I am pleased to write that we have survived the weekend! It was LONG and tiring but we made it and it was tons of fun seeing people again and also meeting new friends. We got there early on Saturday morning and I was able to stick him in a stall for some breakfast before hitting the wash rack to get cleaned up (I took him there filthy... was slightly embarrassing!). He of course settled in just fine and was a perfect gentlemen for all this beauty prep. Our first class was our gelding 5 and over class. There were 3 horses, including us, and I knew we didnt have a chance LOL! Judges dont seem to like the short and squatty look anymore :) I am pleased to say he has the best mane of the entire show though, the judge was impressed!
Our next class was our musical freestyle. I found a CD at 5 in the morning (that day!) and found out that there were some required elements 10 minutes before going in (it was very poorly planned and they didnt tell anyone). Im not sure why he got so nervous when the crowd got going but he got super tense and just kind of ingnored me. The good part about it was that he didnt totally flip me off so we went in the general direction I wanted but it wasnt the quality of bridleless work I expected to get. Maybe if I had they tell the crowd to hold the applause till the end he would have been better? It didnt matter the judges were super impressed and we won! Watching it back it was actually pretty boring but maybe that is because I know he can do so much more. Plus they only gave us like 3 minutes and they left the judges center in the middle.
Sunday we had a color halter class in the morning against 11 horses of all ages and genders and he got 4th! Behind 2 stallions that took supreme champion (this one was crazy) and reserve champion of the entire show. After a long wait in between we had 3 english classes: dressage suitability, walk/trot, and walk/trot/canter. He went in and got pretty tense in the dressage class. I dont know what it was but between the big crowd ( weird arena where the stands are above the arena) and the giant flashing lights for the show photographer he wasnt so sure about it. Definitely not naughty and im not sure that anyone else could tell, but I could. Luckily he settled down for his next two and felt much more relaxed although he was totally done with those rail classes! We ended up 2nd in all of them. Disappointing but it seemed like the judge liked the pleasurey type horses more. Its hard to tell when they dont explain their reasons. That is why I like dressage, they give you comments and explain whey they placed you low, etc!
It was a ton of fun meeting new people (and fellow blogger Michelle stopped and said hi! Sorry we couldnt chat more) and also reuniting with others who have also bought horses from my aunt and uncle. We had a little family reunion!
 |
| All dressed up for musical freestyle! |
 |
| Tough enough |
 |
| He was one sleepy dude! |
 |
| Out of our element haha |
 |
| Ready to go! |
 |
| Family picture! All bred by Gypsy Elite (and most share the same daddy) |
 |
| Dante and Mystic! Dante is Mystics newphew (and is just as nice!) :) |
His mane looks gorgeous! He guys did good.
ReplyDeleteThe freestyle mane looks awesome! Breed shows are always interesting with the judging to me.
ReplyDeleteWell, you did better in your breed show than I did in ours! (Still, I was proud of my boy. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt was good to connect with you face to face, however briefly. Would love to have seen your freestyle.