A friend of mine kindly tagged along with me to take some pictures. Because we showed indoors, a lot of the pictures came out blurry, so there aren't a lot from our actual classes, but it's more than I'd have if I was there by myself.
We started out with a halter class because I wanted to get her in the arena before our showmanship class. We don't usually show halter because it's not often that we place, and today was no different. She looks gorgeous, though!
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Pretending to be a halter horse. :) |
Our next class was showmanship and I was really excited when I saw the pattern. It's a lot more challenging than a lot of the patterns we've done, so I was really looking forward to it.
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Showmanship pattern. |
Our back was a bit crooked, but other than that, she nailed all her pivots and I had a really good feeling about our chances to win. There were four other horses in the class, they didn't pivot, and I saw a number of other errors with their patterns. At the risk of sounding like a showmanship-zilla, I felt we were robbed when we were called for third place. I was really upset, but I have since moved on...
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Being dismissed after inspection. |
The warm-up ring was pretty crowded when we first got there so it was difficult to do much more than walk and jog. Normally there's a giant outdoor arena to ride in, but they're doing work on the ring and we weren't allowed to ride in there. She warmed up quite nicely, and although she was a bit forward, she was really listening. As is always the case, there were a few horses in there with us who weren't exactly under control, and she handled herself quite well. We also lapped a few loping horses, and we were walking.




Our first class was "Western Go As You Please 19 & Over" which essentially means walk/jog because I hardly ever see anyone lope. I think there were seven other horses in the class with me. Lilly was excellent... it's been quite a while since she's been in the indoor arena and she never even snorted. While she jogged nice and slow and kept her head level for most of the class, it became pretty obvious fairly quickly that she's not quite ready to be ridden with one hand. Does she look like a western pleasure superstar? The judge didn't think so because we didn't place... they were only placing through fifth.
This was our only class before lunch... I found it strange that we had one riding class before a long break. I took off Lilly's bridle and let her eat some grass while my friend found us some grub. Lilly thought she wanted hot dog buns and french fries, but after she tasted them, she decided the grass was much better.
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Pretty girl waiting for her next class. |
Our first class after lunch was "Western Go As You Please Open". I don't recall how many horses were in the class, but we didn't place. We were having fun, though!
Our first loping class of the day was "Appaloosa, Paint, and Palomino Pleasure Open". This class was pretty small too, even though there were english and western riders riding together. There weren't any of the congress type QHs in the class (obviously) so I thought we might have a chance to win a ribbon. Lilly was definitely forward at the lope and I couldn't let her go on a loose rein, but she picked up both leads and I couldn't have asked for more. We ended up with a fifth place ribbon, but my friend made a comment about the third and fourth place horses and thought Lilly and I easily should have placed above them. We like pink, though!
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Yay! Fifth place! |
Our next two classes were "Western Pleasure Open" and "Western Pleasure 19 & Over". Because of how the previous classes had gone, and because I knew there was no way I was going to be competitive with the kinds of horses in the classes, I decided to school. I mentioned earlier about passing loping horses at the walk... yeah, those horses made us look like a racehorse. When there is literally a half second pause between each lope stride, and the judge is pinning those horses at the top, I might as well ride with two hands. The AQHA and the APHA claim to be asking for a "lope with forward motion", but it was clear we're not making much progress.
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Riding with two hands. |
We managed to win a fourth place koozie and another fifth place, but we only won fourth because the 5th horse didn't even lope. Lilly hit her leads every single time and I was extremely proud of her.
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Good girl, Lilly! |
Overall it was a good day. Since I can't control what the judge likes and doesn't like (and I can't force him to get a new pair of glasses) I have to focus on how my own horse was and what we can work on to improve. We have another show on Saturday and I'm hoping it'll feel more like an open show and less like QH Congress.
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Our winnings! |