Monday, September 13, 2010

Horse Show Frustrations...

Yesterday we went to a show about an hour north of Seattle. I haven't been riding very much so I wasn't expecting us to do very well. Before we went into our first class I took the Morgan out to the outside arena to warm up.

The world ended!

The Morgan LOVES her friends and was very unpleased at the thought of being out of their sight. Dare I say? I had fun. Keep in mind she wasn't horrible or unsafe, just opinionated. It took a bit of a battle to get her to go forward to the arena, but once we were there she didn't quite want to listen to me. She was too concerned about going back to the trailer. Her trick of the day was to move off my leg when I asked for the canter. As in, "Oh, oh, you didn't want me to go sideways?" Once we had a few discussions I decided to try cantering in some 20 meter circles to see how we'd do. It was all going beautifully when Ms. Morgan saw one of her buddies. She took off at a quick canter (maybe a gallop?) but I quickly put a stop to that. I was actually proud of myself for once. I felt like a real rider. I got her listening and then went over to our first class.

We entered into the Novice classes. We got one 2nd and two 3rds. In our Novice Equitation class things were going SO WELL and we had a very nice canter going when the person in front of us on the rail decided to go from canter to dead stop. We were at least three horse lengths behind and had to quickly manuver around the now turning in circles horse. I don't think that the rider had planned for any of this, but I was frustrated since the only part of the whole fiasco the Judge saw was me trotting....Not cantering. Sigh. Oh well. Just need to keep reminding myself that that will probably be me on Denali when we start showing. I'm sure we'll be the subject of many a blog posts and facebook updates, "Rode with a moron of a woman today with her crazy out of control Thoroughbred" something like that...

There's another show in November. I am going to switch horses (*gasp*) and plan to start riding her in the next week or so. She's a pretty, pretty paint and my legs won't drag on the ground. ;0) More on her later!


Interesting fact:

Denali's dam, Salmone Slew, had another baby (in 08, but just posted on Pedigree Inquiry.) Karlies Holiday who sold for $62,000 as a yearling. It just blows my mind the amount of money that goes into racehorses. Eek!

3 comments:

Leah Fry said...

Just remember that it's their opinions that makes them interesting. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anonymous said...

Hey, at least you're getting out there!! That is more that I can say for myself these days. Take advantage of every schooling class and fun show you can, and even if Miss D does do something silly in the ring, so what? Not sure if you read Syd's blog yet, but she mentioned how not long ago Indigo was doing al sorts of silly things in the ring and how now she is being shown by a rider under the age of 12. Just goes to show you Stuff happens, but you should never give up! you're doing great! Can't wait to hear more about the new ride :)

Rebecca said...

Sounds like you did awesome! I know it always makes me feel accomplished when I can control a horse that doesn't want to listen. Maybe for more accomplished riders it isn't a big deal, but for me it is huge.