We had three in hand classes, the first of which was Grooming. There were nine horses in the class, and Otis and I entered the ring first. Otis was a very good boy and stood very well the whole time. We placed first! That was a very good start to the day. The next class was Open Halter, there were five horses in the class, again Otis was a very good boy and stood quietly, we placed third. Our last in hand class was Adult Showmanship with 10 (!) horses in the class. We did our pattern and stood for the the judge's inspection. She made the comment "it makes my job easy when the person knows what they are doing, thank you, very nice job". Now that was a confidence booster! We ended up placing second out of the 10 people! We were off to a great start.
Next were our riding classes. I had decided that I would try warming up as little as possible and just let Otis look around and watch the other horses, since his issue seems to be that he is nosy and gets grumpy when he can't see what the other horses are doing, hence his naughty behavior. I walked him around the outside of the show ring a few times. Then I decided to take him into one of the two round pen sized warm up rings they have at Mousam. There were two other horses in there at the time, Otis was interested in them, but was able to keep his cool and watch them at the same time. Once we had the ring to ourselves I walked, trotted, and cantered in both directions. Otis was good, so I left it at that and we spent the rest of the time before our classes standing by the in gate and watching the other classes. He seemed calm and relaxed, I was very happy with that.
Our fist class was English Pleasure. Otis was very good at all three gates in the first direction, even when another horse cantered past us! This was one of his biggest issues at past horse shows, it would usually cause him to completely loose composure. I could here the horse coming, so I just made contact with my legs and hands, and talked to him, and he maintained his canter! I was very happy! The next direction didn't go as well. He walked and trotted fine, but bucked a couple of times at the canter, unfortunately, the judge was looking right at us when it happened. There were nine horses in that class (I think) so we didn't place, which was fine by me, because he went SO MUCH BETTER than he usually does.
Our next class was Hunter Over Fences, which was going to be Otis' first jumping class at a show, and my first since I was like 12 years old showing my trusty pony, Rusty. When I signed up that morning I asked if I could do the Walk Trot Hunter Over Fences class since the jumps were lower. They told me I couldn't because all my other classes were Walk/Trot/Canter classes. The show secretary insisted that her young daughter does this class, and that the jumps are closer to 18" than 2'. I figured, what the heck, we might as well try it. Well they set up the course for the walk trot class, and the height seemed fine. There were two jumps that seemed very close together, and Otis and I have not practiced that, so I was a little nervous about that combo. Well, once the Walk Trot class was over, they raised the jumps, and I knew they were much higher than anything Otis and I have practiced. That's when I got REALLY nervous. I didn't want to be a quitter so we entered the ring when it was our turn. That's when I knew that I shouldn't ruin our so far good experience, trying to jump something higher than I was comfortable with. I told the judge that I was only going to jump the first jump, which was a cross rail, set at a height that I was comfortable with. We did our warm up circle and approached the jump, well Otis could sense that I was still a little nervous about the other jumps and he refused it. We approached it again and he refused it a second time. So I cantered a circle to calm both of our nerves, and this time he jumped it, he over jumped it a little but at least he did it. I was really bummed that the jumps were so high because I was really looking forward to that class. I am glad I decided not to do it, it would have been stupid to create a bad experience by trying something for the first time at a horse show, that just isn't the place for trying new things, especially with jumping.
Our next class was trail, so after lunch break I switched over to our Western tack. Otis is very good at trail, so I was pretty confident that we would do well in this class. There were only two entries, and we were the first to go in. The first obstacle was a make shift gate made out of two jump standards with a rope in between them. Well, Otis must have decided that he had been far too good, and needed to mix things up a bit. He acted scared of the gate, and I couldn't shut it because he kept backing up so far that I had to let go. I was very frustrated with him because that should have been easy. The gate incident wound him up, he almost wouldn't go over the tarp (he usually walks over tarps like they are the same as the rest of the ground) and then when I asked him to canter he started bucking. I took the reins in both hands so that I could regain control and get him to listen. He did fine at the next two obstacles, which were backing an "L" and getting mail out of a mail box. We were disqualified from that class, I am assuming because I used two hands, which you aren't supposed to do in Western. I know it wasn't because of the gate because others dropped the gate as well and they weren't disqualified. Needless to say, I was very disappointed with that class, because we should have rocked it, and Otis decided to be naughty. We had a lot of time before our next two classes so I tied Otis to the trailer and let him have some hay and drink some water.
Our next two classes were Western Pleasure and Adult Equitation. I took Otis into the practice ring one more time, and he was being kind of a brat. I was able to work him out of it a little, so we called it good and went to stand by the in gate. I didn't have very high hopes for our Western Pleasure class because of his behavior in the practice ring. We went in and found a spot on the rail where we would have plenty of room. When asked to jog, Otis picked up a very nice western pleasure jog on a loose rein, so this was a good start to the class. When we were asked to lope, I gave him a very subtle nudge with my outside leg, and he picked up a very nice lope. He was going a little fast for western I thought, but he was under control, and the horse behind us wasn't bothering him at all. He did the same in the other direction. I was VERY happy with this class. We lined up to wait for the results, I didn't think we would place well, because like I said before I though he was a little fast at the lope for a western pleasure class. Well boy was I wrong! We placeed FIRST out the five horses in the class!! My mouth dropped and then I gave Otis a big pat. It was such a good feeling to not only get a good ride in an under saddle class, but to win it as well! I actually got a little teary eyed, that's how happy I was. We were in the next class as well, so we just stayed in the ring. Otis did just as good in the Adult Equitation. We only had one little mishap, he has such a slow jog that we got passed by the other three people in the class, and they were all directly in front of us. When were asked to lope, I made a circle in order to avoid a traffic jam, well just as we rounded the corner, something behind us spooked Otis, so he jumped/bucked. Again right in front of the judge. Other than that he was very good, so I didn't even care that we placed fourth out of the four people in the class.
Overall Otis and I had a GREAT day! He had a few naughty moments, but the good moments definitely outweighed the bad. It felt really good to see a light at the end of the tunnel, and for my hard work to pay off. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this trend continues.
Here is a photo of our Ribbons.
We also got a plate and a paper weight with our blue ribbons!
