Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show.......the Final Championship.....

Part 1

Not long after my friends left it was time to get heading up to the arena to school for our last class. By this time I think Legs had pretty much had it with horse showing. He had worked more at this horse show than he had the entire months preceding it. My poor Arabian horse was plumb tuckered out...........and so was I.

When I held up the bridle for him to take the curb, he gave me a look I've not often seen. Normally he grabs the bit readily even when he is tired but not on this day. I got a plaintiff sigh and his head almost dropped to him knees as he tried to find some way to avoid taking the thing. I swear if my horse was capable of rolling his eyes that's what he'd have done. He was that sick of the whole show thing. Well, maybe it wasn't showing as much as it was work of any kind. Legs was pooped.

I was tired enough I didn't have the patience to be dealing with a less than cooperative horse but I tried not to take it out on him. I did use the toe of my boot to tap him on the chin to get him to lift his head up to my level. Even that effort was almost too much. If he hadn't accommodated my request, I was darn close to giving up.

Legs had pity on me raising his head he made an attempt to grab the bit as it went by. It would have been comical if we hadn't both been so pathetically tired. The bit ricocheted off his cheek and struck me in the hip. Visions of slap stick humor played through my head. The two of us fumbled together trying to get the curb in the right place, grateful when it was finally done.

Legs stood there quietly glazing over as I tied the leather thong that acts as a throat latch and buckled up the curb strap. Then as I turned to walk out of the stall, Legs gave another sad sigh as he followed. We were quite a pair.

Our warm up was as half hearted as bridling my horse had been. I had to remind myself to stay focused so I could give Legs a proper warm up, still I didn't push too much. I just wanted to do enough to have him properly warmed up for the class without doing anything extra. I was hoping I could come through this class still having some horse under me.

At least this time there were other western horses in the warm up arena. It wasn't going to be just a two horse class. Like this AAOTR class had been, the select rider was a combined championship with both the 18 to 39 riders as well as the 40 & overs. It looked like there would be 7 horses to show.

As usual I lined my horse up on the ramp early so we could be the first horse into the ring. I tried to keep my horse rounded up while we waited. I was afraid if I let him stretch out I wouldn't be able to get him back for the class.

The championship classes were running pretty quickly so it didn't take long for our class to enter the ring. I think I was relieved when the gate opened just because I knew it wouldn't be long and it would be over.

Legs didn't want to jog when I asked. I had to actually use my spur to get him to move. Once he did, he was good about continuing the pace. He didn't try to stall on me at all although he was a little bit tough to keep together. At this point all I wanted was a clean ride without any kind of spooking. If it hadn't been for those kind of issues, I probably would have scratched this class and given my horse a break.

It always amazes me how long a handful of riders can take to get into the ring. With only 7 horses the gate should have been closed in no time flat. Yet I was almost around the arena before the gate closed. As the announcer called the class to order Legs gave another one of those knowing sighs. He knew it wouldn't be long either.

I'm not always pleased when the judges run through the classes quickly. I figure I paid my money I should get my time in the ring but for this class I was ready to be done. I was the one that breathed a sigh of relief when they called for the lope. Legs' transition was pretty good, I think. To be honest I'm not sure if it really was or it was just the blur I was in.

As we loped, I realized that Legs was throwing me off to the left pretty dramatically. I had not noticed this in the warm up and I worried that maybe he was getting sore. My best efforts to keep myself centered were not going well but Legs plodded along doing his best. When they called for the transition down to the walk, he waited for me to ask then walked out of the lope just a smidge on his front end. Not bad considering how tired we both were. I was surprised I actually remembered to round him up before I asked for the downward transition.

This time they had us walk farther than they did in the AAOTR class. Legs wasn't taking any chances of getting poked with my spur. He walked off just like it was the first class of the show and not the last. When the announcer asked us to reverse, Legs tried to turn one way while asked for the other. For a moment we kind of sat there figuring out what to do. I was feeling pretty disconnected from my ride and it showed.

I had to hold Legs briefly on this transition into the lope. He was not quite as round at that moment than he had been. Once he got it together, he was pretty solid. This direction he was not throwing my weight to the left, another sign the horse was probably getting a little sore from all the work. His rate seemed to be ok compared to the others in the class but then this was the select rider division. Those horses tend not to be quite as together as the AAOTR riders.

I can't tell you when I have been so grateful to hear the last call for the jog, maybe when we had that stallion stalking us at Region 4 two seasons ago. Jogging down the rail I waited for the call to lineup knowing it would be quick. I have to admit as tired as I was, I was very grateful my horse does not dive for the line up. Even on a day like this Legs waited for me to guide him into line.

Only when we stopped did he sigh again and let down his frame. I don't usually let Legs stand with his neck out flat and his nosed pushed out in the line up. I tend to ride with the mindset that in the ring is about collection and outside is for letting down but it had been a long show and I let Legs be.

As we sat there waiting for the results, I ran over my ride in my head. It had been a decent ride much like the earlier one except for one transition, not bad for the select rider division. I figured over this show, Legs had improved a little each ride. In my mind anyway, we were definitely in line for most improved.

We placed third on judge Susan Witte's card and fourth on Bill Melendez's card. Looking at the movement and frame of the horses that placed above us I had some notations to make in my book about judges. It seemed to me that Susan Witte seemed to go more for good movement while Bill Melendez seemed to be more interested in a rounder frame over that movement.

Normally, I like to stay and talk with the judges at the end of the show and considering my observations it would have been nice to clarify them with the judges. However, they had reining classes scheduled at the end of the afternoon session and I had my youngest grandson's birthday party to attend so I had to skip that part of my usual show routine. I wish that had not been the case. I would really liked to have some input from both of these judges.

Officially the Daffodil Spring Show was over for Legs and me and I couldn't wait to get packed up and outta there. I think Legs felt the same way. When we got back to the stall and I began stripping the saddle off, Legs turned his head towards me and fluttered his eyes at me like he couldn't wait to nap. I tripped over my spurs as I turned to leave the stall and fell into the door scraping my saddle. I couldn't help but laugh at this ending to a great weekend.



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Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show....... a Surprise Visit........

Part 1

Legs was not the only one tired on that Sunday morning. After the adrenaline from getting caught short and preparation time for the class had finally waned, I was dragging big time. It's a good thing I had enough to get me through the class itself because I'm not sure how I'd have been in that wall came thundering down while riding.

It was on the walk back to the stalls that I felt the crash. It was seemed almost instantaneous in its dawning. I really don't know when it happened just that I remembered being by the big overhead ride and then "coming to" as I walked into the barn. I'd clearly spaced out over half my walk back to the barn. It's a good thing that my horse behaves.

With only 8 classes between the AAOTR class and the select rider championship, I decided the best thing to do was to just tie my horse in the stall and wait. I figured I had about enough time to take a power nap and maybe that would get me through this next ride. Heaven knows my eyelids were made of lead at this point and I wasn't sure that even an adrenaline rush could pick them up.

I did manage to remember to throw a cooler on my horse. I didn't want him standing tied in the cool air of the barn and getting stiff. I swear he actually groaned as I covered him with that thing instead of pulling the tack. The horse has been to enough shows to know that signaled another ride.

I wondered if I should set my alarm just in case my power nap got too serious. I didn't want to be sleeping through my class. Crystal would never let me live it down if I did. I knew it would be fodder for her jokes for the rest of my days........so I did, I set my alarm......... just in case....

