Ribbons & 2010 show season planning

So I loved christmas since my Year End award ribbons finally showed up and my Reserve Champion Sash from state!! I will add pictures at the end of this post. Cherokee is progressing very well and we've got some basic showmanship down. I haven't gotten to work with her all that much since it's been so rainy and boggy which bums me out but that's rainy season. I have also been speaking with one of my horsey friends and I am thinking of joining PtHA. I had the idea last year to join this year BUT now I am not sure since I am planning on showing at Gold N Grand. So if I do join PtHA I will probably end up having to drop a couple of my Hunter shows. However! I do have a job interview tomorrow so if I get this new job I might have a little extra cash around to attened some more shows. I want to get an idea of where PtHA congress & world is held and how much everything is going to cost and if I have a real shot of doing well in this association. D is not the best mover but we could kill in showmanship, Eq, and Hunter Hack along with other fence classes but I want to make sure that if I put the money out it will be worth it. I will have to be real nit picky about the shows I attened so that is where I am at show wise at this point in time. Ok Ribbon Picture time! (the first two ribbons on the right are the new ribbons, the very first one is for CSHA region 2 Year End Rider. Then to the left of that is the 2009 CSHA Region 2 Year End English Allround rider) The Sash is for CSHA 2009 Show Of Champions Open W/T reserve Championship title.

Showmanship with Cherokee

So today we started with some lunging since it seems that Cherokee works a lot better once we worked a little of that extra energy out of her system. We had a lot of construction going on near our house (PG&E cutting back some branches) so we had a couple of issues with standing still BUT that's understandable with falling branches. We worked on walking and stopping without me having to pull her to a stop. She's doing very well but sometimes I bump into her shoulder when we stop (which is an issue I had with D so I am wondering if maybe I am at fault there). She's getting really good at halting right when I do. We also worked on setting up and she did pretty well with letting me pick up and move her feet around. After that I worked on getting her to drop her head so that I don't have a giraff in the ring lol. Overall a very good day for all the scary things that were going on.

Day 1 & 2 Working with Cherokee

I didn't get a chance to post how cherokee did yesterday so I am just adding it in here today. I worked on a couple of parelli games with her because there are things that I like about parelli but there are also a lot of things about parelli I am not sure I agree with. Anyways, She did well with the Friendly and yoyo games. She wasn't too sure about me touching her legs but I knew she's at least been clipped before and by the end of the session was letting me touch and pick up her feet. I worked with her on walk/trot/canter commands in the round pen and she did very well. She's very in-tune with my body language and positioning. I like her movement, I would go as far as to say it's better than D's. Really low knee action and flicky in the front, she's a little fast in the back but with training I am sure she would be a caute little mover.

Today:
Started with the friendly game and she did great, She did move around a little while I was playing with her back legs but overall not bad at all. She got the yoyo game pretty much perfectly! I would bearly give the rope a wiggle and she backed away like a champ. Did more round pen work and I don't believe she knows the difference between walk,trot, canter, and whoa yet but she does them all. Also when I bend over while she is trotting and say whoa she stopps so I am proud of her. I tied her up and spent about 20minutes brushing her, cleaning her feet, pulling her mane and what not and she did a great job! I want to try taking her into the area tomorrow and lunging her on a lug rope and seeing how she does. That is all the update I have for right now. I also think if the lung rope goes well. We will work on some de-spooking training.

2010 Show season Cost(s)

I spent about an hour last night calculating out how much the 2010 show season is going to cost me. Excluding CSHA State and GNG (Gold N Grand) it totals out to about $2,335.05 for the whole year (doing 18 shows). I know GNG is going to bump that up at least another 3 or 4 hundred bucks and state will add another $200.00 so I might hit the $3,000 point by the time ALL the shows have been added up. I'll make a list of the shows and the dates once I get a little more information on that. I am also hoping/planning on getting a nice western show saddle off of eBay to have around for when I do find those Eng/West show series.

On a side note: My neighbor and best friend's little paint filly is turning four next April. Being that he has little horse knowledge and I have been talking about wanting a new horse to work with he said I could work with her. Her name is Cheerokee after her mom who is Apache. She's a CAUTE little thing and my hope is that if I work with her the rest of this month and all of Decemeber I can pop her into a halter and showmanship class at the NCAA series in January since they have a Novice Horse catagory, maybe a ridden class or two if she's doing well but I'm not going to rush things since there are a ton of shows to pick from next year.

Last note: Check out my profile for a link to the HorseForum! It's a great site with a lot of fun horsey people to talk to and TONS of topics to talk horse about!

CSHA region 18 buckle - Year End Banquet.

I've given D a little over a month off to just be a horse and hangout in the field. I am going to start conditioning him for next years show season after Thanks Giving. I am so fare planning on doing the NCAA buckle series BUT I'm also not 100% sure either because you have to ride Engish and western to qualify for the buckle. Well you don't have to but if there is someone who does ride both then you don't have a shot at winning. I am working on a budget so I can see how much showing this year is going to cost me. I am also going to be competeing in Amature classes this year so I will be getting my Amature card. I hope this doesn't sound like a show off but mom told me "I am tired of buckles that say OPEN on them" lol so I told her I would do Amature this year. I will be posting a list of shows sometime next month or maybe in January once I have a list of shows I plan on attending. Our region is having their Year End Award Ceremony on December 5th this year. I am very excited to see what they will be handing out, I will do my best to take a ton of pictures. I also finally got the CSHA Region 18 buckle that D & I won back in August. It's smaller but VERY pretty, Oh and Bailie will no longer be showing D. Enjoy the pictures!

A little more exciting news is I got a new truck to haul my trailer with next season. It's a 1993 1500 Chevy Suaburban, the gas makes me cry but I am planning on using it strictly for shows.

California State Championships... One big mess up

If you didn't catch from the title our show didn't go well (for many a reason). Our first Showmanship class Friday was 18-34 and once again an easy pattern. Trot from cone A to Cone B halt preform a 450 degree turn. Walk to the judge, det up for inspection, preform a 270 and walk away. So we TOTALLY messed up our first class/pattern. We were first in order to go and his trot off and halt was nice but he stepped out of his pivot and took at least 30 seconds to swuare up!! (my fault) and then did his 270 okish. So we ended up with 3rd out of 4 in that class. The we had 10 people in Open so I really wanted to nail our pattern. I worked on his pivot outside of the ring. He steped out again and I gave him a smack on the shoulder and seemed to wake up and remember we were showing. Everything was pretty much perfect. We had a 2 second square up and he slightly stepped out of his pivot but over all way better. We ended up as Second out of ten!!!! HAHA Reserve Showmanship Open Champion! I'll take it! Saterday I had no events to show is so I rode around the show grounds with my new friend Lyssette and her horse Carlos. Then spent four ours braiding D for Sunday. I had a lot of help from my new friends David and Preston (but that's another story). Then Sunday rolls around and I got out to warm up and D was a little sucked back over the jumps but after some warming up he was doing good. I leave the warm-up ring to start the show and they raise the jumps. So I know I'm in trouble because D's probably going to look at every single one and behold he pretty much did. I was so mad, I've officially decided that from now on I am wearing spurs when we jump :D that simple. This is how we did:
2'6" Open Hunters 2nd out of 3
2'6" Eq over fences 3rd otu of 3 (our worst class, I sucked)
2'6" Jumpers Pity 3rd out of 3 (went off course >.<)
2'6" Hunter Hack 3rd out of 4 (shocked we even got that)

So I'm pretty much screwed but I had also signed up for the w/t championship as well so I figured I would sick around for that :P. I go back to the stall to change from my saffle bit to my kimberwick and find that it's missing?!?! Our neighbors hadn't been very neighborly all weekend. They filled up my friends muck bucket without bumping it out and had moved our hose around without our permission, normally we don't mine these things if you just ask us first. So I worked with D on dropping his head with the D-ring snaffle and he was actually a VERY good boy I was so proud of him. Our judge was a little screwy on the flat placings though. Here is how we did:
w/t Open Pleasure: 5th out of 10 (kool! not bad for D)
English Pleasure Open: 5th out of 8 (again very cool)
w/t Open Eq: 5th out of 10 (ok not complaining)
English Open Eq: 5th out of 8 (Here is where I got upset because we were asked to drop out iorns and the woman who got first only dropped er inside iorn and the second place rider would drop his stirrups only when he was in front of the judge?! I don't think I should get first or anything but I was thinking 3rd!)
English Open HUS: 7th out of 10 (pretty much what I expected lol.)
English Open Bridle Path Hack: 8th out of 8 (total BS run because the woman who got first almost fell off her horse mounting up and he spooked at the mounting block??)

So we ended up getting 3rd out of 3 for allaround but I honestly don't like how they did state this year. They advertised that state Champions would win a trophie saddle and at the show annouced that only flat champions would have a shot at winning a saddle(thanx for the heads up). Then they ran out of saddles so I think there was one or two people who only got a buckle? THEN instead of seperating the flat and overall champions they made it to where if you entered allround you also entered the flat so whoever got champion and reserve allround won the flat as well which was also reall BS. So I am not sure if I will be back next year, I would like to come because I've been told it's going to be a rancho murietta(SP) and THAT would be a fun place to show at. I'm also planning on doing Gold N Grand next year if I can save up the money so we shall see. There is another show at the end of this month I was thinking about going too put I wont have the money (I bet) so I am just thinking of calling it a season and just relaxing till Januaryish because I haven't won the NCAA buckle before and I would like to win that before I write off a couple of shows around here.

Tehama Fair - Red Bluff Fair Grounds

So, I was planning on using the Tehama Fair to kind of get an idea of what I might place as when I went to state (At least for showmanship). I heard that there were 17 people in our pleasure class so I knew we were not going to place there, my baby just doesn't have the long sweepy movement judges love. There were also 17 people in our eq class so I was thinking I at least had a shot in placing there. Here are the results:
Showmanship Open 4th out of 10
English Pleasure Open: Didn't place :(
English Eq Open: Didn't place :'(

Now I know exactly what went wrong in my eq class. D was already being a speed demon that day *pulls out hair* I'm thinking of lunging him now before we ride because he's been rather speedy at a lot of shows recently. Anyways he decided it would a good idea to halt (while we were cantering) right in front of the judge. Proceded to rear and then buck a couple of times. I'm excited I staied on but after the class the judge approached me and said "I had you around 2nd if that incedent hadn't have happened" so I was pretty much ready to flip my lid lol. I got over it though because you can't win em all and stuff happens. I was very excited and proud of Showmanship though! The pattern was pretty easy. Trot from cone A to cone B then Walk from cone B to the judge. Set-up for inspection, do a 270 pivot and walk away.

Tehama Fair...

I just learnt yesterday that my mom & dad signed me up to ride in the Tehama Fair. I had asked mom to enter me into Showmanship because I can only to Open now. I am VERY interested to see how I place against horses that can pivot and handlers who know what they are doing. NOW this is NOT to say that everyone this year hasn't given me a run for my money. A lot of people really have, however, I know two of the women I will be competeing against and they usually juggle each other for showmanship (when I say juggle they switch between 1st and 2nd). So I am doing my best not to walk into the show thinking "I'm ganna bet em!" and "Oh I'm ganna lose why bother." The important thing to me is NOT "being better" than anyone but kind of seeing how I stack up to the competition. I can learn more about what I need to do for State! I have been working with D and my dad helped us discover that our trotting lines are not straight. We slowly move left lol so we have to work on straight lines and I am still over pivoting him! Gah! Fair is going to be September 26th and I was hoping on attened a schooling show on the 27th that has a bearback eq class and a pairs class that a friend of mine and I wanted to enter to see how we do. I am not sure if I will be able to go though since I don't have a truck to haul my trailer around. That is all for now :d Sorry it's been so long things have really slowed down. OH and I am still waiting to get my buckle from the region 18 English/Western chair person :(. I can't get a hold of her which is really starting to irritate me.

