Big Horseshow Weekend

Sun Jul 24, 2005

Well, I guess I can say he IS improving...slowly and surely!

GOOD horse show Saturday, they had a monster turnout at the barn, I've no clue how many horses, but the pasture near the outdoor arena was jammed with rigs and trailers and campers, every stall in the barn was occupied, even all the temporary ones. The place was awash in groomed and nice-smelling horsies!

I had Quzqo groomed to the nines, right down to the horse face make-up and hair mousse on his mane, forelock and tailhead (to keep those flyaway hairs under control)((I called it "Coos Mousse"). Ready for his Halter class!

Was some drama before the halter though, turns out the judges were certified assholes, and had the entrants pissed off halfway through the first Showmanship class! There was a male judge and a female judge...the man had a MAJOR attitude...he seemed to have forgotten that the entrants were paying HIS salary, not the other way around. He'd posted these amazingly complex showmanship patterns (you needed a good education in mathematics to get all those pivots he required). Mind, the kids (and adults) around here are used to straightforward, to the point showmanship: walk horse halfway to judge, perform some sort of pivot, back three steps, set up, inspection, then trot off to the line up. This guy (and the woman) had some convoluted choreography that involved 270 degree pivots, zig-zags, backing here, pivoting there...the first four entrants totally screwed it up, so he put his foot down and explained concisely to the remaining entrants EXACTLY what he was looking for, which turned out to be DIFFERENT than his posted pattern!...and then wouldn't allow the first four a re-do, and of course they either didn't place or placed low. UNfortunately for the judge, one of those screwed-over entrants was my farrier's daughter, LOL! My farrier was just a tiny bit bigger than the male judge (and he was no lightweight himself!) had a little conversation with the judge, but the judge wouldn't back down, and those four kids were SOL.

By 9 a.m. the judge already had a reputation that traveled through the show of being mean, rude, brusque, intolerant, and soon got the name of "The Show Nazi" (No Ribbons for YOU!). One young girl I talked to by the Showmanship patterns was absolutely TERRIFIED of the prospect of doing her ridden class, she was sure he was going to drag her off her horse and punch her out if she screwed up! I'd add a "lol" here except it didn't seem that far from the truth!

I wasn't worried, I was carrying my whip, I could blind him if he tried anything, LOL! Turns out there were two of us for "Pleasure Type Geldings", and the fellow was very pleasant to me at the in-gate, and admonished me to "show that Arabian in the free-spirited trot that is his nature"...er...okay...I thought we did quite well, Quzqo set up for me SO nice, and was obsessed with my whip handle so he stretched and pricked his ears and stood so nice...the woman judged asked me how old he was, and turns out she is "into" Egyptian Arabians...course I thought I had the class sussed, because the other entry was that Paint/Shire cross (the one that almost crushed us earlier in the week). ..but, I guess "Touche'" was the better specimen, because he took first, Quzqo 2nd under both judges. GRRRGH. I was a little torqued off, considering my horse was clean enough to eat off of, his hooves were gleaming, his whiskers trimmed, he smelled of fragrant horse makeup and hair mousse, and was the prettiest horse in the WORLD! No, they liked Touche' better, even though he had manure stains on his knees, they hadn't trimmed anything on him, with big whiskers hanging off his face and big hairy ears.

The Champ and Reserve went to ponies, so at least I have that consolation...although in the showback, the lady judge asked me how old my "mare" was! LOL! Good memory, that one.

Guess my horse sucks...here I thought he was a nice example, but guess I'm wrong...should have shown him as a mare!

The lady judge made one of the little girls with a pony cry, because she told her she wasn't allowed to show her pony in a snaffle bridle with a bright purple ribbon browband...the girl was VERY upset, because she was wearing a matching helmet, and it WAS cute...sheesh, cut her some slack, woman!

On to the ridden classes...the judges didn't WANT to wait 45 minutes for lunch, so by the time I got Quzqo tacked up, and myself changed into my show clothes (no, I don't wear breeches in halter!), they were clearing the arena of the lunchtime warmup riders! I had NO warmup time! No practice time, nothing! Oh, I had about 45 minutes to cool my heels while the other Equitation classes went on (the Show Nazi was pissed that he couldn't force the Novices to perform a pattern with cantering...his idea of a Novice was different than the show association's), so I had to try to warm up Quzqo in the field...he was VERY, er, um, "enthusiastic", and totally ignoring me, he wanted to go to his pasture! We ended up doing small bending circles near the arena, got him supple if nothing else (and it was nothing else)