I should have known better. To need an alarm one would have to sleep. I am not a person who naps easily and I sure don't nap in public. Sitting in the open in a barn wouldn't be the kind of place "safe" enough for me to sleep no matter how desperately I needed it.

Even without the nap, I felt better just sitting with my eyes closed and resting for the time. Well, if you can call it resting as I rerode my class in my mind while sitting there in that chair, but I did feel "better" even if "rested" didn't apply, that is until I decided to stand.

One thing about sitting there in that cold barn, I had been the one that had gotten stiff. I had problems getting myself up and outta that chair. My legs didn't want to change position and they sure didn't want to support my weight. Legs had gotten a cooler but I hadn't thought about something for me. Now I was thinking my legs were not going to bend. Nor were they going to forgive me for letting them prop me into that darn bag chair. I was definitely feeling old........

I try to not get caught up in feeling sorry for myself about that "old thing." I've gotten pretty good at refocusing on something positive to get myself through the little betrayals my body throws my way. At this particular time the obvious distraction was to listen for class calls to see when I needed to be ready. As if on cue, I heard the sound of the paddock announcer's voice coming over the loud speakers. I had four classes to go before Legs and I would next enter the show ring.

I decided to check my show program to get some idea of how big those classes might be. As I went to locate the thing, I saw two familiar faces coming down the aisle towards me. They were both smiling and definitely coming my way. I have to admit I wasn't quite sure what to think.

Remember that half-Arabian colt that I trained for halter during the course of my contract with Storm. These two people are the owners of that colt. Since the lawsuit, pretty much everyone from that barn keeps their distance from me, either out of discomfort or just plain anger. Whatever, it is, these are the first to look glad to see me.

As they got closer they called me by name and asked me about Rhet. He was a yearling at the same time and shown at the same show. I guess in some way that gives them a kind of kindred connection, at least it did with these folks. It was nice to see them.

I briefly mentioned the lawsuit only because I was unclear if they knew, or maybe if they cared. I guess I wanted to know them being glad to see me was no accident. Their response to me was they didn't care about that kind of "political stuff." They like who they like and that's that and it was definitely obvious they were glad to see me.

I must admit I was pleased to hear this and I thanked them for not discarding me because of what had transpired. It's hard to just walk away from two years worth of relationships because I stood up for myself. I knew they had been grateful for the work I had done with their colt but I didn't know if that was enough to carry through the last year's events. It was nice to see their feelings were not negated by the situation with LF and BG.

With that out of the way I asked them what they were doing at the show. They told me they had come to deliver their horse, TK, to their son's barn so he could begin training under saddle. This gelding had not had anything done with him since he'd been shown two years ago. They had taken him home right after regionals and turned him out in the field where he spent his time growing up.

When they went to retrieve him to make this trip, he'd walked onto that trailer like an old pro and he travelled that way as well. They were very pleased and, I think, a little bit surprised by his behavior. I think they thought because not much had been done with TK in the interim that he would have forgotten what he was supposed to do. I assured them his basics were pretty solid if nothing had been done to undermine them, he should have behaved exactly as he did.

I got the impression TK's good behavior loading had something to do with them looking me up at the show. Whatever the reason was, I was sure glad they did. Had I not had a class coming up soon I would have gone back to their barn to see TK. It sure would be fun to see how he has matured. He was a gangly yearling but I figured he was going to be a lovely western pleasure horse some day. Hopefully I'll get to see him in the ring sometime next year.

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

The Final Championship...

This picture is Scandalous Image.

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Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show.........Western Pleasure AAOTR Championship......

Part 1

Once the first showmanship class was over I headed back up to the barn to wait out the time until my class. With two more showmanship classes to go I expected that to take a while but it actually came upon me much quicker than I expected. Before I knew it I heard the paddock announcer calling for class number 133 and I hadn't even begun tacking my horse up yet. With my adult amateur owner to ride (AAOTR) class being class 136, the mad dash was on getting my horse and myself ready.

It always seems by Sunday at a horse show I'm functioning in a pretty low gear. Everything I do seems to be in slow motion even when I'm pushing myself but the adrenaline that comes from thinking I might miss a class definitely got me jump started. I was whirling around Legs getting him saddled and greased so I could move onto getting myself dressed.

Besides making a change to my work boots, I decided to make one other change as well. LF had "sold" me on the clingy, stretchy pants that she wears back when I'd had problems getting my leg bent enough to even reach the stirrup over a winter I'd gained some weight. Those pants had worked for me at the time but over the last year I've lost that weight and more thanks to stomach issues during the lawsuit.
Now I was thinking those pants were a little slick for my liking. With issues not feeling balanced in the saddle and the fact I still felt a bit more secure schooling than showing even with the boot change, I decided I'd dig out my black jeans and show in those instead.

I'd come from home wearing those black jeans and I'd left my boots on after I schooled my horse and it was a darn good thing. I was running out of time but thanks to these changes all I had to do was put on my chaps, change into my show shirt AND, of course, grab my hat. I'd put my earrings on much earlier anticipating a problem getting the studs through the holes, so I was ready to go in 5 minutes. All I had to do was bridle up my horse and we were off to the warm up arena.

We got to the warm up ring just as they were calling class 135 into the arena. That's pretty much perfect timing as long as my horse is good. It gives me the length of one class to warm my horse up. As long as I didn't end up with some kind of schooling issue, we'd be ready to go when called.

I must admit right from the start I wondered where all the western horses were. According to my confirmation of entries there should have been 6 horses in the class. When I first got to the warm up Legs and I were the only western horse there. Soon we were joined by one more but that was it. When the class was called, there were only two horses lining up on the ramp.

Because the AAOTR class is my measure of where my horse in terms of competitiveness, I always look forward to this class. I have said all along I'll know that Legs is right when he can win in this class. Now as there were only two horses entering this class, I was disappointed the measure I count on wasn't going to happen because so many riders had scratched this class. As the gate closed behind us I settled into what I considered to be just a schooling ride.

I knew my horse was going slower than he had been two days before but I wouldn't get to see how he would compare against those slower horses from the AAOTR class I'd ridden on Friday. The horses that are striving to compete at the nationals level had scratched once they'd earned the qualifications they sought. I would have to be content to work on logging miles in the show ring, building up Leg's comfort level after spooking situations past.

Jogging down the rail, Legs seemed relaxed enough. He didn't seem bothered by the light coming through the tarp seams at the far end of the arena. Any time my horse can be comfortable at that end, I figure I'm making headway against those troll memories he seems to foster.

When the announce called for the lope, I pushed Legs up into the bridle and held him just a moment before I asked. His transition was as smooth as the ones he given me in the open class. I was glad to see we hadn't lost that just because he was tired. I was even happier to see he was holding together pretty well. Mostly just coming off my legs to round back up, instead of needing that direct contact he has leaned on to get "right." His lope was even and comfortable but I was feeling him throwing me to left, just a bit.

The announcer asked us to walk and Legs waited for instructions from me despite his obvious reaction telling me he'd heard and understood the call. That's something that Legs has always been particularly good at, waiting for instruction even though he knows what's coming next. You just have to appreciate a horse that waits until he's told instead of taking things upon himself.

When I did push my feet forward and sit down, my horse rolled up underneath me and walked out of that lope. Galloping the day before in that open class had really helped his confidence in the curb. Legs was on his butt and his shoulders were up where they belonged. The transition was flawless which is something totally new.

