I Quit! (yeah, right)

Sun Sep 3, 2006

No more horse shows for me. I've had it. People whine about how only the deep-pocket showers win? Well, surprise, the same thing happens in the real world! Unless you've got a 5-figure horse with an equal amount of training and tack, and you're tall and beautiful to boot, forget it!

Doesn't matter if your horse performs perfectly, or if you do the pattern correctly, if you don't have the above things, forget it.

Yeah, yesterday at the horse show at the barn was a pure misery. Which is why I'm here now, online at home, instead of over there again for the 2nd day. No sense throwing good money after bad. Let somebody else be Last Place Loser, it ain't gonna be me. Especially since most those ladies showing "Novice" have NO fricking business in that division (and they know it and have admitted as much!)

Quzqo and I at least performed the showmanship pattern correctly...maybe a little crooked and not exactly crisp, but TWO people forgot a major part of the pattern (backing up after judge's inspection), and they BEAT US! Not even booby prize for someone who at least does all the pattern.

Well, went downhill from there. I didn't bother with Equitation, which is pretty much a beauty contest on horseback...sure, it's easy to sit pretty and straight on a perfectly-trained horse with push-buttons on the saddle. Not so easy with a green broke hotblooded beast with a mind of his own. So at least I saved $8 there. But in the Step-Up Huntseat, we did damned good I thought! I was thrilled to friggin' DEATH that the horse cantered both directions without quitting!! Yeah, okay, so he was a little faster than the other stock horses...well duuuh, he's an Arabian! He was doing a wonderful Arabian-type canter, I was thrilled!!! Nope, didn't even place. 7th out of 7.

In the novice Huntseat (19/o) which is walk-trot, he did GREAT! Even had his head tucked nice and rounded and was as near perfection as he can get! 6th out of 6.

Trail was an absolute horror and the camel-back-breaking straw. I shouldn't even have signed up for it after seeing the pattern. Anything that involved pulling a raincoat out of a mailbox (yeah, you do THAT every day on a trail!) and walking
through a water obstacle...I should have known better. Let's just say the only thing he (and I) did right was walking over the bridge. Everything else was totally FUBAR because SOMEbody decided he'd had enough and was doing everything he could to be as uncooperative as possible!

Didn't even stick around to hear the results...there were 7 entrants, we know who was going to be #7.

Took the horse out for a real trail ride because I didn't want him to get the idea that all he has to do is be bad and he gets to go to his stall. Unfortunately for HIM I was pissed as well, and he got his speckled little ass RODE, mostly up hill and at a canter! We came back to the barn eventually along the road...and I couldn't help but think THIS is a true test of a GOOD real-life trail horse...cars whizzing past us...even a pick-up hauling a boat...he didn't flinch or even twitch. LOL, I bet I got the stares, since I was obviously still dressed in full formal Huntseat attire with a number on my back, ha!

So, ended up turning him loose, he dropped and rolled and ground all the dirt he could into his previously-pristine show-sheened coat, and lollydawdled his way out to the field. I went home and wallowed in self-pity and despair, where I'm still pretty stuck today.

I'll head out to the barn later this morning, and just go for a trail ride to a nice inland lake I like. Screw the horse show, bunch of shallow circle-jerking morons anyway. Let somebody else be the Last Place horse today.

FWIW, yesterday was double-judged, so those loser placings were under TWO judges. What's the point?

As a bittersweet postscript, Quzqo was the only Arabian at the show, and as a result, was the only Pleasure Type halter entrant, so, gee, he won Pleasure Type Grand Champion under both judges. BFD. But at least he's got two huge-assed
rosettes hanging on his stall door.

I was looking over our show results from the past 2 years, and interestingly, we did "better" last year before any riding lessons. BUT...last year there were also two or three other ladies in my classes, all of which WERE actual novices. This year there's FOUR women who def. are NOT Novices (and the other two are amateurs like me). IMO, those 4 (yes, even my friend with the Paint) have NO business being in that division, and they show in the Open classes at non-association shows! GRRRRRR!

So, like I said...maybe next year, if those 4 aren't still playing in the kiddie pool, we might give it another go.

It just stings, knowing we got beaten by Bob's 5 yr old granddaughter in the Open Step-Up, GRRRGH! That kid doesn't "ride", she's just cargo! That horse can do a class w/o any rider, he's so push-button. I've seen him actually respond to the voice commands of the ring announcer, without the kid doing anything but looking around with a huge shit-eating grin on her face. Let's stick her on Quzqo and see how well she does!!

Funny, you can see in the results when I got a judge who either appreciated or understood the Arabian way of moving in a show ring (i.e. we placed...even taking 2nd in one instance) vs the ones who don't. Hell, while waiting in the line-up Saturday, I heard both judges discussing how my friend's Paint mare looked like the Paint one of them owned...no doubt judges who own a breed are going to be slanted towards that breed or breeds of that type. If only there were some way to get judges' biographies before a show to know if it's even worth it!!


I'm no longer buying the "It's a $4 opinion" nor am I buying "it's for FUN!". You work and sweat and strain for MONTHS, and do what you felt was damned fine, and still get kicked in the face for it, I say screw it. I've shed more tears this summer AT horse shows by repeatedly being shot down...it gets old REAL fast.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not by nature a competitive person. You NEED that to win. You also apparently need perfect posture and a robotic stock breed horse. I watched a bit of the adult Huntseat classes this afternoon, and man, there's NO way. Perfect women astride perfect horses riding perfectly. HA!

Instead, I took Quzqo on a trail ride by myself the next day. Other than a ridiculous over-reaction to a man on a house roof with a nailgun, he was absolute perfection. Even when this vanload of kids stopped and wanted to pet the horsie, he stood still by the vehicle as the kids sprawled over Dad's lap to touch the horse's soft nose. The little girl said "This is my dream come true!!!"

Some stuff you can't win in a show ring, but it's worth more than a ribbon.