No Show...

Well, the Ranch Horse Association has decided to strictly use the AQHA rulebook for all it´s Cowhorse classes (5 in all) during the Cow & Ranch Nationals, effectively ruling out any participation for me and Brady. He´s 7 years old so he can only compete in bridle classes in AQHA. He´s not close to beeing straight up in the bridle, not even picking the bit up properly yet.

Sure, I could put him in a correctionbit for awhile or some halfbreed with lever action, might even have him ready in time, who knows? But that´s not the way I want to go about it. He might never be a true bridlehorse, but I´m not going to deny him the opportunity to be as good a horse as he can possibly be by going against my convictions. I want him in the two rein until he´s comfortable pickin up that bridle, working of as little preassure as possible.

I honestly think it´s a shame the RHA don´t take the opportunity to get more people involved. There´s not to many shows arround that has the potential to be as great as the Cow & Ranch Nationals. Great for the contestants, great for the spectators and a great way to get people introduced to the cowhorse and what he can do. The setting at Axevalla racetrack, it doesn´t get any better than that! Everything in place. Guest stalls, showers, indoor-outdoor bleechers, restaurants, tv-monitors...Everything´s right there. The track is a natural meeting place for people, with the races held there every week.

But you also need a starting point for people with an interest to go show. You can´t just leave them hanging, wishing they could participate, and not give them a venue to do so. Forget about me and Brady for a minute, our ship has sailed and that´s not what´s important here. You need classes where people with less experience can compete at the same venue as "the real deal". As things stand now we have what, 6-7 shows total with cattle? TOTAL, Nation wide!! Correct me if I´m wrong, but that´s not a whole lot, is it? The same handful of people competing on more or less the same horses in all of them. The SRCHA have the rookie and limited classes to get people involved, and that´s great, but in how many shows this year? Three? As I said in a previous post, not having a herd work or a "freeforall, any bit(legal)-any age type" class is almost criminal, if you want the sport to grow. Now, maybe the people in charge don´t want people to get involved, maybe they want a little club of "Us"? I don´t know but I think they´re heading down a dead end street....