A Day of Reds

So, I had reservations about going to the LRSS show on Sunday, but I eat my words. It was good. I actually had 4 (count them… FOUR) people in my classes (of course, that counts me too!). They were all adults too – I didn’t have to feel guilty for beating a kid!
We did four classes, skipping the showmanship and halter, which Lisa won anyway. We got to practice longer and with less people which made us both more relaxed. Sky was in heat which didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of how she was acting but for her, she was a little off. She even rode with a stud in the practice ring and was fine… goes to show you all the training she had being ridden along with the reining studs in NM paid off.
The classes went really fast and I barely had time between my equitation and pleasure classes to get a drink. I stayed on the rest of the day, until I was finished which was only around 2. Not bad.
We had practiced the equitation pattern and done great, but in the ring it wasn’t so great. She was what I call “jabber jawey” – my term for spitting the bit out and pulling against pressure. That’s her biggest problem. Pleasure went better, just being rail work. Discipline Rail was good and we did a beautiful turn on the haunches when the judge wasn’t looking! Trail could have been a lot better. She dealt with the mailbox perfectly but the bridge was too scary and it took three tries to get over (she did do it!). We backed through a set of cones and that was the best part.
All in all it was a good day and we got 2nd in every single class – to the same girl too! She was nice, so I didn’t min d losing to her too badly – an English rider with a bitless bridle on her cute horse. That left us with the Reserve Champion of the day. The other riders in my classes were a nice woman about my age on a big stock bred paint who was experiencing her first day off the farm and an older lady who had a crazy forward Arab or something.
So, we have next weekend off from showing (thank GOD) and the 15th is the second Oak Rise Show. The 22nd, the week after that, is the next LRSS – I’m not sure if I’ll go to Oak Rise or not… Lisa will be gone so I won’t have a ride unless I scrounge one up and I think I should concentrate on improving more than just showing more often. I’ll think on it.
Today I’m helping Lisa to clean out her dressing room in her massive trailer – give Sky a day off!
Happy Trails. C