August 18, 2007 - Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville, CA
Beginning Reining (DQ - too many spins)
Amateur Adult Reinning Class (1st place)
Senior Horse Reining class (4th place)
Photography - Best of the West Photography
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For the beginning reining class, I think I was 3rd to go in. I couldn’t tell if everyone was staying on pattern. When it was my turn, Ruby walked in nice and slow. I thought she did her right spins pretty nice, but the left spin, she started to poop out, so I kissed to her and kicked a few times, but in doing so, lost count and didn’t remember if we were on our second or third spin, so we went one more, and that was one too many. We were off pattern and disqualified. I thought I heard a barely audible groan from the people watching at the gate, but we continued with the pattern. |
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Next two large left lead circles, then the slow circle, changed leads nicely, two big right lead circles, then the left lead changes was a little rough and she sped up a bit. Went around to the top of the circle, down to the right side and did a rollback just past the center. She did not tuck, but she didn’t collapse onto her front end either. She did a pretty good rollback, went around to the other side and had much the same thing, then rolled back and we were supposed to have a sliding stop just past center and back up. Her back up was real crooked. I turned toward the judge and one of them said thank you, but they didn’t want me to drop the bit, like they asked the first two riders, so I knew I’d gone off pattern. No one said ‘good job’ to me when I walked out the gate. |
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Again, with amateur adult, I was the 3rd rider. This started off with a slow small right lead circle followed by two large fast circles, then the lead change which was rough and fast. She went diving into the small circle and we were almost all the way around before I slowed her down. After the two fast circles, we had a nice lead change and went around to the top and ran down to the gate. She absolutely bolted and I knew if I stopped her, she would scotch the stop, so I let her go all the way down past the end marker before I threw my legs forward, said whoa and pulled the rein up and back. She stopped like Mikey! There was no tucking at all, of course. |
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Spins in the amateur adult class. All 4 of the other riders in this class blew the pattern, so I got first place by default. The senior horse class pattern started with a rundown. Now that I know Ruby can bolt, I kept her pretty calm and quiet and had pretty nice rollbacks going up and back. We didn’t get a sliding stop because she was so slow she was barely in a lope. Our back up seemed awkward. |
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The spins again were pretty good and the correct number. Next was a left lead departure, big, small, big, changed leads easily, then the big into small right lead circle was a problem, cuz Ruby wanted to go back into the left lead circles. I think the change in making sure she was touching center had her thinking we were going to change. |
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The judges asked us to dismount and drop the bit so they could check it after our Adult Amateur class. |
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In the senior horse class, when we finally did go back for the lead change, it was a big deal for Ruby. She changed, but she turned sharply left and stampeded into the center. Well, no hope of making a nice round circle, so we just continued around the top and up the side to the spot where we had to do our final sliding stop. It didn't feel like she tucked for this stop, but the photo at left shows that she did! |
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I gave her a pat and the judges again wanted to see her bit, so we went over to them and dropped the bit. I was so nervous, more nervous than I was riding, and I had a hard time getting the bit back in her mouth. I walked her out this time. We placed 4th in this class. |