The family was there...Velvet, JR and Diva.  Nova came to town on Friday afternoon and we all got to practice in the  Versatility Arena.  What fun was that to see everyone.

Saturday was the grand show.  Nova and I entered into four events. We entered in the Open Versatility Events so the points we won would count to High Point Versatility Pleasure.  Of course that meant that Tony, Jenny and even Nichole in one class was our competitor!  How fun was that.  I'm glad to say that although Tony and Jenny were scared of the Nova competition, they did place higher.

Nova placed in every class we entered. She did some magnificent things. When Nova and I get everything straight and Nova understands that I'm supposed to determine the gait and which lead to be on, we will be awesome competitors.  I am hugely proud of her.

I had two little boys talk to me from the stands - "That's a Beautiful Horse".  I had two people come over to ask me what color is Nova.  I had a woman ask if I would sell Nova.

JR, Velvet and Diva did great in their versatility events.  It really was an awesome all around fantastic experience.

JR and Jenny won 3rd in High Point Open Versatility. Tony won 4th.  Velvet and Nichole were awarded Reserve Youth High Point Versatility.  Nichole got to be presented with her ribbon at the evening show at the main arena. She got to take a lap around the famous arena.

I tell you what...this was a horse show I'll never forget!

Didn't I tell you that Diva became Tony's horse early on in her training and development? Tony loves this horse and was sad when her training time came to and end.  Enter spring and thoughts of participating in the upcoming show season.

Diva has been sold and the plans are that Tony will be using Diva as a demonstration horse and riding her in Fox Trotter Ranch Horse and Versatility events.  It's a permanent kind of arrangement.

I'll still tell Diva stories.  All of us that know and love Diva are anxious to see what Diva will bring us as she matures into a Super Horse.  She's got it all - athletic talent | great mind |great bloodlines | great confirmation | Willing Partner

Diva and I headed out to Horse Camp Monday morning. We got to spend three days at Horse Camp with Tony and Jennifer Vaught.

We did ground games in the morning and rode in the afternoon.  Heavenly days surronded by good horse friends and good instructors teaching all of us on a one-on-one basis!

Diva and I get better and better at everything.  My count is 12+ times that I have rode her and it just gets better each time.

Her fox trot and flat foot walk is to die for!

Versatility Clinic for Participants and Judges 

I got to the grounds on Friday night. There were a total of 5 horse trailers on the huge property. There are 17 barns with 26 stalls in each one.  I've only been to the grounds during the Celebration where there are thousands of horses, people and trailers all over the place. It was if the place looked familiar, but being without all the millions of horse trailers, horse and people- way different. Thank goodness I found three friends. It wasn't near as spooky then.  Diva and I stayed in the pitch dark. She was the only horse in a 26 stall barn.  I was the only human.  I stayed in my trailer and discovered that my trailer lighting battery had gone dead.  I had a flashlight. whew!

The "R" word was darn nice to us on Saturday. It only really started to sprinkle a bit in the afternoon when we were almost done anyway. I was "done-in" before it started to sprinkle. We rode a lot. It wasn't trail riding. It was emotional riding highs and lows.

It was interesting to get to know how the judges score you. It was pretty cool to hear what the judge is thinking as you ride by. The judge was thinking outloud over a loud speaker microphone. I really expected to hear the judge say, "SHE's HOT!" as Diva rode by, but that comment isn't on the score card.

Your job is to be perfect.
Their job is to recognize perfect...and maybe lesser than perfect.

The judges really liked Diva's fox trot and flat foot walk.  We did really great in those gaits. During the trail class...well, let me tell you about the trail class

1. Come in at a trail walk and open and shut the gate.  Diva has never done the gate and did it perfectly!

2.  Trail walk serpentine over poles.  We did that perfect

3.  Canter on left lead-  we cantered really nice on right lead. What we were trying to do was educate the judges on what the wrong lead looks like.

4. Stop at the box

5. Go into the box and do a 360 going to the left. We did that perfect

6. Leave the box and walk over some poles _we hit everyone one of them

7.  Go into the next box and do a 270 going to the right-perfect

8. Come out of that box turn on haunches-I thought perfect

9. Back thru the "L" poles - we might have nicked a pole, but nearly perfect

10.  Immediately sidepass over another lone pole to the left and then back again to the right.  Perfect

11.  Canter on left lead around a certain cone at the far end of the arena.  I had turned and focused like I was an airplane going in for a landing.  I saw all the judges and the cones at the far end of the arena.  Sadly, we did a right lead canter and I went around the wrong cone. sigh

12. Change to a trail walk before the bridge

13. Cross over the bridge at a trail walk. Diva has never crossed a bridge. We did PERFECT

14. Flat foot walk to a fox trot clear around the arena-serepentine thru 3 cones and halt at the end of the arena right next to a cone.  This we did perfect!
The critique is all mine.  The judges really liked her flat foot and fox trot. I got 2+ points for that.  It sort of made up for my negative wrong lead canter minus points!

A lot of people worked really hard during these two days. Julie Moore and Duane Scott were on their feet all day imparting their knowledge to the trainee judges and to the participants.

I made some new friends and revisted with friends from the fox trotter world. I know better than to say "old friends"!

Diva is four years old.  She is a gold champagne Missouri Fox Trotter.  She has been started and developed by Tony Vaught of Vaught Family Natural Horsemanship.  She was showed in the 2008 Missouri Fox Trotter Ranch Horse Furturity at the Celebration.  She came home in November 2008.

I gave her the winter off.

We went on our first trail ride today with our riding buddy, Hope.  We rode at James A Reed Park on a very nice warm spring day. A warm day without flies is precious in Missouri.

There were boggy places and water crossings, but we sailed thru all those.

Naturally Diva was excited about our first trail ride.  I took Diva out on the trail for our ground work.  I wanted her to see the place and work off some of her grand excitement.

Hope got there with her horse, Jazz.  Jazz has been ridden once last winter, so Hope was really excited about her first trail ride of the year on Jazz!  We took Jazz out and showed him the trail and worked off some of his excitement.  We did our group circle trick. Hope and I stood back to back and circled our horses around us. We decided to hang on to our own horse and not pass the rope.  We did great and there were no riders or walkers to come and watch us.  What a bummer that they missed this.

We delayed the actual ride a little longer, but at least it was time to mount up and hit the trail.  Diva let me mount her from the trailer fender.  I thought that was a good sign.

Off we went.  Diva and I stayed behind Jazz and Hope. Diva didn't want to stay behind. She wanted to go fast.  We zigzagged across our trail.  We jagged into the field and did a few circles now and then to slow our progress and stay behind the lead horse.

It didn't take but a half mile and Diva's head went down and she walked like a great trail horse.

From time to time we got excited again and did our circles in the field.  We met two riders and a man with his dog.  We were able to get far away from them.

Hope remarked that Diva seemed much easier than Nova.  Heck yes, Diva wants to do what I want, even though she gets excited. She doesn't think about arguing. 

Diva didn't spook once.  She took her time about being the lead horse thru some boggy water crossing on the way back.

Near the end of the ride, we took off in the field.  It was just slighly soggy.  We fox trotter so smoothly, I almost cried. It was fast and it was smooth. Her reach was incredible.  When I rejoined Hope, she gave us a compliment.

Susan, you and Diva looked stunning out there in the field with your red shirt and her golden color underneath the blue sky.  She looked fantastic while she was moving!

It don't get any better than that for the first trail ride!