Dartanion does it again... TWICE

So I had to miss the last SVQHA horse show because I had to pay the car insurance. I didn't want to go to the show because I figured that someone was going to pass us up in points since we would be missing this show. Well my boyfriend said that we should stop by and check it out just in case. I gave in and we waited for 4 hrs for the show to finish up. I only saw two people in my catagory (Open) that had been at the previous show and possibly the first show. So when they announced the winners I was shocked when they called my name! Yes D was an amazing boy and won himself ANOTHER buckle without even having to compete at the last show! just one amazing boy I have the pleasure of calling my partner. Then the night got better when he won the Pinto Breed Series High Point! I am one PROUD mom!! Here are some pictures of the dinner plate buckle and equally dinner plate plaque.

Now the NEXT bit of exciting news was that D & I were thinking that we had to miss the last CSHA Region 18 show because D threw BOTH his front shoes and I couldn't get a shoer out to come and do his feet, and no one would trim him to make his feet look better. Nothing. Well he was sound at home so I figured he would be fine in the sandy arena. Well in a nut shell D came back from being a real prick to the perfect boy we know he is. We won the Open high Point and Bailie won the 10&Under high point AND We won ANOTHER buckle and Bailie won her buckle. However, we have to wait to be called for the award ceremony because they have yet to order the buckles *pouts* but VERY EXCITED and very proud of my D! He's one amazing horse and I am going to own him forever. This horse isn't going anywhere.

Halter Geldings 5th out of 5 (yeah, his feet sucked!)
Showmanship Open 1st out of 5
Showmanship Ammy 1st out of 6
English Pleasure w/t Open 1st out of 4
English pleasure Open 2nd out of 4
English Eq Open 2nd out of 5 (he picked up the wrong lead but did a random flying change and got the right one lol. Girl who got first got the wrong diagonal for a lap)
English Eq Ammy 2nd out of 4 (she said my toe needs to point out more)
English Country Pleasure Open Didn't place *hides* didn't get to ask why.
Hunter Hack Open 1st out of 3
Hunter Hack Ammy 1st out of 1

Horsemastership Qualification Test(s) for state.

One word.... Horrible.... I am shocked we even qualified to be honest. It was so strange that D has been acting so funny! He was a real jumper over his hunter course and I had some really bad Eq moments getting ahead of him and left behind once. Then this is how our flat pattern went:
We started by walking three steps and picking up a left lead canter.... nope walked three steps then when I asked him to canter he evaded the bit by over flexing and trotting off like a mad man. I couldn't break his gait so I gave him a kick and he moved up into a canter. Next we needed to do a surpinetine doing simple changes and he forgot what a straight line was we got our changes in an ok fashion. Then we had to halt and side pass four steps, HOWEVER we halted and then D started to back up like mad and lifted his head like I was pulling on his mouth? I walked him back up to where we were meant to be and halted. We stood there MUCH longer than we should have but I wanted him to calm down and relax. Then he did a very nice 4 step side pass. He did a decent 90 degree turn on the forehand but wasn't perfect. Then we did our sitting trot, that was a little fast but once again not too bad for our start. He picked up a nice left lead canter again BUT did a much larger than 20m circle and our transistion down to a working trot was late but our halt and back were nice. Our 90 degree turn on the haunches sucked and our side pass was non-exsistant >.< when I dropped my stirrups and did the posting trot and walk that went nicely but overall our worst pattern ever.

*sigh* so while this was two of our worst rides ever it probably wont be the last. Our grooming test and written test are what saved us since we did so well there. I am planning on doing nothing but trail rides this week to see if maybe he is show sour. Our next shows are on the 7th and 9th and I hope that I can figure out what's made D such a pill lately.

Found a Western Saddle In Time!

Good news we found a western saddle in time for me to use! however, D was his normal angle self till the RIDDEN classes in which he almost took off with my 9yr old Niece so I scratched her from her youth w/t class and then in our very last class gave me two bucks. Not huge bucks but they were not small either lol. It really ticked me off because he was so wound up that he kept coming out of fram if I ever even got him back into fram that night. However, all the horses were having issues that night for some reason or other?? I am thinking it's the grain I have been giving D so that he can have his suppliments and gain a couple more lbs. I am going to keep him on the grain and maybe see if I can lunge him before we go to the show either at home or I can try at the show if needed. I am still waiting for pictures to be posted but as soon as they are I will post some pictures of my horses 'hot' night lol. Regardless this is how we did!

Halter Geldings & Stallions Didn't place out of 8 :(
Showmanship Open 1st out of 3 (I am planning on entering Ammy next time because that class always has at least 6 people in it)
English Pleasure w/t Color 1st out of 2 (our race horse class lol)
English Pleasure w/t Open 4th out of 8
English Pleasure Open 2nd out of 8
Western pleasure w/j Color 3th out of 9
Western pleasure w/j Open 4th out of 7
Western Pleasure Open 5th out of 7 (how we placed I don't know other than the judge must have missed his bucks)

Ok now to chat about showmanship a little. I believe D did the pattern almost flawlessly. The one issue I found in this class though was he lifted his head and trotted off a little late. When I have a crop he's a near perfect showmanship machine but he's a cleaver cookie and I think he has figured out when I have a crop and when I don't. We nailed both our pivots perfectly but I also descovered that I tend to over pivot him, so if I do a 90 degree pivot I do more like 92 or 94 so I need to work on that. I also believe that D's back is too slow (to me) but we are backing MUCH MUCH straighter! which makes me very happy and I am hoping that I can get a pattern on video one of these days so that I can show everyone what we're good at and what still needs more work. Something else on our flat and I have failed to talk about is D poping out of frame when we go from walk to canter or trot to canter. If I keep contact with his face then he keeps in frame fairly nicely just a slight lift but if I leave him on a loose rain it get's ugly. I am having problems though because my arena has no sand and has pretty hard ground so I am parannoyed about hurting his joints with lots of canter work. I thought about working him on the trail but that's meant to be relaxing time not work time so I am working on locating an arena that I can maybe ride to, to work him in. That's about where I am now, Oue next show is on the 7th and that will be the last of the SVQHA buckle series shows.

Might not be able to show western at the show this Friday.

