Rachel and Grandma and Arabian Horses at Pacific Rim Part 2

Part 1 Pacific Rim

The first thing I did went I went to the stalls was to get Dandy tacked up for his class. With only four classes between Rachel's class and mine, the odds were there wouldn't be enough time for me to get the horse ready, change into show clothes and school the horse. I hated to leave Dandy tied up all morning but didn't see much way around it.

Once I had the Arabian horse all groomed, tacked and ready, I hung his bridle on the saddle horn, covered him with a cooler and hung a hay net for him. Then I moved on to Hope. I had checked her earlier to be sure she didn't have any green spots to clean so now I just needed to groom her and grease her. Then all I had to do was put on her show halter and we were good to go.

About the middle of grooming the Arabian mare, I realized I was having a problem. While Rachel's breakfast had tasted great, all the grease and now the stress gave me a horrible case of diarrhea. Reminder to self, never eat greasy food before a hectic session at the horse show.

I ran for the restroom. Then I came back and greased up the mare's face and I ran to the restroom. Rachel schooled her in the warm-up area and I ran. I'm pretty sure I made three trips to the restroom before she ever hit the ring!

Entries at this show were up almost thirty horses from last year. The halter classes actually had some horses in them for a change. That worked in my favor with my many trips. I think there were about seven mares in Rachel's class.

The gate for Rachel's class opened just as I arrived from yet another run. I had just enough time to run the brush through the mare's mane and tail as Rachel led the horse up to the gate. Even with that many horses, some led by trainers, Rachel was the one to step forward to be first through the gate.

Rachel walked the mare in to the first cone and then trotted off as instructed, moving around the arena to the ring master on the rail. There she positioned her horse beautifully waiting for further instructions. She looked a lot more relaxed than she had at the last show. And she didn't have that stiff "showmanship" posture she had had before.

Once the gate was closed the exhibitors were instructed to walk the horse on a loose lead along the rail, Rachel walked off like she knew what she was doing. Walking until the exhibitors were instructed to reverse, the she carefully checked the exhibitor behind her to make sure she didn't jam up her horse turning her directly into an oncoming horse.

They walked them back around to the starting position and then set them up on the rail. Rachel was right on with her timing and stood the mare up nicely. She watched the judge and watched the ring master and was right on cue to go into the center to stand up her horse.

Rachel stopped in the center and stood up her horse. She forgot to turn the mare towards the out gate as instructed but other than that she did a good job.It was obvious the mare hadn't been schooled as much on halter as she had the show before because the mare began creeping. She got herself into a spread position and Rachel was instructed to fix her position.

The rulebook states that at least two legs must be perpendicular to the ground at all times during the stand-up. Hope was spread out more like a saddlebred stance than an Arabian. Rachel pulled her forward and tried again. Again the mare started off right but continued to creep. And while the mare easily gave Rachel her ears, she didn't use her neck as beautifully as she had at the previous show. It was obvious Rachel had not done her homework.

However, with that being said, for a kid that's been doing this on her own with just a few lessons from Crystal, Hope looked pretty darn good. She did much better than I do in halter. And she has more confidence about halter than I do.

My friend, Steve, was standing on the rail with me. He is in charge of the judges for the Washington State Horseman's B system horse shows. He also is an accredited judge with a bunch of breeds, just not Arabians. So I trust his opinion. He thought Rachel did a good job for the level of show we were at.

While Rachel had some things she needs to work on to show this mare in halter, she won her class. Of course, that means she again beat several trainers, at least three, I think. AND she took the mare back into the championship class. Scandalous Hope is now a "champion."

To be continued...........
Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY


Arabian horse arabian horses horses horse horse show