Adventures in Saddle Seat
Two Stepping Stone Farm riders are showing at the World’s Championship Horse Show in Louisville KY, August 16-25.
On Sunday, Reagan Upton & Undercover Agent were 3rd (!!) out of 17 in class 18, ASB Adult Three-Gaited Show Pleasure, Division II. As best I can parse the prizelist, 8 ribbons were awarded but only the top 4 will move on to the Class 176 ASB Adult Three-Gaited Show Pleasure Championship class on Friday morning. Reagan will join the qualifiers from the other two sections for a 12-horse final.
Check out the pro pics by Howie Schatzberg & Doug Shiflet. White jacket, brown derby (see photo, from Tues, same clothes), brown pants, chestnut with blaze & socks. (I wish I had managed a better shot than line-up. None of the action screenshots turned out. I only took a few. I didn’t want to get so caught up in the photography that I missed the class.)
On Tuesday, Reagan & Attache’s American Patriot rode hard in class 89, ASB Amateur Park Three-Gaited, Division I. Despite a unanimous championship last month at Lexington, they did not place here. That’s horse showing. 😦
On Wednesday, Sterling McDonald & Super Scandal will show in class 133 (Saddle Seat) Equitation-Open, Walk-Trot Rider 10 Years Old. The top six will move on to class 177 (Saddle Seat) Equitation-Open, Walk-Trot Rider 9 & 10 Years Old on Friday morning.
All three horses are owned by McDonald LLC and trained by Milestone Stables.
Did you notice the consecutive numbers on Friday morning? Reagan’s ride with Undercover Agent is the class immediately before the Eq final. I wish Milestone all the luck should they end up in the position of getting two riders ready to go at the same time for such a big occasion. A nice headache to have.
What happened to not living vicariously, hmmm?
Yes, I did promise not to get distracted by other people’s lives [The End of the Road]. Yes, I am spending more time than I probably should refreshing the ASHA’s show app. At least this time, my involvement is limited to cyberstaking and text messaging. I am still at home living my own interesting [Our First Blue, But …], but less exotic life.
Would I ever ride on the green shavings?
With a massive rearrangement of my horse situation, I could see owning/leasing/having access to an ASB who was good enough to earn me a first-timer’s participation ribbon. I don’t foresee myself ever getting deep enough into saddle seat to be competitive at Louisville.
On the other hand. I livestreamed the show yesterday to watch Reagan’s class. I admit to getting a wee bit choked up watching the first class of the day storm into the ring. Perhaps I am already deeper into saddle seat than I am willing to admit.
WCHS posts
2016
[Louisville 2016]
[Pretty Ribbon]
[Pick Your Crazy]
2014
[Logistics: Shipping]
2013
[Why Green?]
[Breaking Radio Silence]
I always follow and cheer for our riders at Louisville. I don’t usually blog about it because I usually have my own saddle seat to write about. Between transportation issues (boo) and Milton (yay), I have hauled out the saddle seat saddle only a handful of times this summer. Hardly conducive for blog material. I’m not scraping the barrel, but I am reaching in and rummaging around.
Update
Reagan will not be showing Chrome back on Friday. He will be auditioning for new homes instead of prepping for the Championship. I guess at that level one can’t do both. Sterling was 7th out of 12. She needed to be 6th or better to move on 😦 . So, that wraps up Louisville for us this year.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 