From racing to riding... the training diary of an off the track Standardbred

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Bristol County 4-H and Open Horse Show at Haskins 10/23/11

Last Sunday, we had our final show of the season at Haskins. This is the last time Jet and I would ever be eligible for the Green Horse classes we have been doing for the past two years. I really wanted to make it count.

I decided to do seven classes that day. We started with Halter, then went to the Green Horse classes (equitation, pleasure, discipline rail, and trail), and then I decided to throw in two crossrail classes just to see how he would be in them. I wasn't expecting him to be a superstar in crossrails or Halter because we usually do not do those classes.

We got there nice and early and I decided not to get on and warm up before Halter. This meant that he would have to go into the show ring without being able to look around first. In the past, this has been an issue because when we warm up in the ring, he usually spooks quite a bit at first. It was time for him to grow up and put his big boy pants on.

Halter went really well. We were waiting for half an hour outside of the indoor ring before our class started. By the time we went into the ring, Jet was getting aggrivated. However, he held it together during the class. He stood still and square and trotted right when I wanted him to. There were seven in the class and we ended up tying for sixth. I did not care about the ribbon, I was just proud of Jet. All of the other horses have been trained to do this class and have been doing it for some time. However, my Mom was not as happy as I was about it. She asked the judge why I placed so low and he said that it was because my bridle was a flash bridle (even though I did not have the flash on the noseband). If I didn't have that, he said I would have placed in the top of the class. Oh well, atleast I know I did well!

After that, I ran back to the trailer and tacked him up for the undersaddle classes. We only had two classes to warm up in a small warm up area. Our class was called and we entered the ring. There were three in my class this time (better than it being just me like the last show!). One of the girls has been going for year end points, like I was.

Our Green horse classes went really well! Jet wasn't spooky at all in the ring! We didn't break or do anything stupid. We stood still when we were supposed to, and didn't go around at 100 mph! The only this he was iffy on was trotting right on the rail. As the day went on, the track on the rail got really deep and mushy and I think he was having a hard time so I pulled him to the inside just a bit so he wasn;t on the track and he was MUCH happier. He was moving straight, getting great transitions, keeping an even tempo, level headset, he was just being great! We were spot on in trail too! In one of our classes, the girl that was going fr year end awards fell off of her horse RIGHT infront of us when the horse spooked. I immediately dismounted (a habit I guess) and just looked on. Jet was fine throughout the whole ordeal but was a bit looky where the horse spooked. After once past that area, he was fine. The girl was fine and hopped right back on like a champ! The rest of the day was fine with no injuries. We ended up with two firsts and two seconds!

Then we went on to crossrails. I snuck into the warm up and got a few rounds in and was laughing so much that it interfered with my riding. Jet was being good though! He was going over everything...WAY over everything. Our lines could have been straighter, we could have had a better, more consistant tempo, but he did it! I knew I wasn't going to place well compared to the lesson ponies so I took the oppurtunity to try some things out in the ring. i was trot one line, canter the next, trot in and canter out, ect. Just playing around with lines while we had the chance. Our ring at home isn't big enough for lines so both of us are only used to riding single fences so we both had some trouble doing lines. At Flatlands, the jumps were set as a jumper course so there weren't many lines but at Haskins, they were set up like a  Hunter course so it was all lines.

Overall I was super proud of him! We somehow ended up placing fifth out of eight in Equitation and fifth our of eight in Hunters....I have NO idea how that happened! Here are the videos: (notice how Jet decided to stop and poop in our first opening circle! lol)

(Will be edited in alter once they load so check back!!)

They ended the day with announcing day and year end champions. Jet and I won Day End Green Horse Champ and year end Green Horse Champ!! Yay Jet! I was so proud of him! Our hard work paid off and we improved from our reserve champion last year. We endded the show season being undefeated Green Horse Champion (except the show I did with Elsa). I'm a proud mom! (:

Here are some pics: