Cactus Classic

Well, Thursday we had a major break thru on the run downs and minimizing the charging, but our solution had an unexpected side effect the really hurt our score. We didn't end up placing in any of our classes, but I felt really good about our run. Felt like we made progress! Oh, and as I was walking by the horse show office a poster caught my eye. It was a poster ad for the show photographer and it featured a photo of Breezy and I from the day before!!! So fun!

Friday was a day off from showing. So we took our win picture from Wednesday's big win and gave Breezy the rest of the day off. He came out of his stall a bit sore so we took him over to the horse chiropractor and got him a massage and an adjustment and then some cold compression therapy. Basically he had a spa day.

Saturday he warmed up great. He felt wonderful and completely dialed in. But, when we got in the show pen he turned into a total monster. He was bolting off like there was a bear chasing him and I lost my power steering. I some how managed to make it thru the pattern penalty free and still sitting semi-securely in the saddle, but then spun 5 times giving us a 0 score. Later when we checked the judge's score card we were running at an amazingly low 66 1/2 without any penalties!!! I was furious with Mr. Breezy!!!! He was a complete jerk! Needless to say no cookies, carrots, or hugs from him the rest of the day.

Sunday he was terrible again in the warm-up pen and Johnette had to get on him to try to get him to come around. Basically she stepped off and I stepped back on and walked into the show pen. Everything in me told me that this was going to be total disaster. I didn't see any way that it could work out well for us. Came close to just stepping back off and going home. But, I loped off and we were running toward the center of the pen. As soon as we passed the center cone I said whoa and Breezy through himself into the ground and stopped huge! We ended up getting a +1 for the maneuver! Then he turned better then he ever has! He circled great to the right and I pushed for some solid speed and then he came back great in the center into a small slow. He was a bit more difficult to the left to circle, but we managed to get a 0 on the maneuver. He was really challenging to run to the stops, but when it was time to stop he stopped huge. We scored a 71.5 which was good enough for 3rd in the $1000 Novice Horse Non Pro. Johnette thought it was one of our best runs which was a great way to end the show.