A Look Into Competitive Horse Showing Through The Eyes Of An Equestrian: Post Three of Three: SMWC Horse Show Day Two

I apologize for the delay in getting this third post up. This will be the last post of the series of three from last week, the recap of the second day of the SMWC horse show.

Overview
For the Sunday show, we were the high point team and took the lead as the regional champion for the season so far. In open fences, we took fifth and third place. In intermediate, we took first place and in novice fences we took second and fourth places. On the flat, our open riders took first and fourth and our intermediate rider took second. For novice we placed first, third and fourth. Novice had four subclasses this time but unfortunately all of our riders drew the same class. It's better to be spread out so we can have a strong defensive team in each class but it's all about luck of the draw. For advanced walk trot canter, we placed second, third and sixth. On Sunday we didn't have a rider for beginning walk trot canter. For walk trot which was my ride we placed first and sixth. I placed sixth and Kelsey won the class.

My Ride
The name of the horse I drew was Rennie. He was probably about sixteen hh (hh = hands high which is the measurement for horses from the ground to the base of their neck. One hand is four inches so a sixteen hand horse is sixty-four inches or 5'4". Overall, we had a pretty tense ride. After I was mounted and we were walking along the rail of the arena waiting for the other riders to enter the ring, a big truck drove by. We were riding in the outdoor arena. He spooked at the truck and almost threw me off in the process. I stayed in the tack, handled the situation well, and tried to calm him down before the show started. I managed to relax him somewhat but I couldn't get him all the way back. Also, as we were riding I determined that my stirrups were about one notch too long for me. I had an okay ride but I definitely looked better in lessons and I did learn from that experience. It's better to have my stirrups a bit short than too long. If they are too long you don't have a lot of control and your form isn't as good.

Due to the extra circumstances with the truck, it's difficult for me to decide whether Rennie was a good draw or not. For my specific ride, he wasn't because he was the only horse who spooked at the truck but without the spook I think he could be a good draw.

Show MVP
The show MVP for Sunday was Kelsey Braaten. She is a junior, this is her third year on the team and she is my big for the team bigs/littles. She was the other Purdue rider in my class. She won the class and pointed up into beginning walk trot canter. Riders in walk trot only have two years of eligibility before they get bumped up into beginning walk trot canter. Kelsey had schedule conflicts her freshman year so her first year as a riding member was last year, same as my first year since I didn't join until my junior year. Since she pointed up she qualified for the regional horse show that will be held in March. Walk trot is a difficult class to point up in because there is a wide range of skill levels from people who haven't ridden horses before to people who have ridden but have never ridden competitively, to people who are in their second year and have been riding in intercollegiate shows long enough that they are getting ready to point up. That's why Kelsey is the MVP this week. Qualifying for Regionals is a huge accomplishment.

Next Post
The next post will come out ASAP. We had another show this past weekend which was the TABS horse show so the next post will be a recap of day one.