Day 35 ~ Horse Show Bound

We competed in our first horse show Sat, June 12th. It was a small open show and a perfect next step for us. Talk about HOT, but we made it! I was afraid we'd be late b/c we got off later than I wanted, but ended up just in time. I entered two trail classes and 2 walk jog classes. Just as I stepped onto Lindsay after pulling her off the trailer and tacking up they called our name to enter for Trail! No warm up for us.

She was a bit hesitant at first entering the ring through the narrow gate with a strange person holding it open, but she bravely gathered up the courage and walked on in. We first walked to the rope gate we were to open and shut. The gate consisted of 2 pvc poles stuck in concrete coffee cans...much resembled poles for a pole bending class...they were set only 5 feet or so apart with a rope snapped between them. Well, we had worked on the rope gate at home the day before and did quite well, but this one was different and Lindsay was very uncertain of my request to move her body all the way adjacent to this weird object. I side-passed her as close as she was comfortable and let her stand a moment to re-assure her and then walked off to the next object. In her mind she had done as I requested and moved in closer to the scary object...no one told her the ultimate goal was to actually open and shut the gate..so as long as I didn't tell her that, she never realized she did not accomplish the full goal..She did accomplish the goal I set for her which was to side pass close to the gate.

The next task was to walk over 4 poles. We have done this many times at home, but these were different so she did hesitate a moment, but not long. She then walked nicely through, careful not to touch any poles. Then we picked up a jog and serpentined through 4 cones. This she was a pro at and was very fluid and soft. From the cones we walked into a box made of 4 poles on the ground. As soon as we stepped in the box I reminded her what a fabulous job she was doing and that this was no rush before I asked for her 360 turn. She did it very well, keeping all legs in the box and touching no poles! Again I praised her before walking out of the box to the poles for our back through. The back through was adjacent to the announcers stand which was a bit of a scary object to Lindsay, but she still managed to focus and backed through her poles well, even letting me steer her hind end to keep her straight and bumped no poles. After another pat we were off to the bridge. The bridge was VERY narrow and long and we opted to cross it from approaching the wide side first..she was hesitant, but crossed on over and finished our class. We did the same pattern once more and she did very well...and the end of that class we stayed at the bridge as they disassembled the rest of the pattern and we practiced crossing it. After a few attempts we crossed it perfectly from the skinny side! I think a skinny bridge is on the list of props we need at home!

After our trail class we rode in 2 walk/jog classes and they went very well. With each trip around the ring she became more comfortable with the activity on the rail. They asked us for a back in the line-up and that went very smooth. They were small classes, only 3 in the first one, but Lindsay won a Blue ribbon in it all the same! She was very good. Out second walk jog consisted of us plus 3 other riders. The other 3 riders were moving a good bit faster than us and traveling all together...as they came to approach us from behind Lindsay remained calm, even though I could tell she was aware...I wanted to let her hold her spot on the rail and allow them to pass, it would have been good for her and I really think she would have been fine, but 2 of the riders were very small and I was afraid if she did jump at their approach it might unseat them, so as I saw them approaching I veered off the rail and circled in behind them so as to be sure I did not mess up their class. There are times in my opinion where you are trying to show your horse in the best light to win that individual class and other times when you do only what is best for your horse's mind during the class and let it be, and the riders surrounding us in our situation...this was by far a time for the latter, it was much more important to keep Lindsay in sound mind and the fellow riders safe than chance an accident. Lindsay was a star and went exactly where I pointed her. I think another thing soon on our list is to trailer to a busy show barn and ride in a ring full of experienced riders that are schooling. We do need to be comfortable with "Horse Traffic" and it is so quiet at our farm "Traffic" of any kind is hard to come by..unless you count "Dog Traffic" we have plenty of that! LOL

I was Very pleased with our first Horse Show and Lindsay's ability to focus, even though we went straight off the trailer to work!

After we got home I let her cool down by her fan and pulled her out later for a ride to work on a few things I noted at the horse show. I really wanted to establish to her that even when uncertain of an object that if I say it's ok, then it's ok...The way I say it's ok is not by going over and checking it out...that turns it into something scarier...actually I ignore it continue working. The next, more difficult step is being able to move Lindsay's body towards the scary object even though she is uncertain of it herself. So I tied all kinds of things to the panels of the round pen and I draped a raincoat over a jump standard and we set off to side pass up to scary objects. It did take some convincing, but after a while she seemed to understand that if I asked her to side pass it was easier to oblige and forget about the scary stuff than to create more work for herself by arguing. As soon as she would take a willing step towards the object I would release pressure and reassure her what a fabulous girl she was. After a while she would willingly allow me to slide her all the way up to the rail and right up on the gremlins hanging off of it! We even tossed some of those gremlins...ie bags and raincoats...over our head and she was quite tolerate of the silly behavior I was doing on her back:) We worked again on some transitions, especially our left lead and that went very well. Her left lead transition is starting to become her strong one now!

It was a very productive day with much learned by both of us.