Western Horsemanship

Horsemanship is a lot like Equitation. The difference is Equitation is always associated with english riding, and Horsemanship is the western version.

Horsemanship and Equation are like the riding version of Showmanship. The majority of the class is judged on the rider, but also how the horse responds to the rider. "Judging focuses on the rider’s body position, seat in the saddle and ability to control the horse."

Just like Equitation and Showmanship, horses enter the arena and line up tails to the rail. One at a time they step up to the first cone, wait for the judge to nod, then start their pattern. As always, they always look back at the judge been the pattern is finished and look for the nod again.

I never mentioned this before, but most classes (not only patterned ones, but pleasure classes, jumping classes, etc.) are often divided up into categories. Sometimes they are divided up into age groups (for instance, dressage is divided into Young Riders which is 21 and younger, Adult Amateur which is over 21 and Open). A majority of open shows are also divided by Walk/Trot and Walk/Trot/Canter.

At this show, there was a class for only Walk/Trot and Walk/Trot/Canter. Since one class included canter and the other didn't, there were two different patterns for the horsemanship class.

Since I went through all the steps with Equiation and Showmanship, I am going to skip over the individual parts of the pattern. Here are a few pictures form both of the patterns combined.

As you can see, Horsemanship follows the same general trends as Western Pleasure.

Here is a video of the walk/trot pattern.


Notice the rider's equitation (meaning, what she looks like in the saddle). She is sitting up straight, with her shoulders back, her back arched, her heels down, and her eyes up. Overall, she has a good position. Just as important, notice what very little she does to cue the horse and he responds decently well. These are the things that are important in Equitation and Horsemanship classes.

Also, here is a few examples of the walk/trot/canter pattern.

Again, the girl's have good position and the horses respond to very minimal cues.

Those are the basics for a Horsemanship class!

Questions? Just comment or e-mail labelle012@yahoo.com

Back to Belle

Here are some photos I have of LaBelle from my visit in July! I never got a chance to share them, so now I finally am going to!

One of LaBelle's best qualities is definitely her head. For being as big as it is, it is surprisingly feminine. You can't forget those big, kind, eyes that are the ultimate persuaders.

One of the greatest things about having Belle around was that she was so photogenic. I would take tons of photos of her, and she would always look so good, making me look good.

I have to share this photo. Between her forelock, her lips, and her browband, it always makes me giggle!

Catching Up

I realized I have a lot of older things I had initially intending on posting, but never got around to it.

If you see some random posts in the next few weeks, just keep in mind that I am playing Catch Up!

Sonnys New Place (or is it Palace?)

I finally got around to getting some photo's of the new barn!

If you can't tell from the photos, Sonny and I both love it!! It is perfect.

To start with, the indoor arena is perfect. The arena is huge and there is always a nice breeze so even on hot days it doesn't feel bad. It is closed in, so I can turn Son out in there. The footing is nice and deep (which is perfect for rolling) and I am allowed to keep all of my poles/jumps/cones and everything else out all the time!

The arena is connected to the barn isle. When you leave the arena into the rest of the barn, if you look to your left you'll see a lounge area (with a fridge, couch, and table), the feed room, and lots of storage area for things like the manure spreader, 4-wheelers, tractors, shavings, etc.

If you look to your right, you will see all the stalls and tack rooms.

This is a blurry view of the entire barn from the stall side.

If you look closely in the above barn isle photos, you can see Sonny's head. And that's because...

...he has a stall guard! More than anything at the new barn, he loves being able to have his head out all the time! He even passes up his hay (with he doesn't do for anything!) to hang his head out!

His stall is a lot bigger now, 10x12. Which makes it nice because he goes to the bathroom in the very back, then lays down in the middle and doesn't get pee stains anymore!

My godfather bought brand new interlocking matts and the new buckets for us as a moving gift :).

If you're looking at Sonny's stall, directly to the right is my tack room. Once more boarders arrive, I will have to share. But, at least I was able to set it up EXACTLY how I want it! Organization makes me happy, so being able to set up my tackroom was perfect!

If you go out of the stall end of the barn, you come to the pastures. Sonny has been going out with one mare in a smaller pasture on the left.

To the right of his pasture is the outdoor arena, which is gigantic.

To the right of the arena is a bigger pasture. The owner's three mares stay out there all the time.

The cool thing is, the whole area is fenced in.

From the end of the barn, everything is fenced in. On top of that, I bought a Barn Isle Guard that hooks up right before the gate to the indoor arena. So, if Sonny would get out of his stall or out of his pasture, he would still be fenced in! Which helps me not worry so much!

All I can say is, so far so good! :)

Another Arabian?

This time in resin!

I can't believe that in all these years of collecting model horses, I get my first two arabians within weeks of each other!

I am so excited to share with you all my new arabian from Kate Schick (drumroll):

Now before I show anymore pictures, hurry up and wipe the drool off your keyboard before it is ruined!

I don't mean to brag, because I obviously had nothing to do with this gorgeous girl. All the credit goes to Deborah McDermott and especially to miss Kate Schick for bringing her to life!

I can't say enough great things about Kate. Seriously, look at that detail!

I wasn't originally planning on having this mare painted right away (and that was before I knew that I would be moving Sonny and buying a horse trailer and everything else that costs outrageous amounts of money). But Kate was so excited to paint her, I couldn't say no! She picked out the whole color pattern, some of it based on her real horse. All I had to do with it was the face marking.

Considering I may not be making any model horse purchases for the next decade of my life, at least I went out with a bang ;).

More pictures (all credit to Kate Schick) can be seen here.

The Windy City

This isn't model horse related, or even real horse related. But last weekend my boyfriend, Stephen, and I went to Chicago to visit my sister! In a Wordless Wednesday fashion (even though it is Thursday), here are some of my photos:

I'll Be Back!

I know it has been a rough summer, nothing like what I expected! But, Sonny is all moved and situated so things should start returning to normal. Including blogging.

See you soon!