Horse Expo

We rode in Brenda's tack for most of the demonstrations – her bit and saddle. I found the saddle to be perfectly comfortable, but didn't make any real difference in Apache's gaits. As usual, when in a new palce, Apache started out very excited, and thus very hollow, inverted, head in the air, and pacey. However, once he relaxed and rounded up, he was gaiting like he always does – just like at home. I don't think he liked the bit, as he started refusing it after the first day. Apache has only refused one other bit in his life, and I stopped using it right away! He really likes the bit I have for him, so I don't see much reason to switch. As for the saddle, the theory behind it made a lot of sense to me, being farther forward so that you are on the center point of the horse's action (the fulcrum so to speak). I understood why this is far more important for the action of a gaited horse's movement vs. a trotting horse's movement. But $1400 is way out of my price range. I'm going to see if I can find any other saddles based on this principle. Even though I didn't notice a difference in Apache's gaits, I did buy that it is harder on him to gait properly in the saddle I use than in a saddle that sits farther forward. I think he is just so eager to please and mellow and has such a high pain tolerance that he does the gaits I ask for even if it is harder or uncomfortable in a particular saddle.

Predictably, Apache provided the comic relief for the demonstrations as well. There was one session where Brenda was discussing the confirmation of each horse and how we could use it to predict what gaits that horse would do. For that session, we brought our horses in halter. Apache was freshley bathed, since the sweat and dirt from the saddle in previous sessions was showing on his white hair with no tack on. Well, he got sick of standing around while we were waiting our turn, and sick of being clean, and he went down. He rolled and rolled, despite me pulling on his lead rope, so I finally just let him have at it. The audience was clapping, hooting, and laughing. Typical Apache. : P

That session was the most interesting one for me personally. You can measure a horse's angles in front and in back. In front, you draw a line from the point of his shoulder to the point of his chest, then from the point of his chest to point the of his elbow. In back, you can draw a line from the point of his hip to the point of his buttock, then from the point of his buttock to the point of his stiffle. Brenda's explanation of these angles was as follows. If the angles are about the same in back and front, the horse will be most likely to rack. A larger angle in the front than the back would predict that the horse will foxtrot. A larger angle in the back than the front would predict that the horse will running walk. Now Apache's angles were pretty even, but, Brenda said, because his back is short and his back legs are long, he can get a lot of overstride and is thus more of a running walk horse than a rack horse, despite his angles. In truth, Apache can do both gaits and knows different commands to do one versus the other. I guess he is capable of getting the overstride because of his long legs, but also knows how to do a more vertical, shorter step and thus can also rack. I asked Brenda where pace comes in, since her explanation only covered rack, running walk, and foxtrot and my understanding of her reply is that a horse really shouldn't pace unless they are sore or improperly trained. She said that pacing is hard on the horse's legs and can cause stiffle problems in the long run. She also said that the "coupling" measurement, which was a distance between certain vertebrae, but I didn't catch the exact details, can cause a horse to be more pacey or more trotty. She said Apache's coupling meant he should be more pacey (I'm not sure how that reconciles with the previous statement about paciness), but Apache is both trotty and pacey, depending on his mood. I have pictures of him doing a hard trot and he does it all the time in pasture or on the lunge line. I have seen him hard pace also, but I'd say 10 times or less in the 7 years I've had him, although he does stepping pace under saddle if I don't keep him in check. I asked her how his confirmation can explain the trotty action and she didn't really have an answer. Regardless, it was interesting to learn about confirmation and gaits in general as well as the specifics about my horse.

Woodside Gaited Horse Show

We didn't do as well at this show as we did at the previous one. The judge was from Tennessee. It was weird – they were calling for the walking horse gaits in the spotted classes. Sure, some of the horses were doing them, but not all, and it shouldn't be a requirement in a spotted class. Apache was doing racking gaits for most of the show, not walking, because he was so excited, and that should have been fine. I don't know if it was just a mistake on the announcers part or if the classes were actually being judged that way, but they didn't ever correct him over the course of two days, so it seemed suspicious. Anyway, there was a decent showing – about 6 or 7 spotteds other than Apache, most of which were gorgeous. There were a number of nice big black and whites, some with blue eyes. So pretty.

We did our first class in English tack and attire. After that, there were a few mandatory Western classes in a row, so we did that and I just used the Western tack and attire for the rest of the show, since it was a little cooler attire and I already had the tack out and ready. There was no official show photographer for some reason, but my friend Nicole came and took some pictures. You can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhanusek/sets/72157594154682098/. Obviously, we're the bay and white with the red-shirted rider. The rest are just pictures she took of random other horses.

We didn't have much success to speak of, except in the spotted halter class. We got first out of four, and the other three were beautiful black and whites. If I had expected to do so well, I would have gone into the walking horse model and/or the model championship. Oh well, it was a pleasant surprise just to get that and I'll take it. In addition, no one else entered the spotted 3 gait, so we of course won that. I don't know if we would have if anyone else had entered since he didn't use us in the other under saddle classes much. I guess it depends on how much the judge weights the canter in that class and how he liked Apache's, but I'll never know. I *really* want to go to the FOSH show at the end of June, but I just can't afford it right now between the Woodside show, the PCFTA show, and the Horse Expo all within a month. I haven't been to a FOSH show yet since we started showing CA, and there isn't another one that I know of until October. I'll go to that one if it's the next one, but I'm hoping they come up with one before then. I'd really like to see how we do at a FOSH show.