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Ready or not, we’re going…to the Rocky Mountain Horse Association International Show in Lexington, KY (held at the beautiful Kentucky Horse Park)!
This is our first show, and I’m super-excited and a little bit nervous. My dad and I will be showing our stallion, Rocky Mountain Man, and my sister Katelyn will be showing her mare, Windy Gail. Thankfully Rocky knows what he’s doing even if the rest of us don’t: he was the first recipient of the Carson Masters Award and was Grand Master Stallion at the 2004 International Show. We’re bringing him back on his 10th anniversary. Hopefully he remembers the ropes.
Here’s a video of Rocky and me practicing:
It’s always good to look at videos of yourself riding so you know what you need to fix. From these videos I learned that a) I’m leaning too far back, b) I need to stretch my legs down, c) I need to lift my rib cage and straighten my neck, and d) I need to pin my skirt to the underside of my pants so it doesn’t flip up. Many of these problems are issues that I constantly try to work on, but others are things that I didn’t even know about until I watched the video.
We’re going to try to take video and pictures of each other at the show, so hopefully I can do a post on how it went when I get back.
Here are some pictures of Rocky through the years:
abbie says
Hey,
I am a fellow English rider, I couldn’t help but notice you are way too stiff in the saddle. He is not comfortable with your stiffness, there’s no fluidity.
always remember, “heels down” and keep your body relaxed and supple. Also, he hates that bit you’ve been using. have you ever tried a sniffle bit?
Briana Thomas says
Hi Abby! Thanks for your suggestions! There are always things to improve. We’ve tried many different bits on him, but he’s stiff in his throatlatch and gapes with his mouth no matter what we use. It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks – and he’s 26 years old. We’re working on it, and he’s improved since then.
Abbie says
Ach, I know.
I am still working on posting, keeping my pelvic muscles relaxed and such.
But, it’s worth it all. 😉
Pamela Campbell says
I am interested to know how Mountain Man did at the show. I knew his original owner, Don Tate. We were good friends and I have had several of Mountain offsprings. I currently have one of his, Elijah Blue. Would really like to know how he dis as I know he is getting on in years.. If you had seen him when he won all those awards in 2004 he just took your breath away.
Briana Thomas says
We didn’t place very well at the show (we’re definitely very green at that sort of thing), but we had a lot of fun and learned so much. Mountain Man was very excited to be there, and we had a hard time getting him to slow down and relax (which was a lot of our problem in the ring). By the third day he was behaving much better and we rode him in the stallion showcase, which I videoed. In the next week or so I’ll put together some videos and pictures and post them.