One handed bareback riding on an OTTB!

I know Steady is such a wild and crazy beast what was I thinking??  Hahaha, the truth is that 99% of the time he is a perfect gentleman.  So much so that after I got done racing him in the bean bag toss I promptly handed him off to my seven year old to graze him.  It is so nice to get the horse you have at home to show up out in public.  People become so impressed with his progress when really that is what he is almost always like but the last time they saw you he was standing on two feet acting like a wild stallion, haha.

I entered the "ride a buck" class.  That is where you place a dollar bill between your thigh and your horse riding bareback and the last one to drop it wins.  It started out nice and easy with some walk, trot.  Then we went to canter we dropped a few of them.  But Lee Ann decided to up the ante so she had us ride with one, trotting and reverse across the diagonal with the disclaimer "without running into anyone!"  Madness I say but we were still in the game as serious competitors!  We had to post the trot, bareback, with a dollar between our thighs!  10 meter canter circles.  Then we were down to just 3 of us.  I admit Steady has some massive withers but his gaits are so nice when I ride bareback they really don't become a factor.  Now a year and a half ago they would have because he did not have steady smooth gaits and I was more like a dead fish flopping around up there but A LOT has changed in a year and a half and riding bareback is a ton of fun now so I knew that we could hang quite well in this class.  I could see my dollar slipping back though.  I was out 3rd during a canter down the long side because my dollar just slowly slipped farther and farther back.  Live and learn, now I know that in any future 'ride a buck' classes the farther forward you can place your dollar the better.  Next time, Gadget, next time!

Reverse across the diagonal at a trot, bareback, one handed, without running into anyone.  And people think dressage is hard ;)

Can you find Steady and I?  Far right!

The other fun class we did was the bean bag toss.  We had to pick up four bean bags off of a barrel one by one and take them down to the other end of the arena and toss them into a small bucket on a barrel.  It is about speed and accuracy.  It is timed and you get points by getting the bags in the bucket.  You might think we would have an edge on the speed factor since he has won $350,000 racing but if you don't know about career OTTB's I can assure you speed is not an issue but stopping?  Well that is not really required in a race.  About two strides in with those long legs I was telling him to put on the brakes. We came in last in this class but we could have been real contenders had I concentrated more on holding onto the bag.  The first one slipped out of my hand before I ever even got to the bucket, ugh.  The other three I held on tightly too and made them in.  Steady was a bit confused by the whole thing.  The first run he kind of lost his head and didn't know what in the world I was asking him to do.  Then he got the hang of it and it was fun and I think it was good for him to realize he can trust me in an unknown situation.

My other disadvantage besides riding an OTTB in a bean bag game was he had the other horses beat in height by a hand easily.   Streeeeetch!

The best part about a show at Lee Ann's (well the weather since she has some ability to make the most amazing weather for her shows.  70 and sunny and the next day it was 25 and snowing!) is the atmosphere.  She even sends out in her show bill that everyone is to cheer for everyone.  And that is exactly what happens.  Everyone is smiling, having fun, chatting and cheering.  Not a rider comes off course without a group clapping and cheering for them.  I had my own little cheering squad in the Princess Diva Diaries family!  It was so nice seeing Kelly and Lexi.  Riva is such a gorgeous girl and Kelly has done such an amazing job in the last year bringing her along.  Till next season girls!  We MUST do dinner sometime!

All Photos Courtesy of Lee Ann Zobbe she wears many hats and does them all so well!