Monday, August 29, 2011

The Competition

Leaving for the competition



Friday morning before we left for the long drive to eastern Oregon, Gabrielle gave Faith her last bath.  She spent a great deal of time scrubbing and loving on her.  I suspect that she was talking to her and telling her to be a good girl and that she promised to give her to a good home.


As Gabrielle walked Faith to the trailer Beau came to say goodbye to his favorite lady.  Beau joined our herd one week before Faith and they were stalled next to each other.  Needless to say, they bonded. 





Faith loaded as faithful as ever, not having a clue about the changes ahead of her and all that we would ask her to do.  The first request is to ride for 7 hours on a hot day.



At one of the rest stops, Gabrielle decided that it would be nice to let Faith stretch her legs. 


Here she took her for a jog only feet from a highway and Faith stayed completely focused on Gabrielle and as rock solid as ever. 


Once we got to the Yamhill County Fairgrounds we were told by some other participants that there were swimming pools to practice with as there would be a water obstacle during the challenge.  Gabrielle decided to have Faith completely check out the pool. 


Faith was still hot even though she had already drank quite a bit.  She thought the pool was a wonderful water trough. 


With a little bit of work, she stepped into the pool . . .  and continued to drink.  (BTW there was no water obstacle, but this was a fun exercise any way.  Just shows that she is a calm and even tempered horse to be able to do this after traveling so long.)

Competition Day


Here is Faith's stall complete with decorations.


Gabrielle's KVEW interview played all during the competition and was commented on quite a bit by many.


Pictures of Faith, the newspaper articles and all the promotional materials used during the previous 98 days were on display.


I did get a chance to help Gabrielle with her hair before the competition began.


All the teens lined up before showmanship to have their horses' body condition judged by two vets.


Faith was viewed by one vet as being nicely conditioned if a little underweight.  The second vet felt she was more underweight than the other.  I say she has a high metabolism.  She was fed well and out in the field all day to eat. 

After body condition judging the teens competed in showmanship.  I have no pictures because I video taped her performance.  I surprised at the number of horses that bucked, reared and struck during this time.  (One of these horses actually placed higher over all than Gabrielle.  Not sure how that works but then I am not a judge.)


Prior to the in hand trail portion, the teens walked the course and were told what they were to do at each obstacle.


For the Y they were to trot into one side and back around to the other and walk out.  Gabrielle really enjoyed this one and Faith never touched a single log unlike most of the other competitors.


At the end of the trail course each contestant had 2 minutes to perform a freestyle routine.  Gabrielle led Faith by a rope around a front leg, swung the rope around Faith and threw it over her, laid her down and shot a cap gun off.  Several contestants attempted to lay their horses down, but Gabrielle was the only to succeed.  Most showcased how they had desensitized their horses to tarps, large balls and could lunge and jump.

Following in hand trail, the results of each portion were announced.  Gabrielle and Faith placed 10 out of 20 in body condition (worth 20% of the over all score), 12 out of 20 in showmanship (worth 30% of the over all score) and 10 our of 20 for in hand trail (worth 50% of the over all score).  In the end Gabrielle and Faith were placed 15th out of 20 with a body score of 80, showmanship of 60 and in hand trail 81 and an overall score of 59.  There's some new math for you.  I am not aware of a way to weight and average three scores and come up with a score lower than any of the other three scores.


Here Gabrielle prepares to go in and have Faith auctioned.  We have all said our goodbyes.  The horses are auctioned in the order of their placings.  The auctioneer took a few moments to try to explain to the bidders that this horse had some how been placed this low but that she was a far better horse than 15th.  Gabrielle demonstrated just how light she is by leading her with one finger changing directions and placing her nose on the ground with the same finger. 

But it was too little too late and unfortunately by the time Faith came up for auction several horses had been sold for the minimum fee of $25.  This is what she was destined to sell for as no one was bidding on her.  We as a family had already agreed that we would not let her go for less than $100 because we wanted her to go to a home where she was wanted.  So the grandma's who wanted Faith to stay with Gabrielle anyway, bid and bought Faith for $100. 

While last year's experience was such a positive one this one has been very different.  I am saddened and extremely frustrated by what I witnessed in the show ring (horses that bucked and reared, blowing pattern and forgetting parts of the pattern placing higher than Gabrielle) as well as outside the ring.  I believe the placing would be vastly different if judged on actually training and not just the show ring; but then again that was not the competition.  I did however have a lady catch me in the bathroom and comment on how well Gabrielle was doing and on her great attitude.  She was disappointed that a girl she was helping was not exhibiting such attitudes.  She said she wished that she could sponsor Gabrielle but felt it would be a conflict but wanted me to know how she felt. 

Even still, Gabrielle has learned so much and gained so much experience and confidence that I can't say that I regret participating in the past two years.  God is working this for good.  I just hope that she gets enough people asking her to start their horses here that she will be too busy to travel so far. 

Then the pot got thickened even more last night.  A family that was interested in Faith had to leave for work before the auction and they called to see how much she sold for.  When she found out that it was only $100 she was sad because she was willing to bid up to $500 for her.  That would have been the highest bid of the auction.  $475 was the highest.  When she found out that we had bought her and brought her home, she offered to buy her from us.  I told her that it would be Gabrielle's choice since she had had such a hard weekend and the emotions of being prepared to give her up, then to bring her home, and then to have an offer come through would be hard for a teen to sort out.  She has given Gabrielle all the time she needs to decide and as of right now Gabrielle is leaning toward giving Faith the family she always hoped for her; but no final decision has been made.  (Grandmas are still offering to support Faith so Gabrielle can keep her.)

So this story is not yet finished.  I will keep this blog going and updated as the life of Faith continues to unfold. 

Stay tuned . . . . . .

No comments:

Post a Comment