It was two weeks after the Sorensen show, Thursday June 26 the Smart Start horses loaded into the trailer to head to the WDHA Sport Horse and Dressage Show and the Arabian/Half Arabian Region X Sport Horse and Dressage Championships. Since the show was only for purebred and half Arabians, those elected to go were Safarr, Ra, Winslow, Kizzes and George.
It was beastly hot when we arrived on Thursday afternoon, 91 and humid. All the horses did some warm up in the dressage ring, it was still 87 degrees when we were done at 8:30 at night.
It was still plenty warm on the first day of the show, the arena was always too dry and the footing more than a bit too deep. The horses did their best to get through it and had some pretty good rides. Lanie was the bright star of the preshow of the Smart Start team, she won the High Percentage Junior Rider with a score of 69% in Training Level test 2. Another highlight was winning the gold medal for the Team Award, the Smarty Breeches! The team consisted of Lanie and Winslow, Suzette and Kizzes and Stephanie Ekelkamp and Exceptionl Result. The requirements for the team was to have dressage and sport horse in hand horses and since no Smart Start horses were in the In Hand classes Stephanie was more than happy to be on our team and we were more than happy to have her with us! Safarr earned his second score at Fourth level towards Suzette's silver medal riding Fourth Level test 1 and receiving a 63.9!
George (official name Biya Judge) entered the ring for the first time in two years. He's had some physical problems and we think we are finally getting him on the right track. He made it through all four of his tests and placed in three of them, he was 6th out of 17 horses! He wasn't really ready for the show yet but horses learn so much at every show they go to (as do their riders and trainers) that we loaded him up and took him too. We think by the next show he'll be a much different horse as our exercises help him work through and believing that he is going to feel better even when he's working. He scored 8s on much of his canter work!
The Region X Championships ended up starting Saturday evening at 6:00 with First Level test 4. Ra and Kizzes were entered in it. They both had ridden two classes already that day and the footing was dry and too deep. No one knew until about 4:00 that day that they would be doing First Level that night. Well, the show must go on, so in the ring we went. Kizzes managed to stay in the game, tying for the Top 5 and winning the tie! Ra was close behind in a class of 12 horses, a fairly large First Level class for regionals.
Sunday the footing was even deeper and drier. Lanie rode in her first regional championship class and had a great go in the Training Open class. She didn't make Top 5 but she sure looked good. She didn't have quite as nice a ride in her Training Amateur to Ride Class but came in 7th out of a class of 17!
Kari and Ra decided to scratch their second level ride after watching Safarr work through his third level ride. Since Kari and Ra are new to second level they didn't need the extra challenge of really deep footing, we want Ra to enjoy doing second level.
Safarr's third level ride was not nearly as nice as the one he had the day before (which he won!) but he still managed to win the Region X Championship for Third Level!!
Kizzes was the next ride and she went in and rode a wonderful second level test. She wasn't thrilled about the footing but she went in and worked great. Safarr rode the same class and slipped twice in the deep footing. It was so windy Suzette's hat blew off near the end of the test and rolled along the arena. Safarr kept one ear on it as he went by in the medium canter but he kept working. When the results came in, Safarr won the Second Level Championship and Kizzes was close behind with the Reserve Championship!!
Since Page Lee and Luther weren't with us (Luther is half Morgan, half Friesian) we don't have any candid pics from the show. There was a show photographer who took many pics both of the rides and the horses with their awards so stay tuned for pics later on the website.

The exercises that the Smart Start team (mainly Rick has invented and worked on and Suzette and Kari are working on) are working well and proving Rick's theories on how to teach horses to figure out for themselves how to engage, collect and be soft. The judges are loving the "new Safarr", how he works, collects, engages, does his flying changes, half passes, and now even his canter pirouettes. It's all still in the learning phases of the process but it sure is paying off already. Kizzes is doing well in second level and Kari and Ra are competetive in second level as Kari learns the ropes of how second level works.