My first horse show was in July. To start with, I only entered four classes: Halter Geldings, Novice Showmanship, Novice Western Horsemanship, and Novice Western Pleasure. As I've said on many occasions before, Walker was "trained" Western Pleasure, so I decided to put all my eggs in one basket on that one. I don't jump so it severely narrows my choices for classes, and I simply did not have the money to buy all the Western equipment/outfits I needed as well as English attire. I decided to do Western instead, and frankly, I was most excited to have a good reason to wear chaps and a cowboy hat.
I was pretty happy with Walker during Halter last time because he actually got Reserve Champion of all the geldings. Considering that he walked in circles around me and refused to stand still, I was pretty impressed. Of course in Halter your horse's demeanor doesn't matter so much as his overall conformation which Walker has in spades. His prancing cost us a first place ribbon in Showmanship (out of two though...), and I got two first place ribbons in my saddle classes because I was the only one in Novice. I was pretty unimpressed with his behavior in the saddle classes because although they were only walk/jog, I felt like he was picking up too liberal of a pace when in fact, looking back, he probably wasn't that bad.
Me laughing when I am awarded first out of one
Today was my second show. I did not want to do it at all but my friends paid for my show fees for my birthday so I felt obligated to go through with it. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the day before the show - the day where the barn is packed with people washing horses and braiding manes. That part is a lot of fun and I love the social aspect of it. The girls at the barn helped me wash Walker, and I bought us all blizzards from Dairy Queen as a treat in the warm weather.
But I had no desire to do the actual show. I hate waking up early and that was the first issue. I woke up at 5:30 and arrived at about 6:45. Most of the girls show up for about the time I woke up, but there was no way I was going to wake up at 4:00! Since Walker wouldn't stand still last time during the line classes, I gave him a quick lunge and brought him up to practice standing still. He was pretty good outside the arena but the minute he was back inside, he was up to his old self. The judge was pretty kind. They all know that the shows at our barn are more like learning shows anyway. That being said, Walker got Champion Gelding this time, and I was pretty proud to have the horse whose trot is apparently to die for (I had no idea since I rarely trot him and obviously never see someone else on him). Unfortunately, there are no pictures of that which is really a shame since I fully intend to make this my last show ever - if I can help it!
Walker and I with his Reserve Champion ribbon from the last show
Now, my instructor and trainer both once told me that the key to Western Pleasure was a tired horse. That is obviously not the only thing involved, but it definitely helps when the weather is hot and the horse is tired because he will naturally slow down the pace. In the last show, I made every effort to wear him out in the 3-4 hours I had between my line classes and my saddle classes. I lunged him for 45 minutes, rode him for an hour, then put my instructor on him for another 30 minutes loping him pretty much until his entire body was covered in a sickening amount of sweat. As I've mentioned before, I felt that this did not help. He still perked up the minute he hit that outdoor arena.
So this time I decided not to bother. Trying to tire him out last time simply tired me out. I rode him for under a half hour only at the walk/jog (since that's all we were doing at the show) and decided I would ride him in warm-up before my class in the outdoor arena. Well, I was the first person in the ring during warm-up, and when I got to the other end of the arena, Walker turned, saw that he was alone, saw that the gate was WIDE OPEN, and bolted back - bucking and throwing a fuss the entire time. Now to add to my troubles, I wear a cowboy hat in my saddle classes because I am technically a senior and I don't need to wear a helmet, I only walk/jog him for about 3 minutes, and they don't really wear helmets in Western. When Walker took off bucking, my beautiful cowboy hat (which I keep in a plastic bag so that it will stay clean) flew off my head and into the dirt, and Walker flew off towards the open gate which he almost got out of if I hadn't managed to drive my spur into him at that moment.
After a few horses got up to warm-up, we continued our ride, and I could tell that he was rattled from his little bolt. I decided to scratch Western Horsemanship because Horsemanship is a pattern where Walker essentially has to do work while all the other horses stay lined up. Since that usually results in bolting during our lessons, and because he had already bolted in warm-up when he was barely working at all, it made sense not to test fate. I also switched out the cowboy hat for my helmet because I wasn't in the mood to be thrown from my horse in front of 50+ people and end up with a concussion. I tried to scratch Western Pleasure too but my barn owner wouldn't let me. She thought that I should just do it anyway even though I was so upset/angry about the little catastrophe. We did the class and I ended up riding him two handed on a tight rein (essentially the opposite of what I should have been doing). The judge came up to me afterwards and asked if I was nervous, and I tried to explain that when you know your horse, you can feel when he's not trustworthy and he simply wasn't trustworthy after that little episode.
All in all, I am discouraged entirely with my show today, and I take back all the bad things I thought after my show last time. I was mortified by Walker's behavior in the warm-up, and because I could no longer trust him after that, I was embarrassed by my own ride in the one class I did under saddle. I have ridden my horse at the walk/jog on a REALLY LOOSE rein one-handed a thousand times. In fact, I get compliments all the time on how well he listens - at least during those moments - and instead he made me look like I was not only incapable of controlling my horse, but that I was an incompetent rider. I felt like my barn owner and the judge were simply patronizing me, trying to tell me that I did good...considering... and although they probably never even thought this way, I felt like they just assumed that I wasn't a very good rider. Walker really let me down today, and I have absolutely no desire to see him tomorrow. Some days I feel like no one really believes in me in the way that matters when it comes to my riding, and today Walker took this opportunity to prove them all right.
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