We went to a horse show last Saturday. I forgot to take pictures :( It was a combination APHA and open show. We did okay. No firsts; I think 3rd was our highest place. I wasn't able to track all of my placings so I'm waiting for a list to be sent to me. We got to the show 30 minutes before it started which was too late. My trainer planned to get there an hour earlier but stuff happens. So we had to get everything ready in a hurry. Showmanship was class #7. There were only 4 people in it. The pattern wasn't too hard. When I went to set Bandit up in front of the judge, I looked down and was amazed: Bandit was perfectly square, with no adjustment needed. He was perfect. We did everything great until I was supposed to turn and walk to the line up. I trotted two steps and remembered "WALK!", so I told Bandit to walk but it was too late. I bet we would have won the class if only I remembered to WALK. I ended up with a 2nd and 4th. It was only worth one PAC point so at least I didn't blow a large class. But it was the best Bandit has ever done in Showmanship, at least in my opinion. Then we had a pretty long break while English was going on. At the lunchbreak, I saddled Bandit and my trainer warmed him up, them I got on him. He was being pretty good. The trainer rode him in the first two classes to make sure he was listening. Then I took him in a few western pleasure APHA classes. They were all pretty small classes. After that we did the one horsemanship class. It was a simple pattern, but Bandit and I are not good at patterns and we've been practicing. We actually did pretty well. We finished third, ahead of two riders that went off pattern. Anytime we can complete the pattern with no major issues is good enough for me. So I was happy. The last classes of the day were trail. The trail pattern was really hard. There was one lope over series that was really tight and most of the horses had trouble with it. We had some practice time and that one obstacle was tough. The trainer rode Bandit in the open class to warm him up. By the time the APHA classes were up, I decided not to ride in them. There were only two of us, so we had no chance of getting a point. So I didn't do a trail class. Hopefully the second show in the series will be a little easier for trail. There were a couple of horses that did the pattern with no problems, but they were the exception. Overall, it was a good day. I'm looking forward to the second show next month.
