This year I finally got to go to Jewel Heist . I have tried to get to this show for years but the Universe seem to have objections to my attending.
I had taken about a 2 year hiatus from showing and went to the March Mini Madness show guns a blazing and just about stressed my self to death . So for JHL I decided to scale back ha ! While showing was as stress fee as it has ever been preparing for the show wasn't. Rather than spend the appropriate amount of time preparing for the show I was working on my order back log till the week before . It wasn't exactly procrastination it was an effort to clear the back log before spending time getting ready .
I had a huge list of things to do to get ready for the show Number 1 on my list was paint my Working for Chexs ( Bueno ) resin . He was going to be bay .... Rabicano .
I was successful and he did do well 3 rd in his halter class and 1st in workmanship .
The bigger problem was the #2 thing on my list I wanted to show him in performance ... I didn't have a saddle for him . I got him finished on Thursday and we were leaving for the show on Friday .
So like and true hard core performance junkie I got up early on Friday and started his saddle . While I do not normally do 3 and 4 hour tack sessions I worked almost non stop for 6 hours and got the saddle mostly done then pack my stuff along with what was needed to finish the saddle and the bridle parts . We loaded Roy's car and headed for Phoenix .
Once there we unloaded and went to check out Bass Pro Shop . That place is AMAZING !! I found a tiny bit of tack making stuff and then we headed to the tackle box section where we found the perfect tack box for me . And of course my awesome Hubbie got it for me . We went to a very yummy Dinner at Cracker Barrel and it was back to the hotel where I stayed up until 11 trying to finish the saddle . In the end I finished the saddle when I got up in the morning and decided if I couldn't get the bridle done I would borrow one .
The show got off to a slow start due to the performance judge not showing up . But once things got going the were going pretty well . I skipped other performance this go round since I didn't have anything prepared and opted to just show in English and Western.
During other I tacked my English horse and my Proxy English horses and put a couple of OFs in halter . Once English started I figured if I wanted to show Bueno in that new bridle I better get to it . While successfully showing in English I did Manage to get Bueno's head stall done and took out a pair of may sales reins and Viola ! new bridle .
Here are some of the day's Western performance pictures .
Cheeky Monkey Doing Cutting
The Judge Really Didn't care for My reined Cow horse set up.
I think I need a Different cow.
Kowalski doing Reining
She did not favor Pirate doing arena trail either.
But she really liked Eeyore .
Finally in natural trail he managed a NAN Card .
In games she loved pirates rescue race set up.
Afternoon Delight was second in Western Pleasure .
And poor pirate was 6th due to no hat for the cowboy .. You see the cowboy was a trade and he was shown with a hat in the pictures, but alas there was no hat when I recieved him . So I will have to find him a hat .
In other western Pirate was 3rd with a Western Dressage set up .
In the end Pirate was overall Reserve Champion not a bad show day .
Tomorrow English !
