Welcome to Showmanship-Patterns

The blog with patterns to practice showmanship with! These patterns may not be used for publishing or resale, however feel free to copy them for your own personal use!
I'll post my findings on these as we practice them ourselves! Happy practicing and we'll see you in the show pen!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Congress Conquered

We have returned from the Congress...and I'm tired..as I'm sure my showmanshippers are. We did have a finalist in the Novice Am Showmanship who got just a touch nervous at the end of her pattern on the 2nd go.
None of the patterns this year were "out there" with outlandish things like squares last year...that was ODD... the patterns were challenging w/o being outlandish...in the next few days (as I DIG the patterns out), I'll go over the weak spots I watched many exhibitors make in the two patterns that we did (novice and select)...
Until then...keep practicing!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Prepping for your BIG day

Back in "my" day we didn't get patterns weeks before to practice...as luck would have it, we had them the night before...and well, we practiced, but we didn't practice our horses into the ground. We didn't drill the pattern over and over again, we ran the pattern once and figured out our weak spots. Then we practiced that part of the pattern until it became 2nd nature...then we'd put the pattern back together again to see if we "really" had it, and usually there was another part that needed some polishing, so we'd practice JUST THAT part. And after we had it "perfected" and ran a perfect pattern, we'd mix up the pattern a little bit so our horses didn't anticipate that pattern. This way they were fresh for the next day.

Then we went and TRIED to get a good night's sleep...nerves always seemed to get the better of me the night before. Counting sheep never worked, so I put my insomnia to work. I thought about my perfect pattern, over and over and over and over again. I visualized myself walking into the arena, totally dressed, everything perfect and I ran that perfect pattern step by step in my mind, over and over and over again.

Ya know it worked...I've got the buckles to prove it (wink!)

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Congress Patterns are Posted!

Ok, first things first...Congress patterns are posted! You can download them for free from http://www.horseshowpatterns.com/ just follow the Congress symbols.

I know I have been neglecting this poor blog lately...I'm sorry, it's futurity season and we've been on the road and something has to give...LOL...anyway, right now my focus is shifting towards Congress and getting our Congress horses to prime AT Congress. We'll be gone from October 10 through 25th...so needless to say, this blog will be REALLY quiet during that time.

I do not plan on going over the Congress patterns until Congress is OVER (some things need to remain with me for my clients best interest, but I promise I will share when it's all over!). I will give you a few insider tips on preparing yourself and your horse for your "big" day...whether that's Congress, the World's, the National's, County/State Fair...whatever the "big" day is for you and your horse. I'll post this in the next few days. Until then, keep practicing!