Open show June 20, 2010

I took Bandit to a local open horse show today. We have shown here many times and it's usually pretty small. Today was no exception. We usually do well here, but today this was not in the cards. We started out well. Showmanship started around 10:30 am. We got first out of 5 and a first out of 7. Bandit did everything well so I was prepared to be happy with our classes even it we didn't get first place. But we did, so it was a great start to the day. Then we waited around for Western to start, which was around 1 pm. We did the trail class, got first, but we were the only one in the amateur class. We got third of three in the open trail. The sidepass was a zigzag and we didn't do so well on it in either class. Everything else seemed to be fine. Then it was time for equitation. We don't usually do well here so I don't expect too much. I concentrate on keeping my legs behind the cinch, shoulders back, leaning back, keeping my right leg from moving too much, etc. But I didn't do so well. I had a hard time steering Bandit where I wanted him to go. Then he decided to kick at my spur when I went to pick up the right lead for the lope. He did it after a few tries but it wasn't pretty. We placed 3 of 3 and 3 of 4. Then came Bandit's specialty, western pleasure. We did the county pleasure; the left lead was picture perfect. We had to have been in the lead for first. Then we reversed and had to pick up the right lead. Like the equitaton class, it wasn't good. He kicked and bucked a little and dropped his inside shoulder. I had to stop, grab both reins, back him up, and get him in trouble, which my trainer advised me to do. So that class was blown. I was disqualified. We still had amateur western pleasure to do. It went very similar to country pleasure. Left lead was beautiful. We reversed and tried the right lead. He kicked at my spur, and was not listening to me. My trainer was nearby and I got confused on whether I was supposed to stop and back him up or keep going, so I kind of stopped him, and tried to pick up the right lead again, but then we were told to walk. So I blew this class too. I was placed fourth out of four. :( Since I couldn't get Bandit to pick up his shoulder and lope of the right lead, my trainer rode him in the last pleasure class. She snuck in a minute to school him before the class. He was good in the class and was placed first. So that was our day: from first to worst. We are going to work on keeping him from dropping his shoulder with some counter cantering. This has been helpful before. Bandit is a really good horse. He just has a rider that has no idea how to ride, even after three years of riding him. I can't tell when he's doing things incorrectly, and even worse, I 'm not very good at fixing them. Sometimes I can, but it's inconsistent at best. So, we have some work to do at home. We don't have another show for a month. That one is the same as today, the last in the series for the year. We'll be practicing each weekend between now and then. But our practices usually go well, so I'm not sure that helps that much. We may have a practice at the equestrian center where to the show is to make Bandit thinks it's a show.

Open horse show

Well, I spent all day at the horse show. This post is likely going to sound negative, so I'll start with the good news. I got a first out of six in Western Pleasure and five out of fifteen in Western Country Pleasure. We started the day with Showmanship. I got 4 out of 5. I'm not sure why we didn't do better. The pattern was very simple, no pivots or backing. The one thing I forgot in my list of typical mistakes is not lining up straight for the judge. We had to walk from cone A to cone B, trot a circle around B, on to c, and set up for the judge. Then walk off. When I came out of the circle and headed for the judge, I had to straighten out a bit. So we lined up but not automatically. Maybe that was enough. I wish I had done better, but I thought Bandit did well, so it was okay. Then we practiced for trail. We practiced the tight turns and the lope off. He was really, really good. We practiced some western pleasure and he was fine. We took a break and stood in the shade while we waited for trail class to start. We were the second to go. We trotted a serpentine, trotted over some poles, into a box, did a 180 turn, trotted out of the box, over some poles, broke to a walk, over a pole and into a chute, backed in the chute. Everything was great at this point. Then we were supposed to lope out of the chute and around to a pole to side pass. Right after I loped off, Bandit raised his head, dropped his shoulder and kicked my spur. Basically he wouldn't lope properly for me. I had no control of him. I grabbed the saddle horn, stopped him, and tried again. He loped a few steps, still totally out of control, and then we did our side pass to finish. Trail is our best class and we've won a lot of firsts. But today, he didn't want to lope for me. This is not a new problem, but he hasn't done it in awhile. It's like he has to test me once in awhile and I always fail the test. We got fourth out of four. At this point, the day was not going well. But I figured, we still had three classes where we might do well. First, there was a western pleasure warm up class. This was not judged and my trainer had me ride him two handed to try to get him right, since we had the trail problem. It was okay until we had to lope the right lead. I asked him to lope, he raised his head and kicked my spur. Then I tried it again and got the same result. This happened about 10 times. He never did lope for me in that class. When the class was done, I went to the warm up area and tried a couple more times; same result. By this time, my trainer came over to ride him, and I was tears. She rode him and made him behave, then she rode him in the next class, western eq. to school him. He was doing better and the next class was western pleasure. It wasn't perfect, but we did well enough to win out of six. In country pleasure, we just trotted, since the lope was not working so well. Bandit was pretty good and we got 5 of 15. So by the end of the day, things got better. But the morning, and afternoon were no fun at all, due to the heat, and me not being able to make Bandit behave. The show was smaller than usual, but country pleasure was a nice sized class. I managed to get 3 PAC points, so that's good. I had fun with the group and my trainer helped me alot, but I get so disappointed with myself. After three years, we are still so inconsistent. Our next show is a small one in two weeks. We have done well there in the past. Each class has an amateur and an open class so we always get a second try. This will be good practice for us.

Ready for the show

Went to the barn and rode Bandit today, bathed and banded him and he's all ready to go. Now we just have to be ready for the 95 degree heat. He was good today. We practiced western pleasure and trail, both of which he did very well. He also did well at showmanship; his turns were really good. When we don't do well in this, it's usually something I did, like forget the pattern, hold the lead too high, too low, too tight or too loose, do my quarters too early or too late, too fast or too slow; well, you get the idea. It's my least favorite class. We practiced a pattern for horsemanship, Bandit's least favorite class. By the third attempt with two hands, he was ready to go one handed. He did okay. We find that he does a lot better when he knows what the pattern is ahead of time and practices it. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Nellie says hi

Nellie saying Hi. Isn't she cute?? This is our only donkey now. She was born at the house. We adopted her mom from the BLM without knowing she was pregnant. It was a great surprise. She has chronic problems with founder and doesn't get around very well. The vet doesn't have a good answer, other than bute. She is a sweet girl. I love donkeys. We have wild donkeys that live in our canyon. They are so cool.