Show!

Way less exciting than Gillian's post, but still...

I rode Keno on Thursday while Robert was eating lunch. I haven't ridden him in a disgraceful amount of time, so he was a little prancy at first, but oh wow. I love broke horses. I ask him to do something and he understand what I want, and more importantly, actually does it. I know part of that is probably him being a gelding, but still. It's delightful. He was pissy, high headed and hollow on his right lead canter, but to be honest I don't think I worked him enough to ask for a good canter. It was colllld out. His left lead was lovely, though. Smooth, effortless, balanced. There's not the power there is behind Luca's, but it's much easier to sit and enjoy.

(I rode Luca on Thursday with my music playing on my iPod. At the end, Xsarena and Cari came in and started playing their own music on the stereo. Luca was *very* unhappy at first, due to the clashing music. It was pretty cute.)

I ran out on Friday after class and fed, rode Luca, bathed both horses, and packed the trailer. I hopped on him, bareback, to destroy my temptation to school him the day before the show. He was decent and that was all I asked for.

Woke up at 4:30 am after a late night (bed at 1 am), got to the barn at 7:30 am and left pretty promptly. Drove to Astoria, got there at 10:30. Upon arrival Robert discovered he had left his checkbook and all his paperwork in Eagle Creek. Luckily, everyone knows him and the officials just said eh, send it in when you get back. We got there at 10:30 and the driving classes started around 11:30, so between checking in, getting stalls, tacking Reno and warming him up, it got a little close. We didn't even stall Reno, just tied him to the trailer and harnessed him up there, unhooked the trailer and drove the truck far enough away to unload the cart, hooked him and went to warm up. Robert decided, naturally, to warm up the palomino pinto with his shiny white stockings in the mud. Grrr. We didn't realize how much time I had before Luca's and my classes began, so Robert suggested I start getting him ready.

Luca was stalled next to a tack stall, so he spent a lot of time rearing up to look over the divider, at the people coming in and out. The other portion of his time was spent running up to the stall door to whicker at whatever horse walked by. I walked in with the grooming kit just in time to hear a couple younger girls say "that horse is crazy!" Upon which, of course, Luca stuck his head over the door, looked at me, and whickered. I laughed. They were impressed by me and scared by the stallyun.

The problem with leaving me to my own devices is that I like to be able to do things. So Robert was showing Reno, and I had no idea when my classes were, so I cleaned Luca up. That didn't take very long. So next... I got dressed? That seemed to be the next step. My parents called during that process, and took a couple minutes to pick up on my harried, frantic tone. I told them I'd call back later because I was at a horse show. After I got dressed, I thought it was time for Luca to get dressed too. Robert parked the trailer pretty far away so I figured I'd eat up some time by walking back and forth with tack. I was listening to music so I had a poorer grasp of time than usual- I measured it in songs rather than minutes.

Robert had told me Luca was "on the muscle" (which I always interpret as "may explode at any given moment") but he was fine as usual to tack up. When he was tacked up, I figured I might as well lunge him. No one told me when lunch was going to be, or that in-hand and ridden trails would take about twenty minutes each. We went to lunge and Luca was exactly as he was at home. A little bit of a jerk, didn't want to walk and challenged me on changing direction, but whatever, I can deal with that. We did our own little thing until Robert appeared and disappeared again.

Continuing the process, I thought... I don't want to lunge him anymore. Robert isn't here, but I guess I will ride him. I hate mounting because it's the most vulnerable you're going to be on a horse. I especially hate mounting Luca because he hasn't had the greatest track record, but also he's so round that it's easy for the saddle to slip. All went well, he stood still til I asked him to move, and the saddle didn't slide. The boy's really shaping up nicely.

He was a little looky around the arena the first couple times, but no spooks the entire show. Luca was pretty psyched when some new horses came in, but we figured it out. One of his problems is that he doesn't consider walking working, it has to be trot or above. Walking is relaxing, stretching, and talking time. That last part is incorrect, but we'll work on it.

So. I probably started lunging Luca around 11:30 or 11:45. There was a twenty minute lunch, as well as in-hand trail and ridden trail, and a couple other classes. It was, much to our mutual dismay, about 3:45 or 4 before our first class started up. That's a solid 4 hours of work, at least 3.5 of that ridden. I haven't asked him to work more than, at most, an hour and a half total, and he was tired and losing it by the end. Most of it was at a posting trot, since that's where he feels most comfortable with other horses.

This is a good time to note that, though he was a little sweaty at the end of our lunging session, it had all dried by the time I untacked him at the end of the day. I may call him Squishybutt, but he's actually in decent shape for all that. I don't think it tired either of us out as much as I expected. This is also such a strong claim for a good saddle that FITS the horse.

