Salem for the Region 4 Championships - Pre-Show Western Riding

Part 1

The first class we had Tuesday morning at the Arabian horse show was Rachel and Dandy in western riding. This is a class that I really haven't known that much about until recently. Rachel and I checked it out at the AHACO Arabian horse show to see if it was something that she might be interested in trying. Then decided that Rachel and the Arabian horse would enter it for the pre-show.

Western riding has two aspects to the class. First, all the competitors come in together and do work on the rail just like any pleasure class. Then when the line-up is called, all riders line up across the short end of the arena. There they are given instructions on a pattern. The horses then compete singly completely that pattern. The class is scored half on the rail work and half on the pattern work.

Like any class that requires a pattern, the rules state the pattern must be available one hour before the start of the session in which the class takes place. So Rachel headed up to the show office to get a copy of the pattern right at 7 am. Then while we were getting the horse ready and she was getting herself dressed she had the chance to learn this pattern and decide if she had any questions.

The pattern consisted of walking from the first cone to the second. Then jogging from the second to the third. At the third cone picking up the left lead and circling around to the fourth cone. The horse is to halt at that fourth cone then turn on the haunches to the right 180°. Lope on the right lead to the third cone. Halt at the third cone and drop stirrups. Jog to the first cone. Halt pick up stirrups and back five steps.

By the time we made our way up to the warm-up arena, Rachel had the pattern down. It was pretty basic and she really needed to work on was picking up her stirrups. It's amazing how much differently things like that can be affected when wearing show clothes. Chaps are the number one culprit interfering with things like mounting and loosing or picking up stirrups. But Rachel managed to find her stirrups easily, thanks partly to her well broken in saddle.

If she'd had to do that with my saddle it could have ended up differently. My show saddle has not been ridden in on a regular basis and the stirrups are not "trained." They still like to hang straight instead of conforming to my legs. My saddle could sure use some time with a broom handle pushed in the stirrups to mold them into the right position. I'm always fighting with my toe to find my way into that slot.

The other thing that Rachel worked on in the warm-up once the horse was warmed up was the turn on the haunches. Dandy has that move down pat but Rachel tends to want to cue him using two hands. Riding in a class, she needs to cue with just one hand. I was actually surprised at how quickly she made it work when she had to.

Other than that I had her practice the size of the arch for the lopes. Thinking about riding a half circle with a target in mind doesn't always come easily to people. I never know when Rachel is going to have a dyslexic moment and not be able to fix that target in her mind. It was clear this particular morning that wasn't a problem.

By the time the junior exhibitors were called up to the ring, Rachel and the Arabian horse were ready. Just as Dandy had done the previous day, he jogged super slow in the warm-up but stepped it up a notch when he came through the in gate. I could tell as Rachel rode down the rail that she was trying to slow him with her hand instead of using her legs to round the horse up. It would be interesting to see how long the horse put up with this. He tends to start rooting through the bit when he's ridden off his face.

It was really interesting to me to watch how this class was ridden. I'd expected the other riders to ride their horses just like they would in a pleasure class. What I saw instead was a lot of horses on very short tight reins. The horses were going super slow but there definitely wasn't a draped rein in the class, even though I'd seen a number of these horses going that way in their pleasure classes.

Rachel rode Dandy on a looser rein that these other Arabian horses. However, he did not stay as round as the horses on the short tight reins nor did he travel as slowly. With that part of the class counting for half I wasn't sure how this would play out in the end.



Watching the pattern work, there were no horses that jumped out at me as being super bad or super good for that matter. It seemed to be a toss-up as far as I could see. When all was said and done, Rachel placed seventh out of seven horses. I'm not sure I would have bumped her down quite that far but I did figure she and Dandy would be at the bottom end.

The first video is the rail work of this class. The second video shows on Rachel's pattern work. I wish there had been a least a couple of other horses shown because looking back at in now I find myself second guessing.

I asked Rachel what she thought about her ride. The answer I got was that she didn't like the way it went. Other than that I didn't get anything more specific but then by this time I was beginning to suspect that there was a problem with Rachel. I just didn't have a clue what it was.

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

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