Novice Huntseat Equitation, 19/over, 4 entrants. Quzqo was...well...Quzqo . We just did rail work, no pattern at all (goody!), Quzqo was more high-headed than I'd EVER seen him...but other than that I thought he did well...he trotted nice and forward, slowed to a walk, wouldn't back for love nor money, turned around nice, trotted nice and forward with his nose in the air, slowed to a walk, and didn't veer towards the gate. While we were waiting to exit, the woman judge came up to me, put her hand on my knee, and told me "This isn't Dressage; this isn't Saddleseat. That whip is much too long. I didn't count it against you, but either use a crop or nothing at all". I thanked her for her input, and slashed her across the face, she clutched her eyes that spurt blood like crushed tomatoes...er, wait, no...I thanked her and rode out of the ring (LOL). Well, that's a first..yes, I ride with a Dressage whip, but I don't USE it, I just have to carry it so Himself behaves! There was only one class between then and my next class, no time to go to the barn, so I just dropped the whip by a fence and figured well, I'll ride without it, he's moving nicely when other horses move, so...I might not need it.

We placed 4th out of 4 under both judges for Equitation...LOL. I'd hate to think what we'd have done if she DID penalize me for the whip...

Next class was "Novice Step-up Class", which is Open to all ages, and involves cantering. Yeah, I was a little nervous, but the On Deck area filled with equally nervous Novices (of which I was the oldest!)...my Lord, the barn owner's 4 yr old granddaughter was in my class! LOL, pathetic...but I noticed with some smugness the other three adult ladies who were in my Novice walk/trot Equitation didn't have the nerve to do the "Step Up"! Harrumph! I just hoped we didn't kill any children!

First direction, Quzqo did...um...okay...other than the SUDDEN VEERING AWAY TOWARDS THE OUT GATE! The little shit, every time we got to the corner the furthest from the gate, he'd try to VEER away, cutting corners, cutting across the arena...he ignored my legs, ignored my heels, ignored the spurs (round ball spurs, lest you think I'm abusing the lad). BUT, when they called for the canter, he just oozed into a VERY sweet, balanced (albeit fast compared to the 7 Quarter Horses in the arena with us) canter! I was proud of him...no running off, grabbing the bit, going ape! He still wouldn't back, but I think I got the 5 required steps out of him (took a while). The other direction went okay until they called for the canter, he started out nice until we got to the stretch of fence directly opposite the out gate...the little shit VEERED suddenly to the right and ran RIGHT across the arena, we missed the man judge by a few feet (flashback to Tezlu's showing days), and a well-placed kick got Quzqo back on the rail...GRR...I know what we need to work on!

No lecture from the judge, and I'm HAPPY to say that Quzqo placed 5th out of 8 under one of the judges, and no placing from the other. I'm ASSUMING the Arabian-loving lady judge gave us the placing...the one we DIDN'Tt almost trample to death!

Last class of our day was Novice Huntseat Pleasure, 19/over...walk/trot, heh heh. Quzqo did better...I had dumped my dressage whip and found my shorter riding crop with no lash...guess the lady judge liked THAT better...and maybe she noticed that Quzqo , er, um, behaved a bit better when I did ride with a whip...nice forward motion, no veering, no nonsense, and he even
backed a tiny bit better! We got a 4th and a 2nd!!! (out of 4) WhooHoo!! I'm keepin' that 2nd place!

Today was another day, with lovely severe thunderstorms in the early morning hours that flooded the arena! Believe me, after yesterday's DUST, the mud was welcome! They held the morning classes in the indoor arena (Showmanship, Halter, Lead Line), give the outdoor arena time to drain and de-liquify a bit. The bad weather scared off a lot of entrants, so, Quzqo WON his halter class...of course he was the only entrant, *sigh*. We got our clock cleaned in the Showback, beaten by an OUTSTANDING pony stud...he was small, so he might have been a Shetland (what do I know)...phew...no contest there. BUT, Quzqo now has a(nother) Reserve Championship rosette!! If only the show staff hadn't forgotten and LEFT THE RIBBONS OUTSIDE ALL NIGHT IN THE RAIN! LOL, yes, soaked through, I hung it on his stall and the center fell out! No, no replacements (technically I should have gotten TWO rosettes, since it was a double-judged show, but more on the ribbon shortage later)

At least this time I had time to get him tacked up (because I didn't change into riding togs, I rode in my black jeans and already had my shirt and coat on) and into the arena with the rest of the riders. He started out high-headed and horrible, but as we rode, working on transitions which REALLY helped him focus and settle down (trot five steps, walk five, trot eight, walk three, stop, back, canter 5, trot ten, etc, etc, keep 'em guessing)...that, and the soft wet dirt sucked his energy right out of him, LOL! After half an hour he was slow, calm, rounded, and kept stopping on his own. I was wearing my own personal sauna, GAAAH! Humidity had to be around
99.9999%, thank goodness for the cloud cover.

