New At The Horse Shows

What's New At the Horse Shows

 Excitedly, many horse show organizations are now allowed to restart their show season. As many readers know, I've been working as a judge's assistant (or scribe as we're called) at the NRHA shows here in Ontario. This is my 28th year. 

As a side note, I was put on the international list of National Reining Horse Association scribes 2 years ago and would love to scribe at the big reining shows! COVID-1984 is not helping the situation. My heart goes out to all those affected by this thing.

 After reading the new COVID show rules, I was interested to see what changes would be at our first ORHA show a couple of weeks ago at Fletcher's Horseworld.

Not all changes are good.

Missing An Important Figure

 Usually my routine was to arrive at the shows on the Thursday afternoon and check in with my office buddy Geatan Laroche. He's been the backbone of the show office for years. I would help Geatan as much as he needed. And he and I would have other important duties like accompanying the judges to dinner at night. It was always one of my most enjoyable moments during the show weekend listening to Geatan and the judges talk 'of the good ole times'.

Sadly, Geatan was not well and could not attend this first show of the season. UPDATE: Geatan passed away July 30th, 2020. On behalf of everyone at ORHA and myself, our heartfelt condolences go out to Geatan's family.

Masks On- Mask Off  

I don't think this image needs much explanation! I wasn't amused though I'm sort of smiling in this picture. I couldn't breathe! I need to get one of those mask exemption cards.  I had to go back to using the regular cloth mask.  The humidity was unbearable and it made it hard to breathe.

Todd Bailey, the judge, had a very hard time breathing with the mask as well. He and I have similar views on this COVID-thing. It's nice to find another person who shares the same views. He and I are both pro-Truth. The world is quite divided right now. 

New Riders - Show Entries Are Up 

One pleasant surprise was that show entries were high. That's great news. I guess everyone was happy to get out and show their horse!

I was listening to this new rider Ashley (pictured below on her horse) talking to Todd the judge about showing in a reining class. She came from a pleasure horse back ground and was talking about the difference between that and showing reining horses.

She was mentioning how fast reining seems compared to showing pleasure horses. Now that sounds like a 'no brainer' but what she was explaining was that in the show pen when you are doing your large fast circles, you think you are going fast when you're not. It's quite a sensation. I hope I can explain this well.

The exhibitor knows to go fast in the large fast circles and you believe you are and the sensation feels like you're going fast. It's quite shocking to see on video just how slow you are actually going. Of course, it's a matter of practicing going faster and faster at home until THAT speed feels normal. Of course, you know you're going too fast when the circles look 'trashy' and you've lost your cadence.

Photo Credit: Susan Reinersue Dahl

I hope everyone has the chance to get outside and show their horses this year!

Putting My Spin On Taking Off These Masks
Reinersue
@KISS Reiners