Rachel & Grandma and Arabian Horses - Salem Junior Western Pleasure

Part One Salem

I'm going to skip to the championship for Rachel's western classes because that's what I have video for. This one is the Purebred Western Pleasure JOTR Championship.

Rachel and her Arabian horse warmed up pretty well in the warm-up ring. Rachel still hadn't been riding all that much since she just began riding again the week of the Daffodil All Arabian Spring Show just two weeks before. Then with the foal watch and stuff another week was lost.

Only two weeks of riding western and showing again was a lot to expect of both horse and rider. We weren't counting on anything big, just slow and steady. We were hoping to get enough points to get her qualified for the regional championships. Up to this point Rachel and Dandy have received a 5th out of 9 horses and a 3rd out of 4 horses.

Rachel's horse was really on the muscle when they jogged into the arena. For those who don't know, that means he was going too fast and not listening. If Rachel was rattled by the fast jog, she didn't look it. She maintained her composure as they made their way around the arena.

Rachel was what I call double pumping with her hands. Instead of a smooth lift and maybe a hold with her hand to correct the horse, she was lifting and lifting again quickly and probably not using her legs. That's something that makes Dandy nervous and was probably part of the reason for the horse being on the muscle in the first place.

When the announcer called for the lope, Dandy rounded up beautifully and loped off. Started off with one of the beautiful departures he's known for, the horse immediately got long and quit using his shoulder. With only two weeks of riding, there's no way Rachel was going to be on top of that.

The ride looked easy even if the horse was a bit long. Rachel began pumping with her seat, pushing her horse with her body making him go a bit too fast. As she came by me, I reminded her to stop pushing that way and the horse slowed right up for her.

Despite the fact there were only five horses in this class. Rachel seemed to be staying in the clump of riders instead of finding herself a place alone on the rail. The horse would be much more relaxed if kept out of that kind of traffic. When he's more relaxed he travels slower like he's supposed to. In traffic he speeds up to find his own way out.

The announcer called for the walk and Rachel pulled him to a stop for getting the cue to push her feet forward to signal the horse to stop. But Dandy obliged her request and sat right down.

When the announcer asked for the reverse, Rachel remembered to turn the horse into wall and use the barrier to shorten his frame a little bit. Then they were asked to lope and it looked pretty good except for Rachel leaning to the inside.

You can't see it on the video but there was a horse being pretty naughty in this class. The talking about too much bit and such seem to be about this horse. Whatever the problem was a timeout was called and the problem horse was excused.

Rachel hasn't had much experience with timeouts. She doesn't know you can use that time to school your horse. But then, most junior and amateur riders aren't aware that you can do what you want during a timeout, so Rachel isn't alone on this one. In this class it would have been helpful to use this time to two hand the horse and maybe circle him a bit to get him rounded up again.

Once the excused horse had exited the arena, the announcer asked the riders to resume to lope. I think this transition was probably better than the first one, but I felt for those kids having to get their leads right not once.....but twice. I'm glad it didn't happen to me!

When they called for the jog, Dandy came down to a nice slow jog, much slower and softer than his entrance into the ring. I think if the horse had come in this way, they would have placed better. As it was, Rachel and Dandy received a third out of four according to the statistics. However, according to the rules, I believe the excused horse should have counted and the total count for the class should have been five. Heck! a point is a point in this chasing game of ours.


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

Championship

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