Of course the show started off rainy. I got to the show grounds before my trainer and drove through spotty rain but when I got to Lexington it was sunny and not raining. Luckily we got most of the trailer unloaded before it started pouring out, but I had forgotten a couple things in my car, so I got soaked. Lesson learned, never leave home without a jacket;)
Woody has been to the horse center before, as he was run through a couple PAS sales before I purchased him, but has never shown there so I was curious to see how he would act in the coliseum. He was pretty looky at first, but not too bad and my trainer felt he was moving a little better then he had earlier that week, but still not as well as he had been. We ended Thursday evening bathing, banding and attempting to clip.
Friday was still rainy, at least there was a covered ring and a coliseum to ride and show in, but it still made the day a little miserable. Had to get up early to finish clipping and get Woody ready for showmanship. The pattern wasn't too bad, and after practicing for a little bit, we seemed to have it down. My trainer wanted me to watch a couple more horses show the pattern, but no one else in my class was stepping up to show so I just went ahead into the ring which of course was a bad idea as the judge was already waiting on me so I had less time to get Woody set up to start the pattern. As soon as I entered the ring he got wiggly and go too close to the cone. The pattern was walk from A to B, at B trot and trot a circle to the right around B to the judge, stop, set up for inspection, when dismissed perform a 270 and trot away. Woody did the whole pattern good except when it came to lining up with the judge and stopping. It kind of felt like he ran into me, which caused him to be way off from the judge and not straight. He set up fairly well and performed his 270 good as well. We ended up 4th out of 5.
Our next class of the day was western pleasure walk/jog. We ended up 3rd out of 12. We had a pretty good go, Woody was just kinda of looky.
In NA WP we placed 8th out of 12. He was pretty strong at the lope, partly due to me throwing him away a little too much. In the past my trainer said I was holding him too much in the bosal so I didn't hold him at all which he them became speedy, especially when another horse past him.
In NA Horsemanship we placed 3rd out of 4. The pattern called for a a lead change. Woody does not have a flying change, so when I broke him down to change leads he picked up the wrong lead. I also asked for the change a little late as well. I then had a turn and had to jog and halfway between the cones pick up an extended jog. Woody didn't start jogging quick enough so I basically had to push him into an extended jog.
Finally we ended the day with NA trail. The course went pretty well until we got to the lope over, which he broke down during and then switched leads as well. We still ended up 2nd out of 3. My trainer showed him in Green trail and he placed 3rd out of 5.
On Saturday, all we had was NA showmanship. It finally had stopped raining!!! Woody had diarrhea though. Makes an interesting morning of getting him ready for showmanship, I was constantly on butt wipe patrol up until my class. Good thing I had a lot of baby wipes and white spray! But despite his upset stomach, we ended up placing 1st and 2nd out of 7!!! We had a great pattern, he stopped almost squared up. I ended up messing with one of his front feet that I probably should of just left alone. I was very pleased with him, especially since I just started working on showmanship again a couple weeks before the show and this was only the second class showing in it.
On Sunday we had the rest of our classes. We started with NA trail. We were the only one entered in it, but I showed it anyway so I could get the Circuit champion for the class. We got a bucket for the prize which was much needed as the handle on my wash bucket got broken in the trailer on the way down here. We had a pretty good go. The only major issue was when we walked through this tight shoot, he knocked it pretty hard, I actually thought he had stepped out of it, but my trainer didn't think he did. He also looked around a lot more as there was a lot of activity going on that morning with people lounging in warm up rings and such. In Green trail he messed up his first lope over and was looky again, but ended up 3rd out of 5 under both judges again. I had my trainer take him in the all age trail to school him and get him out of looking around so much at the walk and to stop rushing through some things.
In the WP walk/jog class, we probably had to worst go we have ever had in a w/j class before. I decided to enter the ring first so I could get a good spot on the rail as there was 17 entered into the class. As soon as I enter the coliseum he is looking around and slightly shying at boogy monsters on the rail and in the stands. He got over them and I attempted to get away from horses that I knew would end up flying by me in the class. Well it didn't work. This one little girl kept following him and getting right up on Woody's butt, which always makes him a little quicker and whenever anyone passes him he loses attention and will get quicker as well. Throughout the class we kept getting passed, got cut off after I advised the little girl that she was going to cut me off, she did anyway. We still ended up 3rd and 6th out of 17.
In NA WP, Woody's lope was much better but we got stuck near a horse that passed us at the jog (and actually cut us off which caused his head to go up) and then was slower then us at the lope so we had to pass her. When it came time to reverse I was trying to wait for her to turn around but she was waiting on me so I didn't get as much space between the two of us as I wanted and still had to pass her again at the lope. Overall, the class was better then on Friday. We only placed under one judge, 8th out of 15.
Our last class of the weekend was by far the worst class we had all weekend. For NA horsemanship, we had the pattern down pat. The rollback was Woody's bad direction, but he has improved so much in the past week on turning to the left that I wouldn't even say it is his bad way anymore. When I went to show the pattern, the judges were seated near the second cone which we went straight at so they where in front of Woody. As I was jogging towards them, he noticed them, but didn't make too big of deal out of it. We had to then lope around the cone and come back to the cone and stop, do the rollback and lope off again. Well as I was finishing my circle, apparently to Woody, the judges become monsters and he broke out of a lope and slightly shied. I was able to complete the rollback and finish my pattern without a problem. During our rail work, the judges moved the chairs further away from the rail and stood near them and as I passed by them he just acted scared, like they were out of get them. So he blew the class with the boogy monsters he saw. My trainer had me go by the chairs a couple times while they were calling the results, so hopefully this will not happen again.
I ended up getting 1.5 points in NA SMS for the weekend, not too shabby for our first show doing the western all around!
I also ran into the couple I bought Woody from, they didn't even recognize Woody or myself. I swear that it is like that everytime I see this woman, she doesn't know who I am, but she didn't mind putting out all her information when I would call her after I bought him. Just weird!
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