Levi's First Show

Over the past couple of weeks, we have accomplished another successful and safe hitch/drive in the cart, and also showed Levi at the Rowley Riding and Driving Club Show on May 7th. This was his first show! Since there were only a few classes we could actually participate in, given that he isn't under saddle and not yet ready to be shown in harness, I decided to enter the English In Hand class which is essentially a conformation class. The other two options were Western Halter (similar, but with cowboy hats), and Fitting and Showmanship. I know next to nothing about the latter, so in the interest of having a moderate chance of performing in some capacity, we only did the first class.

I wasn't expecting very much, to be perfectly honest; Levi has been trailered off property a few times, and all of them were to move him to other barns. I hadn't had much time to practice trailering with him, and he tends to be a little nervous about it. He did load right up when asked, despite being a little wary, but we took our time and as soon as he figured out the ramp he walked right into the trailer like he'd done it all of his life. We were fortunate that the show was located just 15 minutes away, along mostly back roads, so the ride was quite short and pretty uneventful. Unloading at the show was also calm, and Levi relaxed immediately when he saw that other horses were around. I stayed right with him during the entire show, and either hand walked him to graze or had him stand quietly tied to the trailer eating hay.

Since we had practiced the in-hand pattern beforehand, and he knows well how to stand quietly and walk/trot on a lead line quite well, I wasn't expecting him to act out in the class or be too nervous about it. Fortunately, he behaved very well and stood quietly in line up while the judges made their decisions. His nervousness gave way to curiosity as he took in the crowd watching us in the arena, and I was so focused on him and our performance that I didn't think about how we might place. This show was just a small schooling show to help build confidence, and I didn't even think we would place highly.

Levi won the class.

I suppose it also helped that he was groomed decently well, despite still having some winter coat left and my lack of braiding skills! We accepted our blue ribbon with pride and gratitude, and I walked Levi straight into some shade to graze as a reward after thanking the judges and volunteers. We left the show grounds shortly afterward, having spent less than two hours total there; he unloaded promptly, and was back to grazing in his paddock with some of the morning still remaining. He earned a very nice rest the following day! Over all, blue ribbon or not, I am very proud of him.

I hadn't finalized our show plans for this season yet, because I wanted to see how he would behave in this initial show. If he was terrified to do it, or hated it, we would find something else to work on this summer in addition to driving- there are endless activities that don't involve showing that are also great exposure for young horses in training. However, now that he has proven to be unfazed by this process, I have identified several shows within a few hours of us in New England that offer in-hand classes. Some of these are rated shows, meaning that points won from placing in the classes would be included as part of his record on his AMHA registration. The classes I plan to focus on are mostly halter/conformation (not Morgan park style), sport horse in hand, possibly costume classes just for fun, and finally equitation/showmanship. For the latter class, since I don't know much about this kind of competition as I mentioned, I'll be doing some research and possibly hiring a trainer for a few sessions to help us prepare. To place in these classes, I'll need to keep him very fit and improve our groundwork responsiveness and 'choreography'. Our next show will probably be one of the Morgan breed shows in July, depending on how well we've prepared (and how brave I feel about trailering him to Vermont)! In the meantime, we have lots of driving to do, plenty of groundwork to keep us busy, and some fun local events planned, including exploring local trails with a couple of human and horse friends. One off-property goal this summer is to take him out to the beach a few miles from the farm- I think he will love that!