So, as we know I do not own a western saddle of my own and my AWESOME friend/'mom' Pamela Britton's (also famous NASCAR romance author!) husband let me borrow his saddle. However; I will not be as lucky this weekend as I feel a little guilty having to ask to use his saddle again. I have asked another western friend of mine and have heard nothing back yet so I am thinking I might have to switch out of my Open Western classes and add into some Ammy English classes. I am going to give her a call tonight since all I did was text her and that can sometimes be a little iffy. So that is my latest stressor, We're going to work a little more tonight on showmanship and a little equitation tonight once it's not 108 outside *dies* Ok I am off to call her right now and hopfully I will get lucky and have a saddle to use!

Historic Nelson Ranch Hunter Show Results.

W/T Eq - AA 18&Over 3rd out of 3
HNR Champion W/T Pleasure* 1st out of 10 or 11
English Pleasure AA 18&Over 1st out of 4
HNR Champion English Pleasure Open* 2nd out of 13
English Eq AA 18&Over 3rd out of 3
HNR Champion Eq Open* Scratched
Hunter Hack 18&Over 18"-2' 2nd out of 2
Hunter Hack 18&Over 2'3" 2nd out of 2
Hunter Hack Open 2'6" 1st out of 2
Working Hunters 18&Over 2' 1st out of 2
Eq Over Fences 18&Over 2' 2nd out of 2
Working Hunter 18&Over 2'3" 1st out of 2
HNR Champion Working Hunter Open 2'3"* DQ
Eq Over Fences 18&Over 2'3" 2nd out of 2
HNR Champion Eq Over Fences Open* Scratch
HNR Nelson Ranch Medal Class Open 2'6"* Scratch
Open Eq Over Fences 2'9" Scratch

This show really Opened my eyes to a lot of things and I think it was really good for Dartanion and I. I learnt from the judge that I kept placing last in EQ because of how loose my lower leg was. I had twisted my ankle before the class and it was HURTING really badly BUT I don't want to use that as an excuse so I am going to be doing A LOT of stirrupless work from now on. I scratched the Champion Eq class because I knew she was not going to use me so I could save D's energy for another class. Plus is was already in the 90's at 10am. Then In our first Hunter Hack class I could only get D to change his incorrect lead in the front and so we cross fired for the rest of our 'pattern'. Something similar happened 2'3" accept he was too lazy to change so we just kept the wrong lead. Then we FINALLY got it together in 2'6". Speaking of 2'6" I've decided that I am going to keep him in the classes that are 2'6" and above since that is really what he does well in. Anything under 2'6" and he is just not motivated to look cute over those fences lol. I ended up scratching my last classes because when he wouldn't change I would give him a smack with my reins and then he turned into a speedy Jumper and it was near impossible to get him to slow down back into a hunter AND by this time is was about 103 out and poor guy was VERY tired. The other gal going for the high point started adding into my classes so that she could win, the high point was a pink saddle pad that said "HNR Champion" on it. Pink is not my favorite color so I tossed in the towl and called it a day. We ended up with Reserve Champion and got a pretty cool Pink bridle hanger! The next day was my friends AQHA show, we ended up hanging out ALL DAY just to have EVERYONE scratch out of her English classes. So it ended up I entered in the Open pleasure Champion class with her so that she got to ride in something. OH and our prize for the Champion class was a purple bucket with fly spray, vet wrap, jelly beans, show sheet, a hoof pick, a curry comb, and a little Jumping horse charm along with a fancy Blue ribbon. The prizes at this show were SOOOO cool I am shocked more people did not come to jump. At the next show I am only entering the Champion flat classes and Champion over fence classes and two or three 2'9" classes. Over all I had A LOT of fun and learnt a lot and found out some areas I have to polish up on, I always LOVE learning new things from shows!! And my next show is this Friday night the second of the SVQHA series shows.

SVQHA Results AND Historic Nelson Ranch Hunter Show

We got home from the SVQHA series at 3am!! and D was a real trooper! I wouldn't have known the time if I didn't have my watch. There was a HUGE turnout. I think there were about 15+ people in our halter geldings class and the Ammy Showmanship class was HUGE as well. We did A LOT better than I thought we were going to do so over all it was a lot of fun!

Halter Geldings: 4th out of 15ish
Showmanship Open: 1st out of 3
English Pleasure w/t Color: 1st out of 4
English Pleasure w/t Open: 1st out of 9
English Pleasure Open: 1st out of 7
Western Pleasure w/j Color: 2nd out of 9
Western Pleasure w/j : 4th out of 7
Western Pleasure: 3rd out of 10

I am honestly shocked we placed at all in Western and in all honesty I don't believe we should have. However, the judge that day was placing all of the speedy moving horses first so maybe his englishy western go worked out for us! The only complaint I have is that they had an Overall English High point and a girl who entered into Youth and Green Horse won the high point. Which I didn't think was very fair because now someone like me could do Ammy and Open to have a shot but if there is a trainer out there working they would have to have a green horse to even have a shot. So I think next time they should Have only ONE division points count. I am not getting sour because I did not win, I did because this girl won all her English Youth classes but then in Western a friend of mine won ALL her western classes and her showmanship class and the same girl got a couple of 2nds a first and some 3rds in western but because she did Youth and Green Horse she also won the western high point when my friend should have won it. However, this isn't a HUGE deal it's just something I am bringing up because sometimes at shows managment will make mistakes not because they are trying to be unfair but not everything was thought out. None the less it was a VERY fun show and everyone there was really friendly and I honestly had a GREAT time!

