BY GUEST BLOGGER DEANNA BECKLEY
Jesse showed one more of the boys on Saturday, this time it was CJ.
The night before show day, Jesse was working his stop when CJ pulled a shoe off. I\’ve never seen a shoe fly so far – I had to go searching for it in the back stands of the coliseum!
Which meant it had to be put back on.
Luckily friend and farrier, Roger Wigen arrived just in time. Roger is a great farrier. Jeff was very capable of putting CJ\’s shoe back on, but he didn\’t bring his farrier tools with him.
Unfortunately, the shoe took some hoof wall with it so it took a little time to get it put back on and the hoof in good shape.
But CJ was back in working order for the next day. We got his all prettied up for his debut in the NRHA show arena.
And Jesse made sure to duct tape and electrical tape CJ\’s feet so as not to pull a shoe off again.
Jesse was a little unsure how CJ would perform because he hadn\’t been shown much. He worked his turn, loped some circles and stopped him a couple times before heading over to the show arena.
Jesse and CJ getting ready to run through the gate into the large daunting arena.
The ground was better this time around and CJ got stopped really good at the far end. He got a little stuck in the rollback, but ran down nicely to his second stop. Rolled back better and got stopped a third time. He turned big to the right, but Jesse couldn\’t quite get him shut off in time with CJ\’s big swooping step and the pair incurred a big over-turn penalty.
CJ was a bit sluggish in his left turn. He circled really pretty and had a nice final stop. The pair had a really nice run, but CJ looked a bit tired in the pen. They marked a 212 for their efforts.
Onto the Non-Pro, Jeff showed his horse Buddy.
Jeff usually doesn\’t get nervous when it comes to showing, but we could tell he was nervous here. When offered food and a drink he refused and couldn\’t stand to sit for more than 10 minutes. Can\’t blame him, there is a lot of pressure here and a lot of horses.
Jeff getting his pre-check done.
April and I headed up to the stands to cheer while Jesse stayed back at the gate to encourage Jeff on.
Jeff and Buddy started pattern eight off with a big turn to the left. Great start. Next came the right turn. Jeff asked Buddy to take a step forward because Buddy has a tendency to suck back a lot in his turns. Buddy however, was thinking lope and took a couple trot steps forward before Jeff got him settled into his right turn.
Although a little rattled from the turn, Jeff proceeded into his circles. Buddy circled very nice with his head low. They had a little trouble through their lead changes and Jeff had to pull Buddy through them.
On the rundowns, Buddy pushed to the wall and didn\’t get stopped like he could. Unfortunately for Jeff and Buddy, it just was not their day. The pair did not have an ideal score and more than likely they will not be showing in the finals. This will be the end of the futurity road for this young stallion and his rider. But, looking on the bright side, these two had a very successful year, placing in the top three everywhere they showed leading up to the NRHA Futurity.
Jesse also showed Ten on Sunday, but I think I\’m going to save that post for Monday. I\’m hoping to have some video for that run. You\’ll just have to tune in Monday for the remaining results 🙂
Jesse and Jeff weren\’t the only Canadians to have shown on the weekend. Shayla Malmberg of Grand Prairie, kicked some butt in the Adequan Arena. She showed Whizzen In The Rein to the NAAC Rookie Professional Championship and the NAAC Limited Open Championship with a score of 218.5.
What an awesome run for this young pair!
And they took home a pile of loot!