My mount, Trump, had shown in two walk/trot/canter classes earlier. Therefore, we sailed into the ring full of style and verve. A little too full. It felt as if a firehose had been left on. It took a few moments of wrestling with the nozzle to bounce him back to his nice soft trot.

Since saddlebreds always perform in the same order, he was convinced that trot was followed by canter. A reasonable assumption on his part. As an enthusiastic horse, Trump was ready to go, ‘We canter next, right? We canter?’ When I said, ‘No. We turn around and trot’ I could feel the question mark forming above his head. Fortunately, Trump is also an amenable horse, so he answered with, ‘Makes no sense, but sure, fine, let’s go.”

There was only one other person in my class. As far as I was concerted, there could have been ten. One of these days, I will have to start taking in the world around me. My eyes are up – usually – but my awareness is limited to the horse/rider bubble.

Class 79. Academy Equitation Walk and Trot – Adult

Still floating along from my victory pass in the previous class, I spent the first fragment of the second class congratulating myself on how well I was able to ride this horse. I finally remembered that I had to actually ride not just ponder my own wonderfulness.

Class 89. Academy Showmanship Walk and Trot Championship – Riders 11 and Over
Yes, you read that right. I was in the ring with any walk/trotter over the age of 10. It is very likely that the combined ages of everyone else in the ring was still less than my age. Someone jokingly accused me of beating up on the kids. Abso-bleeping-lutely. Outside of the ring, I can behave with reasonable amounts of politeness and grace. Once I go in the ring, It. Is. On. I will do everything I can – within legal and moral boundaries – to blow your doors off. I expect the same treatment from you.

In order to smoke said youthful competition, I tried to improve my position over what it had been for the previous classes. As I went into the ring, I heard, “Lean back.” I did and immediately fell behind the motion. Trump was not pleased. In the photos (see below), his ears are turned back at the beginning of the class (photos C13-089-002/3). He scooted down the long side wailing in anguish while my smile turned into a teeth-clenching grimace and I hung onto my position by brute force.

Unfortunately, Trump has a high reveb. When the time came to walk, I got myself reorganized but Trump was still agitated. I softened my seat. I asked him to walk. I tried to tell him the fire was out. No dice. I finally heard – from the other end of the arena – my instructor’s voice yelling, “Walk!” with an undertone of, ‘Will you please just walk the darn horse already.’ I gave a heave and downshifted Trump to a walk. I reversed, stirred in a bit of hunt seat to get my weight centered, and asked for a trot. No problem. He was as soft and as perky as a horse could be. He doesn’t hold a grudge.

In the past, Trump had all five gears installed. The rider needs to be clear about asking for trot or canter, otherwise he defaults to rack. If memory serves, the only time I had him racking was for the third victory trot. Trump was done. He wasn’t used to having multiple riders nor going in and out of the ring multiple times. He was tired of playing lesson horse. He was tired of being mistaken for Sam.

Sandra Hall Photography
Disclaimer – don’t download. Yes, I perseverate on the subject. People around the Internet are starting to notice that shows don’t have photographers anymore. Wonder why?

2013 Chattanooga > Saturday Morning > class numbers above. Chestnut horse, black pants, blue vest, helmet.

My Photos
… or absence thereof. After specifically getting my camera back from the repair shop for this show, I failed to pack a battery. I have two. You would have thought one of them would have been in the camera or the charger. Oh well. Same place as earlier TN show, different barn, way more horses [Show Report].

Books on CD
The audio track for the drive was the middle third of The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond [Viking 2012], read by Jay Snyder: childhood, old age, and danger. Since the content engaged a totally different part of the brain than used for horse showing, Mr. Snyder’s soothing voice made a great stress reliever as I drove back and forth from the hotel. Has anyone else noticed how much better narration has gotten on audio books?

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Show Report: Chattanooga/Cleveland Charity, Cleveland TN. Part One – General
Prior show reports and showing posts collected here.

