We have not fallen off the face of the earth for the last week but it sure does feel like it. As a lot of you know, E has been working hard with her horse Pep this summer. She has had her sights on the State Show and really wanted to do well. Unfortunately, Pep had other plans. On Monday Pep went lame while E was riding her. She has a hoof issue from a previous injury which started acting up. No amount of soaking, pain meds. or antibiotics was going to fix her in time. The two choices E had were 1. not go or 2. take Hank.
She decided on taking Hank. The problem was, Hank is a hunter horse and E rides western. The only time she has ridden hunter was at a 2 week beginning jumping clinic she went to 3 years ago. So, with just 2 days of practice we went to the show. (Plus, Hank had only had 1 day off from the endurance ride.)
V's clothes sort of fit and there we were. The first class was Showmanship on Thursday night. Hank has never been shown in a showmanship class before. His first one was against 50 other hunter horses. It involved backing, 180 degree pivot, trotting around a cone, standing for inspection, 90 degree turn and trotting off. Hank acted like he had done it all of his life. E and Hank pulled off a 12th place finish.
Friday we got some visitors. Grandma, Aunt L and V all came to the show. We haven't seen V since she went off to college last month. It was nice to get to visit with her a little.
E had 2 classes on Friday. She started with Hunter Pleasure in the coliseum. I thought Hank did great. He looked good, went at a steady speed and picked up his leads right.
We were very hopeful for a high placing and he really looked good in the line up.
They ended up with 6th place. E's first ribbon with Hank.
Next came the trail class preliminary. There were 76 hunters with senior riders (ages 14-18) signed up for the class.
They had to open and close a gate,
and back through 2 poles. E got Hank to do and excellent job and they made the finials with 16 others for the next day.
Of course, E had to watch all of the classes Pep would have been in and constantly laminated the fact that they would have done so well in them. To which I constantly replied, "Be thankful for what you have."
Thank you for the detailed update. I have been thinking about you all and wondering what you were going through. I'm glad E decided to give it a go. But that was a lot of adjustments to deal with (for both E and Hank). Good job to both of them. Nice to have some visitors come see the show.
ReplyDeleteThats too bad about Pep, I can understand how dissapointing it is when stuff like that happens. But she looks to be doing good with Hank for only 2 days of practice.
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