Daffodil All Arabian Spring Show - Saturday Morning Part 3

Rachel and the Arabian horse had a nice entrance into the ring. There is no jog quite like Dandy's. For a big horse the darn horse can jog in place if need be (and boy does that work great in trail). It's actually fun to see the smaller horses having to go around him he can jog so darn slow......but it's still a nice true jog........a two beat gait just like the rule book states.

I had Rachel ride with a shorter rein. For Dandy it's as good as a little bit of contact. The horse looks like you can pitch those reins away but you really can't. He uses it like a security blanket and will stay pretty darn round if you let him have that shorter rein.

That makes it a little easier for Rachel to keep him from getting totally flat and that's exactly what I was counting on. Rachel and Dandy slowly trucked their way around the arena just a tad bit off from the roundness the horse really needs. It was a pretty picture and the horse was content to be packing his kid again. You could see it on his face.

This judge asked the kids to change directions at the jog. While Dandy is used to those kinds of tactics from judges, Rachel was a bit rattled. She gave me a furtive glance so I signaled her to reverse. With a shrug she turned the horse into the wall (yeah! Rachel! remembering to use the wall to collect him) and Dandy rolled up underneath himself pretty nicely as they jogged off the other direction.

Half a lap or so and the announcer called for the lope. Dandy as usual rounded up and just went forward without the least bit of raise to his head. You couldn't ask for a better lope departure but from there it went a bit down hill. The first stride or three were a little long but Rachel remembered to push him up and the continued down the rail pretty darn well.

The only thing I would have changed was keeping the horse off the rail. There was a slick spot that Dandy would surely had problems with if he hit it just right. Thankfully for this right and the little bit of length he acquired he actually missed the spot all together.

The transition down the horse nearly sat on his butt. The he walked out of it a couple of steps before Rachel put him back together. The judge didn't walk them for much until she asked again for the reverse.

This transition to the lope came from that walk. The horse was a bit long but he has such killer transitions that it's hard to fault him. Had Rachel remembered to round him up before she asked him to go, that transition and it's first steps would have been awesome. As it was, they were still darn good for her fourth ride in 6 months or so. They were doing good.

The rest of the lope was ok. Not quite round enough but not terrible either. Even though he was a little long the horse was rated nicely but Rachel doesn't really trust him with that. She was picking up on his face with that new double bump and the horse was getting a bit twitchy about it. I was expecting at any moment for him to raise up out of the bridle. Thankfully they called for the jog.

Another half a lap and it was time to line up. Rachel remembered to turn the horse the opposite direction of the line of travel to put the horse's mind back into his head instead of thinking about lining up. All in all it was a good ride. Rachel and Dandy placed sixth out of ten.

To be continued...........

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