Rachel and Grandma and Arabian Horses at the Summer Show Part 5

Part 1 at the Summer Show

OK, first off I keep forgetting to mention that this blog has been awarded the


We were selected by PJ's Corner to receive this Creative Blogger Award and it is my pleasure to pass it on to other bloggers who are members of Blog Village. I have to say that Tips for New Bloggers has helped me tremendously figuring out how to deal with Blogger sometimes. Also, Simply Marvelous the wonderful world of horses is the newest horse blog I have located on Blog Village so to both of them, I extend the Creative Blogger Award.

Now on to Rachel and Grandma.......


Rachel knew that missing her leads was going to put her in the bottom but she hadn't totally quit riding her class. Other than forgetting to keep the Arabian horse on the rail as instructed, she still finished off the class making some smart decisions. She didn't get the horse into trouble in traffic and she continued to work at keeping him collected.

Despite Rachel missing her lead twice, she and the Arabian horse did not place last in the class. There were only 4 horses in the Purebred Western Pleasure JOTR rider 13 & under class and Dandy and Rachel placed third. My guess is they beat the fourth horse because that horse was out of the bridle the entire class.

The next class was only a few classes later. We didn't really have time to even take the horse back to the stall for a potty break. Unfortunately we had just enough time to get into trouble.

We gave the horse a brief break off to the side of the warm up area and then I put Rachel and Dandy back to work. I was trying to be creative about exercises in the limited area to help Rachel keep the horse collected.

As usual with her dyslexia, Rachel stumbled across some of the instructions. I can always tell by the expression on her face when she is lost so I struggle to come up with different ways to present the information.

Somewhere in this whole process Colleen got as confused as Rachel but Rachel thought Colleen was picking on her not understanding and the things fell apart. Rachel flashed her mother one of those "if looks could kill" kind of looks and Grandma jumped all over her.

I nipped things right in the bud telling Rachel to stop immediately or we'd be heading back to the stalls. Part of the deal I have with Rachel is she must treat her mother with respect and she knows I am dead serious about it. Next thing I know, Rachel is in tears and our next class was shot.

Rachel couldn't have been more tense riding into the ring. Riding a class was the last thing on her mind. I have no idea what was there because she wasn't talking but the class was not good.

I would say it was a total waste except I believe that Rachel learned a couple of valuable lessons. She learned that sometimes what she thinks her mother is thinking couldn't be farther off base. AND she learned she needs to be able to put her feelings aside for the moment when she is riding and focus. Riding on the back of a horse is not the place to have a meltdown.

To be continued.......

Part 6
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The first post of the Rachel and Grandma and an Arabian Horse series was posted several months ago and documents Rachel's journey on her way to her dream of competing one day at the Arabian and Half Arabian US National Championship Show.

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