Hollywood Charity Results

So the day started when my alarm clock went off at 2:40am. I was to the barn by 3:30am and the horse was loaded and we were on our why to the LA Equestrian Center by 4:00am. By 5:15am we were in the pen giving Breezy the chance to get the feel of the pen we would be showing in that night. It is a very big and dark in door arena, but Breezy didn't seem to mind it at all. So by 7:00am I was done and just had to wait for the sun to come out so I could give Breezy a bath and then continue the wait for my class to start.

They finally posted the draw late in the afternoon and posted that the Derby wouldn't start until after 6:30pm instead of 5pm. And what was worse was that I was draw #3 :o( Reining is kinda like ice skating and rarely do the first horses in the pen get the highest scores...bummer. Mom and Wendy got there around 4:30pm and soon after it was announced that the start time for the derby was now going to be 7pm. AHHHH!!, the day just kept getting longer.

So at 6pm I hopped on my horse and started practicing. Soon after that I saw that Dave and my friend Lori had arrived to cheer me on! It felt so good to see them there for me. I got major warm fuzzies! Breezy felt really good and I was ready. I had a new Hobby Horse top on and I knew we looked great which was also mentally helpful. They announced that they were ready for me and I headed to the back gate. As I walked in I got some last minute instructions from my trainer and in I went. We headed to the center to do our turns. I was prepared for Breezy to not want to stand in the center and have to go right into my left turn, but he was relaxed and stood perfectly so I took advantage of it. The left turn was good, 4 and stopped dead center. Then came the right turns, which were cause for some minus points last weekend at Del Mar. But, they were great. Pretty much identical to the left turns! We were off to a good start. The circles were smooth and easy. Nothing super dazzling, but solid and correct. I was having fun and everything was going well. Breezy was thinking all the right thoughts and doing exactly what I was asking him to do. The lead changes were the best I'd ever had on him. Smooth and the timing was right on. As I rounded the end of the pen to the run down, gradually asked for more speed until we passed the center cone and everything felt right and asked for the stop. He caught a hind leg in some bad ground and kind of bounced out of the stop before going back in and finishing the slide. I knew that I wasn't getting the + 1/2 I was hoping for on that one. The second and 3rd stops were solid, but not as good as Breezy is capable of. After we backed up after the last stop the pattern was complete. I felt good and knew we had done well. I gave Breezy a big pet on the neck as we walked toward the gate out of the arena and anticipated the announcement of our scores. In my head I was thinking that they would be 70s or 70 1/2s. The 1st score was announced..."Judge A, a score of 70". I thought, okay hopefully this is the low one. Then, "Judge B, 69 1/2". Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed, but what do you expect when you are the 3rd to go out of 24 horses. It was still our best showing yet and Rick was pleased. Our money is the stops and they just didn't come thru for us that night. I think Breezy might have been a bit tired and sore from just showing in Del Mar the week before and we just hit some bad ground. It happens. As anticipated the scores started jumping up later in the night as the judges became more forgiving, dropping us out of the ribbons. I don't know what place I ended up because they only announced the top 5. But, the horses in the the top 4 were really awesome and were just better than us all judgeing asside.

When the night was over I got a chance to look at the judge's score cards. Judge A, that gave me a 70, gave me a -1/2 on my left spin (seems very strange since that was the better way, even Rick called the judge a bad name when he saw that...he had been working very hard on those turns since Del Mar and they were really good...No way should I have gotten minus points on them), and then a +1/2 on the last stop and back up. And Judge B, gave me all 0s except for a -1/2 on my first stop and roll-back which is the one where Breezy caught a hind leg and came out of the ground for a score of 69 1/2. Score 70 is probably the right score; the -1/2 should have been for the 1st stop and not the left spins. Oh, well. That's show business; Horse Show Business, that is.

I didn't end up getting back home until almost 1am. I think that is the sheer definition of a LONG DAY! But boy was it FUN!