NWRA Arlington Reining Show (May 16, 2010)

It was way too early in the morning. So early that it wasn't even light out. The sun's light was not even peeking over the mountains to the east. Fun.
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I had never asked Mercy to load in the dark, so I really didn't know what to expect. On a normal day, she can be difficult to load when I haul her alone. It can be done easily, but sometimes she just has to make sure that's really what I want, lol! So, I woke up extra early so I could make sure we hit the road on time. It was 4:30AM. And guess what... she loaded right up. I don't know if she was just really in a good mood or just happy to eat some hay, but she loaded up with ease once we had the trailer and truck all packed.
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According to MapQuest, it was going to take us approximately 2 and a half hours to get there. Anyone who drives a horse trailer knows, however, that it takes longer when you're hauling live weight. I added another half hour to our drive time to give us plenty of driving time. The show started at 8AM and since this was our first show with this organization, I didn't know how smoothly it was run normally. I wanted to get there with plenty of time to warm up my sometimes crazy mare if need be!
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Well, let's put it this way, my mom, Mercy, and I arrived at the showgrounds before 6:30. We were the first people to arrive. Of course, I pull the truck and trailer into the wrong area and am finally able to wave down the resident farmhand for help. He shows me where I can park, which is out front or out back in the field. I chose the field. Big mistake. I take one step out into the tall grass after getting the rig arranged next to an over-nighter and my boot is instantly soaked with the morning dew. It is cold out and now my feet are wet. And it's only 6:30 in the morning...
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I grab what little warm clothes I brought and threw those on before going to unload Mercy. I hung up a hay bag for her and offered her some water. Once I knew she was well taken care of I waddled my way back to the barn to see if there was anyone around. The office wasn't open yet and there was no one to ask. No breakfast, no potty, no help. It was only 6:45...
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With no luck there, I headed back to the trailer. My socks are soggy already, so I don't walk as carefully through the tall grass. Mercy hears me coming and nickers softly as I approach. The warm up arena was perfectly groomed and waiting for us, so I saddled her up and walked her over to the show area. I tighten her cinch, climb aboard, and take a deep breath.

It was still very cool. The sun was still not up. Dang it. The horses boarded there weren't even fed. Think we got there earlier enough?! Lol! I still wasn't convinced that there was even going to be a show there that day. No one was around and it was 7AM! Since I had the arena to myself I let Mercy just cruise around on a loose rein for a while. She walked over to see the boarded horses and then tried to stop and nibble the grass on the side of the giant arena. Once I was convinced she was bored I asked her to get to work... any work... of any kind... but first at a trot.

We took a few laps around the arena in both directions. She was getting less and less interested with the other horses and grass and more focused on me. For this show, I had already decided that I wasn't going to ask her to 'frame up' at all. I just wanted to survive the show and have some fun. It will be a long time before we ever get serious about this sport or competing. If we could get through this show without getting a zero, I would be more than thrilled!

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I tried asking her to trot some really big circles, but she was getting confused and jazzed up, so I brought her back to the rail and continued loosening her up there. Once she was feeling more prepared, I just asked her to lope as we came off the rail and into a large circle. It felt great!

I tried really hard to just relax into the saddle and give her the reins. We were working on our circles, but she was allowed to stray a little as long as she would easily return. We worked to the left first, our easy way. I wanted to boost both of our confidences before plowing the other direction. As you can see, she is very relaxed and moving out well. She carries her head and neck higher than a pleasure horse (obviously) but it is still lower and comfortable. Also notice the wet jeans in most of these warm up photos... *rolls eyes and shakes head in disbelief* :/

She really surprised me when we switched to the right circles. She was easy to maneuver and she held a constant speed. There was no fighting between the two of us and there was no panic. It was just another enjoyable ride!

Eventually the office crew arrived and more trailers pulled in. I few other riders joined us in the arena so it was good practice sharing the space. Once we had our large circles going for us I practiced breaking her down into a smaller, slower circle. She has a long stride, so I discovered that I need to ask her to start slowing down way before we actually need to.

