Meeting and beating expectations

Lucas was a super star this weekend!

3rd in Halter Geldings out of 19

!!!!!1st in Over 18 Western Showmanship out of 17!!!!!

3rd in Over 18 English Showmanship out of 7

6th in the Sr HUS out of 18

and

2nd in the HUS $250 added stake class!

and one more but you have to read until the end

I was sick as a dog with nerves all day on Saturday. Lucas was very good in halter and got beat by some nice younger horses.

We nailed our showmanship pattern (I will do a break down post of all of the pattern classes later on this week) I was waiting in the line up and I kept seeing all the horses that were the toughest competition for us getting called out before me (they placed from 6th to first) and then they were down to first and I had a moment where I looked around and realised that maybe we did win, and then they announced our name! I was just about crying when I left the ring but it was fantastic feeling. The judge stopped me as I was walking out and told me that I had an excellent pattern.

English showmanship was OK, I wasn't as crisp in the pattern, and the horse in front of me had a huge poop right where Lucas needed to pivot, and he wouldn't step in it. So we had a sloppy pivot and set up but we got lucky with a 3rd.

And then came the class that I was dreading. The Over 18 HUS class. If you remember from last year this is the class that Lucas almost bucked me off in, and we didn't get all three gait's in. I used the animal communicators chant that apparently Lucas wanted me to use. (We are winners and we will win this class!) Don't laugh because it worked! We had a fobble with our left lead (as expected because we were having problems with it at home) but recovered well. We got cut off so bad we had to break gait to avoid being hit, and we recovered and kept showing. I was so happy with how he went that the 6th place was icing on the cake. We delt with my biggest fears and kept right on going!

So then we went into the stake. Our first direction was good but we didn't have a great transition into the left canter lead but we did get it! But the second direction was perfect. We had a good walk, then his canter to the right was the best it has ever been in a class, forward, easy, and relaxed. We had a great transition into a trot, and I just dropped the reins and let him trot! I was so happy with that last canter I figured that it was worth the shot to push the envelope! My friend was watching in the stands and she said that the judge didn't take his eyes off of us for an entire circuit of the ring.

It was the best class I have ever had on Lucas.

I guess it really proved to me that if I trust him (and we have our little pep talk while walking the first direction!) He will put his heart into the class. So we got 2nd, and got beat by a fantastic horse with a great rider so I was happy with that.

And then today we did the Over 18 Horsemanship class! We kinda went into it only half way, I wanted to do a pattern class in my western saddle before I did one in my english saddle. I put his twisted wire on a friends western bridle and we rode in D's training saddle, my showmanship jacket, and my everyday jeans. Oh and my helmet.

We had a very good pattern, spot on for our transitions but our canter (well, lope) wasn't as balanced as I would have liked. And we got 3rd!!! That was my first equation type class in over 5 years!

I'll go over my patterns latter this week for all of you. I did wear my proper approved helmet in all of my classes except for showmanship and halter and it didn't seem to matter. Lucas was happy and relaxed for the entire show although he wished that I had brought more treats.

After all of the nerves and worry I'm so glad that we had a good show, Lucas and I have come a long way in a year and only have more good things to look forward to!