The Details

Okay, finally feeling up to posting the full story.

So we showed up Friday night, September 21st. I put Apache in his stall and gave him some hay. He was completely content and relaxed. He’s totally gotten used to this whole show thing by now and is mellow about it. I went back to my hotel and hardly slept at all, as usual the night before a show in a strange hotel room. I got up around 7 a.m. and headed over to the show grounds. It was drizzling and chilly, but nothing too bad. Amazingly, when I opened his stall, Apache had hardly a mark on him. There were a few small green spots that came right out with Cowboy Magic. The biggest pain of showing him is definitely keeping clean the 50% of his coat that is white. Usually he ends up with large green spots from laying down in poop when he sleeps or scratching himself with his mouth while eating hay. However, he stayed remarkably clean at this show, even with the rain and mud.

So once I got him clean and the first class was getting close, I tacked him up and took him to the warm up ring to see what I had to work with. Usually he starts super hyper at the beginning of a show and gets lazier with each class. By the end, I’m having to really push him around the arena. Well, with this show, he started out fairly lazy to begin with. I had to take a crop into every class and he made me work hard for every performance.

Our first class was the second class of the show, SSH English Trail Pleasure Open 2-Gait. It was an open class, meaning that it was open to trainers and amateurs. I was the only amateur in the class with two professional trainers. However, one of the trainers called for a gate hold and ended up taking 5 minutes to get in the ring. All the while, we’re going around and around and Apache is getting more and more annoyed. He knows how these things are supposed to go and that we aren’t sticking to the program. Thus, by the time the trainer showed up and the class finally started, he was pretty irritated. We went around at a slow gait for a bit and then the judge called for a show gait (i.e., second gear). Since Apache was annoyed, he decided to try and give me a canter instead. I asked him to speed up 3 times and each time, he popped his shoulder up and took half a canter step before I half halted him back down. He finally gave me the faster gait, but we’d already covered about a quarter of the arena fighting over it. The judge had to have noticed at least some of that. We ended up getting 2nd in that class. I really couldn’t complain given that he had messed up and I was showing against trainers. I do wonder if it would have made a difference if that hadn’t happened. We’ll never know!

The next class was the 9th class of the show, SSH Western/English Trail Pleasure Ladies Amateur 2-Gait. There were 4 women riding in that class. Apache again made me really push him the entire class, but he did stay consistent and never broke gait. We got 1st place in that class, and so began the streak that took me by surprise. Apache then got a 5 hour break while I went back to my hotel room and waited for the night time classes.

The last class of the first day was TWH English Trail Pleasure Open 3-Gait. I went into this class expecting nothing. I have never in my life seen a gaited judge place a spotted walker over a solid one in an under saddle class. There was only one SSH 3-Gait class offered at this show and I wanted to do more than one 3-Gait class and I also wanted a trial run for the SSH 3-Gait the next day. That’s why I went into this class. There were 4 of us, the other 3 were all solid TWH, and not surprisingly, we got 4th. That was it for day 1.

The next morning we were again in the second class of the day, a model class. The rain had stopped by day 2 and Apache was again pretty clean and easy to get ready for the model class. We went down when our class was called and to my dismay there were two big gorgeous black and white spotted horses down there. I knew we were in trouble. Apache was also doing his usual chomping furiously on his bit and consequently spewing slobber everywhere. Ugh. Never pretty when you are trying to show off your horse’s good looks. I got him to behave moderately well in the class. He never moved once I parked him out, which was awesome and a first, but he wouldn’t stop chomping for more than 3 seconds at a time. Despite that, to my amazement, when the results came in, we got 1st place! I was so thrilled. I can’t believe we beat out those black and whites. Perhaps the judge was looking for a smaller saddle type horse per the more recent direction of the breed registries. It’s always impossible to know what they are looking for.

After all of the model classes were over, which gave us about an hour break, we were in the first under saddle class of the day, SSH Western/English Country Pleasure 2-Gait. Now usually if you enter in Country Pleasure classes, you cannot enter into classes in any other division, which is why I have never entered any Country Pleasure classes before. I’ve often wondered if that would be a more appropriate division for Apache or if Trail Pleasure is indeed the correct place for him as I suspected. We went into the class and the same 2 gorgeous black and whites from the model class were in there, plus another pretty black and white. Another hard effort to get Apache around, but I did pull it off. We ended up getting 2nd in that class. I can’t be sure, but I think it was the judge’s way of letting me know that Trail Pleasure was the better division for us. It’s nice to know that I’ve been doing the right thing with him.

The next under saddle class was another hour or so later and the SSH Western/English Trail Pleasure Open 3-Gait. It was just me and one of the pretty black and whites in that class. Apache got both his leads, although he did trip just after we picked up the canter going to the right and I thought for a second that he grabbed the wrong lead afterwards. Fortunately, he hadn’t. He of course made me keep on him the entire time to stay in gait, but I was happy that he did and that he got his leads with no fuss. On the line up, the judge said, after we finished backing our horses, ‘Nice class ladies, nice ride.” I always appreciate when they make comments like that. We got another 1st in that class and it felt hard won given the judges comments.

Finally, several hours later, it was time for the championship class. I went in and it was one of the pretty black and whites and a two time winner of the championship in the past, Colors Dream Chaser. As we went around the ring, I literally felt like I was pushing Apache for every step and was squeezing the last little bit out of him that I was going to get. When the results came in, we got the championship! When I went to get the trophy, the judge told me again, ‘Nice ride.’ We got a championship ribbon, a small trophy to keep, and a perpetual trophy that we get to put our names on and stays in rotation annually. As I was trying to grab all of it from horseback, the ring steward said, “Where are your barn people?” I said, “Oh, I’m here alone!” He helped me by carrying everything out for me, so I could leave the arena for the next class to come in, and then grab it after I dismounted. As I was walking back to the barn, Jay Manos, a local trainer, came up to congratulate me and told me it was a nice ride, which I really appreciated. The show manager, Jen Hackney, also gave me a hug and told me congratulations on the great show I’d had. Everyone was very nice and supportive. I will definitely go back to that show next year. I was so proud of Apache and he got almost a full week off. Hopefully at our next show he’ll have a little more spark in his step!