I made it back to post another story on show number 2.
The show was held at MSTU in Murfreesboro, TN on February 6. It was hosted by the Volunteer Ranch Horse Association, fine folks they are! The weather did NOT cooperate at all. Since it was a five hour drive from the trainer's barn we decided to ride together (note to self, do not do this again!). It rained the entire way down and was right around the freezing mark. Sigh..... when will it end? We hauled three horses down, Frank, Spook (another Perlino) and Comet. We arrived around six in the evening and quickly got the horses unloaded and into their stalls. The barn was a span barn and it was quite windy and raw. Glad I had a big blanket and hood for Frankie to snuggle up in. We fed them dinner and headed to find some grub ourselves. We returned to the grounds and saddled the horses up for a tour of the arena. The arena was heated which gave me some concern since the barns were not.
The arena was a pipe arena which meant that the horses could see a lot more things then usual. Frank was not to keen on the huge garage type door at the far end where the cattle were housed. We had a good warm up and called it a night. Our first class on Saturday was a warm up ranch riding class, non judged and no points. Scott rode him in that class and felt like he was good to go with the exception of the one area discussed above. Scott told me to let him cut in at that point if need be and to not rattle him by insisting he go deep in that area. I mounted up and prepared myself mentally by humming my favorite tune "All star" by smash mouth. Corny I know but it is my show thing......"hey now get your a rock star get your game on go play"
etc...
This is a shot of the warm up pen...not a whole lot of room but heated and beat being in the rain. Yes I unbraided that lovely tail before showing.
There were nine horses in my class, which is a five year old and under class (horse age) :-)
I felt good, relaxed and was having a good go. Until......yes there is always and until in horse showing. I was loping on the right lead right down by the scary area when another rider came up from behind wayyyyy to close. This startled Frank and he kinda sucked up his butt and scooted forward quickly out of frame and I did not want to hit the person in front of me so I had to kinda do the two hand plow pull to get his attention. Luckily the offender blocked the judge's view of my two handed trick and I was not DQ'd. But.... they did catch the scoot part and it cost me the class as one judge related to me at a later date. I ended up third under both judges and was extremely happy with that.
Later that evening Scott showed Frank in trail again. He did much better with the gate this time and was having a good run until the ground poles portion. The problem was they were painted like candy canes! This really caught his eye and he decided to stop and look at them instead of jogging over them. Then when it was time to lope between them he wanted no part of that either. Guess we are having a painting party was Scott's advice upon leaving the class.
Here he is performing the log drag. The rope man hands you a coil with a log attached and you drag it in a circle.
He finished 5th under both judges out of 12 horses.
Sunday brought the conformation class and he did so well again.... 2nd and 3rd out of six horses. We opted to skip the cattle classes this time due to time constraints and the fact that the cattle were pretty fresh. Still practicing on that at home.
All in all he has done so well and I have put 50 point on him in two shows. The next one is March 20 in Martin,Tn but I am working the show office on that one. We are discussing whether Scott will haul him and show him for me.
The best part of this show? Well there was a raffle going on to raise money for the youth of the Volunteer Ranch Horse Association and the kids were selling tickets. You know I am a sucker for cute kids and of course I bought one ticket cause all I had in my pocket was $10. I ended up winning the drawing.....
Wanna know what I won???
drum roll please.........
Here it is!
Oh yes! A brand new Reinsman ranch cutting saddle!! Can you believe it? Me neither except that I look at each night to remind myself how lucky I am!
More snow today and I swear if it doesn't stop soon I will lose my mind! My oldest is now going to be in school until the 10th of June because of all the snow days.
Happy trails....
