First Show of the Year Coming Up!

Lately I've had a pretty even mix of good and bad rides on Cruizer.

Yesterday I took Cruizer's tail down to find that it has grown in length and fullness....yay! He also got his mane pulled and chopped off, and is looking much more like a show horse now. Yesterday we had a good ride. I first lunged him in side reins, then warmed him up in the western bit. He was very wiggly and over-reactive to my steering aids. I decided to let this slide a little bit because we were in the indoor arena which he hates riding in. I then changed into the english bridle/bit and rode like a HUS class at a horse show. One round walk, two trot, two canter, reverse, two canter, two trot, line up, back up. He was awesome. Much better than the warm up. I decided to walk him out then, we did a little showmanship, and then his tail got put back up and he grazed for a bit before going back out to eat hay. The other night I officially started schooling pull turns for showmanship. We are only doing them on the rail right now, because off the rail he doesn't plant his foot. We got a lot of clean 90 degree turns and even a 180. I'm going to keep doing this. His showmanship is good, we just need to practice it more consistently. Our first horse show is this coming weekend, the 23rd. I'm hoping he's good. I don't care if he places at this point, I just want him getting out there and getting used to the show atmosphere. If he's too nervous and mentally unstable I'm just going to show him walk trot and try to enter a canter class to school. He won't be getting any more days off until monday after the show. I hope he makes us proud!