Preoccupation

I've been a little preoccupied, to say the least, of late. Now that Sandy is back home, no more daily trips to the trainer (sadly, as that was too fun!), but I've got something in the works here that's been a bit on the time consuming side. What might that be? A healthy dose of FUN, that's what!

A shiny new arena is being built up here at our fairgrounds, and what better way to become familiar with it than to use it? A friend and I are putting together the Cascade Horse Fair in September. Two clinics, one with my all star cutting captain, Curt, and the other with my mustang makeover friend, Keith Danielson. I'm super excited that both have agreed to do this!

Of course, being there are two arenas now, we'll need to get a lot more stuff going than just a couple of clinics. I've also got a trail challenge, including a pack horse division, as well as the Rail To Trail Benefit Jackpot. I'm really looking forward to the last competition, as it's 3 classes (trail, ranch horse pleasure & reining) from which the top ten will be selected. These advance to the freestyle, winner take all, jackpot benefit. All riders name a charity of choice on their entry form, and if they win, the jackpot money goes to that charity!

So listen, folks, I'm needing help with this. If you're close enough to help physically that weekend, I'd love to see you. And of course everyone is hereby commissioned to spread the word, as we need riders in all four events! Vendor booths are also available (hint, hint, to those who may have some little business they'd like to have noticed!)

Now, if you'll excuse me...I need to find the cable that connects my camera to the computer so I can start uploading photos. The sun is shining today here in Mud Puddle, USA, and I may just want to go for a ride!

She's the Mother I Never Had...

Someday Darling will be saying that about Froglander, mark my words!

Saturday Darling and Sandy headed out to their second horse show, but this time she was riding English. And cantering! I made her do walk trot classes at the last show, and she hadn't been happy. Since there weren't any at this show, it was walk, trot, canter for the two of them, and Darling was delighted!

Froglander brought up a headstall for Sandy to use as the cavesson on the one Darling had purchased second hand was a bit small on Sandy's noble face. Frog's fit, but just barely. Sandy is very noble, you know!

Just a few white hairs were showing through his winter coat, so I worked on his neck until his brand was visible. Not bold and stand out, but enough that you could see it. We have a saying around here: Not afraid to ride the brand!

Isn't she beautiful?!

Darling had four classes, including bareback! I bit my fingernails. I didn't want her to do it, but she's a gutsy little kid. Invincible at this age, aren't they? And she did fine, although she said she got tired of posting without the help of stirrups. She even won her Green Horse English Pleasure class!

I'd have posted all of this for you yesterday, but our internet was down. When I called I was told the problem was definitely at their end, and 'the technicians are working on it...it's taking awhile because of...um...the weather?' And that I could believe, because the sun was shining and it was nearly 70 out there. Undoubtedly the technicians were taking the day off!

Circle Trotters...and Steve Holt! week 13

It was bone chilling cold up in Lynden yesterday when Darling and I arrived. We'd decided to take the boys up to the schooling show which benefited local non-profits as they try to feed hungry horses this winter. Darling has never been inside the ring with a horse before, and she'd been a bit uncomfortable about it last fall when I offered. The past couple of weeks, however, have seen her hungry to give it a try.

So we loaded up Sandy and Steve Holt! and headed into Little Canada. No, it's not really Canada, but you can see the Canadian Rockies from Lynden and the wind blasts it's way out of the Frazier Valley with force great enough to make you think you're not in Kansas anymore. Which of course, you never were to begin with...but images of Dorothy and Toto and Mrs. Gulch on her bicycle or broom are hard not to imagine when the wind gets blowing. And although the snow had melted from the parking lot here in these photos, it was still stuck to the tops of nearly every horse trailer there, which tells the tale of how cold it still is up here in the northwest.

But on to the show!

I signed Darling up for two classes, both walk trot; pleasure and stock seat equitation. As we got closer and closer to lunch break, Darling whined louder and louder about wanting to ride in a bareback class. I know she's not ready to be loping in circles, and I hadn't told her there was a walk trot bareback because let's be honest here...she's not been working a bit on horse show skills, just basic stay on the horse skills, and since Sandy had only been in one other show I didn't want to take a chance of him being snorty while in a crowd of kids. But Darling, when she's persistent, can generally sway me, and since Sandy was totally relaxed with her during warm up, I told her to pull off her saddle and sent her into the walk trot bareback class.

Darling was happier with that seventh place bareback ribbon than she was with her fourth place stock seat ribbon, or her second place western pleasure ribbon! To her, staying on that horse and having a good ride was more important than the placing. I'm very proud of her.

