A Western Horse Show

Sandhills of Nebraska

My granddaughters ride “eastern” and I’ve been to a couple of horse shows near Raleigh, so I couldn’t resist going to a western horse show.  Such a difference!  The clothes, the saddles, the whole event is different.  Many of these kids ride horses to get the mail, ride horses to help with cattle branding and artificial insemination, and sometimes ride on fence inspection.  So they ride a lot and it’s real.

The Trail Ride Event

The trail riding event begins with the horse and rider outside the arena and ends with the rider leaving the arena.  I want Annie and Rachel to see how a nine-year old girl does it perfectly!

The rule: the rider must never let go of the gate from the time she unlatches it until the time she firmly latches it again!

_DSC1585

She approaches slowly, positions her horse carefully, and then unlatches the gate.

_DSC1586

The pushes the gate open and begins walking the horse through.

_DSC1587

Notice the hand on the end of the gate.

_DSC1588

Hand still one the gate, she pivots the horse around.

_DSC1589

Closes the gate,

_DSC1591

Note she has had to back up the horse to get in position to finish.

_DSC1592

She latches the gate and

_DSC1593

Now lets go of the gate and addresses the judges as she begins the rest of the ride.

I’m going to repeat the process as she leaves the arena after the other required parts of the trail ride.

_DSC1617

Approach,

_DSC1618

Unlatch,

_DSC1619

Backup,

_DSC1620

Pass through,

 

_DSC1621

Pivot with the hand still on the fence,

_DSC1622

Close and latch,

_DSC1623

Ride away!!!!

She makes it look easy, but it’s not!  At least half of the riders had problems and several couldn’t do it!

View All

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.