Because Legs was tired he didn't really walk off with the true stride I prefer. I had to push him being careful not to push him past the walk and into a jog. Legs actually cocked his head just a little listening for a cue from me. I responded with a low drawn, "W A L K."

It seemed about the time I got him walking at the rate I wanted the announcer asked us to reverse. Legs wanted to stall instead of change directions and I had to pump him with my spur to keep him moving. Only a few steps later and the lope was called.

Legs seemed almost glad to be asked to lope instead of continuing on at the walk. As I pushed him into the bridle to get ready for the transition, his ear perked up and he easily rounded for me. As he got to that "right" place to ask, the horse moved into the lope without even a kiss from me. He cued totally off my thought and the transition was very smooth.

Normally working to the right is Legs' good direction. On this day, I had to work harder to the right to keep him together than I had to the left. He was still moving off my legs and not requiring that firm hold of the bit but it was taking a lot of leg to keep him together. By the time they asked us to jog, my legs were feeling like rubber, still his transition down was better than usual. It was a decent ride.

We were barely into the jog when the announcer called us into line. Thankfully we were on the rail directly across from the place designated by the ring steward for line up. I was thinking if we'd had much farther to go, Legs would run out of gas as I continued to push him with my legs to keep him together.

Normally, Legs is a bit of a busy body in the line up. He likes to look around at the other horses to survey who's there. On this day when we got to "the" spot, Legs stopped and hung his head. He was pooped and we still had one class to go.

I heard the announcer say there was a unanimous decision for the championship in this class. I was surprised to hear that unanimous champion was Legs. I think I had to wake Legs from his nap to get him to move up for the presentation. He lurched a little into the jog to collect his championship ribbons and first ever neck garlands in a riding class.

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



A Surprise Visit......


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Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show.......Out of Balance......and Thoughts on Showmanship......

Part 1


Sunday morning I was off to the horse show in plenty of time to get my horse schooled before the morning session began. I worked at getting my Arabian horse a little more collected and with that a little slower at the jog and the lope. Not that he's not going at the rate of most horses out there, it's just that he can go so much slower and do it correctly and our goal is to be the best that we can be.

Dave had done a superb job on my clunky winter riding boots. I showed them to Crystal when arriving at the show and she didn't even recognize them. She thought they were a totally different pair and was quite surprised when I told her these were the BAD looking ones she'd seen the day before.

During my open western pleasure ride Saturday afternoon, Legs felt really square underneath me. Yet Sunday morning it felt like he was throwing me to the left just a little as he loped. It really didn't matter which lead, it was still to the left. I just couldn't seem to find a way to get myself square over him.

Of course, I have had this issue with Legs before. It is a symptom of his initial injury, that rotated pelvis, that occurred when he was an foal. However, I have learned it doesn't always mean his pelvis is out of place. It can be simply because the horse has reverted to the way he moved all those years to compensate for the injury.

It did not surprise me the horse had gone from being perfectly square right back to his old way of going. In fact, at this point in time, I almost expect it. Because Legs is not used to moving correctly, the likelihood is that he gets sore easily when he does. His muscles are just not used to that kind of work so he reverts to that old way of moving to compensate and lessen the impact of the work.

It will take time for the horse to learn that he will be less sore by maintaining a square frame. Hopefully, the length of time it takes to get the horse truly back to moving squarely again will get shorter and shorter and with that Legs will build the strength that keeps him from getting sore while travelling square.

Because of this incorrect movement, I decided to keep my schooling session as short as possible. All I wanted to do was warm his muscles up and get him moving as squarely as was reasonable under these circumstances. I had to keep into account the fact the horse was getting more work at this horse show than he had for the entire past month. Again, reminding myself to ride the horse that I have instead of the one I am striving to have.

Both of my championship classes were scheduled in the morning session. The first one was the Western Pleasure Adult Amateur Owner to Ride Championship. This was a combined class with the riders for the 18 - 39 age division and the 40 & over age division and it was the 9th class of the morning.

With three showmanship classes beginning the session, I figured it was possible I would have plenty of time to get ready for my class. I used the show program to count up the number of kids entered so I could guesstimate how long these classes might take. Using this as my gauge, I figured that showmanship would take at least two hour so after our schooling session, I untacked my horse and let him finish his breakfast while I went to the ring to watch the showmanship.

One of the horse's I was stabled with belong to a kid who does showmanship so I was there on the rail like others from the barn, cheering her on. I have to admit, I don't know all that much about showmanship. For some reason the adults on the Arabian horse show circuit do not show in that class. It's not that the rules don't provide for the class, because they do, but shows do not provide them in their schedules. I suspect there are not requests to add them either.

The end result is adults don't show in showmanship classes at Arab shows. I would imagine there are plenty of adults who could benefit from having the kind of control of their horse that showing in showmanship would teach them. I think it's probably a good idea that 4-H requires kids to show in that class and I think to earn certain awards in pinto, they must show showmanship as well. I guess it's a moot point as far as the Arabs are concerned. I doubt that showmanship for adults will make it onto show schedules anytime soon.

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

Western Pleasure AAOTR Championship....

The foal in this picture is a full brother to the one in yesterday's post. As you can see by this picture, he hasn't figured out how to use those long legs yet. I can't help but wonder what he must have been thinking as he tried to figure those things out. What do you think?

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Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show.......A Little on Balance.......and Boots.......

Part 1

During the show, I had realized I was having an issue with my show boots. I know that my legs are in two different positions when I ride. It stems from an old injury. My right leg comes out of my hip at a slightly different angle than my left and therefore my right leg "hangs" in the saddle a little differently than my left.

Now, I know all the dressage riders must be having fits at this point. Sitting squarely and correctly is a big deal to getting the horse moving correctly. I get that but I have also learned that balance is really the key in how we affect the way the horse moves. I know that my balance is not compromised by the angle my leg comes out of my hip because I have lots of experiences riding with air between the horse and the cinch or girth and that can't be accomplished without perfect balance. I am notorious for having a saddle that sifts as I get off my horse because I ride with the cinch that loose yet I rarely have to adjust the saddle when I ride.

The dressage teacher I worked with all those years ago actually let me ride an entire lesson on Dandy with several inches of air between the girth and my horse. It was only when I went to dismount that he stopped me knowing the saddle would roll and I might get hurt. When I asked him why he'd let me ride that way, he told me he had enjoyed seeing how correct my balance was.

I know that my body is not going to be corrected on this point or the fact my shoulders are rolled slightly forward either. That too is the result of an old injury and the physical therapists could not get it fixed. I may be able to push the very tips of my shoulders back but my back is not affected. It may look better that way but it doesn't help my horse because it is not the real correction in posture that needs to be made.

It is frustrating to know that my body is my worst enemy when it comes to riding. In dealing with this I have to remind myself of a conversation I had with a very successful BNT many years ago. While his comments weren't particularly sympathetic to the horse, they did make a very important point. A horse can be taught to move correctly even without the rider being in a perfect position.

Considering the success and the posture of this particular trainer, I would tell you what he said was correct. Without perfect posture, we much find a way to compensate that will help the horse to carry us. For me it has to do with how I place my feet in the stirrups or irons. When I get my feet right, I can get my balance right and with that I can get the horse right without causing a problem for my horse.

I have always been aware of my "compromised" position but I haven't been particularly aware of how I compensate to "fix" it. This only became obvious to me at the Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show when I found myself having trouble with my balance but only for my classes.