Steve Holt! handled himself much better than I'd thought he might. He's been in the arena once before, so I didn't have any qualms about him being nervous. I didn't expect him to do so well at keeping himself together on the rail, though. Yet he kept a steady pace and worked very hard to keep his head set nicely for me. We were fourth out of five in the Parent Pleasure class, but I'm going to venture to guess we were pretty close to the third place horse. We also entered showmanship, which was funny because I've not practiced setting up until we got there. Again, he was relaxed and tried his best. I thought we should have placed one placing higher, but maybe we were bumped down because we nearly ran over the judge? Could be...but Steve Holt! found her interesting and was in a hurry to go see her. Our third class was an open walk trot 'advanced pleasure equitation' class. Crazy...what the heck is advanced walk trot, anyway? The other walk trot that Darling entered was beginnner, never having won a blue. I really thought this class was for those green horses who weren't ready for walk trot lope, but there were no restrictions so I swear every horse was there in that arena with us! Over 20, easily. Again Steve Holt! did everything he was asked, but of course with his bouncy stride we weren't able to compete with those who truly were advanced, so placing was out of the question.

All in all it was a terrific day for everyone involved. Hungry horses got fed, Darling and Sandy did well as a team, and Steve Holt! got a little extra exposure that will come in quite handy when we head to Expo.

Busted

Darling hits the dusty (arena) trail

I hauled Darling out of bed at quarter of 11 this morning.

"Time to get moving!" I told her. She grumbled something about ten minutes as I walked out the door. I'd left Sandy locked in a stall overnight to keep him dry. Today we were going to do something new. We were heading to our first horse show!

Because these little local shows can really drag, I hadn't really thought much about getting there early. I probably should have. The arena in Lynden is my least favorite to ride in. For whatever reason, horses that go well in any other venue will get a little nervous in Lynden. The chain link fencing with bright yellow bleachers on the other side seems to create an occasional case of nerves in even the seasoned horse, let alone a greenie like Sandy.

By the time we hauled in and tacked up, there was but 5 minutes left in the lunch break. Sandy had been quiet enough walking through the parking lot among the crowd of horses, but once he set foot inside the arena, that changed. His ears were up. His head was up. He was on full alert. Yellow bleachers eat mustangs, it seems, just as easily as domestics. Sandy did everything he could to avoid coming within 20' of the rail along the bleacher side. He was like a hairy land crab working his way sideways along that side of the arena.

Not only did we travel sideways, but we went fast. Very, very fast. An under control fast, but I'm certain there were people with wide eyes out there wondering if we were going to crash into their little kid as we careened around. I pulled Sandy towards the center and had him circling left and right, attempting to stay out of everyone's line of traffic so that I could get him to focus on me rather than his surroundings. Alas...there was just not enough time before everyone was asked to leave the arena so the show could resume.

I'd entered Sandy and I in the 18 and over western equitation and western pleasure classes. After that poor performance warming up I ran into the show office to ask if we could bump down into the walk trot levels in an effort to save everyone else the trouble of me ruining their go as Sandy was obviously not going to work at a lope today. The walk trot equ class was up first. I felt rather funny, but it wasn't restricted to any one age and there were a few other women with green horses in there. Sandy raced and was nervous, but we still managed to pull a second place regardless of me needing to hang onto him.

Sandy shakes off the first class jitters

We stepped outside with the other horses to wait for our next class. Someone commented that Sandy looked like he was thinking about things. He must have been, because when we walked back into the arena 15 minutes later for pleasure, he sized everything up, took a deep breath and listened to me. His whoa button was still malfunctioning, but he dropped his head and worked on the rail all the way around in both directions. Beautiful! I glanced around to see what the other horses looked like. None could compare. Of course, I wasn't watching everyone like the judge was watching, but I knew Sandy should have no problem being in the top three.

We lined up and waited for the judge to finish. As the ring steward went to hand in the results, the judge faced us and said, "Some of you are using training aids, and that's okay, but I have to place those without the aids ahead, despite the fact that your horses may have been working better."

Busted.

Sandy was wearing his running martingale. Which was okay. I knew going into this that depending on the judge or the particular rules, we may or may not be disqualified for it. It didn't matter, really, because the improvement from that five minute warm up to his pleasure class 30 minutes later had far surpassed anything I could have asked.

Darling came up to me after the class and asked why no ribbon. I told her it was because we'd used the martingale. "Why? Why would you use it if you knew you'd be disqualified?"

"Because sometimes the ride is more important than the ribbon," I answered. "A good ride with no ribbon is a far greater reward than a ribbon received for a poor ride."

I'm sure Darling will munch on that one for awhile. As for Sandy, he got a bucket of beet pulp all to himself on the ride home and is now happy to be wallowing in the mud with his friends.