Saturday was the first Snake River Reining Alliance Club show of the year. Annabelle has been anxious to go show again after having to sit around without much riding for a whole week in Vegas, so she was looking forward to getting out in the pen herself.
The day dawned a little gray but pretty warm. We loaded up early and headed over to Kuna to the Lucky Run Arena. As we arrived, it was easy to see the show was a big success. The large parking lot was filled with every description of trailer, and I thought to myself “it’s gonna be a long day.”
We had a several-hour wait until our class, which we spent by industriously eating donuts and talking to all our friends who were also hanging around. A steady rain had picked up shortly after we got inside the arena, and we tried to wait it out before we got our horses out of the trailer and saddled.
Finally, after Annabelle asked me for the forty-seventh time when she could get on Grumpy, I acquiesced and we headed out into the drizzle to get saddled up. It was immediately apparent that I had not packed warm enough clothes or coats for us.
It was windy and miserable, with the rain varying from a light drizzle to what my friend David Duckett describes so eloquently as “a cow peeing on a flat rock”. Except he doesn’t say peeing.
We tried to ride around outside with the other riders for a while, but eventually it was just too miserable, and we sat inside with everyone else waiting for our classes to come up.
We were muddy and cold, and our horses were definitely not the picture of show-ready that day.
Auntie Shane is such a funny girl!
Just before her class came up, Annabelle went back outside to lope. You can actually the rain falling in this picture, but she was not to be deterred.
I was not as hardy or dedicated as my daughter in my rainy-day warm up routine, so when I entered the arena to school Freckles in the green rookie class she was…..let’s just say ‘not quite mentally prepared’. She spooked from the judge, swished her tail, and carried her head like a 14-hand giraffe for a bit, then settled down into her work.
Once she got going she was actually pretty good. We were the first out in our class of 16 horses, and the judge must have seen something she really liked in my diminutive red filly, because she marked us a 70. While I was thrilled with the score, I really did feel it was a bit generous, and I saw several horses follow us that I was sure would mark better. Somehow, though, our number held up through the class and Freckles won her first reining money: $49.70. Yahoo!
Have I mentioned that I love this horse?
Here is a video of our run:
When it was Annabelle’s turn, she headed out all smiles. She had been waiting all day to go show, and she was ready.
Despite the rain, she had succeeded in loping Grumpy until he was pretty tired, and he was definitely not in the mood to go out and be shown. Annabelle had to work pretty hard at getting him through the pattern. The other kids had some problems with their patterns too, though, and in the end Annabelle and Grumpy did come away with the only score of the day, and an automatic first place.
I was really proud of her because she didn’t give up when she had some problems getting her spins or her back-up at the end of her run. That girl does have perseverance, no doubt about that! I’ve had a problem getting her video to upload, but she did a great job of keeping her horse correct and honest through the pattern.
As soon as we were finished showing we loaded up and headed home, but not before Annabelle gave Grumpy his cookies as a reward for a job well done.
DH had been home with Batman all day, and I knew they were ready for some female companionship in the house. On the way home I called to see if we needed anything from the store. “Nope”, he said. “I’ve got it handled”.
We walked in the door, still cold and very hungry, to find a large bowl of delicious home-made guacamole on the table. There was already a glass of wine poured, and DH was in the middle of making fish and chips with fresh cod, paired with some special crunchy fries that he had just found the recipe for that day.
The food was awesome, but that wasn’t all. The boys had picked me up a dozen red roses at the grocery store while they were there.
Just because.
I love my life!
Chronicles of a Desperate Horsewife 