Show Pictures: CAQHA May 8, 2010

I think the pictures say it all. We had a great day at the show, and at her very worst, Halo was a little fidgety before the first English classes. We had a couple of minor spooks during the hunter under saddle classes, but by the time western rolled around, she was riding like a pro.

Our final placings were:

3rd - Halter Mares 2-4 years old
3rd - Hunter In-Hand 19 & over
3rd - Hunter Under Saddle W/T green horse
7th - Hunter Under Saddle W/T 19 & over
5th - Western Pleasure W/J green horse

We ended up scratching from two of our classes, Western Pleasure W/J 19+ and Trail (green horse). I scratched from trail because they were going to require us to lope over poles. I didn't feel that Halo was ready to canter in the show ring, and loping over poles is not something we have practiced at home. I decided to scratch the second WP class because the indoor arena was VERY dusty and Halo has trouble with the dust. She coughed quite a bit in our second HUS class, and I didn't want to put her through two more classes in there. Fortunately they watered the arena between the English and western classes, which helped a bit.

Anyway, Halo was GREAT! I know we didn't win any blues, but we were there to learn and experience, not to win. By the time we got to her WP class, she was just amazing. She finally stopped thinking things around the arena were scary, and she was more focused. She was nice and soft and even gave me a pretty good jog. To give her complete credit, even in the first English class when she was gawking at everything around the arena, she still did exactly what I asked promptly when I asked her to do it. She had a couple of little spooks, but they were extremely minor, and she carried on afterward without becoming distressed. I was just amazed at her responsiveness and willingness to do what I requested even in such an unfamiliar environment. We never broke gait, and she got better and better with each class.

I was also pretty proud of her 3rd place in Hunter In-Hand. She is a SMALL horse, and the others in the class were big, probably HUS horses. She beat one of them to take the third, which made me really proud of her. She may be a little horse, but she has a big stride and a big heart!













A couple of pictures of us made it up onto the CAQHA website as well. I wish I hadn't been wearing my boot covers in this picture, but that was why the photographer took it!