor focus on the judge. Luckily, it wasn’t hot enough to bake us to a crisp. We all survived. The winners were announced and we got our ribbons. I had been standing a long time in the sun with my fabulous black hat protecting my freckles. This hat was stolen from Chastity Young at our Kansas City Show in April. I appeared at the show without a hat.
After the entire show was done, Chas gave me the black cowgirl hat that I had stole from her. I officially own this hat now. It stays on my head no matter how fast we gallop or in hurricane force winds. That is a million dollar show hat! Thank you Chas.
Here is more information about Showmanship, how it started and where it is going.
It was really good planning to have the trail class after showmanship. People had time to recover, change clothes and have a few moments for warm-up time while the trail obstacles were placed.