Sooo, today was an open show from a nearby saddle club...it was held about 1/2 an hour away from our town, and this morning Jean trailered Bella, her son, Oliver's morgan mare, and Daisy to the showgrounds...the morning started with english classes, and western in the afternoon...Oliver rode all morning and Daisy was in the trailer...the grounds are very nice...the space isn't very big, but it's the perfect layout--there is a place for lots of trailers to park (But the area doesn't seem that big, but it fits a lot) and a nice, BIG outdoor sand ring that's (I think someone guessed to be) 100 ft X 300 ft....big enough so that they can also host team penning (cow herding, or w/e) events...anyway, Oliver did very well riding (his pic is the first one) and then I rode...those other horse pictures are just cute horses around our trailer...
I rode first in a trail class for western/english combined. First you had to open the gate to the ring, come in, close it, and the walk over some poles. The poles were really just thin, dead trees that were kinda piled on top of each other--overlapping-not straight-that you had to walk over. That went fine. Then they had a small box set up that was made of poles normally used for pole bending (standing upright). The poles were covered in leaves, branches, and corn stalks. You had to walk into the box, and back out again. Then you had to canter up to a log on the ground and get over it somehow, at any speed. Then you had to halt, then walk over a bridge (which was kind of big-it started about a 1/4 foot high, then got higher, and lower again...a lot of horses spooked at it) then you turned, cantered back to the log, emergency dismounted, got back on, and hand galloped (Controlled galloped) to the gate. It took 3 TRIES to get Daisy to the gate--never mind that we do gates all the time at home :-P..she was afraid of the cow shute next to the gate. The poles went fine, and even the weird backing box thing was ok--even though it was intimidating. We jumped the pole (in a western saddle! ;-)) and after pulling hard on the reins I halted Daisy, then walked her over the bridge, which we had practiced beforehand. We cantered to the log, I (literally) jumped off really fast, got back on, and we "hand galloped" to the gate--not easy on the overexcited horse.
I will share the rest tomorrow....
I rode first in a trail class for western/english combined. First you had to open the gate to the ring, come in, close it, and the walk over some poles. The poles were really just thin, dead trees that were kinda piled on top of each other--overlapping-not straight-that you had to walk over. That went fine. Then they had a small box set up that was made of poles normally used for pole bending (standing upright). The poles were covered in leaves, branches, and corn stalks. You had to walk into the box, and back out again. Then you had to canter up to a log on the ground and get over it somehow, at any speed. Then you had to halt, then walk over a bridge (which was kind of big-it started about a 1/4 foot high, then got higher, and lower again...a lot of horses spooked at it) then you turned, cantered back to the log, emergency dismounted, got back on, and hand galloped (Controlled galloped) to the gate. It took 3 TRIES to get Daisy to the gate--never mind that we do gates all the time at home :-P..she was afraid of the cow shute next to the gate. The poles went fine, and even the weird backing box thing was ok--even though it was intimidating. We jumped the pole (in a western saddle! ;-)) and after pulling hard on the reins I halted Daisy, then walked her over the bridge, which we had practiced beforehand. We cantered to the log, I (literally) jumped off really fast, got back on, and we "hand galloped" to the gate--not easy on the overexcited horse.
I will share the rest tomorrow....
4 comments:
Wow! What a great experience and adventure for you and Daisy. And what fun, too!
Sure wish you had some pics of you and Daisy, though. :(
I'm glad you had a great day.
~Lisa
I used to watch a friend show western. It was a fun atmosphere. I kind of miss it.
That sounded really cool!!!!!!! I can't wait to show! :)
woahhh! I always wanted to do that with a horse! Dee would have been prefect for it =[ maybe some time...
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