Back Home and Another Horse Show

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

I was feeling pretty guilty about not having seen my pony in weeks.  And not having ridden him since Memorial Day (although I doubt he was upset about that part)  So I decided to stay home from the Westmoreland Horseman's Association Show.  Friday night I headed out to the barn after work.  I was planning to clean X's stall and maybe a few others, but I couldn't find either of the wheelbarrows.  And since I wasn't about to drag buckets out to the manure pile, that just didn't happen.  Instead, the little dirtball got scrubbed clean and then tacked up to ride.  I didn't do too much with him, just a little bit of walking, and just picked up both canter leads.  But I did do a lot of walking.  And focused on getting him to relax and put his head down.  And more importantly keep his head down on the the downward transitions.  Which we were actually pretty successful on.  So yay!

Saturday morning I had to feed at Tom's before heading out to my barn.  Started working on cleaning stall first thing.  And then when Rachel came we tacked up Naughtie for a lunge lesson.  Rachel was up first and then I got my turn.  And actually I had a really good lesson.  I was relaxed and going with the horse.  I hardly ever had to hold on.  And I wasn't grabbing her with my legs, which was very evident in the relaxed and happy horse I had under me.  So that was great.  Astrid actually ended up lunging me while Rachel went and tacked up Kaye to jump a bit. 

After Rachel rode Kaye, then Astrid had a short lesson on her.  And then finally I rode with Rachel and Airy.  We had a good jump school, jumping the single vertical and then the bounce.  All the fences were right around 2'9"-2'11"  God it felt good to jump Kaye again.  I haven't been on her since the last South Farm Combined Test, and it was good to get back in the saddle.  We had a good jump school.  None of my usual mental issues came through.  Although I still keep having that crappy first fence and it's driving my crazy!

Saturday night it was back out to Tom's to feed.  And of course I run into problems.  Bring the three horses in to feed.  And the new boy's eye is completely swollen shut and really weepy.  Great!  So I call to see what he wants me to do.  He calls Nikki who says to wash is out with saline solution and that Maryann has some for her contacts.  Walk down the hill to the house, get the saline.  Walk back up the hill to the barn and squirt some in his eye.  Decide to keep the two boys in for the night, so I tuck them in with some hay and say goodnight.

Sunday morning, the boy is looking somewhat better.  Eye is not quite as swollen, he can actually open it a little.  So I rinse it out again and kick the two of them out for the day. About 9:00 Maryann and I head up to Crook Creek to meet Tom and see the last day of the show.  We made it just before Tom headed into the ring for the Open Western Pleasure.  Dalal was a complete shit and did not want to listen to anything.  And so they ended up in 5th place ahead of Emily and Tony.  Which really didn't make any sense because Emily had a pretty decent ride.  The only horse they really should have beat was the quarter horse that was two beating.   I really have no clue what this judge was looking at.  Tom headed back in the ring a few classes later for the Jack Benny.  He had a fairly decent ride, and he ended up winning the class and beating Tina!


And then it was right back into the ring for the Open Western Pleasure Championship.  Dalal was again a little snot and he gave Tom a pretty tough ride, leaving them in 5th place.

After that we had enough of a break to take Dalal back, untack him and hose him off.  I'm sure he appreciated it.  Then he chilled in front of his fan while we watched a couple of classes.  It wasn't too much longer though before it was time for me to get dressed and Dalal back under saddle.  There were quite a few scratched classes.  I don't think too many people were up to showing in the heat.  Anyway, we didn't do much in the way of warm up, jogged a bit and picked up each lead.  And then we just hung out in some shade.  Dalal was pretty good for the little warm up we did.  However he turned into a little shit as soon as we went in the ring.  Would not keep his head still, did not want to walk at all.  I was lucky to keep him together as much as I did.  Needless to say I wasn't exactly happy with him.  Unfortunately the championship class didn't go much better.

See what I mean, he would not put his head down


I do think this one's cute.  If only he didn't have the jackass ears


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