Show Weekend

We went to some schooling shows over the weekend, which was both fun and educational.  After the winter break, both of my horses need a major tune-up!

On Saturday Craig and I drove over to the first "Earn Your Spurs" schooling show in Kennewick, WA.  It was held at the Eastside Equestrian Center, which is a nice place.   They have a covered indoor show arena with a nice large outdoor warmup arena in back, and also a small outdoor dressage arena as well.  I love warmup arenas - and I've come to the realization that they are quite an invaluable tool to have available.  


Our judge for the first Earn Your Spurs show was Tony Jackson.  He's a really great judge, very helpful!  Tommy and I had met him at the Sage Riders show last summer, and he spends a little extra time giving us "mini equitation" lessons at the shows.  He said that we've improved since last year, and that made me happy - but there are still many things that we need to work further on.

 

The indoor arena at the Eastside Equestrian Center is nice and big!  Craig snapped all of these photos from his phone.  I brought the camera, but he didn't get along with it too well....

 

It's still a little bit cold in February, so I was wearing 4 layers of clothing that day.  It makes it hard to move when you feel like a marshmellow!  We've also purchased a new english saddle, which has made all the difference in the world.  I hate to ride english - but it is a necessity in order to improve.  The new saddle is much better than the old one that we used to have, so Tommy and I are both a little bit happier to practice it now.



There was a very cute little girl at the show with her Bashkir Curly horse.  What a sweet old horse he was!  So gentle and kind.  She had a very fashionable saddle pad and black ribbon in his tail.  =:)

On Sunday we went to the "Battle In the Saddle" schooling show in Pendleton.  Since Tommy was tired from going on Saturday, I decided to take Nettie.  I really wished that there would've been a warmup arena at the Pendleton show - because Nettie was a total farthead.  She's usually fairly laid back and doesn't want to go very fast at all, but having a long winter off has turned her into a little space rocket.  We're just beginning to ride once again and get conditioned back into shape for endurance, so her jets were on full blast at the show!  (In hindsight, I should've ridden her a whole lot more prior to subjecting her to the show world again.  I just assumed that she would remember to go slow, but I should've known better...)



Our english classes were far less than wonderful.  She wanted to go too fast and root into the bit.  The more that I attempted to collect her, the more that she fought against it - so I finally decided not to push the issue any further.  We'll have plenty of time to work on this naughty little issue later on at home.



The western was a little bit better, and her jog was slower - but the lope was still way too fast.  We are going to spend some time in the next few months and work on things quite a bit.  I hadn't realized that the last show that I had taken her to was over 3 years ago, and she's incredibly rusty.   Add a winter off to that equasion and it's the perfect recipe for becoming: a little yellow turdhead.

 

But this was a lot of fun!  I had never tried a "pairs" class before, and it was really interesting.  There happened to be another lady there who was on a young palomino horse, so we decided to give it a go.  The hardest part was trying to maneuver around other pairs and passing them.  I had never experienced anything like this before, and it was really fascinating!  You have to communicate and think together as a team.  Really fun stuff!   


We're planning on going to many more schooling shows over the next few months.  We definitely need some more practice...