I arrived at the Sedalia fair grounds and got Velvet into her new stall home for the weekend. I met the “Paint Sisters” and their horses. We were chatting and one of them casually mentioned that they had won the Paint World first through fifth placings in dressage, jumping, rail work, etc, with both their horses. I as bug-eyed at that. She went on to explain that they stopped showing and now into the Extreme Challenge contests. Their horses will swim, jump up or down anything, go anywhere and do Cowboy Mounted Shooting. Gad! This conversation killed all the desire to brag about how good Velvet and I were. Right then and there, I gave up the idea that we might have a chance to win. I wondered what other talent would show up.
That surprise was soon to come. Velvet and I were practicing in the Coliseum. It was dark inside, but sunshine-bright outside. The gate opened and a backlit silhouetted horse and rider came in the gate. I recognized that silhouette and gasped.
Here is the Missouri Fox Trotter famous multiple-many-year Versatility World Grand Champion, Hall of Fame inductee, Sally Scott. She is a true goddess. I’ve now seen her in “the light”. I am but a peon. From that moment on, I knew that I would just have great fun with this competition because I had no hope of winning.
In the versatility world, we do patters. We did patterns on Friday and Saturday. Compared to the Missouri Fox Trotter World Celebration versatility patterns, these were simple. Pattern might be simple, but they are never easy. When you are in the arena, every step taken (or not taken) is under close scrutiny. We were not given our scores after the Friday or Saturday competition. No one knew how they did. My new “Paint Horse” friend told me confidentially after we were done on Saturday that Sally and I “blew away the competition”. She said, “I never thought I would be beat by a gaited horses.” I was stunned to hear her say that. I thought she did a fine job with her pattern that day.
The second day is when I learned the definition of the left and right side of a barrel. The directions were to pick up a basket on the top of the barrel with my right hand. I rode to the right side of the barrel and picked up the basket with my left hand. We had to weave around the barrel. That meant I picked up the basket with the wrong hand and broke the pattern. I weaved when I should have wove.
I need a left and right side rehab clinic. Later, I learned that I lost nearly 50 points from the day’s score and most of it was probably the barrel incident. Curse the barrel!
Sunday was Freestyle Day. The riders included Marilyn Monroe riding a Friesian draped with diamonds with “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” music. We had a Friesian knight complete with warriors on the ground which the knight slayed. Then she jousted an opposing horse, causing that rider to fall on the ground and died. We had a trick rider on a mustang stallion. We had a rodeo co9mpetitor. The rodeo woman set up barrels, poles, fake cow and a living staked goat in the arena. The rodeo woman ran the poles, barrels, roped the fake cow twice with two ropes, drug the cow and leaped off her horse and tied the goat’s feet. That was amazing. We had a damsel costumed rider on a big Spotted Saddle Horse. She zipped around the arena in a reining pattern complete with flying lead changes. The crowd roared! Salle did a reining demonstration too, but she did hers bridleless. She and her horse did wonderful.
Velvet and I did our comedy routine. The crowd was with me from the beginning. They laughed and clapped. You know how that makes Velvet and I reach for the stars! My son was singing opera in the background. I was having the greatest time when I suddenly realized the music had stopped. I asked my coordinator, Hope, if I were done. Four minutes had gone by in four seconds. My legs were so full of emotion that I couldn’t dismount in the arena. I had to go outside and wait for the muscles to calm down to be able to get my leg over the back of the saddle.
All the rest of the day was great compliments on the Wow Factor and the humor of our demonstration. Later I learned that I had scored 198 out of 200 points for that performance! You don’t get much better than that!
After everyone was done and the points were compiled, we all gathered in the arena for our placings. We started with seventh place and went on up. My Paint Horse friends got fifth and third. I got reserve. Sally Scott won first .
Total possible points were 700. Sally got 636 points and a saddle. I got 630 points and a red ribbon.