Jammer's AMHA World Show Trip
October 2-6, 2006
(click on photos to enlarge them)

NXS Royal Jammin Man, AMHA/AMHR
1998 Miniature Horse Stallion
31.5" inches

The trip started out a bit rough as we learned that our dear friend, Lorri Savage (photo at right with Baroque), had passed away from breast cancer only one hour before we were to make the 18 hour trip to Texas. You can view a page about Lorri and a trip from the minis by clicking here.

We decided to go ahead and drive to Texas (at 11 pm that night!) and 24 hours later, we got there - we were so very exhausted that we had to pull over and rest several times during the trip. We were fortunate enough to stay with a good friend, Jane Wagner , there in Ft. Worth. She agreed to take care of Jammer while Deb and I flew back to Georgia for the memorial service.

So, only hours after getting to Texas, we boarded a plane back (many thanks to Apologetix for doing this for us!) to Georgia. We got in late Saturday night. We attended Lorri's service on Sunday and spent time with her family afterwards. We, then, took the red eye back to Texas and arrived there very late (or should I say early) Monday morning.

My first class was just hours later - Amateur Country Pleasure driving. I did it - barely! I suppose my ears were clogged up from the flight because when I went in the arena for the first cut, I could not hear the announcer - all I could hear was waa wahh waahh (like the Peanut's teacher) so I totally missed the call for extended trot in the first direction. When I did understand them to say, walk and reverse, I realized I had missed an entire gait and I was so disappointed in myself. The second direction, we did ALL the gaits. I didn't make the cut to the finals but when I looked at the judges sheets, I had placed 4th under one and 5th under another and was 8th in the overall (they took 7 to the finals). So, I really feel if I had heard the announcement and extended the trot in the first direction, that I might have made the cut to the finals. Oh well, you learn!

We did really well in Amaeur halter obstacle - there were 35-38 in the class. Jammer did it all correctly except he stepped off one foot on the "walk the plank" and he stiffened a bit on the teeter totter but otherwise did everythng like a pro (the photo here shows Deb showing him in Open Obstacle). Unfortunately, at this level, stepping off one time is enough to knock you out of the top ten!

 

 

In hunter, we didn't perform as nicely as he ran INTO the first jump - almost like he didn't see it. I forced him over and he did go over after leaving the jump in pieces :-) He realized he was in a hunter class then and completed the rest of the course very nicely (we did take down one more pole on the last jump). However, I'm proud of our performance in both of these classes as I didn't let it fluster me when we made the errors.

 

 

Deb Messner showed him in several open driving classes. She didn't make the cuts but Jammer did very well and held his own. The top tens in each class were extremely exceptional horses and I"m proud to say we were in such awesome company. Deb and Jammer did pull a top ten (top five actually) in Open Showmanship. She placed 5th of out 17 (she placed 1st on one judge's card). She and Jammer had an excellent run performing all the required pattern. There were 3 or 4 others that did the pattern perfectly, too. We've learned at this level, you just have to be perfect! We have alot to strive for and are already strategizing for next year!

As our "fun" part of the show, we entered the Adult Costume class. There were five entries and we took 4th. We were beat by two guys in drag (how can you top that?) - one was Cruela Divile complete with a full length beaded gown and red boa feathers (they won) and the other was a guy in a genie costume with a VERY big and hairy belly. He did a belly dance for the judges - we just couldn't (and didn't want to!) top that! Third place was a very cute fire engine setup. Many thanks to Jean Haines for letting us borrow your Jimmy Buffet idea - many people told us what a nice setup it was. We also took a stuffed animal of Lorri's and it rode in the cart with us as well as a pink lei in Lorri's memory. We feel she was there having fun with us :-)

Unless you've been to a World level show, you can only imagine the gorgeous stall setups and horses that compete at that level. We were proud to have qualified to go and proud that we went and actually came back with some ribbons. We learned alot and feel that we can work harder in 2007 and go back. Thanks to all that helped and supported us - that means the world to us!

P.S. We got a little bit of time to look around Ft. Worth. This is a photo of me riding "Big Jake", a longhorn that some cowboy had on the sidewalk there at the Stockyards. Deb litterally has the bull by the horns in her photo.

We'll have professional photos up in about 8 weeks. I got some REALLY nice ones.