Quarter Horse Congress

(bc honestly there was too much to put in here to fit in the October Recap)

Quarter Horse Congress is one of the really big quarter horse shows. It lasts almost a month up in Columbus, Ohio.

Lots of people there. So many. And so many different smells. And it was cold the entire time as well.

They have both English and Western disciplines, though the focus is on the western things because that's what quarter horses are mainly used for.

We (my professor; Ms. Becky, and two other students; Lara and Robert) flew up Sunday morning a few days before the judging contest so we could practice. We shared rooms with a small team from Georgia. We went and practiced for a couple hours Sunday afternoon before heading back for an early dinner at Bob Evans (I may have accidentally out ate everyone). We saw a Texas Roadhouse, of all things, on our way to dinner. After that, we practiced some more back at the hotel.

Monday and Tuesday were about the same as each other. The hotel was about thirty minutes away from the expo center, so we were all up and out at a reasonable time so we could get there to practice. We worked on Halter in the mornings for an hour or two, then got to see some of the performance classes in the afternoon. The event we most needed to work on, we got pretty well immersed in, enough so that we were eventually able to recognize which horses were good, which were decent, and which were not very good.

Wednesday morning was the competition. It started at 7:30 in the morning. Lots of teams showed up. We had the performance classes first. Nine of them.

Trail- Basically an obstacle course. Do not hit anything.
Western Riding- Lead changes. Lots of them. Do not break gait.
Hunter Hack- Jumping over two short fences in English Tack. Keep the horse's knees even.
Hunter Under Saddle- Rail class, everyone's in at the same time. Walk. Trot. Canter. Back. English.
Western Pleasure- Rail class. Walk. Jog. Lope. Back. Slow. Western.
Hunt Seat Equitation- English. Pattern class. Judging the rider, not the horse.
Western Horsemanship- Western. Pattern class. Judging the rider, not the horse.
Ranch Riding- Stuff cowboys do out on the ranch. Pattern class. Lots of extended trotting. Western.
Reining- You know, the fast circles, the spinning like a top, and those really dramatic sliding stops.

Then three halter classes.
Yearling Mares- Why should the withers be even with the croup? Why would we want that? Really?
All Aged Geldings- Honestly, no one really knew how to place this class.
Performance Mares- Which non-halter type mare is most like a halter-type mare? You tell me.

Each of those classes had four horses in them that we had to observe and then rank them and hand in a card with our placing on it so the officials could see how well we matched up with their placings. Then after all the classes have gone, they announce which classes we have to defend in the dreaded Reasons Room. So because we don't know beforehand, all of us have to take notes on each class as if we will have to give reasons on them.

Reasons classes.
Limited: 1. Western Riding. 2. Performance Mares.
And unfortunately I don't remember all of the collegiate reasons classes because I didn't have to give that many.

Sample set of reasons for a Western Riding class so y'all know what I'm talking about when I say 'reasons.'

Ma'am/Sir, I placed this Western Riding class, 1-4-3-2.

Opening with my top pair, I placed 1 over 4 because the buckskin was the more consistent of the pair, being smoother and more confident throughout all four of his line changes, and travelling at a more even cadence, in addition to competing on a higher degree of difficulty with his greater drape of rein.

-I will grant that 4 showed more compliance when asked to back.

Moving on to my middle pair, although 4 did hit the log as he was jogging over, he still manages to place over 3, not only because he was the more willing of the pair, as he was smoother in his transition from the jog to the lope, but also because he was more consistent with his cross changes.

-I did see that 3 was shown on a greater drape of rein.

Ending with my bottom pair, I placed 3 over 2 simply because the sorrel was more correct in his lead changes and had a more even three-beat cadence at the lope.

-Now I realize that 2 approached and went over the log with more confidence, but unfortunately the dark brown must still be placed at the bottom of the class today, due to the fact that he was the least coordinated individual, being more sloppy in his transition from jog to lope, being late in both of his second line and cross changes, in addition to hesitating at the cone for the third line change.

It is for these reasons I placed this Western Riding class, 1-4-3-2. Thank you.

The reasons can't be written before the contest, and you can't read them off of a piece of paper. You have to go into the reasons room after practicing what you want to say, and give your set to the person who is going to determine how well you did presenting them. Kind of stressful the first few times. I have messed up my placing before. And forgotten to say something I meant to say. And scrambled up the order of how I wrote down what I wanted to say. And I've froze up before too. But the main idea is to present a concise explanation for why you placed the class the way you did.

To determine the order in which everyone gives reasons, they had us all sitting at different tables with other people from our divisions. They organized it by the number we were each given at the start of the contest. I was sitting way at the back of our table, and was one of the last people to go for each set of reasons. They actually almost forgot to let some of us go from that table. They called the first people from our group to go and give their second set before five of us at the end had even given our first. But we caught them in time. We were all given a box lunch to eat as we prepared our reasons. No one is allowed to talk to anyone while we work on our reasons. We can stand up at our seat and quietly rehearse in whispers, but no talking is allowed and walking around is generally discouraged.

After I finished my sets, Lara (who was also in the limited division) and both students from Georgia had already finished and left a while ago, so I wandered around until I saw the coach from Georgia and was able to ask her where Ms. Becky was at. We found her and everyone else back in the main arena. Lara and I walked around the booths in the shopping area (lots of really cool stuff, but EVERYTHING costs and arm and a leg) until Robert found us in there eventually.

We went back to the hotel to change clothes before going out to dinner with the Georgia team to a restaurant that felt like Texas as soon as we walked in. We stayed there for almost three hours talking. It was great!

Thursday morning was the awards breakfast, which consisted of donuts, so we all just ate at the hotel instead before going. None of us placed in the top ten, but that was alright. There were a lot of really good people there. One of the Georgia people got second in something, so good for him. One of the Oklahoma FFAs (kind of like 4-H) swept everything in their division. The bigger Junior Colleges won just about everything as well.

After the awards, since our flight wasn't until that afternoon, we went back to the shopping area to look for t-shirts or something to bring home. We spent quite a while at a place where you got to pick what kind of shirt you wanted and choose which design went on. It was pretty cool, and I came home with a really nice sweatshirt.

Funny things:

"Oh look, more hood." -Ms. Becky when we were trying to find the expo center and took yet another wrong turn.

"Aw, I wasn't done with that." -Me when I saw that the hotel maid had put away the couch bed I was sleeping on.

"What was that?!" -Ms. Becky, while parking.
"The curb." -Everyone in unison.

"We asked for extra water for y'all's lunch, but they didn't give us any to begin with. If you want, you can dump out a soda can and refill it with water from the water fountain." -Contest organizers.

"Someone needs to make a meme with 'ride it like you stole it' but with a western pleasure horse instead of a barrel horse." -Robert.

Outside of it being delayed, our flight home was smooth. We had all been able to get seats close to each other for the ride up, but on the way back no one was together. Lara was all the way in the back, I was in row 14, Robert was in row 20-something, and Ms. Becky I think was in row 18. The flight was so full that they had to gate check most everyone's second carry-on as they got down to the groups boarding later, on the house of course. Dad and Ava met us at the airport to drive me home.

All in all, it was a very fun experience and I look forward to going back next year.