Today is the big day. We arrive at the arena early so that we can get Vicky set up in a good spot with the camcorder. She has agreed to video the day for us. Thank you so much Vicky, you did a great job. I also want to thank my sister Fran and my niece Amber for flying in from Colorado to be there as part of my support team and running errands so that I could concentrate on Hercules. And I would also like to thank Richard Sewing from the National Mustang Association for flying in from Utah to be there as part of the support team.

During yesterday’s trainer meeting my draw number for competition order works out to be on my side. I will be last on the in hand course and second to last on my riding portion. So I have almost the entire day to study the patterns and watch the other competitors. I am nervous but very excited and Hercules picks up on it and is constantly looking to me for reassurance. I feel like we can do everything in the on-line course as it is all stuff we have practiced before. I am more nervous about the horse course as I have not practiced on picking up correct leads or lead changes with Hercules.

For the online course we have to enter the arena and wait for the judges acknowledgement. Then we are to walk across 4 ground poles without the horse touching them. Hercules clips his toe on 2 of them I think. Then we are to walk into an “L” formation and back out of it. Hercules does this on a loose lead without any bobbles. Then we are to make a 270 degree turn and trot to the cone where we are to pick up all 4 feet. It is not a long enough distance and Hercules does not trot for me but did well with all 4 feet. Then we are to turn and walk over a “v-shaped” set of poles (this is the obstacle that most trainers missed that resulted in them getting DQ’d). Then load and unload out of the trailer. Hercules does this like a dream. Then the final obstacle was to trot through a slalom course of 6 cones. Hercules broke to a walk a little but other than that did it very well. Our final score for this portion was 63.3.








After lunch break it was time for the riding portion. We were to enter the arena and mount. Then pick up a left lead and lope past the judges to the cone. Stop and turn left. Then pick up the right lead and canter back around the arena crossing through the middle where we were to change leads to the left lead again and lope to another cone. Then break to a trot for about 10 strides then walk into a box and do two turns to the right and two turns to the left. Then trot out of the box and through the panel serpentine. Once past the serpentine we were to pick up a left lead to the bridge. Walk across the bridge and then trot across the poles into the L shape and then back out of the L and pick up a trot to the gate. The only part that Hercules really struggled with was picking up the lope on the first pass he just trotted. After that he picked up his correct leads and we just had a ball. Janet got so wrapped up in the routine that she only remembered to take pictures for the first half. After I exit the arena I jump down in the tunnel and get huge tears in my eyes. Hercules has done so good and I let him know just how proud of him I really am. Our final score on this portion was 91.0. So combined with our conditioning score of 34.5 this put us in a tie for 17th place. We didn’t make the top 10 finalists but we definitely did better than I was anticipating.