It had been a very long time since I had shown in performance. TRXC of 2019 was the last show, right up until Resin Renaissance a little over a week ago. I had judged a bit, and put a few horses in some halter classes while I was judging, but I hadn't done anything in performance. It was time to see if I could still do it.
Mocha Latte has been an excellent show horse for many years for me. She suffered breaks to both ear tips on the trip to Kentucky. I glued her ears back on in the hotel, the night before the show, but I had nothing to touch them up with. Which is why she got 2nd place in her first class, which was other costume in the other performance division. After this class I borrowed some things to touch her up a bit, just so there was a less glaring flaw on her.
For her scene class I set up a NaMoPaiMo scene. I originally set this up for a photo show, I believe a Mares in Black photo show, with a slightly different setup. I couldn't find my 1:9 scale folding table (I might have sold it) and adding a piece of wood on top of a barrel I was already using for other classes was easy to pack. Part of my mission was to bring as little as possible, since we flew to Kentucky. Mocha Latte got 4th in this class. But the entry got a lot of attention from people at the show.
The last entry I put down in the other performance division was this vaulting entry. I have documentation for it, nice documentation, but it wasn't at the show. I know I pulled it out so I really have no idea what happened to it. Hopefully I can either find it again or I have a copy of it on my computer. This entry also got a 4th place.
Next up was the English performance division. Mocha Latte's first entry was Jumper, and she didn't place at all because her bit had popped. How annoying. So I fixed that and then asked Tiffany Purdy to look at my horse and tell me what was wrong with her. I could tell something was off but I wasn't seeing it. Have you ever had that happen? It's very annoying. Tiffany told me my saddle was a little too far back and I needed to tighten my girth. OK, done. I fixed that stuff and fixed the doll and went into hunter. Mocha got 2nd place.
The next class was English games and I entered with a housewife scurry. I love this class because the needed equipment is very small. It got 4th place.
After that I finally started counting how many entries were on the table. English trail had 12 entries in it. This was my and Tiffany's entries.
Mocha got 2nd place. I wasn't at all upset about it.
English pleasure other (not sport type) had 11 entries.
I definitely wasn't upset about this one. Tiffany is such an amazing shower that beating one of her entries is hard to do. This was the only time I managed it.
Dressage had 8 entries and Mocha Latte got a 3rd.
She also got a third in other English with a versatility entry I apparently forgot to get a photo of. Overall she ended up with reserve champion in the English performance division.
Next up for me was the poles/barrels class. Mocha got 6th out of 8 entries. It was not a great entry so it's actually pretty cool that it placed at all.
After that was the western games class. Mocha went in with a jumping figure 8's entry which didn't place at all. I was struggling to get the bridle and reins to behave. I was glad that I could switch it after this class was done.
The next class was reining/western dressage and it went a lot better with a 2nd place out of 9 entries.
Then was western trail, with 12 entries, for 5th place.
Western pleasure stock type had 11 entries and Mocha latte snagged 2nd place.
For the other western class I showed my versatility entry again. There were 9 entries in total and Mocha Latte won the class.
In the end Mocha Latte didn't get champ or reserve in other western, but there were struggles throughout the class. She didn't show in all the classes and some of her entries were just kind of mediocre. But for the first show in nearly 5 years I wasn't at all disappointed in her placings. In the end she had reserve champ in English performance, runner up for high point horse, and runner up for the versatility award.
It was good to know that even after such a long break from showing I do still know how to do it. I also got a bit of a push to want to really plan for a show and get some new or more interesting entries on the table. I do still seem to enjoy showing, though I had forgotten just how long a show day can be. Maybe for the next one I will bring my computer so I can research while I wait for classes to be judged. Or I can always conjugate Spanish verbs. One of the other.
