CastleMouse
Well-Known Member
May as well add the report in instead of doing two seperate posts. OK, so we were at the yard at about 9.40, I had Ali plaited up since last night (I put old tights over it so they'd be kept nice and clean and wouldn't come out so easily), and luckily they were all still in and neat, and no nasty poo are pee stains to get rid of!
We used the rope method, and got him loaded within 20 seconds, no panic at all. We arrived at the show at about 10.45, took forever to find the secretaries tent for my number but eventually found it. Picked up the catalogue as well, 13 in my class which wasn't too bad, but I recognised a few of the names as RDS competitors
At about 11.15 once I had done all the finishing touches, I rode Ali around the lorry and trailer parking to get him used to the surroundings, he was quite excited, but was responding well to everything I asked him to do. Everyone was warming up in the ring which we were competing in, he was so well behaved, I thought he'd be quite naughty tbh!
So we all started out by trotting round, then going into canter, Ali was very responsive when we had to go back to trot and walk. People were called in in provisional order, and at that stage I was 3rd, which I was quite surprised about! Then the judge had to get on him, judge was a nice guy and Ali behaved well with him even though he can be a tricky horse. We then had to strip off the saddles to trot up, Dad was on the sidelines fortunately with my grooming stuff! I knew I'd be severely marked down in the conformation section as Ali has a splint on his inner foreleg. He trotted up really nicely, although I could barely run in my boots and gaiters!
We were all called back in, and I was second last out of 13 people, but I'm over the moon with Ali as he was very well behaved. I knew we'd come at the bottom as he needs a lot more muscle build up and he isn't a typical hunter (they didn't have Riding Horse classes, which he'd be much more suitable for).
Judge just after mounting him
When we were waiting for the trot-up
Judge looking at his conformation
Line-up after I had trotted up (still lots more people left to trot up)
And when we were leaving he loaded in an instant with the rope method, so a good end to the day
I was also the only under 21 in the class so got a few odd looks from spectators!
Judge just after mounting him
When we were waiting for the trot-up
Judge looking at his conformation
Line-up after I had trotted up (still lots more people left to trot up)
And when we were leaving he loaded in an instant with the rope method, so a good end to the day