Different judges today, I got no lectures, but I used my shorter crop just in case. In the Equitation Quzqo did VERY well (I thought), but I guess *I* suck, because again we got 4th out of 4 entries. :-P----

For the Step-up class, I think I counted 12 entrants this time (Bob's 4 yr old granddaughter again, but none of the women from the Novice 19/over class, wimps!). Quzqo did VERY well the first direction, his canter has SO improved (considering 1 yr ago he couldn't canter with a rider at all!). We had to keep dodging around the slow-assed QHs clogging our way with their huge rumps...I swear, the whole landscape was a rolling sea of big brown butt cheeks!! As luck would have it, they called for the walk from the canter JUST as we were approaching the Out gate, so I had Noooo problem slowing Quzqo down, LOL (probably not a good thing to encourage). The other direction went well until they called for the canter...despite his faults, Quzqo is SO good about picking up his correct leads...I saw plenty of highly-trained showhorses taking wrong leads during the day (probably too highly-trained!).

We were cantering so nice, and up ahead was Bob's granddaughter on her big wide-load chestnut QH...I shifted Quzqo a little to the right...and he VEERS off across the damned arena again, heading for the OUTGATE! Again the judges had to jump out of the way (why do they keep
standing there? Stand in the middle or something!), and I got him back on the rail...we came around again, and there's ANOTHER damned QH in our way...I try to move to the inside and Quzqo VEERS off to the right heading for the out gate! Thankfully they called for a walk and the end of the class right then. Hm. We need to work on that.

No placing under Judge "A", but 6th place from Judge "B"!!!!! Out of 12, that ain't bad!!!

Finally, the last class of the show for us, the Huntseat Pleasure, Novice 19/0ver. Same ladies from earlier. We did all right I think...screwed up the Back-5-Steps, but what else is new. Quzqo had a lovely floating ground-eating trot (but not fast or out of control), his head was lower (not
low, not sky-high either), I got my diagonals right...after the class the judges had us line up, which was something new...and one by one they talked to each of us...the first woman, whose big-assed QH was nearly black with sweat, they admonished to give the horse a rest, don't work him so hard, he shouldn't be that soaked with sweat from head to toe...the woman blathered
about how hot it is (er, it's cloudy, in the low 80's, not that bad). The next lady received general complements...me, they asked if I did a lot of Endurance Riding! BWAHAHAHAAAA! No, I explained this was Quzqo's 4th show (actually it's his 5th real show, but I forgot), and that he's a
rescue...they were impressed and repeatedly told me to keep up the good work, and they hoped to see him do even better next year! (aw, gawrsh! guess they don't mind getting run over occasionally). The woman on my right was on a big-assed Paint horse, and although the judges spoke quietly, from what I gathered they saw the horse was limping throughout the whole class, and that they would have given her first and 2nd place except that she rode an obviously lame horse, which they thought was cruelty...the woman said she was riding the horse in the field and felt him step on something like a rock and he probably has a stone bruise, and she didn't think it would matter...after all, she's a Dressage rider...(???)...well, the judges didn't buy it, and basically disqualified her!

Which meant Quzqo and I got 3rd out of 3 from both judges!

Heh heh...when I was leading Quzqo back to the barn, I saw the Dressage Queen SOBBING to her friend how she'd been disqualified! Give me a break! This woman was an adult, not some 19 yr old! Ha, and I call my horse a Drama Queen!

That's it for this weekend. Since the showholders apparently forgot to ORDER RIBBONS, they had a severe rosette shortage...since they didn't have dates printed on the ribbons, they were using leftovers from last year, but by mid-afternoon yesterday they'd run out of Blues (except some they'd hoarded away for today's leadline class). Instead they incorporated a system where
you'd get a square of cardboard...blue, red, yellow, white, BLACK (they couldn't find pink), green. Each placing then had a monetary value, and could be redeemed at "Bob's Tack Store", which they had set up near the show ring. They had everything from mane combs ($1) to Western neoprene cinches ($18)...kind of a neat idea, although at first I wasn't keen on the idea.
I'm a novice, I WANT pretty ribbons to hang on my tack cupboard door, dammit! But by this afternoon, I had a big fistful of, well, last place ribbons, nothing to be real proud of, and since I had two blue pieces of cardboard from today's halter class...I ended up with $11.50 worth of credit (I'm keeping the rosettes that were actual achievements, i.e. I beat someone else to get them, LOL)..bought a lovely PURPLE feed bucket and a red lead rope...what the hey.