Springtime Open Horse Show

The endurance horse was a show horse over the weekend! Octopelle went to the Springtime Open in Pasco, WA. He earned a few ribbons and some crystal glasses, and we were also very honored to be invited by the judge into the "Battle of the Breeds" special invitational classes in both the english and western categories. There were several very nice breeds of show horses that were there to compete, and I was very pleased with my little rangey fellow. Two weeks ago he top-tenned at an endurance ride, and this weekend he was successful as an all-arounder at an open show. He's a good-hearted adaptable little trooper!

I was honestly surprised at how well we placed over the weekend. We were kind-of the "ugly ducklings" at the show. Ox is right in the middle of shedding his winter coat out, so I had to clip him in order to try and get some of the darker points of his hair to come out better. (Even with the body clipping attempt, he was still very rough around the edges in the appearance department.) There were some ultra GORGEOUS polished show horses that were there to compete! But the judge still liked my guy a lot. Candace Morasch has been a judge for over 40 years and has seen a lot of horses. Her exact words about him were, "He is a very honest guy and a pure mover." I was happy that she recognized that. We showed against a myriad of slow shuffling peanut rollers in the western classes: lots of quarter horses, paints, arabs, and appaloosas. And there were some stunning thoroughbreds, arabs, and two very lovely showey saddlebreds in the open English classes. Ox did pretty good with all of the stiff competition against the other breeds. Out of the 50+ horses that were at the show, we were invited by the judge to participate in the special invitational "Battle of the Breeds" classes in both the English and western divisions. I was really surprised! There were horses that were much better than us there that I was sure that she'd pick - but she picked us. It was a great honor.

There will be more pictures to post soon, as Adam Hutson of "Hutson Imaging and Photography" was there at the show taking pictures of everybody that participated. And we do have some video footage on Youtube that my husband captured of the western classes. (Unfortunately Craig wasn't able to be there in the mornings, so we don't have any video clips of the English classes...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwCUbQ7ElLw

As a side note: I had a hell of a time keeping the cowboy hat on my head on Saturday with the wind blowing. I stuffed it with extra tissues and bobby pins to keep it on my head, but if you've ever been to the Tri-Cities area - everybody knows that the damned wind blows ALL THE TIME there. It was really annoying and I kept jamming the hat down as far on my head as it could go on Saturday. But on Sunday I chose to wear my English helmet instead of fighting with the cowboy hat anymore. It is very acceptable at shows to do this, so I went ahead and did it. Kind-of a dorky look, but it gives us more of a "western dressage" appearance I guess....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK4k3QM_G00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB0h6ojfk0Q