Schooling Show at Los Vallecitos Riders

Today was Tango and Jesskia's first schooling show and they were both did such a great job! We got up early this morning and headed over to San Marcos (CA) for the Los Vallecitos Riders Open Schooling Show.

They were in a tough category (riders 18 yrs. and older) with seasoned riders! As you can see, they looked great and came away with some ribbons to prove it!

Couple of areas we need to work on back home in the training arena...

We might try a dropped, flash or figure eight nose-band on Tango, or even a different (maybe Myler) bit, because he keep chewing and chewing his bit!! (and, yes, he just had his teeth done so that's no excuse!)

And, he was pretty excited so it was difficult to distinguish between "trot" and "extended trot" - they both looked about the same speed - fast! I think as Tango becomes accustomed to shows he'll relax and enjoy it more. But transitional work within each gait should be part of his on-going training schedule.

Schooling shows are a fun change of pace for both rider and horse, and challenge them to develop a wider range of abilities and deeper confidence in themselves.

Congratulations to Jessika and Tango!