Nicole was our youngest rider at 11 years old. Her mom and dad, Maureen and Ralph, bought her a little bay reining mare for her first horse. "Dolly" is four years old and bomb proof with the added ability of being reining trained.
Alexis is 14 years old and has a background of two years of English riding lessons. She is a little timid but gained valuable confidence building experience this past summer by working in a hack barn. She rode different horses on trail with the guides at the end of a day's work.
Alexis's mom, Patty, owned Dolly before she sold her to Nicole. Nicole and Alexis both wanted to try to show Dolly in their first ever horse show sponsored by Islip Horseman's Association. Patty helped both Nicole and Alexis get ready for the Western Show. She watched them ride and asked each girl to change gates on command. She explained how to execute these commands properly and commented on what the judge would be looking for from them as a horse and rider team. Each girl practiced and learned how to ask the horse for transitions between the walk, jog and lope -- not to forget to stand still and back-up.
To reinforce the learning process, Patty decided to show her four year old gelding in the Adult Beginner Western classes. She practiced with them so they could visualize each manuever as well. Patty didn't have much experience in showing western pleasure or horsemanship classes, but stood on the rail and watched many western judged shows. She watched a lot of warm-ups and had taken equitation lessons. She had learned for many years about showing and riding in reining events and hoped to rely on this to help coach the girls to success.
The day before the show, after a detailed practice session, the horses were bathed, tack was cleaned and packed away. Plans were made to meet at the barn early the day of the show.
The show started at 9:00am with halter classes. Our crew arrived at the show grounds with plenty of time to set up chairs and coolers in a shaded area close to the western show ring. The horses were taken out of the trailer and tacked to show. Nicole, Alexis and Patty went into the warm-up ring to prepare their horses. Maureen and Ralph Sr. (Nicole's grandfather) took Lisa an Ralphy (Nicole's sister and brother) to watch and take pictures. Patty coached each girl on how to prepare Dolly before showing. Nicole walked, trotted and tried a lope departure. She wasn't successful at the lope, so it was decided to go with what she had and do the best to make it work. Alexis repeated the exercise with the same results. It was decided that Alexis would not ask Dolly to lope again until after Nicole finished her classes. Patty warmed up "Banjoe" by trotting him with a martingale and keeping him bridled-up. Nicole's first class-- Junior Walk, Trot, was called.
All the contestants walked into the ring and took their places. "You are now being judged, please walk!" Nicole was focused and performed each gate with confidence as it was called. Everyone looked good. At the end of the class the riders were asked to line up in front of the judge and each was asked individually to back their horse. The sheet was brought to the announcer's booth. . . Nicole received 2nd Place!
The riders were asked to remain in the ring for the second class -- "Junior Walk, Trot, Individual Lope." This class went along pretty much as the class before it until the riders were asked to lope. They started out together and one horse wanted to buck, to the judge asked them to stop. Nicole and Dolly were calm. Nicole was asked to lope off first. With full concentration and composure, Nicole asked her horse to lope off . . . and she did, even on the correct lead! All of a sudden Nicole lost her foot out of the stirrup, but she never flinched and kept on going until asked to stop. The audience applauded. From there the other riders were asked to lope -- one by one each receiving applause after they finished. They all lined up in front of the judge and were asked to back-up. Again the sheet went to the announcers' booth. Nicole was awarded 1st Place!! Maureen and Ralph were overjoyed! Patty was proud of Nicole's accomplishment. Alexis congratulated Nicole and grabbed Dolly to get ready for her classes.
Alexis' first class was called -- Junior Beginner Western Pleasure. Dolly and Alexis looked relaxed as the judge called for each transition. Even when the last lope departure was called for and Alexis went off on the wrong lead all the way around the pen she was calm.Patty told Alexis how good she looked and explained to her how to ask for the correct lead a little better. Junior Beginner Western Horsemanship riders were asked to line up in front of the judge at the end of their class. Each backed-up and the sheet went once again to the announcers' stand. Alexis won 2nd Place! Patty congratulated her and told her how wonderful it was that she learned from her first mistake and went on to her next class still confident enough to show well.
It was a beautiful September day and everyone came home with prizes and big smiles. Alexis won more ribbons and even placed over her mom in the All Age Command Class. By-the-way, Patty and Banjoe left the show with a Grand Champion in their division for the end of the day (what a surprise).
The horses went back to the barn for a nice, long rest. They are well fed, groomed and living in a clean environment. We constantly maintain their good health so we can all enjoy fun times with our horses.
Nicole and Alexis can't wait for next season and have all winter to prepare for 1998!
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