Once I realized that I was not having an issue when I was schooling but only when I was showing, it didn't take much to realize that my show boots were causing the problem. My big clunky winter boot gives my foot no room to move out of the correct position while the narrower show boot leaves room for movement.

With my big clunky winter work boots, my foot takes up pretty much the whole area inside the stirrup and supports me quite well. I can maintain the angle I place my feet to affect how I carry my body weight on up through both legs. My show boots are much narrower and I can't really say that I have ever noticed it to be a problem before the show this spring. That doesn't mean it hasn't been a problem though, only that I didn't notice it until now.

I think the reason it was more obvious now probably stems from the fact, like my horse, I too am out of shape from lack of riding time this winter. The lack of strength made it harder for me to maintain the position of my foot inside the stirrup with the narrower show boot. The only way I could figure out how to fix this was to ride in my clunky winter boots.

I've made no bones about relaying the kind of conditions I school my horses in at the park. The footing there is sand and with this winter, that means very wet sand. My tack, my boots, my clothes and my horses all show the signs of these conditions. That means my winter boots are NOT pretty! and believe me when I say NOT pretty I mean it even with the thorough cleaning I did before taking them to the show.

I had begun to put the pieces of this dilemma together on Friday but it wasn't really until Saturday morning that I began to realize the correlation to the width of my show boots. I tried the leather cleaner I had to spruce up my winter boots but they still were not pretty but I convinced myself that only my toe was going to show so I showed with them anyway.

The result had been that open western pleasure class where my horse felt so nice and square underneath me. I had not struggled in that class to keep my saddle in the middle of my horse and if anyone notice d my ugly scuffed up toes on my work boots no one had mentioned it. Before riding championships on Sunday, I took those boots home to be polished by my husband. With years of military expertise, and many many payments for polishing others boots for inspection, Dave is an expert at making UGLY BOOT beautiful again. I knew he could fix it for me and Legs wouldn't have to deal with my being unbalanced in the saddle again.

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

Out of Balance......and Thoughts on Showmanship....

I think this is Scandalous Chase not too long after he was born.

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Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show......Charity Night......

Part 1

I must admit the ride I had on Legs in that open western pleasure class ranks right up there with the national's ride I had on Dandy in the hunter pleasure class in Bonanza all those years ago. I will always remember the feeling of that ride.

Having my horse so tuned in to my every move was something amazing. I couldn't have been more pleased. In addition, it was just so much fun. Even today I still feel the pleasure of that ride.

It was my only class of the day and it was nearly the last class of the afternoon session. I had a friend coming up from Olympia who was hoping to still be there by the time my class rode but I had no idea if that had happened or not. Once I got my horse put away, I went back up to the show arena to look for her.

I never did find my friend, although I heard later she found me. I was engrossed in a conversation with another friend and she didn't want to interrupt. With my double vision I only take in what I need to so I didn't even see my friend from Olympia. I knew she couldn't be gone long so I thought she was long gone by this time.

People were milling around the courtyard waiting for the evening's activities to begin. There was an exhibitor dinner being run in conjunction for a huge and quite fancy silent auction.

The Daffodil Arabian Horse Association has taken on a charity the last two years at their horse show. This year's therapy was the Children's Therapy Unit of Puyallup and the horse show had a number of events during the show to raise money for this group.

There were a couple of different raffles. One was for a $1000 gift certificate to Show Season's and the other was for some very fancy jewelry. Kids were selling raffle tickets for both raffles throughout the show. Sometimes those kids had ambassadors with them to help solicit tickets. Those ambassadors just happened to be mini horses decked out with daffodil garlands around their necks.

One of the events was called Ride a BIG Buck. To participate in that event, you had to collect as much money as you could for the charity and present it at the show office for a regular buck to ride in the Ride a BIG Buck class. The person who collected the most funds won a prize and the person keeping their buck under their leg the longest was guaranteed $?? You can tell I don't ride bareback because that guaranteed prize didn't stick in my brain.

The biggest portion of the fund raiser was the silent auction where they had tables and tables displaying all the things that had been donated. There were all kinds of fabulous items from vacations, artwork, wine cabinets complete with an assortment of wines, jewelry, baskets galore including one specifically for pooches, riding lessons, etc. You name it, and I swear, someone had donated it.

Dinner was free and cooked by the Cowboy Cook, Jeff Tracey, from Oregon. Margarita's flowed. The barbecue was awesome and served over 250 people. The silent auction racked in the bucks. Before the night session began over $9000 was raised for the Children's Therapy Unit and a fun time was had by all.

My friends, Wendy, Candy and Bev, joined me to watch the evening session. My single Martguerita took the entire session to wear off. Then I tucked my horsey into bed and got my fanny home for an early rise since I had two classes in the morning session. That meant early morning schooling and a 5 am rise time. I was really glad the evening session did not run late but it was a very enjoyable evening at the horse show. No stress.......and lots of fun. It's been a while since a horse show has been like that for me. It couldn't have come at a better time.

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

A Little on Balance....and Boots.....

Do you know who this cute little redhaired foal is?

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Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show.......... Riding the Open Western Pleasure Class.......

Part 1

I'm lucky in the respect I can put things behind me as soon as I begin riding. I don't usually carry residual stress about getting ready for a class once I can focus on my relationship with my horse That might be because my fear is more about missing my class than it is about how my ride goes. I feel pretty confident I can deal with most anything that can happen in the ring so when the gate opened and the paddock announcer called my class to order, I actually felt relieved.

I would have been the first horse to enter the arena if I had not forgotten my cowboy hat. Now, I was lucky I was making it into the arena at all considering I hadn't even thought about asking for a gate hold to help me get my hat and my horse back together before entering the ring. Now I was just grateful to be entering the ring at all as Legs and I made our entrance into the arena trailing behind the other exhibitiors.

The gate closed behind us and I heard the announcer stating the class was now in session and we were to show our horses at the jog. My horse was not as round as I would have liked, more like the lengthened frame we'd used across the parking lot to retrieve my hat, but he was listening pretty well and rounding up a little better on each request. By the time I had him about where I wanted him, we had been asked to lope.

There are a number of things I would fix if I had to do this horse show over but transitions were not one of them. That has not always been the case. It has been a struggle getting my Arabian horse to do the kind of transitions he is capable of. Despite my efforts to round the horse up before the transition, he's been unable to go into the gait underneath himself the way he should. Instead of being smooth, he's needed me to hold him and push him further into the bridle for sometimes as many as 5 strides before finally attaining the smooth lope he's capable of.

That was not the case at this horse show, however. For the first time consistently the horse was rounding up easily and moving forward into the lope as smoothly as his older brother. I have always said that my measure of a good transition is based on Dandy and I knew that Legs would finally be fixed when I could get that kind of transitions from him. Well, the Daffodil Spring Show of 2011 will be my marker for Legs finally getting it. His transitions were awesome, every darn one of them.

The lope was not as slow as I know we can get but I was pleased with the rate we had all things considered. It didn't take long before the announcer asked us to move into the hand gallop so I moved my hand up my horse's neck, leaned forward just a bit and began kissing to him. My horse immediately moved off into a real hand gallop, not that faster than the lope but still a lope thing I'd gotten in the warm up. I was surprised.

