Hot Time At The Horse Show

Mon Jul 17, 2006

Model horse people have NOTHING over the crazy loons who show the real things!! If I seem a bit dotty today, it's because my brains have been broiled after spending two entire days in 98 degree temps at a dang horse show!!!

Thankfully, our local fairgrounds is loaded with huge, old trees, so shade was everywhere. But when it's 78 degrees at 6 a.m....not a good sign!! Luckily our usual spot was taken when we got there, so we ended up further from the show arena, but under a ton of huge shady trees, which became a bigger commodity than proximity to the arena!!

Quzqo's become an ole show veteran, I'm so proud of Him!!! He jumps in the trailer w/o a fuss now, he jumps OUT of the trailer, and happily, he now stands tied without fussing, wiggling, whinneying, pawing, and acting a loon! Course maybe it was also the heat that kept him subdued, LOL! I could actually leave him alone without worrying he was going to do something to himself!

Saturday's show had a single judge, a pleasant youngish lady with obvious impartiality and experience! I can't remember exactly how our Showmanship class went, not that it mattered, because we placed 6th out of 6, LOL! Why do I bother?

Quzqo did place 1st in Pleasure Type Geldings!! Yeah, he was the only entry, LOL...he didn't stand a chance in the showback for Champ, because a local Morgan breeder came by with about every horse they owned, from weanlings to a gorgeous palomino Stallion, and of course won the Champ and Reserve.

Coos behaved pretty darn well in the ridden classes (for Quzqo, anyway). For the life of me I can't remember offhand how we placed in Equitation, it was probably 6th out of 6 again. In the Step-Up English class (with cantering), we TOTALLY blew it, thanks to SOMEbody deciding he was channeling Tezlu, and when they asked for the canter, he TORE off and VEERED across the far end of the arena, LOL! (he was nervous about that corner, who knows WHY), and we lapped the rest of the class easily.

He did better going the other direction, but combining that, with the fact he decided to resist backing and threw his head up in the air instead...I think we got 5th out of 5.

Huntseat Pleasure (Novice 19/O) was our next class, and other than ONE tiny head-tossing at the trot, he did DAMN fine!! Even backed half-decent! And I figured we'd get last again, and about fell off the horse when they announced we had placed SECOND!!! Out of 6!! Holy SHIT! What a good horse!!! (remember, Pleasure they judge the HORSE, Equitation...the rider, heh heh..I'm giving up showing Equitation!)

The trail course was...interesting. Trot through two parallel poles, stop, back out from between poles, pivot on forehand, side-pass to the right over one of the poles, pivot, trot over ground poles placed in a zig-zag pattern, walk through water box, exit.

HA! Well, we trotted through the poles, he backed PERFECTLY (In fact, we've practiced this particular obstacle so much, the horse backed up ON HIS OWN w/o any cue from me!!!). He pivoted on the forehand perfectly, and we eventually side-passed the ground pole, half of the time OVER the pole (the other half was beside it, heh heh). As for trotting the ground poles...well, we made it over them, it wasn't pretty, but we got 'er done! The water box...he walked right up, put his nose down, tried to
drink the water, but the instant I asked him to move forward, he REARED and spun, LOL! Tried again from the other side... REARED and spun! LOL! One more try, spin city! So much for that!

Actually only about 1 in 10 horses made it through the water box...whenever someone made it, the crowd erupted in applause and cheers, hee!

What was interesting was that we'd gotten torrential downpours the afternoon before, the center-end of the arena was a LAKE...they could have just used THAT for the trail obstacle!

Like you're ever going to encounter a box of water out on the trail, right. Coos will walk through rivers and into lakes, but not a 4x4 box with 2" of water in it!

We actually placed 6th out of 8!! HooHah!! (yes, the other two were HORRID, spooking at the ground poles, re-arranging the side-passing pole with their hooves, not even going near the water box!)

The HEAT though! GAAH! The instant you were in sunlight, you could feel your skin shriveling! The judge did allow us to ride w/o coats...which I did! Glad I had a short sleeved hunt shirt! Everyone hunkered under the shade trees until the absolute last second, then soon as the class was over, everyone went right back under the shade trees! Poor judge, but she had a big-brimmed Western hat, a sleeveless blouse, and they kept her well-fortified with sports drinks and water! Some kind woman came around the on-deck area and passed out ice cream sandwiches to those of us waiting for our class! Oh, man, ice cream never was so good!!

Thankfully I was done riding for the day around 4:30, and got to retire to the shade with the horse, who, after being sponged off with cool water, enjoyed his hay and dozed. The show ran relatively late, we didn't get out until around 7:30!

