We survived our first AQHA show!

Last  week Spencer and I made it out to our first AQHA show. And sadly, I have not one picture to show for it!  It was just too hard to keep my phone handy while riding.

Technically Spencer has been shown AQHA a few times before; it is me that is the newbie!  I have spent the last two years taking lessons, watching shows, asking questions and even volunteering on the show board…all in preparation to try showing at this level myself. 

Now, this is a local branch of AQHA, not a big level show.  And, I’m showing in the Rookie division, so the competition wasn’t too fierce.   Most AQHA shows are multiple day, multiple judge affairs – and quite expensive if you go in for the whole deal.  This local show has a rookie/novice day in the middle of the show with one judge, so that was my target to get my feet wet.

My friends trailered Spencer over the day before – we got a deal on a stall, since I’m on the show board.  I rode Spencer that evening and he was a bit looky and a little wound up. He didn’t do anything wrong, but he was not relaxed at all. I was a bit discouraged as I took him back to his stall.  Several friends (some new) saw the look of disappointment on my face and told me to just go home and start over tomorrow.  One friend said he would be a different horse the next day, once he settled in.  I was skeptical, but took the advice.

Turns out this friend was right. Spencer was 100% better the next day.  I wasn’t showing trail until that evening, so we spent all day longing, riding and hand-walking in the different show pens on the grounds.  I decided to just do some walk/jog classes, since our lope just wasn’t as nice as it was at home.  I was fine with that – lots of time to move up to the lope/canter classes next year!

We showed trail in the evening and he was good. We ended up placing 3/6 and getting my first ribbon.  The next morning we were doing halter and showmanship.  I just do halter as a warm-up to get the horse used to the ring.  We ended up placing 3/6 again. I almost had a major wardrobe malfunction while trotting away from the judge. My pants almost fell down!  Yikes! Luckily I managed to keep everything in place and was laughing as I went to set Spencer up. My coach and friends nearby started laughing too when I told them what almost happened!

I had time to grab a belt before the showmanship class.  I was excited and nervous about showmanship -  I really like that class and it is my coach’s favourite too, so I wanted to do my best. There were 18 entries, so I tried not to let that get to me. My chances for a ribbon/placing weren’t as good. Spencer was being a little difficult as I was practicing too.  I went in to the ring and got through my pattern. Spencer was really good – he seems to get tired/annoyed when drilling/practicing too much, but performs really well when in the ring – which is a good thing!

When I heard my number called out for 2^nd place, I almost passed out!  J  That was my best result at any show to date and it couldn’t have happened at a better time.  Everyone around me cheered and I got congratulations and high fives from people all day.  I will even get my first AQHA points out of that class!  I even got some pointers from Spencer's old trainer, who is a very successful trainer and shows/trains horses and people for Congress.  I think I might even try and get a couple of lessons from her next year, if things work out.

I rode two w/j classes in the afternoon and Spencer was pretty good. We had a couple of minor miscommunication issues, but they were all my fault. We still managed to get two more shiny ribbons to add to my collection -  making my total haul 5 ribbons and 2 AQHA points! I still have lots to work on for next year, as always!