Octoberfest!

Now most of you are probably thinking “What’s Octoberfest?” “Why, what ever it is, is it in September?”
Well, those are good questions, but Octoberfest is a horse show, that took place last weekend! I took a horse named Reuben, and we did the Low Children’s Jumpers 3′-3′3″ together. Reuben first came to the barn for my friend Jacqueline to try out as a horse to buy, but he was too crazy at first, so a few people rode him before he came to her. She rode him for a while, until he bucked her off. Then I started riding him, and we fit well together, so my trainer said I could take him to the show. Reuben would be perfect if he didn’t buck. He spokes at random things, and usually his bucks are not of happiness, but to get you off his back! He tried a few times to get me off, but he didn’t succeed.

At the show, we didn’t know how he would behave, so we were going to have Erin ride him, who had ridden him before Jacqueline. But to our surprise, he was fine, but with a little crow-hop on the way back to the stable. That night a bunch of barn girls and I went to the Puyallup Fair! We all went on two roller coasters together, and that was very very fun.

The next day was the beginning of the show. I was showing with Jackie, Danielle, Erin, and Sam. Our first round was all speed, so I needed to go as fast as I could. It was a very nice round, my best of that weekend, but we were too slow to place. At least I rode well. The second round of that day was not as good, we had lots of bad distances to the fences. Oh well, I should be glad that Reuben behaved himself.
That same day was the $2000 Mini Prix! Amelia, Layne, and Laura were all competing in it from our barn. Laura had already won twice in a row! It began, and Amelia had a fantastic round, and with all of our Haven group cheering at the end, he gave us a few bucks of joy Layne had a great round as well, except she, well, almost destroyed the 6th fence… A lot more people went, and the times were pretty fast. Could Laura win this again? Well, she did. She won again! For the third time in a row! Wow, our barn was cheering very very loud after her round! We were all so proud.

The next day was the last day of showing. I came early to take pictures of my friends. After a long long wait, it was time for me to get on Reuben. We warmed up, and his owner was watching us. She had come to take him home, because no one wanted to buy him. Jackie, Erin and Sam all knocked down a rail or had refusals, but Danielle had a great course. So it was my turn to go.
Reuben was tired, and so he was very lazy getting up to the fences. I had a hard time getting him going! On the 6th fence, I was kicking and kicking him up to the jump, but he didn’t speed up, and he scrambled over the fence, but landing on top of it. His head came up and hit my head, and I blacked out for a few seconds. Then, my trainer yelled for me to use my crop, and then I looked around, and Reuben was walking! I had to finished the course! So I hit him with my crop to get him going, and crawled over the last fence.
Afterwords I had a bad headache and my eye and pinky hurt, but thats it. At least I didn’t fall off!

Reuben and I’s first round

Amelia in the Mini Prix

~ by Heidi on September 9, 2008.