I wanted to share our experience this weekend while we were at an open show. This was my new students first show and it was judged by a BN Arab trainer. While we were looking for the show grounds we actually drove past his "farm" and ya know what? He lives on less acrage than we do!!! His place was nice but his house is bigger than his barn.
You may see photos of these BN trainers with fountains in the background but that doesn't always mean those photos are taken on their farms. Even though I know at least 3 trainers that live on less than 20 acres and have a barn full of horses that they take to Regionals and Nationals. I was shocked. I always picture these BN'ers living in a mansion or something.
We had left at 6:30AM and got lost getting to the Fair Grounds. The directions on the website were wrong and there are no roads that "cut thru" the county. Once you're on a road you have to ride it out....for miles. There isn't even a big enough place to turn around in that county on the back roads, not with a trailer anyway. lol We made it to the grounds around 10:30-11AM. It should have only taken us a couple hours to get there. I even had a navigator. lol
When we showed up I knew my halter class was already done and I assumed that the girls had missed their first ride. Wrong. I parked the trailer and saw "small" people in English saddles in the warm up so we flung the trailer doors open, pulled the mares out, much to the dismay of Comet and his son Joey, we moms saddled, the girls changed and off they went. We still had a couple minutes to fetch their numbers. Needless to say the girls were a little overwhelmed but all for the adventure.
The student had a good ride. She was on my little CMK mare. Since she's in 13 and over class she was in their with adults who were just schooling for bigger and better things. It was heavy competition and a little disheartening. I wish their was a w/t class just for people who really need the class...not for people who are schooling green horses. It's not fair on so many levels. She didn't place but everyone was okay with that.
My daughter rode her 5 yr old black mare. They had an okay ride. Due to the fact that we were so late we didn't really have a warm up so the mare was not showing her best but she wasn't horrbile either. They didn't place in that class.
The next class was Trail. The student took Joey in hand, he's only 2. Everyone commented on how trusting Joey was with his handler.
They did such a great job! Amber rode Shelby in the trail class. Shelby gave her a couple problems but nothing major. This was the second time she has ever shown this horse. The last time was over a year ago. They've come a long way. Both girls placed 4th in their division!
The student rode Saffron in a w/t WP class and they really pulled it together. Saffron is not a retired show horse, just an old school master. No fancy ring work here. The other horses/riders in the class were all over the place. The judge went down the line w/advice for the kids. My heart sank as he got to April and Saffron. A big smile went across his lips and he nodded "Good Job!". I was tickled! They were acknowledged for their hard work. Fourth place honors. Not bad at all for such a stressful day.
In another class Amber rode Shelby. It was called Musical Sacks. When I heard that the rule was the horse's foot had to be ON the sack I was like *GLEEP*. I didn't know if they could do it. We do this at home all the time but.... Well, there were 2 Arab geldings, a mule and a couple QH's in the class. Every time the music stopped the Arab geldings would fight for the same bag, squeeling at each other. Shelby just trotted over and claimed that bag like it was an every day thing. (The mule cheated the whole time by cutting across the ring and making himself closer to the bag...!) The QHs were actually the first ones out of the game. It came down to a Arab gelding, Shelby/Amber and the mule. Well, Amber would have gotten second but the Arab geld kept squeeling at her. She is a proper lady and does NOT like to be squeeled at so she gave up her bag.
Amber got third and she was sad BUT we all made sure to tell her how proud we were of her. Alot of the other kids came up to her and wanted to know about the beautiful black shelby too.
My Comet didn't do as well as I hoped. He was under alot of stress from watching his mares go by. The girls would pick the worst times to come and go. It broke his concentration but I was there for them. I had a good ride on Comet non the less. I wasn't expecting too much since we took last year off from showing. We have work to do, that's for sure.
My team is all pumped up and ready to work. We plan to expand the jump course in the pasture and put up a trail course as well. The girls can't wait till fall so we can start hitting the showring trail.
My advice to Open Show goers:
When you go to an Open show you don't have to get 1st place. You have to have a mannerly horse. People will watch you, some may comment on you. The main thing is to ride the best you can. The ribbons don't attract people, the performance does.
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May 20 2007, 10:55 PM
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