Local Saddle Club Show

Our Saddle Club had it's fall show yesterday.  We went to show and help out where we could.

 Otoelene had another chance at yearling halter.

 A friend grabbed V to help her show one of her 2 yearlings.

 Otoelene finally got a blue ribbon!  First out of four.

 E entered showmanship.  Unfortunately, she was the only one in the class.  Pep did well and stood still again.

 E placed 1st in showmanship, 1st in juvenile western pleasure, 2nd in Juvenile go as you please and 4th in open western pleasure.

 V showed Hank to 2 firsts, one in Hunter Pleasure and one in Juvenile go as you please (yes, she beat E).  She got 2nd in Open English Pleasure because technically she was hunter and not english so the actual english horse won.

 I was ring mistress for most of the show so I had a good vantage point from the center of the ring.  I also had to double as ribbon girl.


E decided to try ride a buck.  I think this was her first time.

She ended up winning but you can see she was just barely hanging on by this point.

Hank was doing so well I decided to try speed barrel.  He can really fly.  J said he was kicking dirt ten feet in the air.  If I had planned better I think we might have placed higher but we got down to the barrel so fast I wasn't quite ready to turn him.

We were so fast on the way back E missed us in the picture.  As it was we ended up with 4th place.  I think if we actually practiced we could do pretty good.
All in all it was a good show.  The turn out was moderate and the weather was nice and I think the club made a little money.

Parting Shots

A few more pictures to finish up the State Show.  This county group won the small county stable decoration award, amazing. 

 We had some visitors join us Saturday, thanks Pete and Mary Grace for coming and cheering on V and E.

 And Linda was a huge help Friday and Saturday.

Guess we'll be starting on next year now.  V should be rested up.

Virginia State 4-H Horse Show 2011

E and Pep had a good show also.  Just not a great show. 

 E has really put in a lot of time on Pep the last few weeks and has her in great shape.

 Showmanship has always been her nemesis.   Pep would never stand still inside Waldron arena.  She would stand for hours anywhere else but as soon as she got in here her feet just wouldn't stay still.  This time it was finally different.  She stood perfectly until the judge acknowledged her then did a beautiful pattern.  She even stood still for inspection.  Then came the problem, after the inspection there was to be a 90 degree turn then trot out of the ring.  Pep started to move sideways and E forgot the 90 degree turn and just sort of meandered away then trotted.  No call back for the finals but a definite improvement over past years.

 I missed E's first pleasure class because it was going on the exact same time as V's class in Waldron.  She placed 3rd in it,  Sr. rider western pleasure pony class.  Then came the trail preliminary.  Open and close a gate, perfect.

 Back through poles, perfect.  53 entries and she made it to the finals in the top 20.

 The trail finals included, spooky bridge, trot over poles, canter over poles, back around cones inside a box, spooky gate, walk over poles and 360 turn inside box.  Pep did all the obstacles but hit a cone, bumped the gate clicked her feet on lots of poles and stepped out of the box.  Still, 12th out of a total class of 53.  Not bad for her first year in the Sr. division.

 E and Pep had some difficulties in their patterns, sometimes Pep's fault sometimes E's fault.  She ended up with 6th out of 10 in horsemanship and not placing in Working Western.  She was 3rd again in Western Pleasure 2nd go which qualified her for the championship class.

I thought she did extremely well, only minor problem was a little slow picking up the lope the second way.  Pep has an extremely long stride at the trot, she goes moderately slow with it but not slow enough for this judge. She ended up 7th.  Still not sure how ponies she beat twice placed over her, oh well.  It goes with all of her other 7th place ribbons for the same class in previous years.
E also got a 3rd with her entry in the action photograph.

Virginia State 4-H Horse Show 2011

We are all safe and back in one piece so the show was definitely a success.  

 You can see there is quite an array of ribbons (but no blue), and every one looks happy.

 V was a little worried about Hank at first.  When he got off the trailer she thought he seemed spooky of everything.  But after we got him saddled and in the warm up ring he was fine and V was more relaxed.

 His first class was in Waldron Arena, the big indoor one we were worried about.  But Hank said, "what's to worry."  He was cool as a cucumber.  In fact, he might have been a little too relaxed and not moving out enough.  Everything went so smooth with no breaks and no missed leads.

 It was a big class with 19 small horses (over 14.2 but not exceeding 15.2 1/2).  Hank is 15.2 1/2.  He's at the very far end of the line up standing quietly.

 They managed an 8th place.

 The next day they showed in the outdoor arena.  V didn't warm him up as much in hope of being able to keep him moving out better.  They looked beautiful.  Sometimes I would lose track of V in the ring and then notice this gorgeous moving horse and it would still surprise me that it was ours.  Because of the size of the class they ran it a little differently.  They walked and trotted both ways then half the class lined up while the other half cantered.  Then they switched so the 2nd half could canter.  Then they called out the top ten (which included V and Hank)  to do the whole class over  (walk/trot/canter both ways).  Some horses were getting tired but Hank's endurance training paid off.  He never once looked like he was giving out.