At the Dixie Cup earlier this year [Show Report], I had a moment of smallmindedness when I watched one of the kids collect a pile of prizes for winning the championship class. I wanted. Granted, my show career has had wonderful high points. I have ribbons of which I am immensely proud. However, I am not rolling in the big, gaudy tri-colors. I have a few. Perseverance over mumble-mumble decades will produce results through sheer statistics.

My haul from last weekend includes two blue ribbons for winning the regular classes, a blue-red-yellow ribbon for winning the championship, PLUS a championship neck sash for the horse & a duffelbag embroidered with the show logo. Not only loot, but useful loot.

Saddleseat continues to excel in the quality of their awards. The Chattanooga first place ribbons are longer than standard hunter/jumper championships or dressage hi-points. The Chattanooga championship is 7 inches longer than that. The only ribbons of similar length in my collection are a few low-range, year-end awards (two greens & a yellow) and a two ribbons (a red-yellow-white & a green) from Previous Horse’s fancy jumper classes. This is my first neck ribbon.

My not-so-inner 12-year-old is thrilled.

Sharing the Love

Nine shows in 7 months!!!

Huge and public thank you to Hubby for
a) funding the nonsense. Freelancing never paid this kind of money, even when markets were hot.
b) minding the house and barn while I gallivanted around the region.
c) never making a squeak about a or b.

A second enormous thank you to Ashlyn & Lela Seagle for sharing Trump.
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Prior show reports and showing posts collected here.

Tomorrow: the blow-by-blow.

When you have lots of cats, it’s good to have lots of laundry.

More cat & dog photos on my Flickr stream here.

Thou Shalt Not Pass

More cat & dog photos on my Flickr stream here.

Mario Antoinette plays at being a barn cat.

More cat & dog photos on my Flickr stream here.

A temporary return to the Sunday Stills photo challenge while I borrow my camera back from the repair shop. The lens spot is conveniently lost in the tree shadows.

The Canon PowerShot SD750 point-and-shoot that I take with me on walks has trouble in tricky light. I prefer to think of this as dream-like rather than out of focus. Soft. Artistic.

More Foto Friday on my Flickr stream here.

The horses ground-tie to be groomed. They are behind a fence, so running off is inconvenient rather than dangerous. To start, I hold the leadrope. When they shift away, I shift them back to status quo ante. Move a step forward; get moved a step back. Move a step back; get moved a step forward. Eventually they get the idea. I drop the rope. Usually, they run off once or twice. I retrieve. No muss, no fuss. Once they have graduated to being reliably ground-tied, the lesson increases. If they run off, they must return. Since they stepped forward, they must step backward, not matter how many steps that entails. I’ve walked horses backwards across the field, up hill, around trees, into the barn, whatever. There is no screaming, no punishment, just a quiet, calm, implacable backward vector. They get the idea that running away is double unplusgood, don’t do it any more.

So, Rodney was getting a bath. Ground-tied. I finished and turned to coil up the hose. He stood for a few moments until the horse flies came to carry him off. Enough of this, I’m outta here. He galloped back to the barn, perhaps 100 feet. Hubby met me a quarter of the way back, leading Rodney. Nope, no more Ms. Nice Guy. I turned him around, pointed his butt toward the water trough, and back we went.

1) He made it all the way. He didn’t just shuffle back. He took nice, big backward steps that would have scored well in a dressage test.

2) He fussed once or twice. Under his anxiety and next to his overall sweet nature, Rodney has a temper. He put his foot down, flipped his head, and refused to move. Unfortunately for Rodney, he is no match for Previous Horse, When PH said no, he meant, You are going to have to alter the laws of physics to make this happen. I steam-rolled past Rodney’s resistance before it even registered.

3) When we got close to the water trough, he slid a little in the mud. I agreed that he had a point and allowed him to woozle sideways onto better footing.

He did what I asked. At no point did I question my ability to manage him. I’m pleased with both of us.