State Fair

It had been a long day, I had been waiting, and waiting for four hours when they announced, “ first call for lot six.” I was so happy to hear those words. It was almost 9:00 PM, and everyone was tired and ready for bed. Unfortunately I still had one class left, Trail. I put my saddle and bridle on my horse. Then I heard second call. I did all of my little finishing touches before third call. Then I finally headed out to the warm-up arena.
After about 20 minutes in the warm-up arena I got to go wait in line, where I then had to wait at the cone inside the arena. As soon as the person before me had left, the judge turned around and nodded her head, this was the signal to start. I walked my horse up to the first obstacle. I had to walk trough an “L” then turn my horse and back out of a “U”. My horse was fine at the walking, but then he saw it, a fake deer. He wouldn’t hold still. He kept trying to get away from the deer. I eventually got him to back out, but it took awhile. The next thing we had to do was sidepass a log. I had to put a little extra effort into that because he was paying too much attention to the deer. Then I had to lope him right past the deer, and he didn’t really like that so he just trotted really fast instead. After that my pattern was practically perfect. I trotted the barrels, walked over the bridge, moved the bucket, and opened the gate wonderfully.
In that class I got a red ribbon, but honestly I was surprised I didn’t get a white. I think “State” was a good experience for both my horse and me. I know very well what went wrong in that course and what went right. I know my horse spooked at the deer, but then again so did a lot of horses. I had a really good time at “State,” and made some new friends. I really hope I qualify next year because I want to go back.