Sleeping in the camper wasn’t too bad this time. We
were up and took showers in the arena bathrooms and started our day. Jayden's friend Hannah stayed until 4:00 in the afternoon. The horse
show began at 10Am with halter and showmanship. Jayden’s first class was trail
at 2:30ish. We had practiced the obstacles at home and felt pretty good about
the class. We watched the older kids have problem after problem. Jessie was
being difficult, tossing her head and not wanting to stand. Jayden got through
the rope gate, but could not re-latch it. The bridge had flowers along it, so
after 3 attempts Jayden had to walk around it. She walked over logs and would
not break into a lope for the half circle. She backed through poles, but
stepped out of it. And the last thing she did a 360 inside a small square and
did it well. Jayden was pretty
disappointed with her pattern, but she ended up 3
rd. All the other kids had lots of problems too. It is so different when doing it at the fair, the horse is by itself in the arena and their is an audience. There was a 3
hour break to cool off and get something to eat. Aunt Alice, Mark, my parents, and
the boys came to watch all night. Karen and Orrie watched one class before
going to the premium auction. It was hot and miserable in the indoor arena, no
air movement. Jayden did a super job in her walk trot, western pleasure, and horsemanship classes. The class was
pretty fair with 2 other barrel racers in the class and no show horses. All 3
kids missed a lead but corrected it. We all thought Jayden’s horse carried her
head the best and should have done better. She was so close to a win, but got a blue in the classes. Payton won the classes and took home the trophies. When
it is that close and all the kids have an error , I think the judge should
spread the winning prize out a little. Ok I am the parent and not the judge.
Jayden did a reigning pattern. I was so prod of her for trying it. The pattern
was very advanced and used by most adults at reining competitions. It was also
very hard to remember. The reining class was the one and only class that was all
ages. There were only 6 in the class and Jayden was the only junior. Most of
the kids had slow pleasure horses and did the pattern slow and didn’t miss a
beat. Reining should be fast and I knew Jessie would be that. They started with
their circles and Jayden looked so good. She got confused and broke the pattern
at one point. She kept going and completed it very well without getting lost.
She even had to drop the bit for the judge at the end. It was pretty neat to
see her do it and I thought she did a great job. I told her I did my first
reigning pattern when I was in college and was very proud of her. The night ended with the costume class. This was the class that Grandma got into. Mawgee helped crate an outfit for her horse that looked like Popeye. She had cans of spinach, a sailors collar and tie and a sailor hat. Jayden was in her Oliveoil outfit. She looked pretty cute. The judge picked a random person for the class. Jayden had a lot of people come up and tell her they really liked her costume. By the end of the horse show 10PM it was late, it was dark, it was hot, and we were exhausted. We fed the horse and got her settled for the night. Then we waited in the hot smelly bathrooms for our turn in the shower. I couldn't help but think, why am I doing this? Jayden and I stayed in the camper. They had a high school dance going on 10 feet away from our camper. We were so tired even though the music was loud, we fell asleep in no time.
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