NOW Historic Nelson Ranch Hunter Show
I had originally planned to attend this show but thought I was not going to have enough money. Well since I have this summer job I do! I am very excited about going and I have amping myself up about it so much I am starting to feel sick. I think this show will be REALLY good for D & I because it is going to give my the chance to really work on my nervs because let's face it this is 'just another show' the only difference between this and other shows is that there is no Showmanship or western classes, it's going to be all Jumping and Huntery. We've never shown at the Historic Nelson Ranch before but I've joined my friend there before a day or two after my surgery. I have entered 16 classes the AA 18+ (AA= Adult Amateur) classes and going to see if Ihave a shot at the high point, and I've entered my FIRST medal class! I am VERY excited about this class. Now I am doing a lot of classes because my usual number is 10ish classes BUT I am going to keep an eye on D and if I think he is getting too tired then we will end where ever we are. I will do my best to get pictures BUT my boyfriends parents had the camera and left it in the pocket of their pants ans washed the Camera so it's ruined now (yeah, don't get me started). I am leaving for my friends today at around 10am and then we will be leaving tomorrow morning. OH! I also got my new ATH International Helmit the other day! along with my new shapped pad and my new tall boots. However, the boots had cheap plastic zippers so once I had them zipped up they split apart. We have ripped the zippers out and we plan on replacing them with metal YKK zippers. Let's hope these don't split as well.
My classes:
W/T Eq - AA 18&Over
HNR Champion W/T Pleasure*
English Pleasure AA 18&Over
HNR Champion English Pleasure Open*
English Eq AA 18&Over
HNR Champion Eq Open*
Hunter Hack 18&Over 18"-2'
Hunter Hack 18&Over 2'3"
Hunter Hack Open 2'6"
I've entered in as many Hunter Hack classes as possible since this is our strong point and I am hoping will help me work out some of my nervs before I do courses.
Eq Over Fences 18&Over 2'
Working Hunter 18&Over 2'3"
HNR Champion Working Hunter Open 2'3"*
Eq Over Fences 18&Over 2'3"
HNR Champion Eq Over Fences Open*
HNR Nelson Ranch Medal Class Open 2'6"*
Open Eq Over Fences 2'9"

*Classes that have a special prize to the first place rider. I am not sure what it is but heck I am paying a $85.00 all day fee so why not try it?

I was thinking of adding a total Costs for the shows that I have been attending, this is by far the most expenstive one yet.

Overnight Stall: $35.00/night
Classes: $10.00/class or $85.00all day fee
Gas: $30.00 (Split with my friend who is showing AQHA on Sunday)

I believe we are only staying one night but I am not 100% sure of that.

SVQHA Series Starts Tomorrow Night!

Very excited and I decided that I will be doing western. We've been working on making everything slower so asking him to go English tomorrow night will be a change for him this week. I am hoping that after English he will be on the tired side and it will be easyer to get him to slow down. We've also been working on SMS all week because I did not like my pictures from the last show (which I will add pictures of at the end of this post) so we should be a lot better. my #1 problem right now is pivoting (well this has been huh? lol) however I have noticed that if I keep eye contact with D's eye and walking into him he will pivot perfectly (I have someone else watch his pivoting foot for any movement). However, In the ring I get nervous about him moving that foot so I drop my eye to make sure I can move his weight as needed. So I am thinking I will work in his pivots a couple of times outside the ring without looking at his pivoting leg and mabybe that will help me keep my gosh dang eyes up!! Ok so I will post again asap here are some pics from the 28th

CSHA Region 2 Buckle Series Winners & Series Champion Titles.

I think the title gives it all away but this is how we did in our classes:

Halter Geldings 3rd out of 6
Halter Color 1st out of 7 (our first, first in halter! yay)
Halter Open 3rd out of 10
Showmanship Open 1st out of 7
Showmanship 18&Over 1st out of 6
English Pleasure W/T 18&Over 3rd out of 5
English Pleasure Open 1st out of 7
English EQ W/T Open 1st ouf of 4
English EQ Open 1st out of 4
English EQ 18&Over 1st out of 2
Hunter Hack 18&Over 2' 1st out of 5
Hunters 2' 1st out of 7
Hunter 2'3" 1st out of 6
VERY proud of D it was 98 in the covered arena and 105 if you were in the sun (we lived in the shade) At the end of the day they announce the series Champion titles. I was not expeting anything I was just hoping I had a shot at the Silver Buckle. Turns out D cleaned up! Here are his titles for Region 2:
Halter Champion (Plaque & Champion Ribbon) (this was a fluke! lol)
Showmanship Champion (Plaque & Champion Ribbon)
English Open Champion (Plaque & Champion Ribbon)
English 18&Over Champion (plaque & Champion Ribbon)

THEN! turns out we won the English Buckle with 380 points! I am waiting for the pictures to be uploaded on the Photographers site but this is what I took at home! Enjoy!
OH!! and I forgot my hemit this day so lol ALWAYS double check that you have everything!

HHmmm Western??

So I am uber excited about the show on the 28th. I wish it was Saterday so I could just get ready to head out!! The only issue I am having is that D's main it still curly curly curly from the fair so I am still trying to figure out how the heck I am going to braid him with that mess lol. Ok so the SVQHA shows are next. They have seperate English and Western high points which is exciting BUT the buckle is for if you show English and Western so I am thinking...
A. Just show English and if you win the buckle great if not oh well..

B. Give western a try! It will be fun!
Problem: I don't own a western saddle so as of right now I think it would be fun to try western BUT I am asking a friend of mine if she will let me borrow her saddle for the show.
ANother Problem: If I pre-register I will get $10.00 off my entery yeah lol that's not the peoblem. I don't want to rush my friend about her saddle BUT I have another friend that will let me borrow her plain saddle for western so maybe I will end up doing that??

Ok I just wanted to make a post so here it is! hehe oh and I finally got some WD40 for D's hooves in SMS and Halter hahaha!! OH OH I made a new friend at work who is going to be taking pictures of me sunday! woot so that should rock!!

Region 18 & Shasta Fair Show Updates

I will start with the Region 18 show since it was first. The judge for that day I have shown for and she has told me numerous times that my horse is too fast for her liking (now this is the horse that falls asleep in the line-up and has a nice breed showy three beat canter and okish floaty trot) so I was expecting to look at 5ths all day long, not a big deal because I will still be getting points right? Well this is how the day went:
Halter Geldings 2&Over 5th out of 6
Showmanship Open 1st out of 5
English Pleasure w/t Open 3rd out of 5
English Pleasure Open 2nd out of 5
English EQ 1st out of 4
Country Pleasure 1st out of 7
Hunter Hack Open 1st out of 2
Hunter Hack Amature 1st out of 2

We ended up with the Open high point again! I was shocked that the judge either seemed to have a change of heart or else we did something she liked that day! I have to say that the rude girl from the previous show was there again and while signing up for her classes complained yet again that she had to do SMS to win the high point. Yes, I am very excited that we won high point I do enjoy winning like anyone else. However, it is clearly stated in the show premium what classes you have to enter to win high point. Being that SMS is one of them is the very reason that I started to learn SMS. Anyways my point is DON'T show up to a horse show expecting to win, expect to preform to YOUR best not what the judge says is your best. Also don't become a sore loser and start complaining about how you didn't win a schooling show high point, very tacky. We got a pretty cool picture holder for the high point that day.

