Rogers County Fair 2010

It was a fun if frenzied weekend.  I was hoping to ride Sister in the fair this year but after a month with Dawn D, but she is still not ready for me.  So, I picked her up on Tuesday and then took Splash to the adult ride night to check his soundness - he seemed fine if a bit rotten.  But I love my German Neck Stretcher!  I felt like I was tiptoeing in the old white truck since my main truck had some sort of problem going the Rocking C last week.  Steve had treated the fuel with Lucus and then Kissee Ford checked it out on their road test machine and found nothing.  So, the red truck is hooked up and I guess we are back in business.

The girls entered muffins and cookies for the fair on Wed, then we helped with the Speed horse show on Thursday when my wonderful YaYa's had an evening ride without me.  I heard it was a lovely ride. Darn... sure do miss my horsey friends!  Then on Friday evening I took Splash out for another fair ride check and he seemed sound again.  We washed etc., worked the Steak Dinner, and then headed to Expo for the long show day Sat. 

The girls showed halter in the am - Alaina and Sunny took Reserve Palomino.  Ivy and Splash were 2nd Appy Geldings "3 and over" but placed 3rd in the Grand/Reserve.  Ivy showed Pico in Stock Type (hehe) and both girls showed 4H Halter.

Kathy B with Call, Amanda on Casper, and Julie with Stormy joined me in the English classes.  Splash was better than could have been expected after all this time off and seemed sound for the show.  He was really bad in Showmanship but didn't run over the Judge - so its all good.  The Hunter Under Saddle wasn't to bad, just a bit inconsistent with occasional head tossing.  Amanda won the class fair and square.  Call gave Kathy a hard time so she went and worked her in the warm-up until Call straightened-up. Equitation wasn't great, but I didn't fall off.  The pattern was: start with a 360 left on haunches, sitting trot/left posting trot/right posting trot stop; then 90 turn on forhand right, counter canter 1/2 circle, canter 1/2 circle (backwards S), sitting trot, stop and back.  Not precise but ... then no counter canter and a trot early... but... could have been worse.  He still felt sound so we quit for the day.  Even so - it was great to be riding my horse in a show again.  Splash spent the rest of the day eating hay while Sunny and Pico had to do western.

Ivy and Pico won Hunter Under Saddle with a lovely ride and then won jumping as well (2 riders) - Pico was a really good boy all day.  Alaina and Sunny had some good rides although he was a bit high headed and gave her a little trouble in the warmup before Trail.  Marsha C stopped by to watch and spoil the girls with limeaid.  Then, home late to eat/shower/bed... ahhh.

After sleeping in until 9am, the girls washed Diez and we hauled back to Expo for the Fun Show and Cloverbud show.  Pico got to go 2 days in a row but Splash and Sunny got the day off.  21 kids did Keyhole race, egg and spoon, tennis ball balance, cracker/snack/singing, goat decorating, and ride-a-buck.  Both Ivy and Alaina won their heats in the tennis ball balance and Ivy was a finalist in ride a buck (with Pico's high withers - I don't want to imagine).  Christiana had 6 Cloverbuds and Kathy brought Missy and Cisco for a couple of kids.  They had a great time and Ivy, Alaina, Emily, and Abby helped out.  Ruthie came out to watch and gave Pico one more ride before we headed home.

I guess I will go to sleep right now - no wonder I am tired...  Ahh, horse shows......  Next week, Tulsa State Fair 4-H and FFA at the Tulsa Fairgrounds.

No Cones were Harmed in the Course of the Weekend

This post is late because the weekend wore me out. We started NorthEast District 4-H Horse Show activities Friday afternoon and finished with the Laurie After Show Clinic at Prairie Lane Sunday afternoon. Fun horsey stuff but way too much dust inhalation.