I don't think any of the other horses in the class did a hand gallop at all. I had expected that and that's why I had been happy to get that faster lope in practice. Since I had the real thing, I was going to make the most of it. Nothing helps Legs get over his fear of the curb bit than galloping so I used this opportunity to work on pushing him deeper underneath himself. I didn't mess with the reins at all, I just used my legs and seat to push him deeper.

My horse responded my lifting his back and his shoulders and booking around the arena. Not too fast to be penalized by the judges, but a nice controlled round hand gallop. My horse was light and smooth and my steering was freaking awesome. Just the slightest movement of the rein towards his neck and my horse was responding. It was a blast!

They asked us to come down from the hand gallop directly to the walk. I had wondered if they would do the transition to the walk or back to the lope. Either can be difficult with a horse that is being strong but there was nothing strong about Legs on this day. As I moved my hand back to it's normal position and straightened my body and moved my feet forward, my horse nearly sat down in the dirt. His response was instantaneous and smooth. I couldn't have been more tickled.

Legs walked out of the transition with the smooth ground covering walk I love to show. It was the prettiest hand gallop to walk transition the horse has ever done. I couldn't wait to hand gallop the second way of the ring to see what I had there.

Considering how quickly these judges were calling these classes, they let us walk a little longer than I expected. Not that I was in any hurry to get turned around and loping again, but I clearly remembered them letting us walk a while for only four horses in the class before they asked us to reverse.

I laid my rein on my horse's neck and put my leg on him and Legs sat back on his haunches and pivoted around until I asked him to stop. I chuckled a little at this response. I've worked long and hard to get Legs to make that kind of turn as a schooling exercise to get him more underneath himself. I sure didn't expect it in a class.

We did not walk far this direction and we were asked to lope again. I pushed my horse off my inside leg, then up into the bridle raising my hand just a bit and asked him to lope. Legs' transition was smooth and his rate was pretty good. I looked down the rail at some kind of distraction outside the arena and decided I'd cut the end of the arena short. Laying my rein on the outside and using that leg I asked him to turn and my horse easily responded.

It was then it dawned on me that this is about the best steering horse I have ever had in the bridle. I always felt like I had good steering with Dandy but with Legs it's almost push button feeling. His responses are so definite I never question I'm getting what I ask. It was a good feeling to realize it's actually coming together.

Before I finished cutting the far end of the arena the announcer called for the hand gallop again. I had not practiced this direction so I wasn't totally sure what I was going to get. I moved my hand forward and leaned slightly into it and Legs was moving off into the hand gallop before those kisses ever left my lips. I couldn't have been more pleased with his response.

Coming down the rail, my fingers felt like I was losing a grip on the reins. I have a finger I broke many years ago that doesn't not close all the way and sometimes it feels odd on the reins. I suspect it was that finger that caught my attention. Whatever, it was, I adjusted my grip by just moving my fingers a little and my horse thought I was talking to him. As my fingers moved, Legs came back to the lope.

Instantly, I began kissing again. I think I even moved my hand a little more forward so Legs would know I hadn't wanted him to lope. As quickly as he came down, he went back up into the hand gallop. I could not believe my horse was responding to the slightest movement of the rein.

We hand galloped around the corner and halfway down the rail before the announcer called for us to lope our horses. I half way laughed at the thought considering how light my horse was being to the rein as I moved my hand back very slowly and straightened my body. I kept my movements slow so the horse would not shut down to a walk. I swear in one stride my horse went from the hand gallop to the lope without hesitation. It was an awesome feeling.

His transition down the the jog was every bit as smooth. By the time they asked us to line up, I was pretty happy with my ride. I figured there wasn't much chance I was going to place well in this class but I couldn't have asked for my horse to be more responsive. Considering we'd been jogging across the parking lot scurrying after my cowboy minutes before, my horse had settled down to business very well.

With a former national champion and a national's judge representing two of the four horses in this class AND my horse not quite as slow at the jog or the lope as either of them, I pretty much knew where we would end up. As they handed out the ribbons, we got third from Susan Witte and fourth from Bill Melendez but I couldn't have been more elated. Riding in the open western class had been great fun and ribbons have never really been my goal. I'm pretty sure I"ll be riding in more open classes in the future. No more avoiding them because amateurs "don't belong" as I've done for years.

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

Charity Night....
Scarlet at about a week old, I think.


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Daffodil All Arabian Spring Horse Show.......... Hat Retrieval 101.......

Part 1

As soon as the realization dawned that I wasn't wearing my cowboy hat, momentary panic set in. The class in the ring was a hunter pleasure class and the one following mine was a country pleasure class. There were no western pleasure horses in sight except for those in my class and the rule clearly reads a cowboy hat is required in western pleasure.

I don't know what the penalty would be for inappropriate attire now did I want to find out. I sure didn't want to be making any fashion statements either. I think I already do my share of bucking the system. Showing in a baseball cap was not on my agenda and I sure wasn't going into my class that way.

My mind raced with the possibilities. The stalls seemed miles away at this point but I guess in the big scheme of things the location of our stalls was probably the closest on the ground for this kind of error. I didn't know if I had enough time to get there and back or not but I was going to have to try. I had not plans of testing the waters to see what they'd do if I tried to enter that class with my "Scandalous Legacy" baseball cap perched on my head.

I can't even tell you how many times over the years I have seen someone trotting their horse across the asphalt. My reaction to such sights has been less than kind. It never occurred to me they might have some reason to be in a hurry so I certainly never volunteered any assistance. I just thought they were blooming idiots.

Now, I was the blooming idiot jogging my horse across the asphalt headed back towards the barn. I pushed Legs up at the jog wanting to get as much speed as I could get without causing the horse to slip. As long as his feet felt firm underneath me, I figured we would be all right for the short distance we had to travel.......still I felt uncomfortable even though we were still clearly travelling at a jog.

I passed Quinton Des Fontain in my hurry and told him my problem. Quinton's stalls just happened to be on the same aisle as mine and he asked if he could help. I was relieved to have some help and not to have to explain where my stalls were located. Quinton wouldn't know where to find my hat but he did know exactly where my stalls were.

I jogged along with him giving him detailed directions to the location of my cowboy hat inside the tack room. I figured if I could get my hat quickly and avoid having to mount and dismount I might just make it back to my class so I actually even went right into the barn with him. . Being right there with Quinton, I knew I could answer questions and avoid any delay in him finding my hat.

Quinton did ask me a couple of questions before he located my cowboy hat so I was really glad I had made the decision to ride into the barn. Did I happen to mention that riding in the barn is one of those things I have little tolerance for as well? Now trying to get my cowboy hat and still make my class I was throwing out all kinds of my little rules.

As I saw my silver belly Stetson coming towards me, I breathed a quick sigh of relief. Plunked that thing on my head. Turned my horse around and headed back to the arena...........and yes, I was jogging my horse across the asphalt again like the blooming idiot I was.

As I got closer to the arena, I could see the western horses were still lined up on the runway. It's not that this was a big class, only four horses but the fact this is a concurrent show with two judges can make the presentation of ribbons take a while if the judges picked different winners. I figure that's what happened in the hunter class because I really had expected my class to be in the ring while the paddock announcer called my number searching for me.

As it was I had time to get my horse onto the ramp and collect myself, my thoughts and my horse before we entered the arena. I didn't know what kind of jog I was going to get after our trip jogging across the asphalt at a rate faster than I've been trying to school my horse. Would Legs go on auto pilot doing the thing we'd just done to get my hat or would he gear it back down to what's normal for him?

