Daffodil Spring Arabian Horse Show........ Schooling for the Open.......

Part 1

Saturday morning I was supposed to get to sleep in. Since I didn't have a class until the afternoon session and the people I was stabling with were there to feed in the morning, I figured there was no reason to keep my alarm set for the 5:30 am time I'd used the previous day, something more like 8 was in my game plan.

Murphy, of course, saw things differently and I awoke with a start at 4. A nightmare got my adrenaline pumping as I awoke before being blown to smithereens in whatever weird world I had visited. There was no getting back to sleep after that, just too much fear and too much adrenaline for any kind of rest. I was wide awake and finally gave up all hope of sleeping in so I figured I might just as well rise and do something productive.

I got up and putsed around here. Took a shower, washed my hair and dried it more thoroughly than is my normal routine so I wouldn't freeze my *ss off in the barn. If I couldn't sleep, I figured I might just as well go to the horse show, get my horse's stall cleaned and watch some classes.

When I arrived at the horse show, Legs had his hay all spread out around him and was leisurely eating while laying down. I didn't have the heart to disturb him, the stall cleaning could wait until the horse was on his feet. I did go into his stall and smooch him a little. He responded with little sighs of contentment and, of course, he nuzzled me looking for a handout.

By this time, the nightmare's rush had worn off and I seriously considered napping with my horse. If those portable stalls weren't so darn small, I probably would have tried a little power nap but there just was no place for Legs to go if he decided he wanted to rise. I knew he wouldn't step on me but I hate to keep him down if he feels the need to rise especially when he's worked hard at a horse show.

Instead I sat in a chair outside his stall listening with one ear for the horse to get to his feet. Before long Legs rose and I could feel him nuzzling my hair through the bars of the stall door. "Whatca doin' Mom?" curious because he doesn't see me sitting often.

I got up and cleaned his stall. Then headed off to then arena to get information about the break and schooling times. The afternoon class we were showing in was the western pleasure open. I knew it wouldn't be a big class but I would probably be the only amateur in it so I wanted my horse to be as good as he could be.

Many trainers think that amateurs don't belong riding in the open classes. I'm not really sure why that is but I started off in a barn with that kind of thinking so I've pretty much stuck to it. I don't really know what got into me that I entered this open class. Maybe because it is a sweepstakes class or maybe I've just decided "open" means open to everyone so why not.

Now as the class got closer I was thinking maybe I shouldn't have. I found myself making all kinds of excuses so I could scratch this class. If I did, I wouldn't be riding again until Sunday. Since the weather has not been my friend this year, I couldn't justify not taking advantage of any opportunity to ride. That thinking is what won out in the end but believe me, I was a reluctant participant.

I schooled my horse at the break. I pushed for that little bit more of collection and a little less speed as in each previous session. Legs was responsive. His transitions were good and he seemed to be ok with traffic. It was a fairly short ride and I was heading out of the arena when I remembered the hand gallop.

Any open class includes a hand gallop as part of the class requirements. I have not practiced this with Legs since last year. With his reluctance to go into the curb bit, I figured I better do a little bit of work with him on speeding up when asked. Even if we didn't get quite to what I would consider to be a hand gallop, that would be ok. What I needed was enough difference is speed to be noticeable. I knew a true hand gallop would not likely be seen in this open class anyway. I just wanted enough to fit in with the rest.

I'm not really sure how others go about cueing their horse to hand gallop in western pleasure. For me, I move my hand up the horse's neck a couple of inches, lean forward slightly, add some leg and do repetitive kissing until I get the desired speed. The leaning has to do with my balance. I find I can't keep my seat firmly in the saddle without this little bit of lean. With it, I sit nice and snug with no bouncing........and I sure don't want to do any bouncing on any of my horses.

I've been working on exercises for my core specifically because of galloping.....well, that and being stronger for when young horses do any unexpected sideways stuff. Those are the two areas that I have trouble with my balance and core exercises are a must. While I still have a long way to go, I can see that my core strength is improving.

When I remembered that I must hand gallop for this afternoon class, I turned my horse back around to the direction the other horses schooling in the arena were travelling. I asked him to lope and once he got into that, I cued him for the hand gallop.

As I expected Legs was reluctant to move forward into this curb bit so I continued kissing to him and bumping him every so slightly with my legs. I wasn't looking to "kick" the horse into more speed. I just wanted to gently encourage him.

It took three or four strides before Legs began to increase his rate. It was a gradual increase and we probably travelled a quarter of the way around the arena before I quit cueing the horse for more speed. We had not achieved what I would call a true hand gallop but there was definitely enough difference between it and the lope to be discernible.

I let Legs continue at this rate for about another quarter of the arena before asking him to return to the lope. The transition down was smooth and easy. We continued on at the lope for a little longer before cueing for the hand gallop again.

This time Legs moved up easily into the faster rate without needing all the extra encouragement of the first time. That kind of response was good enough for me. Legs has always loved to gallop. All I needed was for him to know it was ok to move out like that and it looked like he had gotten that message pretty clearly. I figured if he would do it the one direction, I would have no problems getting it the other way of going.

I brought my horse down to the walk. We headed back out of the arena and back to our stalls. We were as ready for this open class as we were going to be as far as I was concerned. I didn't want to wear my horse out with three more classes to ride. I'd just have to wait and see if I knew my horse as well as I thought............. would we hand gallop? or wouldn't we? Despite our good schooling, I was still dreading riding in the open western pleasure class.

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

Ready for the Open.......Or Not!

I think this picture is Vee at about 3 hours old. She was such a princess right from the start.

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