Finally it was our class! There were seven horses in there- us, a Quarter Horse, an Appy, a Morgan or two, and a couple APHA/pintos. Honestly, the whole class is mostly a blur to me. I know we entered at a posting trot, and we were behind a pretty chestnut overo mare for a while until we went a little too fast. I remember the gate steward saying "Luca, be a good boy!". I was enjoying the horse under me because he was so reliable and forward and happy. I was grinning like a fool, partially because I saw the photographer coming towards us a lot, but also because he was just a fun ride and a game little horse. Our trot-walk transition was excellent, since we can do that on a deep exhale and sitting a little deeper, and I noticed the judge watching us. I didn't expect to get asked for an extended trot, and Luca put more energy into it than he does at home, because we broke into a canter. Twice. Honestly, I didn't mind, especially at that point. That's something I need to learn to hold him at, and it would have been nice if he hadn't done it, but who cares? We were cutting across the ring for more space when the judge called for a halt. I didn't know what the protocol was- was I supposed to stop right there or trot to the rail? I opted for the former, and we had a nice halt. She told us to back up. I was really happy Robert told us to try the reverse on Thursday. Luca and I went more or less straight, which probably won us major points for not being on the rail. Our halt-trot was pretty good too. We lined up and waited. All the horses stood still and calm. Luca swung his head back and forth, but again, at this point? I really didn't care. His feet did not move. The photographer came out and said "Luca, what a big boy you are!" and I grinned for the camera.

Results- first place, the Quarter Horse. Unsurprised. Second- the appaloosa. Again, not surprised, he looks broke broke broke and went to Worlds. Third- Cedar Hill Nimrod Luca? Whoa. Awesome. We (and by that, I really mean Luca) got a bigger cheer than the QH or Appy.

We walked around the parking lot, waiting for the solid color class to come up. He was calling a lot and being a little antsy so I tried taking him into the warmup arena to trot around. He refused to trot on the rail, sidepassing sideways and did one buck. He was letting me know he was totally fried, mentally and probably physically. I accepted this. He'd been a really good boy for hours and hours of riding, enough that I didn't even notice the passing of time. We'd both been in the zone, but now we were out and he was tired and wanted to be done. I thought that was fair enough. We walked over to Robert and let him know that Luca was done.

It was just as well- the solid color class was pretty big, 10+ horses, and many of them were very nice. Our canter wasn't nearly solid enough to do well, and while he probably would have behaved, there was a more than infintesimal chance that he would have blown. One point towards his ROM wasn't worth it.

Untacked, packed trailer, went home.

Lessons from this:

Luca is awesome! Such a good boy. He really went above and beyond.

I think establishing a procedure (tack/lunge/ride) was helpful. I also think a 3 hour trailer ride was useful in tiring him out.

I wouldn't be surprised if riding with the same music I ride with at home helped both of us get in "the zone." Robert and I were talking about the zone on the way up- how he'd get on Lady in the arena and have music on and trot around, and next thing he knew, an hour had gone by and they were both drenched in sweat. Luca and I definitely got there. It was very much a case of looking to see where we needed to go and doing it.

Stallions are, surprise! Totally capable of behaving like any other horse. True, he got a tad more forward when he was right behind a mare, and liked to stare at horses when they would be nose-and-nose with him, about four feet to the side, but he worked just as hard, and directing him places was never difficult.

I hope he learned that I'm reasonable. That when he said, that's it, I can't do any more, I said okay, and got off. I know there will be days when he says "I don't want to" and I reply "that's too bad," but this was not a situation in which I thought I needed to do that, or that I thought I'd be in the right if I did tell him that.

I need to have a better sense of timing for shows, but that will come with experience (and knowledge of this thing called trail classes). We could have done that second class if we'd started even half an hour later, I think. And we really didn't need to ride for that long- a half hour warm up ride was probably more than sufficient.

I am really grateful for how well our horses lunge. Some of the riders there were just making their horses go at a dead run on a small circle, no walk or trot, just frantic unbalanced canter. I much prefer the discipline method of lunging, vs. the exercise method.

Show nerves are dead after you ride for 3 hours on 3.5 hours of sleep. Both of us wanted to get in the ring and go home.

I still can't get over what a good guy Luca was. I was really proud of him. I also think we do better when I work on him primarily one-on-one, rather than having three people surrounding him. He gets worked up that way, and so do I.

6 points down, 244 left til we get his ROM in English. Just wait til we have our huntseat saddle, and go to some double-point shows!