Another fun reining show, though I never managed to beat my best - this one the Northeast Super Slide-In. When I flubbed the pattern in the first class and zeroed (my own fault, I'd skimmed the description of the spins and made assumptions) I entered Green Horse.
I also went shopping in Kathy the tack lady's trailer (Kathy Toomey Burgos on Facebook), and picked up a gorgeous emerald green show blanket, and I bought a 1/4" Wonpad, too - it's perfect for under a show blanket, not too thick, not thin like a back-on-track blanket. I really like it. She will run a tab for you, and gives good discounts - I got the pad for 89.95.
Anyway, in Green Horse with the green blanket, we got a 62.5, so were moving in the right direction. :)
The next day was a Green Reiner class first thing, this one I got a 60... Cinch, who is usually a spinning machine, decided that it was just too early to do that thang... our spins sucked.
Cinch BigBootay taking a mid-day nap.
I wanted to do better, and entered Green Horse for that day. Bryan said he'd hop on Cinch a bit before the class to tune him up a bit, and I went shopping in Kathy's trailer again.
I found some cute little skull-decorated spurs, with just a little more to the rowel than my plain-jane spurs had (which were essentially dimes), and a pair of blue and black skull earrings, all to match my skull and crossbones Elvis-collared show shirt I bought at the last show.
The spurs. The nail polish helps hide the dirt under my fingernails. I'm not very good at applying it, though.
Even though the skulls on the shirt had one blue eye and the earrings were blue, I used the green blanket on Cinch - it just was that pretty on him.
I rode him a bit in the practice ring, then Bryan came in and got on him, and made him mind a bit more.
As an aside: one of the best things about Bryan as a trainer is, he doesn't "tune up" the horse in the practice ring by yanking him around in spins, or whaling on his sides to back up. He still gets the results he wants, but the rough use isn't part of his repertoire... and it was in a few of the other trainers'.
One in particular, a woman, was pretty bad - the poor horses looked miserable as she yanked and kicked and muscled them into pretzels. And another one NEVER SHUT UP, berating the kids she was coaching, and half the time telling them to do things that were abusive and often contradictory. I commented to another older guy, as we were both sitting on a bench in a corner "I'm too old too put up with that kind of shit." And he said "I'd take my kid and horse out of training with any trainer ever acted like that with them." I'm really surprised the kids weren't in tears. I mentioned that to a friend of mine, and I think she said that at some shows they have judges watching the practice ring to make sure none of that crap was happening, but we didn't have them. :(
Anyway, I hopped back on, went to the pen, and we didn't do too badly, and though the run was a little zippy, our spins were *much* better. :) We got a 63.
During the day, the chiropractor who comes to the barn every so often to adjust our horses, and who has a horse in training with Bryan, arrived. We didn't want to do Cinch just before his class just in case he got a bit sore from the adjustment, but he got a nice adjustment afterwards.
One of the funniest thing I've ever seen: Bryan and his girlfriend Jenny have an Aussie, Rosie. Jenny was having her horse Star adjusted just before Cinch, and we were all sitting there watching as the chiro worked.
He brought out his mallets to work on Star's spine. He held one to the vertebra (brum?) and hit that mallet with the other one.
*WHACK*
Rosie jumped up, whining piteously, and running in circles. We all, including the chiro and his wife who was holding Star, looked at her, surprised.
He turned around, moved a bit up the spine, and *WHACK*
Rosie, whining, was beside herself now, running back and forth, looking at Bryan and Jenny like "WHY ARE YOU ALLOWING THIS???"
The chiro whacked once more, and they had to take Rosie away. We all laughed for about 5 minutes. She didn't act that way with any other horse, only Star.
While Cinch was getting his adjustment, the "Northeast Classic Reiners Class" was going on. The qualifications were, having been an NRHA member 20 years ago (though not necessarily still a member) and being over 55.
We could usually hear the sounds of people hooting and cheering a bit during the show back at the stalls, but as a faint background noise. Suddenly, there was a cacophony - cheering, hooting, just all kinds of noise. I figured it was some one everyone liked, and I sure wasn't wrong: it was Kathy the tack lady... competing for the first time in ten years... well, let me let her tell you about it, since I didn't witness it first hand:
"I have been in the horse industry in one form or another for 45 years. Yesterday afternoon was probably the most memorable and fun experience I've ever had. I showed at the Northeast Reining Horses Association in the Classic Reiner Class. It was the first time I was back in the pen after 10 years and the first time on a horse in three years. The crowd was amazing! I have never felt so much love in my entire life! Thank you all! I also like to personally thank Martina Morrell for getting me through the pattern successfully and to Amber Jewel for letting me use her great Horse Chexy. Words cannot even express how I feel!"
If you want to see a bit more about it, search for her name on Facebook (Kathy Toomey Burgos), people shared photos to her timeline.
I did get to see the rest of the class after Cinch was done, and I can tell you, I have never seen such a great crew and had so much fun watching an event, ever. I was hooting and hollering with everyone else.
Yesterday morning, I had one last class, another Green Reiner. After our zippy performance the day before, I wanted to take this one slow. I did - but too slow, basically too slow to get a decent stop and slide. It was a more complicated pattern than I'd done before, with a run-in first, and I didn't go off pattern. So, bad stops, a couple of -1/2s, and a score of 62. Oh well - I now have something to work on for the off-season.
Cinch really did not want to get up Saturday morning.
I stayed for a few hours longer, but then packed up my stuff and headed home, since I didn't have any classes at all today. We could have stayed for the futurity, but Angel (who went to the show even though she kept her horse home) and I were ready to leave. Cinch stayed behind, but he'll get a nice rest before he travels home himself.
Oh - one of the judges owns Cinch's daddy Backcinch. Small world!
And I forgot to mention - one of the girls who came with us couldn't bring her reiner, he's lame - so she brought and competed on her Haflinger pony. Cutest thing!
I got the video of my rides, but I need to edit it down: he put my runs for all 5 classes together into one long video; I'm going to break it down to the individual videos. Meanwhile, the photographer posted the photos. Some are cringe-worthy, but I'll probably be buying a few:
Photos from the Super Slide-In
