Horse Show

Our goal this past year was to get Booker to at least one overnight show, so we decided to tackle the WSCA show in Cannon Falls.  Being that I just had a baby a few months before, I definitely had not had much time to ride or get to know Booker, but we thought we would give it a shot.  We also thought Livi would have a blast, getting to be around horses non-stop for a few days.  We were right about that.  She helped brush him, ride him, clean his stall, and bathe him.  She did get a little wet during his bath and the second we got back to his stall, she stripped completely down to her underwear in the middle of the barn aisle because her clothes were wet.  I just about died laughing, especially since her dry, clean clothes were still packed in the suitcase in the car, quite a ways away.

The first day of the horse was a bit rocky.  Everytime anyone started to clap, Booker would get really nervous, spook, and dance all over.  He spooked in the middle of my showmanship pattern, and while Livi was riding him in leadline.  I had to quickly pull her off while we were in the lineup because I was worried she might get hurt.  After that class, I took him out to lunge him for a while, but he didn't seem like he had excess energy.  It was purely the applause that was getting to him.  I saddled him up and got on him in the warm-up pen for my English classes.  But, the second the applause happened, he started scrambling again and I had to call for Amy to come hold him so I could get off.  I scratched the rest of my English classes.  At this point we realized we had not put his ear plugs in, so we decided to try that.  It definitely seemed to help because though I could feel him tense slightly during the applause, he was able to hold it together.  I had much more successful Western classes, thank goodness.

We decided to stay for English and Showmanship the next day to try to end the weekend on a high note.  I had a very nice showmanship pattern and got a second place.  We got a decent ride in HUS and placed third.  My final class was Equitation and we had a very nice pattern. We ended up winning our class!  This was the first blue ribbon I've won in a LONG time.  It felt great, especially since we had such a challenging day the day before.  We've still got some kinks to work out, but I was really happy with our second day performance.  Horse showing is so fun for me, and I think it is so cool to have the opportunity to do it with a three generation team!