We were able to bring Kat to the SAFE show, and thanks to Chelsey Braswell, Kat got to experience so many wonderful things! Kat surprised us all with her willingness, bravery and ability! Here’s a full report from Chelsey:

Oh my goodness, Kat was a superstar. I cannot express how proud I am of her, we have only been riding her for 2–3 weeks, personally, I rode her one time before we went to the show. She really shined on western day, first thing we entered was Halter Rescue horse, and took 5th, she really squares up beautifully. Then we saddled up and entered the Walk/Jog (for the life of me I cannot remember if we were in Rescue or 18–29, hmph) but her cutest little jog got us a 5th place. We mosied on over to the mounted trails after that, just went for it. She was absolutely fearless, until we got to the noodles. But from what I hear no one got through the noodles haha. She ace’d everything else, over the pole no problem, the bridge she didn’t even blink. She did dance around the noodles, I brought her back around 3 times but after that I figured I didn’t want to scar her for life so we moved on, she did really well. We took first for mounted trails.

After that we had a couple hours for a break and a rinse, we tried out Western Dressage, since we missed the sign up for Saturday’s tests. She was amazing! She gets so excited that she gets a pretty quick jog going but just talk to her and she smooths out quite nicely, I am still trying to figure out the best rein position for her, so we were a little wobbly heading down center line, but everything else was fantastic! And she got a 5th place!

Then it was time for the costume contest. I found a Pocahontus costume at party city just looking for ideas (FOR $5!) and it just went from there, I decided it was perfect for Kat, being a Quarter Horse. My family and I really enjoyed dressing her up, because she just really seemed to love the attention, we tied some bright colored feathers in her mane and tail, and painted hand prints and designs all over her, making her the cutest Pocahontus’ War Pony you would ever see! We took second for the crowd pleaser award.

So finally we were done for the day and she had a much needed bath. I must add, this dramatically improved over the course of the weekend. She probably had 4–5 baths, the first one was a bit scary for her as she really was NOT about to get into the wash rack if she had anything to say about it, but by Sunday night, she completely unphased and just stood there soaking up the suds and water. And of course she loved her evening graze in the sunlight to dry off each time, might have helped.

Kat and I tried a few new things on Sunday, including Trot poles, which I failed. I lost track of the course and well, we were disqualified, but Kat was great. She hesitated over the first pole, but then glided over the rest of them like she was on a mission to finish.

Walk/Trot was fun, she is very good about transitions and steering (mostly with your body and legs, reining greatly improved over the weekend!) she was just too cute, and a little too fast.

From there we did the in-hand trails and flew through everything like she’d done it a million times before, even through the noodles this time! We took 4th place, and called it a day. It was so hot, and she worked SO hard the whole weekend, it was time to let her be done.

I cannot express how proud I am of our ponies, every one of our adoptable horses took home ribbons, it was really a great weekend!

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We have a wonderful photo gallery of Kat at the SAFE show, thanks to Chelsey and her family!