Rachel & Grandma and Arabian Horses - Salem - Day Two

Part One Salem


I think that our first class on Friday morning was Rachel and Cody in a purebred hunter pleasure class. I didn't hold out much hope for Rachel getting qualified. The class was more because she prefers to ride hunter pleasure than because the Arabian horse and Rachel were competitive.

I had injured my back earlier in the week and found myself unable to ride the posting trot required to school the horse. Rachel was on her own with getting the horse ready for any hunter classes. Only riding for a couple of weeks since the long winter layoff, this was a pretty tall order for the kid but she was a trooper about it.

One of the really good things I see about us riding with Angie and Richard's group is it sets Rachel up to be competitive. She has that natural urge to prove herself to her peers. Angie's kids consistently ride their horses in a much rounder frame than Rachel rides. Not that the horse doesn't know that rounder frame, it's that Rachel doesn't always get it from him. If she's going to keep up with these kids, she's going to have to get this frame thing figured out.

One of the other pluses about riding with this group is they take video of the classes. Being able to look at mistakes can be a strong catalyst in putting things together. I was looking forward to having footage of Rachel's rides starting with this hunter pleasure class.

In the warm-up arena Rachel did pretty well. The horse was moving underneath himself and in a decent frame. Their moving in and out of traffic also went well. I don't think I noticed the horse's ears pinned even once despite all the warm-up confusion.

When the paddock announcer called for the class to enter the ring, Rachel and Cody headed up to the arena together. Coming through the gate Cody's horse looked nice and round. Rachel's horse was much longer than he'd been the whole time in the warm-up ring.

If Dandy isn't pushed up underneath himself where he belongs, he can get lazy and actually drag a back foot. That makes the horse look lame when he really isn't. Watching as he moved down that first rail, there was that gimpy gait. It was 3/4s of the way around the arena before the horse looked sound and Grandma was just shaking her head..........

The transition into the canter wasn't much better. The horse popped up like I hadn't seen in I don't know how long. The canter was long and lazy and the transition to the hand gallop hardly visible. It was pretty clear there would be no ribbons here.

The second way of the ring wasn't much better. The horse was strung out, just not going like he should. Rachel was oblivious to his hitchy trot which should have felt like a flat tire. In addition the horse was pinning his ears at the other horses he thought were getting too close.

Usually if the horse gets uncomfortable in traffic, the rider can reassure him by directing him clear. At the first sign of moving away from the problem horse, Dandy's ears come back up and he's fine again. But instead of Rachel guiding him away from traffic she stayed on the same line. Sometimes she even rode him closer to a problem horse.

I was beginning to worry for the first time ever that Dandy might kick out at another horse. Thankfully that didn't happen but only because the announcer called for a change of gait. That broke the horses up and gave Dandy some room. This hadn't been one of Rachel's finest hours in the arena. For that matter it hadn't been one of Dandy's best either. Had it been their first trip together it would have been ok, but beginning our third show season, the scene made me nervous.

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

Select Rider

Geez! I was really tired when I wrote this post last night. Looking at it today I realize I left out the best part.......Rachel had a blast! It just goes to show that sometimes all that focusing on work and collection, etc, etc, isn't all there is to showing. The real reason we're there is to have a good time!

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