Old Dominion Morgan Horse Show
The Old Dominion Morgan Horse Show starts in about two weeks. HERE is the website where you can see the prize list. Its crazy to look back and remeber my very first time showing at this show when I was still a kid and riding with Ruth and Lee Sadler of Shawdoxfax Morgans. The show was held in Delaware and was in a covered arena and I was riding "Nechi". That horse was such an amazing animal.
The show starts on Friday Aug. 24th which means (cough, cough) I'm not going to feel very well that day :-P Headlight will be showing along with my old show horse "Sunday". Sunday will be in the walk-trot division with an 11-year old rider at her first show ever....I'm sure he will take care of her just fine.
My plan at this point is to leave my house on Thursday at 12:00 which should put us at the show around 4:00 p.m. I wish I could arrive earlier like the trainers do but its just not possible with my job. This weekend I plan on getting the trailer cleaned and packed so that next weekend (the last weekend before the show) I can take my time clipping the horses and making sure they look their best. I also like to get as much packing out of the way as possible since there are always last min. things such as training saddles, bridles, bits and horse clothing that has to be packed the night before.
Oh course there have been a change of plans....Sunday is no longer going to Old-D. He was "off" in his back leg all last week and we don't feel the need to "push" him at the show. Headlight and I still plan to attend the show even though I havn't been working him much.
Today is the day we leave for the show! I just looked at the weather and they are calling for highs in the 90's and lots of humidity...UGH I was praying we would have nice cool weather for this show. We are hitting the road at 11:30 which should put us on the showgrounds about 4:00. I need to get Headlight's feet done when I arrive and get him into the show arena to get settled in. This is the first show that Derek and I are not getting a grooming stall in order to save some money. I packed all my supplies into my big box and that will go in front of the stall. I'm sure it will be a pain but it might be worth saving the $100.
Back from the show......
We arrived in Lexington around 4:00 on Thursday evening and I we got a perfect stall on a corner spot next to some good friends of mine. We went ahead and only bought one stall and it worked fine. While it was a little bit of a pain we managed fine with the stall and I think Headlight enjoyed it more. I was able to lunge Headlight and hop on him in the main show ring Thursday night. Headlight was a little nasty about his second way canter and threw a couple of fits but nothing out of the ordinary for him. I put him up for the night and all was good.
Kit and I hanging out at the show:
I woke up at 6:00 a.m. on Friday morning to work Headlight once more before his 10:00 am class. As we made our way down the first side of the arena wall Headlight spooked and jumped about 4 feet, it was then that I noticed some idot had painted some black marks on the wall with WHITE paint UGH. I ended up spending most of that time schooling Headlight past the white paint along with about 4 other riders all the while complaining that we were going to "hang" the "Van Gogh".
Derek at our "campsite"
First class of the show for us was the AOT's Western Plesure class. Imagine my surprise when 6 teams showed up! For such a small show the western division was busting at this show! As we were in the warm up ring a storm was rolling in with massive thunder and lightning. It was announced that the show grounds made the show committee turn off the PA system because they were afriad it would "fry" everything if lightning struck. Our class was calling into the ring by a little lady screaming at the top of her voice....how interesting.
Headlight hanging out:
I have to say that it was quiet odd showing without the organ music and the show ring seemed to echo every "whoa" or "cluck" sound I made. The ring steward and announcer stood at each end of the ring (bless their hearts) screaming "walk, jog, lope" per the judges requests. There was alot of "what did they say" going on among the exhibitors in the ring but everyone managed to make it safely to the line up.
The results were called out in front of our line up and I was the winner! The crowd couldn't hear but when Headlight made his way towards the winners circle they showed their appreciation by cheering for us.