June 8, 2009- What a very nice weekend we had. We went to our first show in 3 years (mainly due to our moving to Michigan). It was a long drive (3 ½ hours) but well worth the time. This was an open show put on by the Western Morgan Horse Assoc so it was very nice to compete against other Morgans as well. The weather wasn't very nice with it being very cold (50s) and spotty rain all weekend which seemed to keep the show numbers down. Our classes were small averaged 3 to 8 horses but this was a blessing in disguise for us as we took our 3 year old cream, Faith, and Katie with her 6 ½ week old foal Diesel. I was proud of Diesel- he loaded and traveled like a champ. Everyone loved him at the show and he was quite a ham. He let everyone pet and love on him. He did have a little problem with mom being in the ring but mainly only when Katie was at the far end of the ring. Sure was a good learning process for him.

This was Faith's first show EVER and she did very well and I was extremely proud of her and her behavior. Faith took a 2nd out of 4 her very first time in the ring with her in hand class. It was Any Other Color halter (so no paints or pintos). Then she had 2 riding classes. Both for Jr horses W/T. We did place last in both classes (4 and 6 horses per class ALL QH) but given that they were combining classes she only got about a 10 minute warm up before her class while the other Jr horses had been riding for about an hour or so. She was perfectly consistent in her walk and jogs and listened the entire time to my leg doing a perfect jog reverse like a pro. The only thing the judges had against her was that she was bobbing her head about some. I knew this and was fine as she was the youngest horse in the class (she's 3) and she is really trying to find exactly were to keep her head PLUS she had just lost a front tooth that weekend. So all in all I was VERY pleased with her. It was interesting in the fact that there were 2 judges at this show (one for stock and one for pleasure horses) but due to the low numbers they combined many of the classes and the judges sorta judged together though it wasn't truly a double judged show.

Both Katie and my daughter made me equally as proud. Just last week my daughter, Brittany (who BTW hasn't shown since 2004) asked to show Katie in Showmanship. She placed 1st in her age group of 18 to 34 and then placed 2nd in the COB Showmanship class with 8 horses in the ring. It was a very difficult pattern and both did FANTASTIC for not even practicing the pivots and movements but once that weekend.

I was very proud of Katie. She hadn't been shown in 3 years and with Diesel being young, she has only been back under saddle a couple of weeks. I entered 5 riding classes with her (again small classes 3 to 6 horses but mostly QH) and she took a first in ALL 5 classes. My favorite riding class was the COB (Challenge of the breeds) WP class with her competing against 4 other QHs and 1 Arab. She placed first in that class as well. Both judges mentioned to me that they BOTH placed her first. Sure made me smile :0)