The Region 4 Championships......Amateur Owner Warm-Up

After the chiropractor left, I began thinking about the class again. The magnitude of the possibilities with the red horse began to bear down on me. Before noon I found myself sick to my stomach and getting worse with each passing minute.

I rode my horse at the break. Just a brief ride to give him a chance to see the inside of the show ring. Barely a pass each direction at the jog and the lope with a little bit of walking thrown in for good measure. My horse was much better than he'd been the day before.

Back at the stalls I worked on cleaning my tack. Focusing on polishing silver wasn't enough to keep my mind off of the red horse. I was really dreading this class and whatever it might hold for me and my horse.

By the time the paddock announcer called the signal for us to leave, I was downright shaking. I can't remember if I've ever been so stressed before a class. A heavy dread enveloped me and I felt like I was going to vomit but I forced myself onto my horse.

As I rode down the rode towards the arena, I tried to get a handle on my self talk. I had friends watching for me in the arena. The ring master was going to be watching and so was the photographer. I needed to trust they would be able to keep anything bad from happening.

When I reached the warm-up arena, the woman on the red stallion was already there. I watched her as I made my way around the arena hoping she was watching for me as well.

It didn't take long to see that she was watching too. As I worked on supling my horse, I didn't get anywhere near the red horse. I noticed she took a break from her warm-up taking her horse into the middle. There I saw her speaking with a friend of mine. I made a mental note to see if that conversation had anything to do with the situation with my stallion and hers.

When Richard showed up, I asked him to check with my friend. When he returned, he confirmed my thoughts. The woman had indeed talked about the issue between the two horses. She had not seen it coming and she wasn't quite sure what to do, but she was definitely going to do her best to stay away from me. For the first time I felt a little relief. Maybe this class would be ok after all.

My horse stayed quiet in the warm-up. Even with the red stallion out there. Having the horse keep its distance seemed to be enough for Legs. I was going to try and follow his example. I needed to relax if I wanted to have a good ride.

When they called us to get ready on the runway into the arena, I decided I would stay back and enter after the red horse. Maybe without the red stallion behind us, Legs would stay quiet as we entered the arena.

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

The Class



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