V's District Show Results 2010

V had an up and down day, literally, yesterday. In order to show at the State 4-H show in September, Virginia 4-Her's have to qualify by showing their horse at a district show. But they also have to have already declared the horse by filling out paperwork by May 1st. We didn't get Hank in time to declare him so V will be taking Jessica to the State Show.

She only showed her in Showmanship and got 5th. Jessica then had to patiently wait at the trailer for the rest of the show. By the way, we left the house at 7 am and got back at 10 pm.
V was really wanting to show Hank to see what he could do. As far as I can tell this was the first show or event of this kind that he has ever been to.
He had some moments of brilliance. His trot when he's doing right has so much suspension that all of his feet will be off the ground at once. (this is unusual at the trot where diagonal legs will be in contact with the ground while the other pair is extending) Even more unusual is for me to have gotten two pictures of this.
Unfortunately, his other moments out shown his brilliance. In his first class the second way of the ring he picked up the wrong lead. V thinks she tried to correct it but he bucked and kicked his back legs out while twisting in the air. This caused her to lose her stirrups and over the next two strides he pulled her off balance by tossing his head.
This pulled her down on his neck where she valiantly hung on for at least six more strides. ( but he was on the correct lead now). She finally had to let go and fall off. She wasn't hurt and was able to get back on and finish the class. She then complained that I should have kept filming instead of running into the ring to help. J had to go the the trailer for the next two classes which were much less eventful. He had been peeking out from behind a car during the first class. V did get 5th in equitation out of 7. It looks like Hank still needs a lot of work but he definitely has a lot of potential.