Riley lives up to his name

"Rile You Up" had an outstanding weekend in Clemson. He got everyone around the grounds talking about him. He was shown by Gia and Chipper in short stirrup both Saturday and Sunday. He was fantastic. He came home with 2 championship ribbons and 2 reserve championships. He was named horse/pony of the weekend by show management and received a big bucket of apples and carrots for himself. I decided to see how he would do in the trail class. He had never been asked to cross a bridge, back an "L" or other tasks that go into trail. We schooled the bridge twice before competing. The first time he took one look at it and said..."Uh, NO" he danced all around it. When he finally stepped on it he went right off the side. The second time there was not a moment's hesitation, then we rode in the class, and no suprise he won the class.

We also took Sebastian to the show. He wasn't real thrilled with the experience. We had to scratch Saturday all together because he was not willing to cooperate. I rode him about 4 times during the day. He started out a bucking fool. We finished up the day schooling crossrails. Sunday morning started out much better. I showed him in crossrails and he did very well. He came out second in his class. I had originailly planned to show him in the Hunter Classic, but decided to scratch because I wasn't sure how he would do. I wanted to quit on a good note. Karin had wanted to show him in a few classes, but we had to scale that back to just the walk/trot on the flat. She took second in her class. A friend of her's then brought her horse up for Karin to show over fences. She showed in the classic on "Gus" against me on "Riley". Riley and I had an awful round. I guess I don't ride over fences enough, nor Riley enough. Our second round was much better, but I blew the first round trying to find spots for him. Low and behold Riley has no adjustability and knows his job. All he wanted was me to get out of his way and let him do his job. Ooopppss so much for being a pro.

Here are some pics from Saturday, Sunday to come...