A Gay Time in Gaylord

Tue May 16, 2006

Coos and I went to our first show of the year Saturday, the NWMHA Open Horse Show in Gaylord, MI, leaving the barn around 6:08 a.m. w/my friend, Sandy, and her paint mare, Sienna. Actually we had a convoy of trailers leaving the barn, but the owner's daughter took her own route, and we followed our farrier for about 15 miles before they turned off into a McDonald's for breakfast, LOL! Course my friend, "knew" the way to Gaylord, turned left when she should have turned right and we ended up getting a 30 mile tour of the back boonies of NW Michigan (not the most pleasant of locales, bleah!) before I insisted we stop and ask directions...yep, we were heading North instead of East, LOL! Yeah, I bet the horses just loved the additional half hour in the trailer (it's a 2+ hr drive w/o the scenic route!)

Weather was NASTY...upper-40's/low 50-s, a near constant drizzle-mist rain (glad I have a synthetic saddle), and wind gusting up to 20 mph! The arena was MUD (so bad they fenced off one end, which was miserable footing!). The show committee were a bunch of morons with ridiculous amounts of paperwork for entering (you had to fill out a complete sheet
(name, address, age, horse name, gender, age, Coggins number, then sign, then print ...for EVERY class!). Not a very well-organized show, the best part was the access to flush toilets and easy-to-get-to water faucets.

Quzqo was kind of "up" but not screwy...course only after I got him out in daylight did I see all the poop stains on him, LOL! Poor guy had to get sponged off with cold water in the afore-mentioned weather conditions...he never dried off in time for our halter class, LOL...luckily it had been raining, so he was sort of generally damp all over!

There were four entries in Pleasure Type Geldings...oh, gee, guess who entered! The apparent 2004 MAHA (Michigan Arabian Horse Association) HIGH POINT HALTER HORSE! (or so proclaimed the trophy cooler he was wearing before the class). A HUGE bay Arabian, whose handler spent a good amount of time before the class whipping him into a frenzy (she wasn't hitting him with the whip, just flipping it in his face and yanking on the chain and getting him all worked up. Quzqo, on the other hand, stood quietly watching the Stock Geldings being judged, lol! This swayback Morgan went in the ring before us, and I trotted Coos in a VERY nice floaty trot (but I didn't get him all freaky-deaky about it), then Mr. High Point came in in a HUGE Park Trot, head high, tail ramrod straight up! Beautiful beautiful beautiful!!! Yeah, I knew who'd win...but a big surprise was right after him came in a HUGE Friesian!! With a good two feet of tail dragging on the ground behind him! Where the hell did THAT come from!

Yeah, well, at least we beat the swayback Morgan, *sigh*. Yep, 3rd out of 4, for the little broke-tailed Arabian with wet spots on his flanks. But at least it took a High Point Champion to beat us, and a Rare Breed of horse! Yeah, yeah, that's it!



Had a ton of time before our ridden classes, since I was taking him into Green Horse and me into Green Rider Equitation (lol...walk-trot weenie classes). Got to ride him in the arena during the lunch break, and he did pretty good...all our work with lessons was paying off, re:the keeping rounded, head lowered, etc. Was a pretty damned cold wait for our class...why did I buy a short-sleeved hunt shirt ! BRRR! (I'll be glad come June and July I suppose). Finally our class, and Quzqo completely surprised me by REARING at the in-gate! You little shithead, LOL! No, he didn't WANT to go into the arena, and he was going to hold up the class by rearing and balking and trying to spin...oh, great first impression for the judge, horse! I kicked him into the arena (didn't have a whip with me) and we got on the rail. Once in the ring he settled down and other than being uneasy about a group of people sitting in the bed of a pick-up with a horse cooler across their laps, he did VERY well!! We had a few little disagreements about the headset, but nothing major ...he even backed up pretty well for me! LOL...in the line-up, the judge mentioned the "head issues"...yeah, well, tell me something I don't know, sweetheart!

