Cowgirl trying her hand at jumping!?!?!?

November 8th was a very interesting and fun day around here. Shawnee, along with a couple of my Wasatch Academy students, attended her first ever jumping competition. We took four of our "western" horses to an "English" show. Of course I only had them compete in the lower fences. Shawnee jumped the crossrails, 18", 2', and 2'3". It was so much fun.

Shawnee and Madonna Sure look different when they are jumping than they do tying a goat. It was really funny watching her jump.

Shawnee kept getting ahead of her horse and would get her legs behind her (as you can see in the picture). Because of this, she went off three times. It was hilarious. She landed on her feet all three times and kept ahold of the reins. So I guess mybe her version of jumping was not that different from goat tying. She just doesn't know how to ride Madonna without getting off. All in all, Shawnee and all of the kids did really well. Shawnee brought home 3 ribbons and Amanda (one of my students) brought home 4 ribbons. I was also really impressed with the horses she rode. Pete, Shawnee's 2009 futurity barrel horse jumped with Amanda all of the classes Shawnee jumped. He placed in all but one. Amanda also rode Special Ops my 5 year old barrel stallion (we brought him along for the ride, and I was then convinced to enter him). He had never jumped before and plowed through the cross rails only leaving two up. Dale Woolsey (an English jumping trainer) convinced us to enter him in the 18" class. He placed 5th there.

You may wonder why I would suggest that my daughter along with all of my nice "Western" horses work "English"? If you ask me, riding English will make the kids better riders and the horses better horses. Besides that, how many horses do you know of that you can take to a jumping show one day and a barrel race the next?