We headed to Claremore Expo as soon as the girls got out of school on Friday with Pico and Sunny to have a practice ride before bathing/trimming/banding/braiding. But, the first thing that happened, after coggins check/check-in but before the horses were unloaded, was rider injury! Ivy was getting something out of the trailer and when she got flattened by the trailer door when the wind slammed it into her head and hand. Huge goose egg (but no blood), bruised fingers, crying/shaking/ice/Advil later, we went to a quick school function and then back to the show grounds to pick up the pace. Luckily, Nurse Charlotte determined that no stitches or hospital visit were needed. The Rogers County Horse Club has multiple medical personnel in the parent ranks, so we were covered.

Bathing/trimming/banding/braiding done, we were home by 10 and then up early to get back to Expo for the SHOW! The girls qualified to go to the 4-H State Horse show in Shawnee in June and placings were:

Alaina and Sunny – 8th showmanship, 4th hunter under saddle, 5th hunt seat equitation, 6th west pleasure, 4th trail, and qualified in western horsemanship (she will do it all at State)

Ivy and Pico – 8th hunter under saddle, 4th hunt seat equitation, 3rd hunter hack, 4th western horsemanship, and qualified in trail (she will skip trail at State since obstacles include flowers etc and Pico is Freako Pico).

The SHOW was SLOW – we were still jumping at 3:00pm; trail results for juniors were final at 8:30 pm. So we got home around 9 and they still had Western Riding and Reining to go….

Early Sunday morning we were off to Prairie Lane for our lessons with Laurie – I took Splash, Ivy took Pico and Alaina got to take the Dezzie Doo. Poor Pico never gets a break because Ruthie came to ride him too – he may be more wiped out than I am.

Diez is still shedding big-time so there was a tribble sized ball of horse hair when Alaina was done grooming. We got mounted, into the 8:30 lesson a bit late and just as we started the lesson, Splash sank his hind quarters into a sink-hole by C. Yikkes, he was “funky” behind (Laurie’s technical term) for a couple of laps until we changed rein and he worked it out. We shortened the arena away from C.

Then we got going on the lesson. Objective? Canter Depart Cleanup. Standing still, Laurie explained that for nice canter depart, you wrap your inside leg at the girth to suggest bend and “squeak” the outside leg back 4 inches or so before applying pressure and asking for the depart. Gives the horse a heads up to sharpen the response.

We started off with trot and worked to get more forward. I had warmed up with the German Neck Stretcher, but admitting dependency, removed it for the lesson. We worked circles around the “4 points of the circle” and finally got a bit of good trot. The idea was to “touch” the rail at the side cones and keep the circle round at the inside cones. Splash tried to kill the cones. Then we asked for canter departs and kept the circle. Splash tried to kill more cones and then just cut them off completely if I didn’t manhandle him around. Fun. He got better.
Then, we moved on to the rail and worked leg yield down quarter line to B (and E the other way) and asked for canter as we touched the rail (ideally at the letter) to canter a 20 meter circle. At B again, put 2 pounds pressure in the outside stirrup and close the outside hand to get a nice downward transition. Cool! It works when I can remember to do it. Ivy and Pico were riding with me and we alternated with the exercise. They got real JUMP into the canter departs. REALLY good. Cool! PS – they killed a cone or two too.

Then, after a quick tack change for Pico, Ruthie and Alaina took over the arena. Alaina and Diez worked on bend and transitions. Diez has a long standing mission of counter bending whenever possible. She also aspires to look like the Mongolian war horse of old with head high and mane flying (no nostril flaring since she is the old grey mare). And, although she used to be the energizer bunny, impulsion is no longer a given.

Laurie selected a serpentine type of exercise for the two so that both could work on changing bend while maintaining impulsion. Two sets of cones were set for each change of bend location with the objective of a stride or two of “straight” as they passed through the cones. Alaina really improved Diez in the bend and impulsion department and all were amazed that Diez is 30 and foundered badly last summer. Overall, wonderful lessons so thank you Laurie! We stayed to watch other lessons but my brain did not retain any more information. The girls took a gazillion photographs of other participants but major editing is needed.

YaYa’s were planning to have an outing this week to Oolagah to clean up the trail – looks like weather will require rescheduling. Hopefully, the rain chances predicted for the week will bring the needed rain without any rough weather. Cross fingers for the right mix and for another ride at Rita’s or Oolagah soon.