Our spins were still not quite all together yet, so I really didn't want to practice that and confuse her more right before her first show. I just had her pivot both ways 360* and stop. When that was solid I returned to the circles and practiced a few simple lead changes. We had been practicing these at a friend's place and were having great success, but that morning she really didn't want to change from a right to a left lead. I never did get it before calling it quits. I still needed to get ready and checked in!

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On our way back to the trailer I noticed there were other people riding in the indoor show arena. I thought we weren't allowed to go in there, but it was only 7:30, so in we went. I just wanted her to be able to look around and get her spooks out now. We were done working, it was time to cool off and relax. After walking the rail a few times each way we moved up into a trot and did a few circles amongst the other riders. Once we could complete a circle without freaking out at the judge's chair, or the blue mounting block in the corner of the arena, I dismounted and loosened Mercy's cinch. She did good.

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After dropping Mercy off at the trailer to water up and continue stuffing her face full of hay, I headed back to the arena to visit the office. Mercy received a permanent NWRA number and I was cleared to show. The gal informed me they were running a little behind (noooo, really!?!?) and that the warm up class only had a few participants, so be prepared for class #2.

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Back at the trailer I quickly re-tacked Mercy up, this time with her show pad, attached her number to the pad, and got myself together. I needed to change into my western show shirt and slick back my hair. Next, I hair sprayed my head and my hat heavily. It was NOT going to come off! After a few minutes it felt secure (and crunchy...) enough to get Mercy's bridle and head back to the warm up arena.

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Our first class was class #2- Beginner Horse and Rider A. This is a pattern that was modified from one of the original NRHA patterns to give Beginner horses and riders a chance to learn. Here was the pattern: Begin facing the judge in the center of the arena, one left spin, one right spin, two large then one small circle to the left, simple lead change, two large then one small circle to the right, stop at the center of the arena, and back 5 feet. No penalties were received for simple lead changes or a correct 'walk around' spin.

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When I figure out how to get video on here I will post it, but until then here are my scores:
Left spin-0

Right spin-0

Left circles: -1/2 and penalty: -1/2

Lead Change: -1/2

Right circles: -1

Stop: -1

Back:0

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For a total of 66 1/2 points out of 70!!! Neat! We didn't zero out or go off pattern! On our left circles, Mercy just wanted to bolt for the gate, so she would shoulder in and instead of a nice circle, we made a "D"... completely flat on one side and then she would find our path again, lol! The lead change penalty was understandable because she not only took forever to get loping, we also almost plowed the judge over because I couldn't get her to go to the right! That dang shoulder was leaning to the left! I finally puled her head over and she got it, but still! :/

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I don't really know what was wrong with the right circles, but oh well. Our stop was way to late and once again we were close to clobbering the judge. Thank goodness she backed right up. In the end, I earned a 2nd place ribbon out of 4 contestants. Fine with me! I was still in disbelief that we had actually competed in our first reining show class! :)

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Class #3 was Beginner Horse and Rider B, another modified pattern but this time it was a REAL NRHA pattern (#8). There was once again no penalties for simples or smooth "spins," and the only modification was that instead of 4 spins in each direction, you had to complete only 2.

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Here's how we scored:

Left spins: -1/2
Right spins: 0

Right circles: -1/2 and penalty: 2

Left circles: -1/2

Left roll back: -1 and penalty: 1/2

Right roll back: -1 1/2 and penalty : 1/2

Stop and Back: -1

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Our total: 62. Yup, things sure did get much more challenging! This is the class where certain 'behavioral patterns' started to appear. For example, Mercy decided that spinning to the left meant physically moving her whole body to the left... toward the gate. In those 2 spins, we had moved a good 10 feet to our left. And now we were nowhere near the center of the arena. Oh well. I spun Mercy to the right right where we were. This actually worked in our favor because then it gave us lots of room to pick up the right lead. Plus she was already thinking 'right!' Unfortunately, once we got into the circles she was once again trying to shove her shoulder around. That got us 2 penalty points! Boo!