Shasta Fair Horse Show
I Entered into five over fence classes and four flat classes. There was Ribbons 1st-6th and the following award money:
1st-$45.00
2nd-$35.00
3rd-$25.00
4th-$15.00
5th-$10.00
6th-$5.00
Don't quote me after about 3rd because I am going off of memory lol. These are our results:
Hunter Hack 2'3" 1st out of 7 (This is D's best class, we were State Champion in Hunter Hack for 2008 and have placed 2nd only once this year. So I really think this is D's money classe)
Hunters 2'3" 2nd out of 7
Hunters 2'6" 5th out of 7
Jumpers 2'6" 4th out of 5 (we dropped a pole and did not make it to the jump off)
Jumpers 3' 1st out of 4 (The only ones with a clear round!)
English Pleasure Colored horse 3rd out of 5
English Pleasure Open Did not place out of 19 (D is not the prettiest of movers and there were A LOT of nice horses in there. Movement really does come in to play when you have a ring full of well mannerd horses.)
English EQ Open 6th out of 19
English Pleasure Stock Type Did not place out of 19 (once again movement comes in to play.)

I am VERY proud of Dartanion & I. I had a blast at the fair, only paid $60.00 to enter and make that and then some back that day. Once again we have to have someone who is just a sore loser and rude at the show to 'make our day' another woman who supposidly shows at A rated shows was there (a different one this time) and she could ride don't get me wrong but she had the WORST attitude about showing ever. She was givin the Wrong jumper course and freaked out when the judge had placed her at 6th and commented "Well that's bull crap because I was given the wrong course." It is NOT the show managments responsibility to make sure you remember your course out there while you are jumping so it is NOT their fault if you get the incorrect course. There was a sheet that clearly stated what course was for what class and that fact that she did not make sure she was memorizing the correct course and blamed it on show managment was "bull crap" always ALWAYS double check the course for which class you are memorizing! it's always good to be safe, the judge might not be as forgiving for such mistakes.

Horse Show Dates List

This post is just to make a list of upcoming shows that I have for the rest of the year. Just a way of keeping myself organized and for everyone to have a look at what full-time showing can look like. Remember full time showing might not be for every horse and it can also vary from how many classes you enter. This could look like a lot but if you are entering 2 or 3 classes a show that is not a lot of work for a buys scedual. I don't usually do two or three I will do the classes needed for high point or series high point. So I average about 8 classes a show. Various series shows have been color coded for easy reading to see what shows go together.

June 14th - CSHA Region 18 Buckle show #3
June 19th - Shasta District Fair Show
June 26th - Woodland Stallion Station Hunter Show
June 28th - CSHA Region 2 Final Buckle Show & Awards

July 10th - SVQHA Silver Buckle Series show #1
July 12th - CSHA Region 18 Buckle show #4
July 24th - SVQHA Silver Buckle Series Show #2
July 31st - Woodland Stallion Station Hunter Show

August 7th - SVQHA Silver Buckle Series show #3 (final show of series)
August 9th - CSHA Region 18 Buckle Show #5 (final show of the series)

Then the California State Show of Champions will be some time in October and I believe I will be done with showing until Januaray of 2010 when I hope to have another horse to be showing by then. There will also be a year end award ceremony some time in September or December.

Joined two More CSHA programs

So I have officially joined CSHA region 2's TRAP (trail Riders Award Program) and Horsemastership. TRAP is where I go on trail rides and log my hours. When I get to 1000hrs I get a plaque then a large plaque at 3000hrs and at 5000hrs I get a personal buckle. My goal is to have at least 800hrs before the end of the year. So this program never really shows but since you can win things I thought it would be fun to share. Now horsemastership involves a riding, grooming, and written horse test. We practice tillt he show of Champions in October and that will be the day we show. So no showing for horsemastership as of yet. I know that if you get state Champion you win a Silver Buckle so we will see how this goes. The catagory I will be competeing in is Senior English I which is a flat pattern and a jumping pattern. English II is only flat English they also have Western, Gymkhana and then an English Western combined. I have also started writing article for our regions English Western program in our newsletters. That is all I have to update right now, in my next blog I want to make a list of the shows I have left for the season. The only show I am nervous about right now is the Shasta Fair, I have not shown there before and I am more nervous about the people than anything else. If you get first place you get $45.00 so that's nice. Especially since the entery free was only $7.00. Ok have a great weekend and happy riding everyone!

For those who want to learn more about TRAP or any other CSHA Programs Feel Free to Visit the links below:
TRAP
http://www.geocities.com/cshatrap/index.html
Horsemastership
http://www.californiastatehorsemen.com/Horsemastership/horsemastership.htm
English Western
http://www.californiastatehorsemen.com/english/english-western.htm
CSHA Main Web Page
http://www.californiastatehorsemen.com/

Horse Show Results From Sunday

So Sunday was the second show of the CSHA Region 18 buckle series. It was a ton of fun but REALLY hot, it was 102 and with my Hunt jacket on it felt more like 150 lol. Ok so here is how we placed: (there was a small number of people at the show b/c there was a big QH show going on the same weekend).

Halter Geldings: 2nd out of 6
Showmanship Open: 1st out of 2
Showmanship Ammy: 1st out of 2
English pleasure w/t Open: 3rd out of 5
English Pleasure Open: 2nd out of 4
English EQ Open: 1st out of 4
English EQ Ammy: 1st out of 3
Eng/West Country Pleasure Open: 1st out of 3
Hunter Hack Open: 2nd out of 2
Hunter Hack Ammy: 1st out of 2

Then Bailie:

English Pleasure w/t 10&Under: 1st out of 1
English EQ w/t 10&Under: 1st out of 1
Eng/west w/t 10&under: 1st out of 1

(yeah, so it was a bummer that she had no one to ride against but it was good practice for her because they combined the 14-17 and ammy w/t classes so she got to ride with other people.)

