The joys of jumping and Dressage..and weird judges

Do you know those people who really shouldn't intereact with people at all, especially kids/teens at horse shows? The judge for jumping/dressage was like that.. when we asked for clarication on the pattern he talked to us like he couldn't understand that we didn't understand the pattern. Oh well...people will be people.
Anyways, because of confusion over the pattern I got a white in showmanship, as did most of our senior class, 1 red and 2 or 3 blues. Nothing more. In the words of Kristi, our jumping/dressage superintenant, "That judge is a Dick."

As for Dressage, I was pleased. Usually I'm not pleased with white ribbons, but you know what? I did my test correctly, didn't get confused on the pattern or anything, and Okie was resonaably good. AND I wasn't the lowest ribbon out there, considering that there was only ONE RED in the entire class. I scored higher than a lot of other people, and I felt pretty good about how it went. Okie was extraordinarily relaxed in warm up, accepting the bit, nice and round and cantering good. When I went out for my test and walked by the truck at the end of the arena, something spooked him and he got tense. Which resulted in most of the test him being tense, but it wasn't too bad. I got a couple of 6's, he picked up the wrong lead once, but I fixed it and the resulting circle wasn't too bad. I thought the day was going to be worse because when I went out in the morning to feed and all that Okie had that look and attitude about him that tells you that you might not have a good ride today, so i went out and played with him and rode him a little for about 20 minutes, that helped so MUCH, thank you Parelli!!!!

I did Hunter Hack and trot-a-course for jumping. I probably COULD have moved on and did low hunter, buuuuuut, those jumps were like 2'6" and thats probably the highest I've ever jumped, and I didn't want to push okie.

Hunter Hack went well, my rail work was decent, not amazing or anything. The first jump was a little rough, but in the judges words "the second jump was very nice." My equitation wasn't too bad, and the judge left lots of comments on all of our comment sheets so that was really good. A reocuring theme was "use legs and back instead of hands" which I know.. lol, but Okie was kinda strong, and he said that to pretty much everyone. I got a red, and only one person got a blue, so I ended up getting reserve champion!!!!

Trot a course was pretty good with some nice comments on my sheet, the first jump my timing was off so it wasn't pretty, but other than that it was pretty smooth.

All in all, it was a good day!

Phew... done with Horse camps

I haven't updated in a while, and bad on me for that. BUT I have a semi-excuse, lol, and that is the fact that I had two 4H horse camps in a row, the first one being teen camp where we get trained, and the 2nd one being where I'm a counselor for the little-ins. That was interesting.. and these kids NEED PARELLI!!!!!!

One thing about camp... I had a camper that is a cutter. I saw her arm the first day and immediatly knew. I told meghan(friend and my other counselor for our group) later that day, and meghan told megan(in charge of counselors), who told monica(camp director) and she brought it to the the nurse. Monica had never heard of anything like that before, and to me that is SO hard to believe... its so common and people know nothing about it. It ended up that the nurse didn't think it was that because the way the girl had an explanation for it(blackberry bushes), but I know what I seen. Blackberry bushes do NOT make straight scratches only on the underside of your arm.. they just don't. and Cutters always have excuses pre-made up, I would know.

I had a good session with Belle tonight, she only reared ONCE and it wasn't that bad. Worked a little bit more on sideways over a barrel on her bad side, and didn't really get anywhere, but she sideways perfectly over it on the good side, so I'm a little stuck. I had her come to me over the barrel, and we played around with some more stick to me stuff, had some fun, and ended on a good note with me combing out her mane and tail and giving her a lot of attention.

Okie did good at drill on saturday up at Youth Camp. He was full of energy and not lame at all. I was worried because to me he seemed a little off at the last drill practice, even though no one else could see anything wrong, and he worked out of it anything that I felt. He has a pretty deep wire cut right above his hoof on the back of his pastern, which I think thats why he was sore, it was pulling on it. So I'm doctoring it twice a day with peroxide, shriners and vitamin E on the edges to keep it moist. Monica (vet..asked her to look at it up at horse camp) said that I should keep it moist, bandage it (which I haven't, it's staying pretty good) and use some cortizone stuff thats made for people to help keep it soft, she also said use vitamin E.