I guess I was going to find out soon enough. The gate to the class was opened and the paddock announcer called the purebred Arabian western pleasure open class into the ring. All I could think about as I entered was reasons why amateurs shouldn't show in open classes and I was really hoping I was going to be looking like a blooming idiot again.........



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

Riding the Open Western Pleasure.....

This is my very first foal, Dandy. I remember very clearly how he let me cradle him in my arms as I dried him off. The Arabian horse may have come in with an attitude but he also appreciated attention right from the start.



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Daffodil Spring Arabian Horse Show...... Ready for the Open.......or Not!

Part 1

The western pleasure open class was scheduled almost at the end of the afternoon session. Even though the lunch break had been only a half hour, I thought I had enough time to let my horse relax before we'd need to be ready to show. So when we got back to the stalls, I untacked my horse and let him nap until it was time to get ready. The only problem with that was the classes ran quicker than I'd expected.

You'd think with as long as I've been showing I'd have a method that worked for me all figured out. I don't know if it's because I haven't shown much the last couple of years that I've forgotten what works but something is different. I'm either ready to early or rushing like a lunatic trying to make a class. For this particular class rushing like a lunatic was the order of the day.

For my two previous classes I'd had offers of help from the people I was stabled with but I'd been on schedule so didn't need it. Now that I was behind, there was no one in sight and I was on my own to get my horse and myself ready. With four classes before me being called into the ring, I was making that proverbial headless chicken look calm.

Lucky for me my horse is used to my stressed outbursts at horse shows. Legs just looked at me with that expressions that says, "Poor thing, she's loosing it again." Thinking about what enginerd said about the Southern Way, I'm wondering in maybe Legs has gotten some lessons in his disdain for my chicken impersonations because he sure knows how to give me that "look" quite well.

Of course because time is short, I had problems getting the saddle pads right. Although my custom show saddle was guaranteed to fit my horse, it needs to be padded up at the whithers. For showing I add the show pad over the top of my usual pad and shims. Somethings the shim pads just don't want to stay in place when I lay the show pad over the top.

Then when I put my show saddle in place, the pads all shifted and I had to start from scratch. Murphy was clearly interfering with me getting anything done smoothly. It took three times before I got the pads all aligned correctly and the saddle in place.

Legs is really not fond of having makeup applied to his face for showing. He enjoys having it wiped off much more than having it put on. As I reached for his face with Vaseline in hand, Legs stuck his head to the rafters and squinted. I couldn't help but laugh at this evasion and I think it helped to settle me as well. From that point forward things seemed to go smoothly as I finished with my horse and then got myself dressed and us headed towards the warm-up arena.

Getting ready has always been my biggest stress at horse shows. Once it is done and I know I'm going to make my class, all tension leaves my body. I was feeling pretty confident I was home free when I mounted my horse and began the limbering exercises I always use before each ride. The class right before mine was just entering the arena giving me a class to warm up my horse which was more than enough unless something weird happened.

The warm up was fairly quiet so I got to do what I wanted there right from the start. While my Arabian horse was still not quite a slow as I would like him to be, we'd made some pretty good strides in getting more roundness. I was not pushing for more slow since I didn't think Legs really had the strength to maintain it for warm up and the class and I didn't want to make him sore. I opted to go with the horse I had at this point.

The class in the ring had reversed. I decided I would make my way up the ramp so we'd be ready to enter the arena when asked. I was sitting there right at the edge of the ramp when someone called my name and asked, "MiKael, where's your hat?"

I could feel the hat on my head. I remember thinking that was a silly question, couldn't he see? I pointed to my hat and as I did so I looked up at it only to see the brim of my baseball cap and my heart sank. I wasn't as ready for this class as I thought. My cowboy hat was back at the stalls and the class in front of me was heading into the line up.

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


This is Lilly and I think the foal is Image. The problem is that Lilly's foals look so much alike I have to look at her coloration to tell them apart. She still has so much color in this picture I believe this is her first foal.

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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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Daffodil Spring Arabian Horse Show...... AAOTR 40 & over Western Pleasure

Part 1

With the problem in the stands, I decided I really needed to get back into the arena as soon as possible to "show" my horse there was nothing to fear. Even with his final sighs signaling some form of relaxation, I wasn't going to trust that. I figured the more time we spent schooling in that arena, the better off we'd be so I tried to pay close attention to the paddock announcer so I didn't miss the break.

I had ridden my morning class in mid afternoon but it was a class very near the end of that session. Still that meant the afternoon session would be starting close to the time it was ending. Because of this even though they pretty much had to take a break to feed the judges, they did not open the arena for schooling. Instead they worked on the footing again so I'd have to listen closely for the break between the afternoon session and beginning of the evening session if I was going to get a chance to school.

The Adult Amateur Owner to Ride 40 & over (AAOTR) Western Pleasure class was in that session. That was one of the classes I had entered on Legs as well. Since evening classes have been the most difficult for Legs in terms of spooking, I knew I needed to get schooling time if I didn't want to be setting us up for failure.

That afternoon session the judges pushed through the classes lickety split. I heard the paddock announcer calling there would be a half hour break for dinner but didn't catch whether the arena would be open for schooling. Knowing a half hour break can be taken up just getting the horse tacked up and up to the arena, I headed towards the paddock area to find out if I would be able to ride my horse at this break or not.

It turned out the arena was going to be open for schooling immediately after the last class of the session. It's a good thing I went up to check when I did or we'd have probably missed the opportunity to school. There was a class in the ring and then that last class would run so I ran back to get my horse ready to ride.

Legs and I made it up to the arena just as the last class was getting their ribbons. We waited on the ramp for the last horse to exit but instead the trainer took the horse to the corner and stood there. I think the horse had gotten rattled by something as the ribbons were being dispensed so he was getting schooled too.

Technically a class is not over until the last horse exits the arena. However, the man in charge told me I could go in and so I did. The judges were already gone and I didn't want to miss one minute of schooling time just in case I need the whole thirty minutes.

Legs and I entered the arena at the walk with other horses following in behind us. First place I took him was that spot on the rail where he had been spooked. I let him stand there for a minute or two the whole time petting him on the neck before proceeding with our schooling session. My horse seemed confident and relaxed so I just worked on getting him more collected and a little slower than he'd been going for me.

The evening class was at the fourth one in the session. Because of that when I had tacked my horse up for schooling, I had tacked him up for the class complete with my show pad. All I had to do when I returned to the stalls was throw a cooler over him add some "grease" to his face and get myself ready. By the time I had that done, it was time to turn around and head back to the arena.

The weather has been so wet here this winter, that Legs has really not gotten any regular schooling. When I went to retrieve him from his stall to head up to the arena for this class, poor Legs turned and looked at me with an expression that clearly said, "Not again!" I must admit I felt a little sorry for him. My horse was already pooped and it was only day one of the horse show.

The western classes at this horse show were small. The biggest western pleasure trainer in our region has not been coming to this show for the last two years. Instead her barn heads down to Scottsdale for the regional horse show there and a reining horse competition that runs the following week (I think - but it could be the week before) killing two birds with one stone.

This particular trainer has lots of amateur riders. Without them at the show, my AAOTR class had only six horses in it. I keep saying that being competitive in this class will be a measure of when we are really ready to go to nationals. However, for me that only counts when the class has those horses from the big western barn in there. It doesn't mean much in terms of competitive ability if the class isn't full in the first place.

