First Show from Hell..and then heaven

[Emily-Moe]

Hey yall! My frst show for this season was pretty bad, atleast for the saddleseat portion. I ride a Paso as many of you know and as Gracie knows my "ss' shows are a joke! WELL i rode first in Gaited Walking Racking GAYP, the judge said GAYP..and then later said RACK ON! hmmm, my horse doesnt rack? so i got last place 5th cuz there were only 5 people! THEN more fun, THE PLEASURE CLASS, called for a canter, which i will add again my horse does not do!SO 5th again! *sigh* and now we come to the EQ class,i was reeally pissed off by now so i stopped trying to do REAL ss EQ and copied the girl who had won the other classes(all she did was sit there), cuz obviously it was working for her! I didnt even work on my horse head set. WELL i placed 4th....sumehow when im not trying im a better rider!

ANYWAY lets get to the good part, my freinds saw how bummed i was and they know i used to run barrel w/ Chi before i decided to devote my attention to SS. So sumone loaned me a western saddle and i did speed barrel and cloverleaf. Now take into considerrtion this horse hasnt run barrels in 6 months. Speed barrl i got 12.3 which beat about 6 other horse who do speed all the time(QH's i might add) , i didnt place but i was stoked. SO i do cloverleaf and run a 25.23 and *drum roll* I PLACE!!! I got a 5th which means i beat about 10 quarter horses!!! That was the only good part to the day!! I have decided im not going to show SS at that circuit because its a waste if a judge calls for gaits my horse physically cant do, so im just gunna do speed because and heres the curve ball....

ALL day my horse was fussing during ther SS (we firgure it was cuz hes pretty green) and he showed horribly(not that it would have mattered,cuz nutin could make him rack).BUT during speed he was soo happy. He stood quietly when we werent running, but he was bouncy and happy when we went into the ring. SS obviously doesnt make him very happy so i firgure ill trade him this circuit as a speed circuit for 4h as a saddleseat circuit. He will never be a Champ. SS horse cuz there is no Paso Fino SS circuit, but i seriously belive he could be a reeeaaly good speed horse. Ive never seen a QH cum back from 6 months of not running anf do as well as he did!

Just thought id share my interesting day! ;D

[LavaJava]

WOW what a day.. well at least you now arent wasting your time trying to do something your horse dosnt like

[Machogirl]

Sounds like you had a rough start, but at lot of fun overall! Congratulations! I know how you feel showing a gaited horse that no one knows anything about. I get discriminated a lot in 4H for showing a TWH. *sigh of dissappointment because some people are just plain ignorant*

[saddleseatrob]

I know how you feel one time I was showing in a go-as-you-please western class. After we showed at the walk the judge called for a jog, well seeing as to how I was riding a Walking Horse that's not really possible. I somehow got 4th out of 6th.

[Emily-Moe]

i dunno, i think he likes it, cuz at State he was so excited to go in the ring, but im pretty sure he doesnt like having horses whizzing passed him at a canter. He is immature so waiting around didnt go over too well with him. I will continue SS for 4h, but ill do speed at these county shows. He likes both i think but its almost like he knows when he loses, cuz he HATES being the last horse in the ring!

[Gracie]

i hate when judges dont know what they're talking about because then even when i know that i had a good class I'm still left standing in the ring.
And yes i think a lot of horses know when they lose, at least ones that I've ridden b/c for example one that i rode last year didnt place and he started rearing and trying to cut off the horses that did place.