I decided, with one week’s notice, to enter the 2023 American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) UK Championship Show. I had been considering entering due to it being in Cambridgeshire, and I have something called Futurity membership, which is for a horse from weanling to three years old, so this was my last year to be able to enter this category. But, equally, I had been so focused on backing him this year that I had gotten him out to a lot fewer shows and not really kept up with my in hand work – the Western discipline has a much tougher in hand element to showing than English.
I had a “why not?” moment and spontaneously entered the L1 Amateur Showmanship and the 3-Year-Old Futurity Gelding classes.
Showmanship is like in hand dressage: you have to learn a pattern consisting of halt, walk, trot, circles, rein back and turn on the haunches without touching the horse at any point, which, considering I had not practised all year, was a big ask, and the boy really stepped up, doing just 10-15 minutes an evening over the week.
Django was super well behaved at the busy environment of the national championships. He tried his heart out in the Showmanship, coming fourth, only one and a half points behind third, and three points behind second, so very competitive all things considered. It almost left me a little frustrated I hadn’t entered earlier and put in some more practice.
In the halter class he stood like a pro, looked like a pro, and for the first time ever at a Western show, I felt like we knew what we were doing and fired in. Unbelievably, we walked away from the show The AQHA UK Futurity Champion and I won my first ever plaque!
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.