horse show practice

I took Koko back to the show arena yesterday for some practice for the 4-H horse show (which is next week already!) We did several practice classes, with the moms acting as judges and ringmaster. We even had a cameraman filming it! ... I might pass on watching the 'western pleasure' class though. There were 5 horses, counting Koko. The two gaited horses tore around the arena like they had their tails on fire (I was asked if we were trying a hand gallop, which is pretty much what it was!) The as yet still unnamed, new mare, has a fast lope since she hasn't been worked in it for a long time, one of the mares was kept down to a trot for most of the lope period, and then there was the little Arabian who has a very nice lope. After bringing Koko back down to a walk (and catching my breath!) I made the determination that that was probably the most dysfunctional western pleasure class ever! Of course we had lots of fun, but I definitely will admit that western pleasure is probably not a class that Koko will ever excel in... Gaited pleasure, yes. Competing against QHs, Paints, and Appaloosa's bred for it, no.
The day was perfect for riding, and there was a nice cloud cover to keep the heat down. At the end it started raining, but we were just about finished anyway. It was a really fun afternoon. :)