First Show Jitters
By Melissa Scott

To rein a horse is not only to guide him, but to control his every movement. The past two and a half years have been spent with Sombra working on a solid foundation. After all the schooling and riding I felt that it was time to challenge Sombra and myself in a competitive show ring atmosphere. So what better place than a National Reining Horse Show. Saturday morning started very early. I was up at 4:00 AM and out feeding and cleaning stalls by 4:30. We loaded Sombra on the trailer at 6:00 AM and left for an hour and twenty minute trip to Roan State Community College in Harriman TN where the TNRHA Mid Winter Slip N Slide Reining horse show was held. Upon pulling in the parking lot, I became very intimidated by the very large nice trailers parked around the barns and arena. The show was scheduled to start at eight. This did not leave much time to fill out paperwork, tack up, and warm Sombra up. I was a nervous wreck. It was getting close to show time as we entered the large indoor arena.

I entered the Green Horse class. It was the second class. This class is for horses that have not yet earned NRHA money. Sombra was the only horse in the class that was competing for the first time. There were five horses in the class. Sombra and I were second to compete in the class. The pattern assigned for the class was number 10. Everyone took their turn and waited for the final scores and placement. I was so very excited when I thought I heard that I tied for third place. When I realized I tied for first, I was very surprised and very happy. We had the option to run the pattern again or flip a coin for first place. We decided to flip the coin. I called heads and won! My score was 62.5 with 70 being a perfect score.

In conclusion, it was a very rewarding experience. I feel that the most important aspect of Sombra’s performance was his calm and willing attitude through the entire pattern. He performed all maneuvers slow and correct. Some of the other horses had more talent, but were not consistent in maneuvers and overall performance. An interesting thing happened that I would like to mention. A comment was made by another competitor, that I needed to cover up Sombra’s BLM freeze- brand because a Mustang would never be allowed to place well. I guess we proved him wrong. The Kiger Mustang does not specialize in one specific discipline, but can hold their own in many different endeavors and get the job done.