Last Saddle Club Show for 2016

For the last Rockie Mountain Saddle Club show of the season I took Tao, my favorite Haflinger.  I braided his mane and got him all tidy, and he made quite a splash as the only non-thoroughbred I've ridden at the club all season!

Tao wasn't the type of horse that the judge was looking for to win the classes (more of a western quarter horse judge) but she couldn't help but pin him first when he did the hunter hack classes nearly flawlessly.  This little guy loves to jump!  While he is very careful and always takes a good look at the fence he never loses his rhythm and then hops over with careful effort. 

 Of course Tao and I had some fun making faces at each other and sharing snacks, too.

This was Beauty and Alice's first show together with Bit of Honey.  Beauty did really well, and it was a great experience for Alice to determine what their strengths were in addition to clarifying what goals we want to work on next.

Beauty and Alice have only recently started jumping together, and they boldly entered the hunter hack class together.  I love this horse show because everyone is so supportive of each other, and when Alice and Beauty made it over the fence everyone cheered!

Dewey and Sara came to the show, and as usual Dewey was steady and calm.  He is also becoming quite photogenic!

Fason came with us once more, just to experience the horse show scene again.  This is his third or fourth time at the saddle club, and he's got the routine down now.  Get out of the trailer, help your friend get tacked up, then eat hay all day. 

I'm pretty sure that in this photo with Tao, Fason is saying "You are my favorite Haflinger.  You are so cute I could eat you up.  Nom nom."  These two have spent a lot of time together walking in the back pastures with me riding Tao and ponying Fason, so they have become good friends and Tao tolerates the affection reasonably well. 

My friend Trisha brought her mare, Roxie, to this show and rode her both english and western.  This mare is still young, but has made incredible progress in Trisha's capable hands.  It has been really fun for me to see the quality of her gaits improve so much in the couple years Trisha has had her.  Plus she really is a truly versatile all-around horse.  She does dressage, reining, cattle work, a little jumping, and is good at all of it. 

Plus I love the group photos from the day.  Such a great end to the club's season!