I survived my first reining show, and my first horse show of any kind in 20 years.
It was a blast - friendly, helpful people, and an atmosphere that would give a lot of horses the vapors: lots of dogs of all kinds, shapes and sizes, often loose but (usually) well behaved (no dog fights that I heard/saw, just wandering around visiting when the owners weren't paying attention), and kids on scooters and bikes zooming up and down the barn aisles, as people and horses passed in and out to and from the show pen or the practice areas.
The barn owner has a live-in trailer, and another rider brought a camper. The rest of us had doubled up for rooms at the Red Roof Inn, not too far away.
My goal for the show was to get a score. Period. To get a score, all I needed to do was to not deviate from the pattern designated for the class. I was entering 3 classes - Ladies and Gents (the first of the show, and pretty much a "practice" class for everyone), then Green Reiner II on Saturday and again on Sunday. Each class has a different pattern to memorize, though once you get the flow of them many of them don't differ by all that much - direction to start in, walk vs. trot vs run into the pen to start, and typically 3 circles (different combos of large and small), spins, roll backs, and sliding stops. After you read/memorize a pattern, you start condensing them into the salient points or the differences: for instance,"left, right, big, small, big" equates to "walk in, go to the middle facing the judge, spin 4 times to the left, stop, spin four times to the right, stop, start a big fast circle to the right (half the show pen), when you get back to the middle do a small slow circle to the right, then another big fast circle, change leads and make a big fast circle to the left and a small slow circle and then another big fast circle to the left, change leads, start a big circle to the right but don't complete it; instead go down the long side about 20 feet from the wall, pass the center, stop, do a left rollback, go around to the left long side about 20 feet from the wall, pass the center, stop, do a right rollback, continue around again to the right 20 feet from the wall, pass the center, sliding stop, and back up to the center."
That's Pattern 8, by the way. Which was the pattern for Ladies and Gents.
We got to the Eastern States Exposition showgrounds in Springfield on Thursday afternoon to unload the horses and all the tack/hay/grain/chairs/tables/food, etc. needed to support 7 horses and 5 non-pros plus a trainer for 3+ days. It was FREEZING. I'd brought a mid-weight jacket, a sweatshirt/hoodie, and a fleece top, and was wearing them all on top of a long sleeved shirt, and still shivering. We comforted ourselves that the forecast for the next couple of days was for warmer weather, at least in the 50s.
After 6PM the trainer rode Cinch in a paid warmup (you get 5 minutes in the show pen alone for each paid warmup), and since Cinch was pretty fresh, he rode him in another. This is kind of pitiful, but I actually can't remember if I got on him Thursday as well. :(
It was a long day, and my temporary roomie and I headed to the Red Roof to relax and get some sleep. We were planning an early morning - get on our horses by 6:30 AM in order to get used to riding in the show pen, since it would be available for a while before the show started to everyone.
Friday morning, I got on Cinch in the show pen for the first time. Since quite a few other riders were doing the same thing, there were rules about where you could circle in what direction, and for those who wanted to practice run-downs, a bunch would either call "fence" and line up at the end to wait for people to stop, or just time their runs to not disrupt the people circling. It actually worked pretty well.
It didn't get any warmer.
Back at the stalls, coolers were put on the horses, they were given more hay, stalls cleaned, floor swept, and people schmoozed while we waited to find out our draws (when we would do our run). The Ladies class is actually run together with the Gents class, so the draws were mixed. I ended up being 39 out of 40, which made for a very long and cold wait. Still, the trainer wanted us warming up well before our draws, so I was in the practice ring as draw 27 started their run. We both got a bit sweaty by the time our draw rolled around. I thought Cinch seemed to be getting a bit tired, too.
We walked into the pen, and just as we're about to turn towards the judge, Cinch does one of his odd walking bucks, where he hitches his hind end up and tosses me a bit off-balance. Oh well, it is what it is... I smiled at the judge, and started our spins.
They were a bit lethargic... possibly because, though I hadn't thought I was very stressed, I completely forgot to cluck. But we did the right number and ended up only a bit overspun.
Next was the circles. The big ones could have been a bit faster (the idea is that there should be a visible difference in speed) but we tracked around well.
Our lead changes needed work. Oh well, I did get them eventually.
For the run-downs, let's just say that Cinch woke up. As we came around the straightaway for the first rundown, he took off and I yelped. Well, actually I hollered. Okay, I yelled "WA-HOOOOO!" And when I asked for the stop, hoo-boy did he stop. Still a bit stunned, the roll back wasn't exactly picture perfect.
For the second one, I at least kept my mouth shut. Again, my rollback was lacking.
For the final run down and sliding stop, I pretty much resigned myself to a wild ride, and got it. The nice part was, it was probably the best stop I ever rode, and I didn't even brace against it and bounce on his back.
As I left the pen, people were still cracking up - apparently, a competitor yipping it up during a run isn't a common occurrence. My barn mates had told everyone watching that this was my first ever class, and people I didn't even know congratulated me. We all had grins on our faces.
And I got a score: 57! Yes, a perfect, no errors but nothing outstanding score is 70, but I didn't zero! I was pumped.
To be continued...