After the start we'd had in the warm up arena and the select rider class, this AAOTR class was pretty uneventful. The call judge did reverse us at the jog shortly after the gate closed but that was the biggest surprise in the class. Legs doesn't get rattled by those changes in routine and I really appreciate them since it helps keep my horse from anticipating what's coming next. It was an ok ride.

Legs was pretty consistent although for the first time I can remember the horse was getting a bit defensive about horses coming close to him. If he thought the horse was too close, I saw some ear pinning. I imagine this is a result of the horse running into him in the warm up arena. I hope it's not something that's going to stick around.

Ear pinning is not a good thing in a show horse. It is considered to be a sign of a bad attitude and since "willingness" is one of the class specifications, that's not a good thing. I tried talking to the horse whenever he pinned his ears to assure him he was ok. Hopefully that will help his confidence and we'll get by without this new behavior becoming permanent.

Throughout this class Legs was still not quite as round as I would like, nor as slow as he can be, but there was a little improvement from the class before. We're getting there in little increments. Each time I ride the horse is a little rounder and a little slower. Even though the improvement is slow, it is consistent and that's what I'm looking for.

The other thing that is happening with the horse at this point is I don't have to "pick him up" quite as dramatically as I have had to do up to this point. I can pick my reins up lightly and get the response I used to have to make full contact to get in times past. He is responding more to my legs and not having to have that full contact to be pushed into before getting the desired effect. I can see the day is coming that he will be responding to my legs and not need that cue from my hand.

Even though this was the last session of the day, the judges were still clipping through the classes in quick succession. I must admit I was grateful for that. I think by this time I was as tired as my horse. When they called for the line up, I had to catch myself from doing a little sighing of my own. I suspect if I had, my horse would have stalled right then and there. He was ready to be done too.

In this class of six horses, we got fourth from each judge. Placing ahead of us were what I would call the three big guns of the class. Before I got off to nationals in the AAOTR class I need to be winning over those horses. That will be a good measure of how we're doing in the ring. For now, we are still behind them which is as I expected but Legs gave me what he had to give in this class and I was pleased with that. It was time to put my horse to bed and get myself home.

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

Schooling for the Open.......

This is another picture of Dare. She has propped herself up against a bale of straw I had put in there to loosen up for bedding. As I worked on separating the flakes, Dare made herself comfortable. If you look at her closely you can see around the area of her flank where she is caved in from the limited space there had been for her inside the womb.


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Daffodil Spring Arabian Horse Show....Western Pleasure Select Rider...... The Wreck.......

Part 1

It always amazes me how something like a crashing sound in the stands can happen so quickly but take volumes to explain. Maybe that's because so much happens so quickly, there's a lot to cover. Then maybe for me it has to do with explaining what physically happened as well as covering what mentally happened. In situations like this there are a lot of both for me and my horse.

You'd think I'd know better than to project how the class might turn out before it was actually over. I don't necessarily believe in "jinxing" per se but stuff sure seems to happen once I've decided things are going well. Maybe it's because I've relaxed and let my guard down but I didn't really feel like I'd taken the class for granted and quite riding. That's not really something I tend to do. Yest it was just as I was thinking we could place well that this stuff hit the fan.

I remember the sound distinctively. It had an explosive nature about it like that cell phone dropped in Salem when this whole issue with Legs spooking in classes started. Although it wasn't quite as crisp as the cell phone hitting the wooden floor, this noise had a crack to it like something hard, deliberate almost, had hit the aluminum stands. It almost sounded like someone had deliberately thrown something. I remember wondering who in the heck that could be and what were they thinking but I had my hands too full to figure that part out as Legs responded to the sound.

As my horse reacted to the noise, that sinking feeling washed over me as I realized we'd not only blown our class but started off yet another show season with a stupid incident in the ring. How was this going to affect my horse? Would he be spooking at everything under the sun again? Not to mention that old question..........Why me?? I just can't seem to get away from these things. All of these flooded my mind as I dealt with my horse.

With the loud, explosive like nature of this intrusion my horse responded accordingly. Legs leapt into the air and then spun to the left into the wall hitting his face on the concrete barrier. I remember wondering how in the heck we'd ended up facing that thing as I looked at the grayness in front of me.

There was little time to think about the "hows" of it, still I made mental notes about this wreck. The leap had been less than in times past when the horse had been frightened like this but turning into the wall was something new. At least he was stopped dead and there was no place to go instead of bolting down the rail.

I needed to get my horse back into the lope and showing again. I turned Legs back towards our original line of travel. He was a little flustered but listening so I began setting him up to lope. Before we got into the lope the announcer called for the jog so instead of loping off, I adjusted my response and we jogged.

Down around the corner and on up the long rail the horse moved like nothing had happened. Legs had recovered pretty well considering he'd been frightened and hit his head. He was still a bit fast but no faster than he'd entered the ring. I was pleased with his recovery. It was definitely much improved from times past where he's done what I asked but been very tense between my legs.

As we made our way down the far wall, I looked for my friend, Crystal Baker. I wanted to ask her to look and see who was sitting where that crash had happened hoping for some kind of explanation. She was in the middle of the rail so I made my request as we rode by. She nodded in understanding as she commented about our good recovery.

We continued on down the rail heading to the far end which is Legs most uncomfortable portion of the arena. Knowing this I was surprised when I felt and heard Legs let out a really big sigh, so big in fact, I looked around to see if the judge had heard it. If he had, I couldn't tell but I guess it didn't really matter as long as we were moving as we should. With that sigh Legs dropped his jog down a notch for the first time in the entire class.

Halfway down that rail they called for the line up. Normally I would turn my horse across the ring and enter the line up from the other side so we could change direction before the line up. It's one of those things I do when I can to prevent my horse from anticipating the line up.
This time I had a more important reason to head straight down the rail. Since we'd had that wreck on this portion of the rail I wanted to take Legs by that point where the explosion had happened so he could see there was nothing to fear. As we got close to that spot, I could feel Legs tense up and he raised his head just a little. I responded by pushing him more up into the bridle all the while talking to him.

Legs has always responded well to my voice and this time was no exception. As we got to the place where he'd leapt into the air the horse let out another sigh and dropped his head just a little. I knew by that response he'd figured out the threat was gone so I was comfortable with turning him into the line up.

I remember sitting in the line waiting for them to call out the placings. I didn't know if both judges had seem our wreck but it certainly seemed very likely. With only five horses in the class, I knew I'd get ribbons but I had little expectations of placing anywhere but low.

I was very surprised to hear the announcer call out Legs number and name for second place on Susan Witte's card. We got fourth on the card of Bill Melendez. Not too bad considering all the circumstances. This horse show was surely off to an interesting start.

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

AAOTR WP 40 & over.........

This picture is Scandalous Dare right after she was born. This was Solidare's first foal for me and the esentially this pregnancy was the beginning of the leg issues for her. Also, Dare was badly windswept when she was born so she had some issues in the beginning from this as well.

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Daffodil Spring Show..... Select Rider Western Pleasure 40 & over

Part 1

Thinking over last night's post I'm beginning to think my class was not the next one into the ring after that wreck although it certainly felt that way. The first horse the loose horse ran into was a hunter horse from my group at the horse show and that horse's class was right before mine. That means the hunter class must have been next but it sure didn't feel that way.

