Saturday the 4th kicked off the first show of the 2014 season! Yay!!!!!! The "Battle In The Saddle" series has started up again, and it was a great way to start off the new year.
I've decided to get Ox in shape once again and delve a bit more into his english pleasure, western dressage, and endurance career once again. He had taken some time off for awhile, but now we're 'Back in Black'! (As that song goes....)
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| The morning was a bit chilly at the pavilion, so our english attire didn't look very attractive with a heavy coat and insulated jeans. But hey, I'd rather be warm, than cold and totally miserable.... |
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| Lined up for one of the english pleasure classes. Unlike Tommy, Ox is happy to just stand still in the line-up and not look around and try and visit with his neighbors - or squirm. He's a lot like his mother, and I really like that about him. It's all business with the black dude, no dorkin' around. |
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| Riding in the English pairs class with Louise Beach. Our two geldings traveled at about the same speed and had about the same body type, so we made a good team and won against two other pairs that were in the class. |
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| Waiting patiently on the sidelines for the next class. He's such a good boy! There's a lot of his mothers temperament in him, and it makes for a very pleasant horse when we go to new places. He had never been to this arena before and didn't bat an eye at anything. There are a few "scary" obstacles around the outskirts of the arena too. (He's like that at endurance rides as well, just hop him out of the trailer and feed him his hay and put his blankie on - he's a happy boy, and could care less where we're at.) |
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Western pleasure class. I plan on doing more western dressage shows with him (which allows a free forward trot), but I won't get too much into the western pleasure world with him. Ox has an excellent smooth extended trot and I don't want to manipulate it down into a much slower gait. Some older show horses can do both at the bigger shows (all-arounders), but I'm afraid to permanently distort that lovely hunt seat trot that he does so effortlessly. Would hate to lose it, so he will primarily be an open English pleasure horse.
(As a side note: It's important to evaluate each horse on what their strong points are, and then make decisions on what they would probably be best at...) |
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| The judges asked for an extended jog in the western classes. Fun! |
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| A group shot of the western classes line-up. (We're on the far left, next to the wall.) |
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