Horse sense

Today Leigha and Bri competed in events for the American Royal! We were at Kemper Arena all day long (and all last night as well) and I'm soooooo tired. Bri competed in two events. Lead line, in which she sat on the horse while Sheila led her around the arena with a rope, and stick horse, in which she rode around the ring on a stick horse. Yes, really. It was so cute! We didn't have a stick horse so last night I fashioned one out of a dowel rod, paper bags, string, and staples. It turned out really cute. When we checked her in for that one they asked me what the name of the horse was. I said, 'The stick horse?' 'Yes.' 'Oh....uh....give me a minute.' I came up with a name pretty quick (what can I say? I do improv.) and she took off prancing through the ring with all the enthusiasm a three year old can possibly muster. When the event was over they lined them up and "judged" them just like a real horse event, then read their names off and told them to get their ribbons (they all got blue ribbons). They got to her name and had to read the name of the horse twice, to much laughter. "Brianna Robins riding Maggie Paper Baggie....that's Maggie Paper Baggie. Oh my." Leigha competed in two events also, the lead line class and the small fry walk/trot. The lead line class was technically not allowed....but they bent the rules a bit. There's no age limit on the lead line class, and an older guy who had stalls next to ours in the stable told Leigha to take the rope and walk him around the arena. So basically there's all these little little kids being led around the ring by their moms, dads, and grandparents, and here's Leigha, leading a man old enough to be her grandfather. Nice. The walk/trot class was the big one, it consisted of Leigha walking then trotting her horse around the arena. Unfortunately, she ended up not trotting at all, even when they said to. Why? Because they said, "Jog your horses, please, jog your horses." Jogging and trotting are the same thing. Leigha had no clue. So basically she's walking her horse around in a circle, reversing, and walking her horse around in a circle again...not trotting. The other horses had very subtle trots, too. When Mecca trots her entire body moves up and down and she actually picks up speed. The other horses looked like they were just doing a semi-fancy walk. So poor Leigha had no clue what was going on! She got fourth out of four, but she did so well considering she was lost half the time. Oh well, she'll know next time.