 Can you believe this line up?  The quality of horses was outstanding.

V and Hank came out of the class with 3rd!
In the trail preliminary V wasn't able to get Hank moved over to close the gate and in Equitation she forgot to say canter before she cued him to canter in the pattern so he didn't pick it up very well.
V also won 2nd in the photograph contest in the special effects category.  This was the most success she has ever had at the State Show and I think she was pleased with the results.

State Show Anticipation

We're off to the State Show today.

 Looks like E will have to return the challenge trophy.  She will be in a different division this year so she won't be able to bring this one back again.  But it has her's and Pep's name on it twice.

 2010 Western Pleasure Pony Jr.  Rider Champion.

2009 Western Pleasure Pony Jr Rider Champion.

This year she will be a senior and the competition will probably be tougher but she has been practicing hard.  V will be showing Hank, his first time at the state show and first time in the big indoor arena.  He has potential if she can just stick to it and get it out of him.   I still say if we make in all back in one piece and still speaking to each other it will be a success. (of course some ribbons always help)

Need a Laugh?

I found this today.  Made me laugh.  Pet owners funniest questions

Sand and Rain

I finally had 2 loads of sand delivered for the barn.  J tried to spread it with the tractor but was only able to get it into smaller piles so I went to work with a shovel and rake.  That was 2 weeks ago and my back still isn't well.  Shortly after we got the sand evened out it started to rain.  Three inches later we had a flooded barn. 

 The man that did the grading thinks it's because the pipes that the gutters drain into didn't have enough fall and the water backed up and came through the connection of the downspout to the pipe then under the wall.

 So now the pipe is running the other direction across the driveway to the barn until he can come back and dig the trenched to bury them.   Just one more obstacle to work around.

 V and E rode their horses in the barn together for the first time (with the sand).  One corner was still pretty wet but the rest was usable.  Hank was very calm about the whole thing.

 He went right on and did everything V asked.

Pep on the other hand seamed a little more alert and took several stubborn spells.  We finally worked her through it and they both had good rides.  I'm thinking this might be nice come cold weather.

Russell County Fair

This was our first trip to the Russell County Fair Horse Show.  We really didn't know what to expect.  I just wanted to get V and E to a show with their horses before the State Horse Show next week.  It was a full blown fair with midway rides, carnival food and big name entertainment.  The whole fair grounds is carved out of the side of a mountain so we were lucky to get a flat place to park. 

 E used some of her spare time to pretty Pep up.

 We were there early so V and E got some warm up time in the ring.  Hank seemed pretty calm to start with.

 Otoelene was ready for her weanling/yearling class.  Unfortunately, the judge was the same one that judged the last show we had her at.  Needless to say, he makes some interesting decisions.

 This one beat us in the weanling/yearling class.  Otoelene's half sister which is almost identical to her was in the class also, but he split the pair up with a different yearling.  Otoelene ended up with another red ribbon.

 We went ahead and entered the open halter and this thing beat us.  He later fell off it in the barrel race.  There were 2 nice quarter horses in 1st and 2nd, then this, then Otoelene and her sister.

 There was some excitement when the Lone Ranger made an appearance.  You can get a idea of the slope.  There is a retaining wall  3/4  the way around the ring.  It makes for a different type ring than our horses have been to.

 By the time Hank showed it was getting dark and the lights were on.  Of course he has never been in a ring with lights and V has only ridden him once in the last month.   It didn't help that at the far end of the ring as Hank was trotting by a football came flying off the hill into the ring right in front of him.  They didn't have a very good go.  3/3.

Pep was resting up for her turn.  She went a little fast with all the things to see.  Her 1st class was western pleasure walk/jog.  There were 13 and the judged called for a hack off with the top 6. (not sure why he couldn't place 6 out of 13 without a hack off)  E made the hack off but ended up with 6th.  Her next class was Juvenile western pleasure and she placed 2nd.  One girl's hat flew off as she raced by Pep at the lope and landed right at her front feet.  I was surprised she only broke for a stride and stepped right on the hat.
The show did have a good pay back to the classes and we managed to be $15 ahead by the end.  We didn't get home until 2 am (show started at 6 pm).

Clippers

We are hoping to take Otoelene to a show tomorrow so...

 another lesson with the clippers.  She did wonderful.

 Tossed her head a little bit on her bottom lip but nothing major.

She even let me clip the fuzzy out of her ears.  I didn't push my luck there, just some on the inside not the edges that had to match.  Isn't she pretty?