Rachel and Grandma and Arabian Horses at the Daffodil Summer Show.....a whole herd of them! Trail
Part 1
While I got dressed in my show clothes, Rachel and Colleen got my horse bridled up and heading out towards the show arena. Then while I walked the course, Rachel actually warmed up my horse. The first time I even saw the pattern for that class was when we walked the darn thing with the judge...............and just for the record, I thought he was as confused as I was!
I barely got into the saddle atop my Arabian horse when they called me to the in gate to show. I was still trying to run that darn pattern over through my head wondering if I had it right as we rode through the gate. Poor Dandy wasn't going to have much chance to shine with a befuddled rider with no sense of direction....then add in my really bad depth perception.........but the ride was on. Dandy and I were doing our first trail classes in at least 5 years.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before Dandy is a phenomenal trail horse. The only thing that holds this horse back from winning all the time is me. I get in his way and screw up his timing. I'm the one that needs lots and lots of practice. The horse is a natural.
So to go riding into a class with no practice and little warm-up really isn't a problem for this horse. If he could read the courses, we'd be impossible to beat. My dyslexic approach to trail makes it a lot more interesting however. I never know what to expect..........well, except for the fact I know the horse will give me his best and the horse never really has a chance to shine.
This morning sure wasn't any different. I did get him pointed the right way. I also managed to stay on course through the whole class. I did misjudge the rate of speed we should be approaching the obstacles in and I screwed up "the line" a time or two which resulted in stumbles or clunking poles for the poor horse. Our first ride ended up with a score of 62, I think. And we placed fourth out of five.
Since each of the 4 rides had a different course, I really didn't get much chance to adjust for my errors with my depth perception. I did get better with my speed on some of the obstacles and the horse kept giving me all he had. We did manage a score of 68 in one of the classes. Which was not bad for our first outing. The best we placed was third.
I think the best part about riding trail was that my horse loves it. His ears are up and his eye bright. It was really fun for both of us regardless of the ribbons. With what I was doing to the poor boy by dragging him into halter, it was a good thing we started off the morning with something that he likes.
To be continued........
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Lol, yeah that is good! giving the boy something he likes, for having to put up with having to do halter.. lol. Although I don't really know much about halter classes, so I don't even know if I'd like them! maybe! I don't know! when my only sister was younger she showed her bay Quarter Horse in... probably in Western.. and probably AOTR? or something, I don't know/remember.. I was the ages of 4-8 when she had horses. I sure think it would be fun to watch you showing your horses :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, if Dandy is such a natural at trail, you probably could just let him do all the work, while you just go for the ride, lol :)
When you do trail, does your score start at 100, and then just get deducted for any imperfections? or whatever? lol.
Also, I miss, when you use to reply to everyones comments.. :[
you should do that again if you can :]
You made a great point, MiKael...Dandy was loving life in those trail classes, so who really cares about ribbons? Picturing Dandy reading the pattern and then doing the whole thing riderless is making me giggle. I think he'd do it, if he could!
ReplyDeletekim, if your sister showed a quarter horse, they have different sections than the Arabians. We have Amateurs and they have non-pros and that's about as much as I know about the differences...only that their are differences. Also they don't mix their classes up like Arabians do with one hunter class right after the other until they are all done before they move on to another division.
ReplyDeleteAs for trail, I have to do part of the work because Dandy doesn't know which order to do the obstacles in or at what gait so I determine that but from there I pretty much point him in the right direction and let him figure out how he's going to get the job done. The score starts at 70 just like for reining and then it is plussed or minused from there.
About replies, I've never been very consistent at replying to comments. It just depends on if I have the time or not. Last winter I was injured and then I was sick so I spent a lot of time inside. I think that's the only time I did a lot of replying.
Soon I hope to catch everyone up on what's going on here. That will explain why I haven't been able to get around to other blogs and do much on responding to comments. But for now let's just say I'm not home much and when I do get home I'm collapsing in a chair and falling asleep. For the record though, I really miss being able to spend more time in blogland.
katee, when Dandy is turned out with obstacles, he plays with them all by himself. Goes over the bridge and poles, moves the things around. He loves rolling barrels and dragging poles! He's such a goof! He would definitely be other there playing on the trail courses if he could.