Michigan Medallion Show '10

Let me start with the best news.

Nina won 1st place!!

She won with my brother in the Performance Junior Exhibitor class. I'm so proud of her! Everyone was talking up a storm about her, saying how she has so much potential, how she'll just clean up next year at all of the shows once she's settled in. It was fantastic. My mom also won 2nd place in the Performance schooling class and got 4th Championship against older horses, even stallions! She was tired by the end of the day, Saturday, when her showing was over.

Now Brie. I was so excited when I won 4th place on her in the Pleasure Mares class! Right before that class all I did was lunge her and do a couple of figure 8's in the tiny warm up arena. She crowhopped into the arena, but once I passed the horse in front of us I got a huge space all to myself and she calmed down and did really well. I think that one of the big reasons I got 4th place is because of the crowhopping. The steward kept eyeballing us and I just knew he was thinking she was lame. She's not lame! She's just anxious and that's her weird way of showing it. I was super excited because my goal for this show was to not get excused and to not come in last place and so far I was achieving it!

On comes the afternoon classes. I'm going into Pleasure Amateur Owners. I'm excited about it because she got 4th. We go into the class last so I can get spacing. The moment we walked in, it ended. She crowhopped a good majority of the class and I'm surprised I didn't get asked to leave because of it. Thinking back on it...all she did was crowhop. She had a few calm moments but she wanted to corto after the walk-reverses. I didn't place and was "excused" at the end when we lined up.

I was so frustrated. I spent the entire period from that class until my next and final class, Pleasure Youth, in the warm up trying to make her walk and reversing and just trying to get her to listen to me and calm down and ignore the huge Saddlebreds around her (because she was watching them nervously). Near the end of that session she tried to bolt for the barns and that was enough. I was done playing nice. Before she wanted to bolt for the barn I was going to drop my class because I figured she worked enough outside after she got excused, but she was not getting away with that! I went into that class with only one other rider and got second place. It makes a good picture if you don't know I was the only other rider. But the point was that she got through the class without any acting up, barely any crowhopping and I was proud of her (although it was overshadowed by my disappointment with the prior class). Before we left, I was suppost to meet Jenny over at The Joy of Horses, but we couldn't manage it. =[ Maybe next year...

I don't understand Brie.  I've worked with her for the past 9 months, she's on calming supplement, she performs wonderfully at home...does she just not like showing? I can't tell. She does fantastically when she's in her own space like in the Pleasure Mares class or when we do Costume class and I'm the only one there. Is she not comfortable around horses she doesn't know? 

I won't stop showing her. I'm just going to take her out of the PFHA show circuit for a while and focus on Harry's career. I'll take her to some fun shows where there are bound to be more horses and try to get her used to the idea of walking in front of and behind stranger-horses. If she does well enough then maybe I'll put her back into the PFHA circuit.

After all, I never said she had to win a blue ribbon in a class of 10 or more in a PFHA class. =]