AZ Sun Circuit Blog #4- Horsemanship Under the Stars

EC Blog by: Gabi Salamone and Kili Crawford

Bouncing horses, smiling youth kids, and night time competition.  Today marked the start of the youth classes here at the Sun Circuit. I think all the Amateurs were a little jealous of how smoothly and quickly the youth classes sailed by today. They started with Western Pleasure in the morning, and by 10 am they were already well into the Horsemanship. By 3pm, the Youth Trail had concluded.

Gabi and I watched the bouncy horse ball race in the youth arena at the conclusion of Horsemanship. Not surprisingly, the youth pulled out all the stops (I mean a TV was on the line) and the race came to a heart stopping conclusion. Our fellow barn mate Taylor Searles, came in a close third as she tripped on her spurs in the last stretch of the race. As all people who compete in Showmanship know, it’s never a good idea to do any sort of running with your spurs on!

Meanwhile, in the Amateur arena, competition started at 8:45 am with Showmanship go. By the time that finished, Western Pleasure started around 1:30 pm with a good turnout having over 25 in the Select pleasure and 17 in the Amateur.  Meanwhile, in a separate pen, the Western Riding was an open block with over 80 horses to show for the day. Finally, at around 6:30, Horsemanship started with again good numbers. By the time the Amateur ended up in the arena, it was dark with the lights shining, waiting for greatness.  However, it ended up being a test of horse and rider connection as night had fallen. In a tough class of over 40 horses, the night concluded as everyone patted their horses for a day well done.

I didn’t get the chance to watch Kili in her Level 2 Horsemanship as I was getting ready to compete in the next and final class, the Level 3 Amateur Horsemanship. From the few patterns I did get a chance to watch, I can say that the competition was intense in both factions of Amateur Horsemanship tonight! There were so many talented horses and riders, and I can say I was very proud of my 3^rd and 8^th place finish tonight in the lLevel 3 class! It was a good and fast-paced pattern and a fun night.