JRHA freestyle reining

Rider Name: Tessa Bradford

Horse name: JM Bettin Yur Iconic

Event: level 1 freestyle reining

Event tag: #jrha_ssrfsr_1 (1st place)

Tags: #jmbettinyuriconic #rbiconfoals

#outofbettinyurshort

Caption:

Taking a green 4 year old stallion to a freestyle reining show was not ideal. In fact the thought never crossed my mind. Along with riding a green stallion Tug and I had to be creative! Tug and I almost decided to skip the show all together, but after receiving the invitation we thought we'd give sketch a chance and then make the decision.

So we thought long and hard about what we'd want our freestyle to be, and of course us being oh so creative came up with > Merica. Id be riding sketch completely tackless while carrying an American flag trying to stay on the top side. So out to practice we went! We didn't think that sketch would be fine carrying a flag, we didn't think that he wouldn't bat an eye at it. We didn't think sketch would be perfect while riding bareback, and we definitely didn't think sketch was ready to take a bridle off, but he proved otherwise... I guess he's not so green after all!

Pt1: at the show

Before our run we quickly painted stars onto sketch, we're lucky he has a blanket and you're actually able to see the stars.

And for good luck I quickly add a blue heart to sketches nose, and maybe a blue hand print on tugs chest... but you'd have to ask him about that..

As we walked up to the arena Tug asked

"Are you sure he's ready for this?"

I think he's more than ready!

"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

As ready as I'll ever be I guess. I think he's ready, and we've prepared him well, I'm just hoping I can stay on him.

"I'll have the video camera ready if you're not"

You ass!

in the warm up pen

As Tug bends down to check sketches polos, I quickly stretch and send a quick prayer up asking the lord to not let me

catch a cramp, drop the flag or fall off during this.

"On deck, Tessa Bradford riding JM bettin yur iconic"

Here we go!

I quickly take the neck rope off of sketch and use Tug to get on, Tug hands me the flag as I grab a hand full of hair I quickly squeeze my claves onto sketch and ask him to back up, I start to hear the music fading in, Toby Keith has never sounded so good! I quickly glance at Tug before spurring Sketch on, We quickly take off, sketch is loping straight down the middle of the arena, as we hit half way I spur him quicker, I quickly make sure I'm sitting in the middle. As we pass the first marker, as Tony sings my daddy served in the army" I quickly sit on my pockets, as soon as I do sketch tucks his butt, and we slide to a stop, the crowd erupts* I quickly set back up and in the middle of sketch, I put my right spur in him and we quickly do a rollback to the left. We start bounding to the center of the arena again, this time Toby sings in the land of the free as I sit on my pockets and sketch slides to a stop, I quickly ask sketch to back up, back into the center of the arena.

After taking a deep breath I put my left spur into sketch and we start to spin right, one, two, three, and four, I quickly say woah!

As I quickly collect myself, and again, move back to the middle of sketch, as he straightens back up as well I put my right spur into sketch and he quickly takes the cue and starts to spin left, one, two, three, and after the fourth we stop, right where were supposed to, we're not even finish with this run and I'm so proud of sketch.

After re centering myself AGAIN, and re gripping the flag I shift my left leg back and we take off into the right lead, we do our first fast circle the crowd is now singing along with Toby as we come back towards the center I ask sketch to slow down for two slow circles to the right and he nails it! As we head back towards the center of the arena l take a deep breath, I take my left leg off, and he quickly preformed a flying lead change, I quickly put my right leg into and we're off onto our large fast circle, as we pass by the gate I hear Tug screaming at the top of his lungs,

"You got this!! You're almost there"

As we get to the center of the arena I ask sketch to slow down for our slow circles and of course this man nails it. We complete our first slow circle, and as we come around to our last slow circle I get ready for the big one! Our last sliding stop for the show, but first, sketch quickly changes leads in the center of the arena and takes off in one last large circle.

as we make it the 3/4 mark in our circle I quickly urge sketch to run straight instead of finishing his circle, as we run past the center of the arena I kick sketch up as fast as he will go! As we pass the marker I sit on my pockets, sketch slides to a stop, just as the song ends, the crowd erupts, I reach down and pet sketch, he did such a good job and I'm proud, as we walk out of the gates Tug gives me a high five, takes the flag and hands me the neck rope, I'm not sure how I held onto the flag this long! I quickly jump off of sketch after putting the neck rope on and anxiously wait for my score! (Guys I know nothing about reining, I don't know if this is a pattern or not, and I suck at captions, but enjoy!)