Pacific Rim All Arabian Horse Show - Sunday & Hunter Pleasure

Part 1

We were fortunate enough to not have any classes on Sunday morning. That meant we got to sleep in. Wouldn't you know it, I woke up with the daybreak unable to sleep so I went ahead and feed the horses and watched classes while the girls slept.

Then it turned out Richard needed to go out for breakfast. Angie had mistakenly turned off the refrigerator in their living quarters wrecking all of his orange chicken leaving him nothing to eat. He asked me to join him for breakfast.

With the girls still in bed and no one else from the barn at the show yet, it meant that Richard and I would actually get to have a complete conversation without interruptions. (Something that normally never happens between his cell phone ringing and the people coming and going at the barn all the time.) I guess you could say we had a strategy session about my horses and the coming season, as well as a discussion of the advantages of the motor home over staying in a tent among other things. It was a nice break from the normal hectic pace of the horse show.



The first class we had in the afternoon session was going to be Nana riding Dandy followed shortly after by a class with Rachel and Dandy. The final class of the day was the western pleasure open championship for Legs and me.

Because of the soreness in Dandy's shoulder we skipped any kind of schooling for either girl and opted for a brief warm-up. I didn't even get on the horse first but instead did some exercises with him on the ground to loosen up his shoulders and his hips. Then we put Nana on board and headed her for the ring.

Again there was some confusion on this video, only part of the class is on Dandy and Nana. There's enough there, however, to see that the pair got bumped into by a naughty horse. Dandy handled it pretty well. He did turn his butt to the other horse but didn't kick or do anything else to put Nana in jeopardy.

They called for a halt to get the wreck under control. When the class was called back in session the announcer asked for the trot and Dandy decided maybe Nana was right and he should get her out of there. For the first time in two classes Dandy finally gave Nana a real trot. You should have seen her grin.



Unfortunately, that was not the only class where poor Dandy who hates traffic would experience a wreck. In the hunter pleasure class with Rachel, not only was the horse cut off a couple of times but one of the riders lost her balance and fell when her horse did something naughty. Again, I'm sorry to say I have no video.

A time out was taken (although not really called as the rules dictate) while the girl's saddle was readjusted (it had fallen to the horse's side) and she tried to mount unsuccessfully. The girl's trainer did finally persuade them to let him in to her rescue.(He is entitled to do so according to the rules) He managed to get her into the saddle just as her timeout was up.

Dandy was a bit rattled by all of this commotion. The horse tripped coming down the rail the final trot. By the time they hit the line-up both Rachel and Dandy were scowling. Rachel and Dandy placed 3rd out of 4 in that class. It was a only the beginning of a tough afternoon.

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

the open championship

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