Unfortunately, had to do it all again the next day, thankfully we got our same spot under the trees, and it was an overcast morning! But the humidity was BRUTAL! And unfortunately we had a pair of hard-nosed conservative judges for Sunday...Gad, what an unpleasant pair! I think Quzqo must have farted in their faces during Showmanship, because they seemed to think he was only good for dog food! We again got 6th in Showmanship out of 6 (though he did pretty good...I doubt he'll ever be
able to pivot on one foot like a stock horse). We didn't bother with Halter (hey, it's $8 w/a double-judged show...for another 1st place out of 1 entry ribbon?), so I had extra time to tack up and ride him! He was SO tired, it was great, he was like "Yes'm, whatever you want ma'am, your word is my command ma'am!" LOL...it was lovely!!

*I* thought we did damned good in Equitation! He was as steady and consistent as a metronome, kept his head down, I kept my hands steady, head up, back straight, used the corners of the arena...but no...5th under Judge "A", 6th under Judge "B".

Step-up we did better than the day before, namely Coos picked up his leads perfectly, he behaved and didn't veer or slow at the gates, and was actually FUN to ride!! But...I guess the fact that we passed everyone, and the judge had to step out of our way at one corner (well, I was passing someone on the rail, and he was standing in the corner instead of near the center!)... well...we placed 6th/6th...but out of 8!!

Hell, Arabians are SUPPOSED to be zippy, for gosh sakes!

Had great expectations for our Huntseat Pleasure class, because he was doing SO well...we had a great ride, he was so rounded, floating trot, perfect reverse of direction, he did gawk ONCE at some people walking by the arena, but I guess that turning the head and gawking did it...we placed 5th/6th out of 6. GRRRGH! It's frustrating, because he was worse the previous day and placed 2nd, behaves better the 2nd day and places worse...*sigh*. What ya gonna do. And If I hear "it's only a $4 opinion" one more time....

Trail was a hoot! This time we got to WALK over the zig-zag ground poles (I let Coos have his head, and looked at the horizon line while he stepped carefully through them [if you look down, it can mess up your horse...don't know why, it just does]). Then we had to walk over the wooden bridge, which he did perfectly (it helps that the bridge is the one from our barn, so he's walked over it countless times already, LOL!), THEN we had to pick up the trot and trot a half-circle over two ground poles...Well...we did it...again, it wasn't pretty, but he was trotting, we stayed between the cones (BARELY!!)...and the 2nd pole he JUMPED! LOL! My collar came loose and started falling off, so when we stopped at the mailbox, I quickly caught the collar before bending down and opening the mailbox (which also was from our barn, so Coos was familiar with it...never mind the last show at the fairgrounds last month, he was TERRIFIED of the same box!!).

I thought we bombed, but under Judge A, we placed 5th (out of 6), and Judge B, the obvious Arabian-hater, we placed 6th. *sigh*.

I'm just happy he did so well, especially considering how far he's come in the past year!!! One year ago, that horse would NOT back under saddle, he would NOT side-pass, even from the ground!

Everyone was pissed at the judges during the day, they were VERY unfriendly, curt, short, and not pleasant to deal with. They ticked off a LOT of the English showers by proclaiming that you could show w/o your coat, BUT, NO SLEEVELESS SHIRTS ALLOWED! A lot of the ladies only had sleeveless shirts, but they had to wear their black coats! Guess the judges didn't want to glimpse a bra strap or armpit, LOL!

It got up to 98 degrees yesterday as well! Didn't hear of anyone collapsing from the heat, although my friend's Paint almost lost her hind quarters during a class, she started faltering, so between classes she carefully hosed the horse down (avoiding hitting her tack w/the hose). IMO, no stupid ribbon is worth THAT, but she's a classic Type A personality (and it paid off, as she won the High Point award for our division at the end of the show!). (LOL...she also got an ice cream sandwich in the on-deck area, but was disconcerted that it was broken, and refused to eat it!!!!!!...er...okay...)

Thankfully Sunday's show got done around 4 p.m. (a lot fewer entrants, smaller classes, and the judges were loading the ring just as the previous classes' horses were exiting). I bet Coos was happy to finally get back to his home stall, and I bet he's spending today just getting himself as dirty and filthy as he can!!

There's another two-day show this weekend at the barn where I board, I'm still iffy as to whether I want to show on Saturday (kinda sick of it, and seems to be a waste of $$ at this point)...Sunday is out, cuz that's when I'm leaving for Breyerfest! Hm, If I don't show Saturday, that's $52 more I'll have for BF! To hell with the show, I'll go on a (free) trail ride, then spend the afternoon packing!!! Yeah, I like THAT idea!

Sorry, didn't take any pix, though I wanted to yesterday...I'd put Quzqo's mane in a Continental Braid (since I had time, not doing the halter class) and he blew away the competition in the Looking Good department...we caused quite a fuss, and
many people came and complemented him/me on how cool he looked! And he did...he's got enough mane to pull it off!!!

Another thing that sort of grated on me...Saturday we got big, fat, beautiful two-streamer rosettes. Sunday, where we had to pay twice the entry fee because it was double-judged..they gave out FLATS! FLATS! Like at a model horse show, for crap's sake!!! Word is, they're also giving flats at the show this weekend...yep, might just save my $$ for BF.

If I'm going to place last, I want a big fat rosette at least, *sigh*.