Monday, March 16, 2015

Man, I Feel Like A Woman - or - Arabian Liberty Class with the Fancy Pony

The game goes like this:
You lead your Arabian horse into the arena to a predetermined marker.
Time and music starts when you remove the halter.
Your Arabian acts like an Arabian, running loose around the arena for 2 minutes.
At the end of the 2 minutes, the music stops, and you have 2 minutes to catch your Arabian.
If you do not catch your Arabian within 2 minutes, you are disqualified.
This class in not placed.  Only a winner is chosen.
Two handlers are allowed in the ring.

First, I had to pick some music.
After lots of listening (and comparing to video), I played the finalists while actually practicing Liberty with the Fancy Pony.

Ultimately, it was determined that she "feels like a woman" (Shania Twain), but that if she ever *didn't* feel like a woman, she was ready to "Wipeout" (Beach Boys).
When Shania was singing, that mare rocked around the arena in a trot so lofty that I thought she must be almost 16hh!  Her tail went straight up so you could see the silver banner created by that white spot on the tip of her dock...  She looked exquisite!
That was in practice...

The actual performance went like this:
My Liberty parter-in-crime and I decided to play on the music a little.  This is how we dressed:
feelin' like a woman

I turned the Fancy Pont loose in the ring, where she promptly turned into... a fancy hunter??
There was no more upright neck and tail curled over the back.  No.
She was all about long and low stretchy trot and looooong canter strides!

When the music stopped, the mare took one more canter circle, then stopped and looked around as if she was confused.  When she saw me, I stood still and raised my hand with a quiet "whoa" and she turned to look at me head on and didn't move except for a few steps toward me to be haltered.  She was so beautifully easy to catch!

We took 7th place (they don't usually place the liberty class beyond 1st), and brought home a purple ribbon!  Well, if we can't have blue, we do love purple!
This class was a ton of fun and became a great opportunity for the pony to stretch out in the middle of the show!
Video to come...  as soon as I lay hands on it!

4 comments:

  1. I've always wanted to show in that but I don't think my horse would be very impressive!

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    1. She wasn't very impressive that night, either! LOLOLOL!

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  2. haha i love it!! some how tho, i feel like my arab would get too much of a kick out of running away from me lol

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    Replies
    1. Ah, yes. We practiced getting hyped up then coming back down to be caught after 2 minutes. I did not want to get disqualified because it took too long to catch her! ;)
      She used to be difficult to catch, sometimes. Thank goodness for clicker training!

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