I do know because the schedule was so far behind, they were running those classes through lickety split. The judges knew how to speed things up. The gate would barely get closed and the next gait would be called. They moved through those gaits pretty quickly and the next thing you know the class would be lined up. Maybe that's why it felt like we were the next class in the ring.

Regardless of my memory lapses, we were in the ring shortly after the wreck and Legs was a bit faster than normal. In addition to that I thought he was elevated some and a bit bracey at the poll. I didn't seem to be able to find a way through that while in the ring since it's pretty hard to incorporate lateral work with horses coming right up behind.

Legs went into the arena looking for trolls. I think that's what his elevated head position was about. Going down into that far corner of the first rail I could really feel him tense up beneath me so I moved him off the rail and turned before getting all the way to the corner.

There were light beams coming in between the windbreak tarps shining down on the footing. Legs was looking at those strips of light like they were going to swallow him up. The closer we got to them, the lower his head got as he tried to take a good look at them.

Since the gate wasn't closed yet, I took this opportunity to pet my horse. The minute my hand hit his neck, I felt Legs relax, not completely, but enough to bring him down a notch and quit thinking the light beams were actually trolls. As we made our way to the far rail I felt like my horse hadn't totally tuned me out even if he was troll watching.

We were about a third of the way down the far rail when the gate closed. I didn't even make it the rest of the way down the rail before the announcer called for the lope. Going into the corner I pushed Legs up into the bridle, then off my leg to the outside and asked for the lope.

Legs obliged with a nice smooth transition into a collected lope, something he is not always prone to do. More often the horse is likely to make a smooth transition but into a sloppy lope and I spend the first five or so strides pushing him together to get it right. This was an unexpected response getting a collected lope even if it was a bit faster than I wanted.

We did get a chance to lope past the second judge before the walk was called but not much farther than that.. Again I pushed my horse up into the bridle before sitting down, pushing my feet forward, just a little, and asking for the walk. Legs responded with a pretty good transition although he jogged a couple of steps on the way down. Still he was sitting on his back end so I was pleased with that transition.

When they asked us to reverse, somehow we seemed to loose our steering. I'm not really sure if it was Legs or me because I remember being indecisive about which direction I wanted to turn at the time. We did finally get turned around facing the opposite direction and walking down the rail but it was not the most confident turn we have ever accomplished.

I always let Legs walk out like a normal horse instead of doing that mincey little thing most trainers do. I figure the rule book reads a ground covering walk so I am safe to do it that way. Much of the time the judges will watch us closely to see if Legs is being pushy or if I am actually allowing this walk but that's ok. I'm sure they can see I am not trying to slow him down so this rate must be my decision. Most times doing the walk like this will help Legs relax if that's what he needs. I know on this day, I heard a small sigh as we reached the first corner.

I think we actually walked almost as far as we had loped the other direction. Then the announcer called for a lope. I took my time pushing Legs into the bridle and getting him nicely collected underneath me before I asked for the lope. This time we were right up next to the wall so I really couldn't push him laterally to the outside, however, this direction is Legs' good way so I didn't really think I needed that move to get a good transition and a nice lope.

Because Legs is really not fit at this point, I am picking him up and holding him through the transition. Once I know I have him well underneath himself, then I let him go. This particular transition probably looked as good as the other, but my horse was not as well underneath himself. It was a couple of strides with me pushing him forward before he smoothed out and I let the reins drop back down to his neck.

From that point forward, Legs was loping pretty well. Still a little faster than I would like but well within the range of the other horses in the class. Every few strides I was pushing him up into his face again but most times I could accomplish that with just my legs and little to no movement of the reins. It was a nice ride.

I remember coming down the rail and hitting about the two thirds point right by the judge and thinking I was having a pretty good ride and they would be lining us up soon. This was the select rider class which I had placed first under one judge and second under the other last year. I was thinking maybe, just maybe we might be able to do that again when something crashed in the stands right next to us.


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

The Wreck.......

Scandalous Chance at about 4 months of age. From this point on out to about age 5 he was a growthy thing.


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A Little Horse Show Drama in the Warm-Up

Part 1

That first day of the horse show there were more stressors than not getting to school my horse in the show pen before the start of my session. As it turned out the first session of the schedule ran long, very long.

It was a new schedule and those always have their kinks. What you think will work never does because the numbers of horses are never what you expect. Because of that trail went on for two and a half hours. The the halter classes were huge compared to normal for our area which set it back more. It was mid afternoon before what was supposed to be my morning class came around in the schedule. The waiting, wondering and trying to time getting ready became a real chore. I could have taken a nap or two to make up for my early rise before it was even time to get my horse tacked up to show.

Somewhere around 2:30 Legs and I were finally in the warm-up arena waiting for a call to the gate. I was at the far end of a the arena just on the turn when I saw a horse misbehaving in front of me. I turned Legs into the rail because it was the only place for us to go without continuing on into the panicking horse.

That horse ended up turning into the rail too and then began rearing. Next thing you know the rider was in the dirt and the horse was bolting. I called to the rider to see if she needed assistance as her horse headed away from us right into another horse and rider. At that point it reversed like any horse who has been cut off will do. That meant it was heading right back towards the corner where Legs and I were.

There was an exit right in that corner and I already figured I'd block it with Legs so the horse couldn't exit through there should it come back our way. If it went out there it would be bolting on asphalt. Definitely not a good combination.

There was one flaw with my thinking about closing off that corner. I had figured we'd make the corner before the horse ever came our way. Because running into that other horse had turned the bolting horse back our direction, my solution didn't work. There was still about a three feet opening between Legs and the rail when the horse crashed through sending Legs backwards in his own brief panic.

Luckily for me Legs is a trusting horse. As soon as he began flying backwards, I put my legs on him and he listened to me. His head was high and his eyes wide but he still waited for instructions on what to do next.

Equally as lucky the loose horse turned the corner left instead of right and out into the open area. The horse crashed down the rail towards the only way out it probably remembered, that was the way it had come in. Despite what had just happened I proceeded to use Legs to close off that corner. Just in case the horse made it's way to us again, I wanted that opening closed.

My friend, Crystal Baker, who does not always think of herself when making decisions jumped out in the opening at that end of the arena. With the horse pounding straight at her, she threw her arms in the air flailing to ward the horse off. Thankfully it did not run through her like it had Legs and me, instead Crystal's behavior caused the horse to turn the corner so it stayed in the small warm-up arena.

There were probably a dozen horses out in that warm up trying to figure out which way to go to avoid being caught in this wreck. By this time I could see by its eyes the panicked horse was slowing just enough to begin really thinking about what to do next. With the placement of the other horses it ended up on the far rail but acting confined to the one end even though it was no more confined there than it had been in any other part of its flight. In that smaller space the rider and another person were able to get the horse pushed to the rail and finally caught while the stunned onlookers slowly got back to what they'd been doing.

It was one of those things that happened so quickly it takes more time to write than it actually took to happen. Legs' heart was pumping along with every other horse out there and every rider too and even those grooms etc waiting in the middle to do last minute spruce ups before horses entered the ring. With the whole warm up arena in a heightened state, the paddock announcer called my western pleasure class to the ring.

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

Select Rider........

This is another picture of Legend at the same photo shoot as the picture with the milk in his nostril. This is one of his many bleating trips around his mother. Poor baby wasn't sure what to think of Mary Little underneath her "bear" rug moving around to get his attention and his ears.


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