Hey! Happy Monday….NOT! I swear the weekends go by too fast and we should have more days off then just 2 a week.
Anyway though, if you follow me on Instagram then you know I spent Saturday at a barrel race. While it’s still fresh on my mind, I wanted to make sure I went ahead and did the recap.
So we’ve started to find a new normal when it comes to horse shows. Tory has been going with me and recently we’ve been acting like we’re camping when we’re at the shows. We take a tent to set up, food to cook and a couple beers to drink. Doing this has kept the shows feeling more relaxed and less stressful. I think I even ride better when I eat at the show and am constantly drinking. Before we started doing this, I would just eat breakfast and by the time I would ride I would be slightly dehydrated and very hungry. I think that feeling made me more nervous too. I’m sure getting more seasoned with shows helps my nerves too though.
This show ended up being pretty small. Only 82 people in the Open and only $300 added. It was at a small indoor pen that we’ve now ridden at a few times so we’re familiar with the surroundings and footing. This show I was draw 24.
Like normal, I took my time tacking up and getting Rumor ready. I got onto ride as soon as the show started since there weren’t many peewee riders. I wanted to make sure we walked around a good bit and had time to trot and lope around. So that’s exactly what we did. We warmed up away from the alley way where I could keep her full attention and keep her from getting nervous. Once we were good and warmed up, I wanted to take time to walk her in circles near the alley so I could start working on her staying calm and walking close to the entrance. Since we’ve been having gate issues related to her just not wanting to go in and back up, I thought we would take time this show to work on that.
At first she was definitely nervous and would start throwing her head and speeding up her pace. Then she would start side stepping but I’d keep pushing her forward and asking her to walk calmly. I find that my approach to calming down horses is very different from other riders. Instead of picking up the reins and holding a horse tight, I let go of the reins and give her more freedom. I’ve had great results from doing this and plus it worked for Rumor this time too. She calmed down some and we were able to walk circle after circle.
Finally it was our time to go, so my friend Heather who was also warming up her horse, walked us in. Rumor stopped halfway and didn’t want to move forward but eventually did go. As soon as we could see the first barrel we picked up our pace. Now mind you, at the last show we ran in and that didn’t do so good for us. We were wide on the first and then the rest of the go wasn’t that pretty. It wasn’t the worst but definitely not the best. So this time we stuck with what we do better and went a little slower going in. This set us up for PERFECT turns. OMG, did Rumor have some tight beautiful turns. (See video below)
Overall, this was another great show for us. Our run felt good and looked good. We might not be the fastest but it doesn’t matter to me. I always have fun and that’s what matters most. 🙂
So Tell Me..
What kind of riding did you do this weekend? Any showing?
1 Comment
Raquel
October 3, 2016 at 5:40 pmYou too looked great! I think those are some of the smoothest turns you’ve had yet! Beautiful run : )
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