Appy Nationals; Working Cow

Patty Wilber

The last time (which was also the first time) I went to the Appaloosa Nationals was in 2008.  It was a much bigger venue than I’d shown in before, but All Round Sundown and Alias Delight (owned by Whispering Spirit Ranch) are both awesome horses. Ali came back with a junior horse (5 or under) western riding championship, top 5 in junior reining, and Tracy (Alias Delight) was 9th in senior hunter hack, and also did steer daubing.  (We had a good run but broke the barrier, which adds to your time automatically.) Steer daubing is like roping except you daub the steer with a paint stick instead of roping.

Hunter Hack, 2008.

Daubing the dogie, 2008, same show as the jumping picture! It would have been the coolest to get top ten in two such disparate events. But that's ok, because Tracy came this year with her girl Rachel to the Youth Appaloosa World, and took second in youth barrels. The horse is a wonder woman!

This year was the next chance I had to take a horse that was in that league:  A Para Dox, also owned by Whispering Spirit Ranch.  He is a cow horse/ reiner and he is by far the most talented horse of that type I have had.  Good thing, because the competition was tougher this time around!

He is fit and he is fast, and he is very happy to show me his speed but not always thrilled to demonstrate how well he can get his butt into the dirt and slide to a stop.  Thus, I rode and rode and rode to take the edge off, and in junior working cow, the dry work pattern called for two large circles but did not specify speed, so I chose medium.

He's fit, by golly!

(Working Cow Horse consists of a “dry work” pattern –cowless– that has circles at a run, spins, lead changes and stops…then they let out the cow, which you must work back and forth along the back wall, drive and turn along the long wall, then run in a circle.)

Medium speed worked really well.  He was relaxed and very attentive.  He marked the highest scores of the class in the pattern portion by 6.5 points!

The cow, on the other hand, did not really want to play.  Turns out I should have “called for a new cow.” If the cow they give you is a dud or too wild or whatever, you can just send it back in the first 30 seconds.  Thirty seconds turns out to be a long time when it is you and a rotten cow.  My cow came at me, would not stay on the back fence and then ran off (we were in hot pursuit)..all in under 30 seconds!

The Bad Cow...he looks relatively innocent here...

Bad Cow!

If the second cow is sucky, you are stuck with it unless the judges now think you should get a third chance.

I struggled along with Cow 1, and did end up with some decent fence work and circles, but I gave up my dry work pattern advantage and ended up in second place over all.

It's all a blur!

But hey, not bad for my second run at the big dogs!

Big ribbon! Trophy! Whoop!

Reining…well…lets just say, I tried to win. In the process, asked Buckshot for speed and sacrificed beauty.  Paid for it!

My outfit looked good though!

Buckshot is not as amused as I am!

And I zeroed my spins!  I know that sounds odd for you non-reiners, but actually was a highlight!

Spins have just eaten my lunch in the training pen for years and I am FINALLY getting a clue on how to teach them to my horses.  I had to get help from multiple sources and between them I have a new set of tools: exercises, foot fall sounds, rein position, leg position, when to quit and when to get after it, and it WORKED!

In reining, if you  zero a move, you did just right.  A “minus”  indicates mistakes. A “plus”: you are into rarefied air.

Buckshot is heading for the plus category in spins, stops and circles.

Our next BIG show is in October…we will be ready!