We are happy to announce that Reserve World Champion Exhibitor Peyton Bivins will be GoHorseShow’s Summer Intern this year. Peyton’s first assignment is reporting for us from one of the very biggest shows of the year, the Redbud Spectacular. The Texas native is under the guidance of Tom and Leslie Lange and Jeff Burley with her two horses, Dress In Gold and Kamanyawannadance.
Peyton Bivins second report is about the Progressive Dinner that was held Tuesday night. For those of you that don’t know what that entails—-it included lots of yummy food. Many of the different trainers had stations where people “progressively” ate their way through the barn. There were main courses, ice cream, and margaritas at some of the stations. Find out more from Peyton’s report below!
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma—June 6th, 2012.
The annual Progressive Dinner at the Redbud Spectacular was held Tuesday night. The
dinner followed the English flat classes and trail classes and was a nice way to
relax and end the day. The Progressive dinner is held around the main stall isles
occupied by different barns. Each chooses a food item and the Ovations culinary
group does the rest. The food Items ranged from sweets provided by Berryhill
Quarter Horses to a mashed potato bar provided by Murray Griggs Quarter Horses. All
barns had great presentations and delicious food items. However, GoHorseShow.com’s
Jennifer Simpson had her own opinion of her favorite food item, “I would say Carolyn Rice Quarter Horses’ ice cream booth was my favorite because it was a great way for us West Coasters to cool off from the Oklahoma heat!” The Progressive dinner was overall a
success, and at the end Jackie Krshka announced that the left over food, which was
plentiful, would be given to the fairground employees. This was great because
nothing was wasted and everyone went home feeling full!
Click here to view some pictures from the fun event!
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Her first report from Oklahoma City is a Pattern Evaluation with her trainer, AQHA Judge and Professional Horsewoman Leslie Lange. Let’s check out her first article!
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma–May 31st, 2012
From AQHA Professional Horsewoman Leslie Lange: In evaluating the horsemanship pattern at the Redbud, at first glance it is obviously a pretty complex pattern, so the best thing to do is look at it part by part.
Pattern Breakdown:
- The first maneuver is to walk to the first cone. You want to have a nice flat footed walk with forward motion appearing to be in control from the start.
- Next, you move into the extended trot and make a straight line down the ring. You then execute a square corner. I feel that you should maintain the extended trot once the corner is complete to show that you can maintain that speed through the guide of the square. You then come back to a slow jog to the center of the ring, reaching the center, you pick up the right lead and lope a small circle where at that point, you want to have a good cadence to your lope, ensuring that you are able to steer and it is not to slow because you want to show that you understand the mechanics of a three beat lope.
- You then continue straight across the arena in a lope and the pattern calls for a counter canter and a very tight u-turn. I think the tighter you can do that while maintaining the cadence of your lope the better, potentially gaining more points. While still in a right lead you come back straight to the center of the ring where you execute a lead change and then canter a large fast circle. You need to make sure you have enough cadence to complete your lead change smoothly and then continue on and ride a large fast circle to the right showing an obvious increase in speed and then stop in the center.
- You will then execute one and a half turns to the right so you will continue on the tracks you made after your counter canter loop and you will do a square corner and again I think you should continue loping after your corner for at least two or three strides to show that you have been able to maintain the cadence and rhythm of the gate.
- The pattern then calls for you to walk one horse length which I believe is four to five steps the most accurate way to maneuver this is to make sure that you get four or five very distinct walk steps.
- Upon completion of the walk steps you are going to lope on the left lead back to the end of the ring where you are even with the start cone. You are going to stop, allow your horse to be balanced, execute a 360 degree turn. After your turn, when the motion is stopped, allow your horse to be balanced. At that point you are finished being judged and the pattern calls for you to jog out in order to get out of the ring and out of the way for the next exhibitor.
You can also check out Amateur Kaleena Katz Weakly riding the pattern in this YouTube video by clicking here. This is an outstanding example and she received two firsts and a second out of 35 at the Redbud.