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We don't slide yet, so our rollback scores were low. Not only that, but as I guided Mercy to the second and then the third stop, she got harder and harder to stop. She just wanted to keep loping around! And since we were just there for the experience, I grabbed hold of the reins and hauled back after giving her plenty of cues to slow down and stop. That got her attention! Just because we are showing doesn't mean I won't correct you when you take it too far Missy!!!!

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After laughing myself out the gate to the bit inspection area, my sister showed up with breakfast. I ate quickly, but there was really no rush. There were at least 10 riders in this class and each run takes about 4-5 minutes. So after walking around for a while I got back on and we headed back to the outdoor warm up arena. I have no doubt that if they held the show outside in the outdoor arena, we would have had fewer issues. She just doesn't like it in there as much. She tolerates it, but that's about it.

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I loped her around for quite a while to get her to respond better to my 'whoa' cues. I didn't want to tire her out, I just wanted her to want to find or hunt for the release, and ultimately the stop. It worked. We loped circles for some time before she was slowing down and trying to stop on her own. I asked her to keep going. Just a little longer. And then I asked her to stop with my weight in the saddle and a deep, long 'whoa.' She slammed on the brakes! No reins necessary. Perfect. A good long rest in the middle of the arena, a few 180* spins in both directions and we were done. I got off and walked over to see my draw for class #5- Beginner Horse/Non-Pro Rider. We were draw number 2 of 8.

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This ride felt a lot more solid than the second one. It was a pretty difficult pattern, especially since we had just recently figured out simple lead changes. NRHA pattern #5 involves what is basically a figure eight. This is because you stop in the center of the arena between circles, so it becomes necessary to add the figure eight to show lead changes. This class does have penalties for simples; one point each. Ouch! Here's how we did:

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Left circles: -1/2
Left spins: -0

Right circles: -1 and penalty: -2

Right spins: 0

Lead changes: -1/2 and penalty: -1, -1

Right Rollback: -1/2

Left Rollback: -1

Stop and back: -1

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Our final score for the day was 61 1/2! The 2 penalties for the lead changes were no big deal for us. I knew we would get them because we don't know how to do flys yet! I don't know what was up with the right circles, but I do know that we completed every lead change! They may have been late, early, or prolonged, but Mercy never missed a lead change. That was WAY more than I expected because remember way earlier in this post I was describing how I ended up having to quit working on those during our warm up? I never thought she would get them in the indoor arena. She does surprise me every time I ride her! We ended up with a 6th place in this class, but considering the high score was only 66 1/2, we weren't doing too bad. Also considering our last 'schooling show' score (and our first ever scored run) was a 55 1/2, I am very pleased. If we can just keep competing and gaining experience, I know we will be competitive some day. Whenever that may be.

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We were contemplating staying for the working halter class, but I was mentally done and ready to go home. I think it was only around 9 or 9:30AM. Three classes all in one morning is a lot to ask a young, inexperienced horse. She physically could have kept going, but that last run felt amazing and I was perfectly content on calling it a day. A successful day.

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We quickly loaded everything up, let Mercy have a good graze in the pasture parking area, picked up my 2nd place ribbon, and headed back on the road. It took longer to get home because of course in was the middle of the morning on a Sunday. There was an accident on the northbound lanes so the southbound lanes were moving pretty slow for a while. We pulled in around noon. Whoa, what a morning.

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That whole experience was about as perfect as it gets. We had no major issues in the warm up arena, no one got bucked off, Mercy seemed happy and content the whole day, we completed and scored in ALL of our classes , and got GREAT scores for our first show. Considering we both have no professional training and I am the one who has taught Mercy the specific reining maneuvers required, I think we held our own in the show ring. Can't wait for the next one!

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