Second and Third Shows of 2017

Hey, look who's behind on blogging?!?!?

This summer we are showing in a different Ranch circuit from the past two years.  This one is closer to home and doesn't have cattle.  We've had the first two of three shows so far and we are really enjoying this new circuit.

That trot though....

These three shows have points going towards a high point buckle for each division: Youth, Open, Amateur, and Walk/Trot.  There are also Jackpot classes that have cash payouts, but no points.  We are showing in all 7 classes in the Amateur division: Trail, Reining, Pleasure, Ranch Riding, Horsemanship, Conformation, and Showmanship.  The point system is a little wonky in my opinion. Points are based on the number of entries in a class and go to 5th place, so if you win a class with 20 entries you get 20 points.  Second place gets 19, etc.  SO the shitty part is that if you get 5th you get 15 pts but if you get 6th you get zero.   So someone who was only one place ahead of you could get 15 more points than you in that one class.  Awesome for the person who gets 5th, not awesome for the person who gets 6th.  More on that later.

The first show was May 25th.  The biggest thing I was worried about for these shows was that it was going to be the first shows that Huck and his girlfriend were both at.  I was concerned that he would lose focus and be stupid if they weren't together all the time. Luckily that turned out to be barely an issue at the first show and no deal at all at the second.

At the May show we didn't have a great morning.  I DQ'd us in reining by spinning 5 times instead of four.  Seriously I cannot be trusted with numbers!  And sadly it was one of our better runs ever.  If we had zeroed those spins instead of DQing we would have had 2nd place.  :(

We didn't place in Trail which disappointed me as I thought we had a really nice run.  I read the scoresheet afterwards and I am still baffled how the judge was using penalty points.  I had like 3 penalty points on the bridge but we rode it just fine.  One of the penalties was for touching an obstacle..... um.... how do you cross a bride withOUT touching it?  That's the game of horse shows I guess.

We were in the finals for the big pleasure class but didn't place. During the finals, every time we came around one side of the arena Huck saw his GF outside the arena and bent himself to the outside and lost focus.  :(

We won our Ranch Riding class, no place in Horsemanship, First in Conformation, and 2nd in Showmanship.

So our afternoon went much better than our morning.  I ended up in 4th place for the High Point standings, with the leader having almost double my points so we've got some catching up to do.

The July Show was highly anticipated because I was out of town from June 10th-July 5th so I only had two days to ride before show day.  Yikes.  Luckily a friend was working my horse a few times a week while I was gone.

We had a much better show than the May Show!  In addition to the 7 ammy classes, I also entered the Jackpot Ranch Riding class.  I figured we can use all the mileage we can get before the Congress.

Reining was first and we WON!  It wasn't our best run ever, but it was good enough to land us first.

Next we managed a solid 2nd place in Trail. I had one error in judgement otherwise I thought our run was really nice.  The pattern ended with a right lead lope and then asking the horse to straddle a pole and walk along it with right feet to one side and left feet to the other.  I stopped too close to the pole so he didn't get a good look at it before we got to it and ended up on one side, but I managed to get him to step back over it and finish all right.

It was a big pleasure class again, but not big enough to need splits and we managed to get 2nd in Ranch Pleasure.  Considering the first time I took him in a rail class he tried to do a rundown every time we hit the long side of the arena, I am super happy with how well he's doing this year!

Next up was the Jackpot Ranch Riding.  It was a huge class and I thought our pattern was really really nice and somehow the judge thought so too, and pinned us first with a prize of $150, which nearly paid for my whole show fees.

But to balance it out, the universe put us out of the ribbons at 6th in Ammy Ranch Riding which gave us zero points - hence my earlier whining. I would have rather had the points!  But I guess I could buy my own damn buckle with my winnings!  LOL! We came around for the lead change and a piece of paper flew into the arena right in front of us so he lost focus, did an ugly head toss/lead change and took too many strides to get himself back together.  I though that was what took us out of the placings, but when I looked at the score sheet we had 4 penalty points for ticking poles, which was my fault, again, for coming down from the lope too close to the poles so he didn't get a chance to assess them.

We managed a 5th in Horsemanship which I was happy with since I assumed we were dead in the water when he loped off instead of extended trot after the last pivot.  Such a nice forward horse....

We won Conformation again and were 4th in Showmanship.  I could NOT wake his ass up for showmanship! He just stood there all askew and ignored me when I was asking him to set up.  And when I asked for the pivot he did not want to move so he got all bent before he moved a foot.

Overall I was really happy with the day.  He stayed focussed and with me all day, I just need to figure out how to wake him back up for showmanship!  The High Point tabulation isn't posted yet so I've no idea where we all rank right now.  The final show is August 19th and has a freestyle reining class which I am very excited to get my costume together for.  Hopefully my plan works!

We are probably going to an open show this weekend to do trail, ranch pleasure, ranch riding, and reining.  Mileage mileage mileage!

Good start to the morning!