MHA Maine Event Horse Show

This past Saturday, September 25, 2010 was the last MHA (Maine Horse Association) affiliated horse show with a Standardbred division.  We had three shows this year to accumulate points towards Standardbred In-Hand and Standardbred 3-Gait Pleasure year end awards.

The day was gorgeous and sunny.  I spent the day showing with my good friend Shelly and we had a blast as usual.  We had so much fun and I am sad to see our 2010 show season come to a close.  :(  Here we are below...Shelly showed her Standardbred western for the first time and did well!   She's going to kill me for posting this, but I think it is cute!  :)
 

Overall it was a good day.  My grandfather came to watch for a while in the afternoon, which was neat.  We placed 4th out of four in Standardbred In-Hand.  LOL!  Judges either love Dreamy or not, so it was not surprising.  I expected a last place finish since this was the same judge from the 2009 Downeast Congress who did not place her in-hand there at all.  It's all good....we did well enough at the two other MHA shows this year to qualify for the reserve champion Standardbred In-Hand!  :)  One bad placing does not matter to me when we got the year end award!  :D

We got a wrong right lead canter in our Standardbred 3-gait class.  DUH...why the heck do I always do this in our first under saddle class of the day?   I get nervous and forget to RIDE my horse!  I slouch and my aids are wishy washy.  Asking for the canter on a straightaway is somehow harder for us than on a circle.  And I hate to say this, but her right lead can feel so unbalanced at times even when on the correct lead, that I did not correct it right away because I could not really tell.  Seriously!  Oh well.  We ended up 3rd out of three...the judge commented that NONE of the three of us had good rides.  At least it was only a lead, which was my fault.  She was perfectly behaved and that matters more to me than my silly errors!  LOL!  


Dusty ring!!!

Hunter Pleasure was a division I added at the last minute...with seven entries, I was not expecting much.  It was just two classes after our STB 3-Gait class, so I had her warmed up and ready to go.  I forced myself to really prepare for the right lead and GOT IT!  We placed SECOND out of 7 riders!  I was super impressed, especially because it was an open class.  This was definitely the highlight of my day.

Standardbred 3-Gait Pleasure Championship class went well too.  Again we had a clean ride, with no problems with our leads.  We ended up second, with Reserve in the STB 3-Gait division for the day.  I was happy with our showing...and having lost to a professional trainer on a gorgeous gray mare was OK with me!  :D  I am not a professional and will never claim to be!  LOL!  I do admit I disliked hearing afterward that the first place horse bucked and misbehaved when the judge was not looking and my horse was on perfect pony autopilot, but hey, that is showing for you!  It happens and instead of being a sore loser, I just laughed and figured it was just my luck.  :D  Reserve still made me very happy with my girl!  Here we are with our Reserve ribbon!

We did the Hunter Pleasure Championship but did not have a great round.  While she was well behaved and got her leads, her canter was a bit four beat.  She was tired.....my poor little 19 year old mare!  LOL!  We had a fourth in the class.  Ah well!  :)


I was very pleased to have had a fun last MHA show for the year.  We ended up placing well in the year end awards.  They only give out Champion and Reserve ribbons at the banquet.....

Champion Standardbred 3-gait Pleasure (out of 2)
Reserve Standardbred In-Hand (out of 6)
4th Roadster Under Saddle (out of 6)
12th Hunter Pleasure (out of 15)
14th Easy Does it Hunter (out of 23)

And I am still waiting to see how we placed in the MHA dressage Training level division...you are allowed to submit any four scores from USDF shows.  So that might be a chance too!  :)