Natural Horsemanship Contest

Today, largely thanks to Her Parelli-mad friend, I went to a local Natural Horsemanship Contest with my chum Jester.  Because there were no times as the 'day would just flow', we had to wait an hour and a half before we were able to have a go.  I thought there was plenty to look at, but She said that watching horses shuffle round while their owners waved ropes at them was very boring.  The other horses standing around seemed to agree because they all looked a bit vacant and didn't take much interest in anything.

Me and Jester at the Natural Horsemanship Contest in Luckett

Finally, it was our turn and She decided that She is not about to start waving ropes at me now and we would do our turn at liberty.  She took my bridle off, so I immediately got down and had a jolly good roll in the sand, most of which stuck to me. 
I trotted round obligingly with Her, but because She thinks Parelli is a lot of twaddle and hadn't read the rules, we had to improvise some of the moves.  We still managed a lovely wiggly leaf pattern towards the end.  For the grand finale, I thought instead of tamely trotting up the centre line, I would impress by going straight from walk to canter and throw in some prancing and bucking.  I gave Her the tiniest of playful nudges with my hindleg, so imagine my surprise when I saw her flying through the air and landing splat on the sand.  She picked Herself up off the floor quickly though, and I stood like a rock at the end while She waved a whip about.  I'm sure it looked impressive, even if we were both coated in sand.

Jester's liberty performance was short lived.  Once freed from his halter he was off running round, ignoring his owner and then refusing to be caught.  In the end I had to stand at the gate as a lure before he could be recaptured.  However, when safely on the end of a rope, Jester dutifully went through his moves. 

In true Natural Horsemanship style, we all got rosettes with 'Winner' blocked in gold letters across the middle.  When I got home I got a hug and an apple for getting more points than Jester.  Clever me!