Equestrian is a new sport for me.
The horses jumped and performed various routines to demonstrate riders’ command over the animals. Some of the things going on in the Hunt Seat arena will need some official explanation for, but things seems a little more straightforward in the Western area, where we saw dramatic stopping:
All I can say is that defending national champion, top-ranked Auburn hosted and beat fourth-ranked Oklahoma State. They announced scores for individual routines, but those must somehow get folded into the overall meet, which Auburn won 11-8. Also, in the Western arena, there were a lot of world champion and American youth champion belt buckles.
There’s a lot going on there, a lot to learn. And I’m guessing the visiting team is always at a disadvantage since they’re working horses they’ve never ridden before.
I’d suggest a great, clownish scoring seminar at the beginning of the meet. It’d work wonders for the kids — who rode ponies, bounced in a moonwalk and participated in stick-horse races — and people like me. We were eavesdropping on other conversations to pick up bits and pieces of the technique and strategy. I came away thinking the home team should wear white hats and the visiting team should wear black, just so you’d know good from bad. (No one is bad, of course, but we’re dealing with western imagery here.)
Beautiful day to be outside, though, and lots of great pictures for tomorrow.
