Otis and I had our first horse show of the season on Sunday June 19th at Cumberland Country Riding Club. This place is very near and dear to me, as that is where I first started showing with my first horse Rusty. We arrived at the show grounds early enough to get a great parking spot right in front of the in gate, with easy access to the warm up ring. I had plenty of time to get Otis and myself ready, so there was no need to rush, which was good, the less I have to rush, the less stress. Otis seemed really relaxed so I had high hopes for the day.
Our fist class was halter geldings. We entered the ring first trotting, as requested by the judge. There were two "ribbon" boys sitting on the ground right off to the side of the in gate, and they stood up just as Otis and I entered the arena, well Otis decided that was super scary and jumped/reared. Not a very good first impression. We got to the line up and I set him up, he stood like a perfect gentlemen the whole time. There were seven horses in the class, so we had to stand there for quite awhile. We ended up with 2nd place out of the seven horses, a very good start to the day.
Our second class was adult showmanship. For some odd reason, I love showmanship. It is one thing that I can honestly say I am good at. I am pretty hard on myself, so it's not often I will say something like that. There were eight horses in this class, Otis and I entered the ring second. We did our pattern flawlessly, and returned to the line up with high hopes. Some of the other horses in the class wouldn't stand, or wouldn't trot back to the line up (the last part of the pattern), so I felt like I actually had a pretty good chance at winning. Well, as everyone who shows horses knows, no matter how well you think you do, the judge may not agree. We ended up placing fourth.
After showmanship I saddled up Otis in his english saddle for our first two riding classes, Adult Pleasure, and Adult Equitation. As soon as I got in the saddle I could tell that Otis was feeling naughty. He had his neck arched and his ears forward and he was prancing rather than walking... GREAT. I tried working him through it without much success. My mom came over to inform me that my class was next... double GREAT. So I finished changing into my english attire and into the class we went. There was only one other horse in the class, so I figured I would school him and try to get him to behave. Well he walked and trotted okay, but as soon as we were asked to canter, he decided that bucking was a better idea. I am not sure we got one good canter stride in either direction. He acted pretty much the same for the pleasure class as well, maybe a few less bucks.
Our last two classes of the day were Command Class, which I entered just to get Otis in the ring, and Trail Class. He seemed to be mellowing out more as the day went on, which to me is progress since he is usually naughty the whole day. We got eliminated first in Command Class because my little western pleasure horse has no idea what a hand gallop is, he got a little excited, and we ended up cantering sideways instead...lol... at least he wasn't bucking anymore. Trail class was our last class of the day and Otis was a very good boy, he is better when we are in the ring alone, and he is pretty good at trail anyways. We ending up winning the class! A good way to end a frustrating day of riding a naughty Otis!
Overall we had an okay day. Otis made some progress by calming down little by little throughout the day, we won our trail class, and we have one more horse show under our belts. I also got to spend the day with my mom, who is a GREAT horse show mom. My goal this summer is not to win a bunch of ribbons, but to get Otis more comfortable with the horse show atmosphere, so that next year we can kick butt...lol.. maybe... :-)
