Arrived at the show grounds about 7:00am, an hour before show set start time. =) Another good feeling - to have all my stuffs together enough to leave nearly 45 minutes before I thought I would.
Jenn and a helper were there, but I was the first competitor to arrive. Glad for that opportunity, I hand walked Romeo around the arena, and then saddled him up western (twisted o-ring bit, martingale). We worked on walk and trot only, and after some speedie warm-ups, he settled in nicely. I noticed the judge showed up while I was warming him up, and also caught him watching us intently a few times. From the last show where a judge watched my warm-up, I decided this was my "moment to shine", and worked on some "comings and goings" stride adjustments in the arena. *grin* I didn't catch his eye to see a reaction, but I felt like Romeo was saying, "Hey Dude! Look at me! I'm cool!"
Show got started for me with Halter. Um, oh, about 8 horses. We walked in, trotted past, lined up. Then everybody did "follow the leader" at the walk. Judge picked out the horses in pinning order. As Jen was announcing the ribbon order , last to first, judge walked up to me, and said to me, "Your horse is really nice, and he is trying really hard for you, but if you see the way he's standing there, his legs are crooked." HUH? What?! Um, okay, Romeo was standing with his legs offset, and one leg a little relaxed, but I hadn't looked to see if his legs really were crooked. I didn't participate in halter for a ribbon, but for the "show experience" for Romeo - let him look around.
Showmanship... HMPH. I don't understand the pinning order. Not one stinking bit. Romeo did break to walk from one trot, but quickly went back to trot. We weren't pinned high, but to the best of my memory, the 2nd place pin walked 80% of the pattern. I think again we were being judged on confirmation, and I found that frustrating.
Lunch break! And a good time for one. I saddled Romeo up Western, got my ducks in a row, and had a nice lunch.
(Time to stop for now. More later.)
2 comments:
I've never understood showmanship - I mean, isn't it about how well you deal with the horse you have? As opposed to halter, which is all about the staying out of the horse's way while making him/her look fab-ulous (grin).
Fun show account, though - looking forward to reading the rest!
:) That's what I thought .... Oh well..
Rest of the day is up for reading. Thanks for the interest....
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