July 14 , 2007 - Golden State Appaloosa Club Horse Show - San Jose Showgrounds, San Jose, CA
Amateur Adult Reinning Class (DQ - off pattern)
Senior Horse Reining class - First Place!
Photography - Best of the West Photography
It was a real hot day. This show was in San Jose, so I hauled my horse and rig over Highway 17, taking my time. I'd called the show secretary a few days earlier and she told me that Reining was the last class, so I didn't need to be there on the showgrounds until around 3:00. That would give me lots of time to warm up before my class. Since we hadn't been to the showgrounds before, I thought I'd get there even earlier. We arrived around 2:20 and when I went to sign up for our class, we were told, the classes are small today; you're up next! Well, I hadn't even put on my show clothes yet and my horse was still in the trailer after the 2-hour drive to the showgrounds.  |
So we scurried to get ready and arrived at the gate just as we were called. There was no warm-up area, so I asked the judge if we could have some time to warm up. He told me that I could warm up while they set up the marker cones. That gave us a little less than 5 minutes! There was only one arena at this showgrounds and half of it was being used for trail classes. They gave the reining class the other half of the arena to use, so instead of a rectangle, the area to run the pattern was closer to being a square! So first off, I have a very fresh horse, it's hot as h*ll, I scarcely knew the pattern and the only cones mark the center of the arena. Oh, and it's also extremely windy. I am not a happy person. And, I'm the *only* reiner in each of the two classes. The first class we screwed up because we stopped in the wrong place. I got confused because the "ends" of the arena were longer than the "sides" of the arena. So we DQ'd the Amateur Adult class. |
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We did better in the second class. Ruby was spooking at everything. The arena footing was horrible and dusty too. All of these pictures were taken during our first class except the last photo. I know that because even with hair spray anchoring my hat to my head, the mighty wind whipped that baby right off. Fortunately, the photographer was standing nearby and picked up the hat before the wind blew it under my horse's hooves. That avoided a western moment, thankfully. One thing that went well this day was that Ruby's spins were real nice. |
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Another good spin from Ruby. |
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This looks like a possible lead change.
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At this point, things were really deteriorating. Ruby's looking at the photographer and is about ready to spook. My expression shows how ridiculous I thought our run was. |
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Ah, the hat came off, so I no longer had to think about holding it on. We finished the second run, first place out of one contestant! The judge told me I need to train my horse to respond with more leg so I don't have to hold the reins so tight. HA! That tight rein was for everyone's safety! Within an hour of arriving, we had finished our classes, loaded up and were back on the road. |