We placed SECOND out of 6! Hoorah!!! (all adults riders)

The very next class was the Green Rider Equitation, so we pretty much went out one gate and right back in...and yep, he REARED and balked and tried to spin, but I figured he'd pull that, and got heels in his sides for his trouble...he did better this time around, settling down, tucking his head, rounding up and just floating along, walking nice, a real nice back and calmer in the line up. This time the judge mentioned my main problem was that I had my hands too low and far apart! BWAHAHAHAH! That's what Deb, my lesson lady, TOLD ME TO DO! HAW! That's the best way to make Quzqo lower and tuck his head! Ah, who knows, if I had kept my hands in the proper huntseat position (up by the withers)...because I placed SECOND out of 4! WhooHOOO! That's my BEST Equitation placing EVER! (on Coos or Tezlu!) Guess those lessons paid off!

Bummer was they didn't give out rosettes, but big flats ribbons like you'd get at a a model show! C'mon for $4/class, I want a damned rosette!!! Never mind the $2.99/gallon gasoline and the 200+ mile round trip! Ah, well.

Our last class was Trail...no novice trail, but the REAL deal! The trail was set up in a field next door, and it was pretty weinie... walk to the mailbox, open, remove paper, put back in, close...trot over poles (which were actually VINYL RAIN GUTTERS!...we screwed that up because I was surprised to see RAIN GUTTERS and didn't want my horse stepping on 'em...he trotted one, jumped the rest and took off cantering,...which is good because next thing was to canter, turn to the left, stop and back up into the "box" (which was white chalk marks on the grass)...we overshot the stopping point by about 20 feet, so we just
came back, got into position, and he backed SO nice! At least we did that right! Then walk to a PVC pipe on the ground and side-pass...not a chance! I tried three times, I didn't even get a step to the side...oh well...next was to walk to the "bridge" and walk over...he did that perfectly, no worries at all! The judge said that at least we did the two most difficult obstacles (the mailbox and bridge)...guess a lot of horses had problems with that. I saw one kid's horse actually walk sideways off the bridge, LOL.

Was all for naught, because they never did announce the results of the trail classes, and when I went to ask at the show office, they said they couldn't figure out the judge's paperwork, so THERE WOULD BE NO RESULTS! No, no offer to refund the entry fee either! GRRRRRR! I hope they eventually post the results on the Association web site at least, I'd like to know how we did for gosh sakes!

So, we had a good bitchfest on the way home, as you can imagine. My friend also did the Trail (and other than her horse taking the wrong lead, she did very good). After about an hour she commented that her mare is acting up in the trailer...sure enough, the trailer was swaying back and forth and the truck sort of wobbling...this kept up for a bit, silly horses...I glanced at the gas gauge, which was nearly on "E", and asked if we were going to get gas? (duuuh!). Luckily we were on the outskirts of a town, and as she turned to go to the Shell station, there was a loud shuddering sound from underneath the truck...Uh oh...that didn't sound good! We pulled up to a pump and I checked the trailer tires, all looked well! Went on in to get a Pepsi, and when I came out...the left rear tire on the truck was flat as a pancake! Sandy was on the verge of getting VERY upset, and was on the phone to her husband, LOL! You could hear the air hissing out, and see the very shiny silver head of the nail stuck in it!

Damn, we were SO lucky!!!! (Imagine all the worst-case scenarios, eh?). Best place to discover a flat is at a gas station I say! Would have been luckier if it was earlier in the day because there was a tire store right down the street, but almost as good was that the Shell station had an ample supply of Fix-A-Flat! Yep, while she re-filled the tire with air from the pump, I bought a big can of the stuff,, we reinflated the tire w/the sealant...you could see it spitting out the nailhole, then stop spitting....once it was filled, we were on our way (per the instructions on the can)...We took it slow, and I kept an eye on the tire w/the side-view mirror...damned if it didn't inflate even more and after about 10 miles, looked as good as new!

LOL, her husband kept calling her on the cell phone about every 15 minutes for progress reports...he was upset and complaining that it was a brand new tire (well, it was a brand new nail!), and that "is it worth it?" this horse-showing business, etc. We figured she should ask if he got a flat tire on his way to the golf course, would it be "worth it" to keep playing golf??

Long story short, we made it the 50 miles or so back to the barn safe and sound!

Next show...TOMORROW NIGHT! Assuming she gets the wiring on the trailer fixed so we can drive at night, LOL!