So at the end of the day we were waiting for them to annouce the Daily high points and Bailie won the 10&Under high point. I won the Open and Amature high point, I was no expecting the Amature high point I just love showmanship, hunter hack, and Eq classes. THEN it happened, there is always that one girl (well... I should say rider) that will try to ruien your day or will have something horrible to say about you and/or your horse. So this is what happened to me:
*girl approaches announcers booth and says:
Girl:"I think you have it wrong, I should have won Open high point. I won all my undersaddle classes."
Announcer:"You won them all accept Eq yes, but Dartanion also entered in showmanship and halter which you did not. So she got some extra points there."
Girl:"That's not fare. My horse doesn't know showmanship, that should not count."
Annoucer:" Hun, even if they hadn't entered Showmanship and halter they would have beat you by 3 points."

Girl storms off*

The high point prize was an engraved wooden brush so it's not like we were riding for anything that you couldn't buy at a local tack store. I get bummed when I don't win high point BUT I also know that I have some things I can go home and work on to become better. I hope Bailie will always have good sportsmanship. If she EVER says anything snooty or snobbish to someone while showing under me (my horse or not) she is getting off right then and there and she will be done for the day. I will also probably 'stop' her from showing at the next show until she can prove to me she can show good sportsmanship. Other than that here are some pics from the day!

This is Bailie in her EQ class.

Dartanion & I Hunter Hack

. Bailie after she finished all her classes.

Dartanion & I In our EQ class.

Just wanted to show off D

I took this picture of all the Ribbons Dartanion has won with our new camera. Just wanted to share them with everyone! D has worked super hard for every one of these :D.
Totaling Over 163 Ribbons

Just wanted to show off D

Showmanship Pivot practice

So lately our weakest point in showmanship is our pivots and D has a habit of backing at an angle but that will be a lot easier for me to fix than this pivoting issue. I now know that I am pulling and pushing D off of his pivoting foot while we are pivoting. I had someone just watch his pivot leg while I concentrated on making a nice circle around him and he stuck his pivot perfectly. So I just need to trust him and just walk into my pivots. Now my problem is that he 'bows' when we are pivoting appose to keeping his body nice and straight. I am going to work on walking more to his shoulder tonight in hops that this will help him move his whole body away from me appose to just his neck then his shoulder. Ok I know not a very exciting up date but there is a show this weekend and I will be taking videos and pictures :D.

Horse Show Results from Yesterday

I personally think the show yesterday went fantastically! There was a $45.00 all day fee so I entered Halter for the hell of it (trust me D is not a halter horse LOL) then I did all of my normal classes. I'll just post the results and get that over with.

Halter Geldings 6&Over 2nd out of 4
Halter Color 2nd out of 6
Halter Open 3rd out of 6
Showmanship 18&Over 3rd out of 5
Showmanship Open 2nd out of 5
English pleasure w/t 18&Over 3rd out of 5
English pleasure 18&Over 3rd out of 5
English Pleasure Open 3rd out of 5
English EQ w/t 18&Over 1st out of 4
English EQ 18&Over 1st out of 4
English EQ Open 1st out of 4
Hunter Hack 2' 1st out of 2
Hunters 2' 1st out of 3
Hunters 2'3" 1st out of 3

SO over all a VERY good day! I learnt that in showmanship I really need to work on getting his pivot faster. I need to work on not dropping my eye while in showmanship over all. I need to work on getting him to back straight AND he get's really sluggest in the ring while backing and will not move off of me very well. So showmanship needs a lot of work but the judge did not have any comments about my EQ or fences and as far as flat goes D is about a 6ish mover and when I really move him out then I can get 8 movements but he dropps back to a 6 when we canter so unfortunatly nothing I can do to fix that but I love him anyways :D. We won English 18&Over high point and English Open high point and English Overall daily high point *woot* good job D! I will get pics asap I just need the photo dude to post the picutres. Oh and the 2'3" class was not very far because those jumps were NO WAY IN he double hocky sticks 2'3" they were more 2'6" but since D & I school 3' at home they were not a problem for him but it sucked for the other riders because you could see them drop their eye and go "OMG! huge!" in their heads and I thought to say something but figured it would probably be better not to. I mean they had a course that went from a large jump to a smaller jump and then they had ground poles on both sides on some fences so not a very Jumping savvy show managment.

How my Niece did:

English Pleasure w/t 13&Under 3rd out of 4
English EQ w/t 13&Under 2nd out of 4

Dartanions Awards & Accomplishments

2009 AWARDS
March 15th 2009 CSHA region 2 Daily High Point Winners
April 10th 2009 CSHA Region 2 Daily High Point Winners
May 10th 2009 CSHA Region 2 Daily High Point Winners

2008 AWARDS
3rd at California State Show of Champions
CSHA REgion 2 2008 Year End English 18-34 Champions
CSHA Region 2 2008 Year End English Overall 18-34 Champions
CSHA Region 2 2008 Year End Overall Champions
August 3rd 2008 CSHA Daily High Point Winner
July 13th 2008 CSHA Daily High Point Winner
May 18th 2008 CSHA Daily High Point Winner
April 27th 2008 CSHA Daily High Point Winner
CSHA OPEN SilverBuckle Series Winner

2007 AWARDS
4th at California State Show of Champions
CSHA Region 2 2007 14-17 Year End English Flat Champions
CSHA Region 2 2007 14-17 Year End English Overall Champions
CSHA Region 2 2007 Year End English Overall Champions
April 15th 2007 CSHA Daily High Point Winner
June 16th 2007 CHSA Daily High Point Winner
July 8th 2007 CSHA Daily High Point Winner
August 12th 2007 CSHA Daily High Point Winner
CSHA 14-17 Silver Buckle Series Winner
Woodland Stallion Station:
July 15th 2007 Daily High Point Winner
August 13th 2007 Daily High Point Winner

First Post - Horse Show On Monthersday -

5/8/09

A Little About Me
I will do my best to not make this first posting a book but I wont lie I can not make any promises. I have been riding since I was 3 years old, and started to ride alone when I was 6 1/2 I more remember being about 7 though. I've ridden at four different riding schools and done English riding at all of them. I have a real passion for jumping, I have a long term goal of some day competeing in the Olympics for showjumping OR 3day eventing. Of course I learnt at 14 that this will be hard since I am not the richest person around, however that doesn't keep that from being a dream of mine. I have owned about 4 horses... well 3 horses and a Pony. My first horse was my Pony who was a white Welsh Pony named 'Valcore' who really gave me a run for my money and was your typical naughty pony. We ended up having to sell him when we switched barns because we learnt that we were paying about $20.00 more for riding lessons than my friends because we actually bought Valcore when my trainer (at the time) wanted to buy him and was very pissed that we had. So that ended promptly.

