Finally Horse Show Update

Disclaimer: appalling spelling and despicable grammar will be found throughout this rambling post.

I can't believe I took so long to write about the horse show. I guess I can believe it when I look back on my week.......

Last Friday: Off from a 12 hour shift at 730am, Sleep 9-11am, Pack up Romeo's Stuff, Pack up Dickie's stuff, trailer Dickie, settle Dickie and Chevy (BOs horse), romeo arrives at settles in, all horses get ridden or longed, horses tucked in by Ten PM

Saturday: At stable by 5am, First class at 830am, Between the three horses a class every 20 mins until 6pm, pack up and home by 730pm, no sleep until 2am because I had flip my sleep schedule to nights for work the next day.

Sun-Thurs at 730 am- WORK!! Crazy crazy rough shifts. Running my ass off the full 12 hours and still barely getting my patent's needs meds crazy shifts.

Thurs-Pack up Romeo and Bre for a spur of moment move (more on that I promise), get stalls ready at new place

Friday-Move Romeo and Bre make sure they are both settled in, integrate into herd, repair hot wire that went dead and was promptly destroyed by Dickie once the tape no longer shocked his face, make a contraption over one of Dickie's windows to prevent destruction of barn (more on that too), try to go to bed but then realize Bre seems colicky at the new place (more on that too, she is fine by the way)..... now it is one and you can see why I haven't posted in awhile.

So that is why there was no show update. My update probably won't be super awesome since it isn't as fresh in my mind.

Dickie:

ROCKSTAR HORSE!!! It has been ten years since I went to this particular show grounds and I was only watching friends. As a result I had forgotten that the stalls are scary dark cages. There are 15 foot cement walls on each side, the stall front is cement and metal. The mesh on the stall fronts is so tightly woven that you couldn't get a finger in there. There are no window or hatches to open. You could stable a stallion in the middle of 20 mares in season and be safe. But who really needs that kind of lock down? Dickie handled being stalled for Fri/Sat really well. He called out to the other horses but never seemed upset or stressed. I brought my awesome equinet and it kept him busy.

I wanted to make sure he got exercised and I was so happy we have worked on lunging. It isn't like I can get on and ride him. The first day we had one little drama during lunging where he kept trying to spin the other way. That was it though. Once he accepted I was running the show he lunged like a seasoned show horse, was right on with voice commands and didn't let himself be distracted by other horses. Sat AM after he had been couped up for 24 hours he acted like a trained horse even with the distraction of two mares being lunged at the same time.

When it came out ground manners he was perfect 99% of the time. He was worried about the new place, smells, and people. Not to mention the fact that he is young and used to running around on three acres all day. I loved that he was full of energy and alert but listened. I led him on a lose lead the whole time. He walked up to all kinds of scary things. He is a brave horses, not because nothing scares him, but because he never balks at checking out horse eating objects.

He was even good with the mob of horses milling about. He has never been in an arena with more than four or five horses. And in those cases the horses were standing or walking quietly. We were in a tiny warm up arena with at least 20 horses in a constant state of chaos. The only worrisome incident occurred when he half kicked (I say half kicked because it was more a dramatic stomp) at a kid who ran up on his butt. We were standing almost in the corner with less than five between his rump and the wall. A little girl started trotting up and down behind him then parked right behind him to work on backing. Her mom saved the day and I backed him up more so he was practically leaning against the wall.

Sadly the 1% of time when he got wild was in the halter class. We were the second class of the day and the show had started late. I had him ready on time which meant he had stood still for way too long by the time we went in. He was not bad in the least but had ants in his pants. He started swinging himself around and trying to check out people in the bleachers. There were about 20 in the class and we had no chance of placing anyway so I didn't care. He was a good good boy so I was proud. He had to hang out in his stall for the rest of the day and handled it really well. Then when it was time to trailer home the older experienced hauler refused to get in. Dickie said "I got this" and hopped right in first.

I think I am going to have a show horse!!! He could not have behaved better. I didn't want a super calm QH type so I was actually happy he had some fire. An obedient horse on the hot side is exactly what I wanted. He is well on his way to being that horse!!

The other two horses were great too.  Chevy can be a handful and has a history of bolting. He wanted to let the crazy out a few times in the huge classes with chaos going on in the bleachers. He listened to his owner really well and she had a great experience. He started to get really squirrelly by the end of the day and I wanted to make sure they ended on a good note so I took him in the last classes. She got to end on a calm safe note and I got to work Chevy through some of his goofy moments. It was a blast!!

Romeo and his Girl looked fantastic. Sadly they didn't place but they help their own. The fancy paint show circuit people made up the bulk of the show so the fact that she looked like one of them was huge. And she did it with kindness to her horse. Those people made me sick. They rode around yanking on the horses' faces or riding in draw reins. YANK YANK YANK SPUR SPUR SPUR. Half of them didn't even get on the horses until the shit was ridden out of it by a trainer. RG was proof you can get there without being awful to your horse. I wish she could have started off the season with a ribbon or two just because she looks so great and had worked so hard but I know she didn't want to be like those people. As sad as it was to witness that kind of treatment I actually think it was good for her to see it. I have been drilling into her the things I want to avoid. I have also told her that she will be stuck going against people who are using abusive methods at home.  I think the fact that she got to see this behavior so blatantly will make her feel better about losing to people like that.


Soooo, all in all it was an amazing show. We had a blast, everyone performed at their best, and I can't wait to go again!! I won't be going back to those grounds but there are a few shows coming up with stall that are more horse friendly. Dickie seemed happy to go wherever the people were so I am sure he will be just as good next time.