My next riding school was called 'Full House Farms' I don't remember a whole lot from this barn other than when we went on trail rides we had to go up and down there SUPER steep hills and it was at their summer camp that I got to canter in my 'beginner' group. I believe we switched barns again but I do not know why and I started talking lessons with a girl named Erin (Pictured left, at age 7 riding Woody). Once again no big story here other than while I had advanced in my riding I Had a horse buck with me and I caught my leg on the side of the arena. OH it hurt so badly and I started to cry (I'm about 8 or 9 now) my mom & trainer thought the buck has scared me and told me to keep riding. Well my leg swelled UP and over my tall riding boot about an hour and a half later. So mom took me to the hospital where they cut my beautiful boot off (yeah, I know I'm pathetic lol) and it turned out nothing was broken but I had torn the muscles from my left hip down to my ankle and had to stop riding for over a year (that was torchure!).

After that year (maybe a little over because I am 13 now) I found a new trainer who actually let me tack up my own horse and basically taught me to become independent. I got to my second horse here 'Jewels Faith' a 10yr old OTTB who was 16H(Pictured right AFTER, we moved North). She was a hanf full! She liked to rush jumps and one day when we were working over a puny little 2' box she had never jumped before she jumped and landed back feet first then front feet and just stood there (so I am told she landed like this). I use to ride her bearback A LOT so I thank that Psyco mare for giving me the seat I have today. Oh and the first 6 months I owned her I didn't have a saddle so I fell off a couple of times since I was use to schooling horses and not ex-racers lol.

(I left out a bunch of show details just because oh my gosh this would become a book! lol I will just tell you there were a lot! lol mostly Hunters and Jumpers.)

Finally we moved from the Bay area farther up North where my mom could get the Alpacas she's always wanted. When we moved up here we had 11 acres to play with so mom said I could get another horse. This is where I got Dartanion (aka D) who is my current show horse (more on him later) Mom also tried to buy herself a horse named Artax (Buckskin pictured left) who was 14.3H and an arab QH cross who I think was 98% arab and 2% QH because boy was he flighty! He bucked me off once and I had to go to the hospital because I couldn't remember the actual fall all I remember (to this day) was he bucked and then I was sitting up and trying to stand lol. We ended up selling him because he was too much horse for mom (I also think she was worried about him bucking me off again). After we sold him we bought a 1yr old PMU Beglum QH cross I named Balthazar (Pictured Left). I had always wanted a draft so I finally had one! Long story short (I am 17 at this point) I did all the ground work and de-spoking with him I could. I wanted him to be another show horse with D (I had stopped showing Jewels because she just got too high and (IMO) ring sour to show anymore (she was 16 now). I backed him all by myself (My first time without a trainer watching me every step of the way) and after I had about 20days on him I took him to a show to actually show this time (not just tie to the trailer) and we entered a w/t Pleasure class and ended up getting 3rd out of 7 horses! oh I was stoked. THEN, we noticed his was gettin knock knees and showing wasn't helping. Our vet said he would be better off as a trail horse so we sold him to a nice family who enjoyed doing trail trials. We just sold Jewels about 4 or 5 months ago and now I only have and show my black & white 16H Tobiano gelding Dartanion.

Today

NOW let's talk about present day! I am 20 years old and by no means think I am a trainer, it would be fun to have my own training stables one day but for now I am enjoying learning everything lol. So this Sunday will be the Third show of a 4 show silverbuckle series I have entered. I am a California State Horsemens Association (CSHA) member (of region 2). This Year I am competeing in Open and 18&Over. The year before was Open and the year before that was 14-17. We have won the Open and 18&Over English High Points at both the previous shows and the OVerall English at both as well. My boyfriends niece will be showing Dartanion in 10&Under she has been riding for about 5 months now and we are hoping she will qualifiy for California State Show of Champions.

(quick side note)

When I bought Dartanion he was NOT a show horse and he did not even know English. He was used as a cow horse before we bought him and they were selling him because he was 'useless' ha! Where we have currently moved to I concider the worst place to move to if you are an English rider. There is 100% Gymkhanas and rodeos when I first started showing up there I was lucky to have 3 other English riders at shows (now there are about 8 in each class YAY). SO Dartanion did not know his leads, how to collect and actually use himself. He didn't know showmanship (well I didn't either but we have been learning for about a year now) and did not know how to Jump. We changed all that so I will skip all the details there lol. Now he is one big English pleasure machine!

(ok back on topic)

Lately I have been working with my boyfriends Niece (Bailie) and she is one pretty rider! the only problem is she can never seem to get the right diagonal while posting the trot. Verbally she can tell me how you tell if you are on the right diagonal or not perfectly every time. She can tell me if other riders are on the right diagonal but SHE can't get it *pulls out hair* so I decided to get a little 'mean trainer' (once again I do not think I am a trainer but it's easyer to just let a 9yr old call me that or 'aunty' whatever right?) and so I tell her if she can't get the right diagonal once today I will make her show without her irons. Then magically she got the correct diagonal every time!!! she even switched onto the right one when she started on the wrong one! *jumps for joy* so I am thinking that maybe she just wasn't trying or maybe didn't care if she had the right diagonal or not she was just happy to be on a horse. So hopfully we will get all of our right diagonals this weekend at the show. This will also be the first weekend she will have to do a w/t pattern for her EQ class. We have done patterns before and she did alright for 9 so I will use the pattern they had at the last show and see how she does memorizing it and that will determine if she enters that class or not. Since this is already so long I will end up here for today :D Thank You for reading! you are a star!!!

(Dartanion & I With our First Daily High Point Win Together competeing in 14-17 English All around.)