Show Horse Day

What did Lucky Star think about the clinic and horse show?  Lucky Star recounts his first Horse Show  Story:

“It was an adventure!

My good friend Sheyna came to stay with me in the barn the might before the clinic and rode in the trailer with me to the clinic. That was fun.  I like Sheyna.

When I got there, I got to eat green grass.  That trailer parking lot was plush grass.  I liked that a lot too. After a while who shows up and parks right behind me?  My friends, Nova and Velvet showed up.  I tried to boss them around from where I was standing, but they ignored me. Tony and Jenny were there too and said hi to me. That was nice.   I continued to eat great green grass.  Yum!

After a while my mom came back and saddled me up.  We got to go into a big building and there were a lot of other horses in there. Sheyna got to come too.  Nova came by me every now and then, but she didn’t try to boss me around.

I was a little bit concerned about stange looking ground on the outside of the arena dirt.  I tried not to get close to it.  My mom seemed to be concerned with me going along the rail.  I didn’t want to get close to the rail and that strange looking stuff. There were humans perched on top of this stuff too.  (Susan translation:  cement)

My mom wanted me to back thru a lot of things.  Well, I’m just OK with that.  I’m not excited about backing thru stuff, but my mom was asking me politly and I decided to comply.  She wanted me to sidepass over a pole too.  I decided to comply with that request too.  I didn’t eagerly move over the pole, but I did move. She seemed grateful for my generosity of movement.

I got to meet a mailbox. What a strange thing that is.  In fact, she petted the mailbox for a while, just like she rubs me.  I decided the mailbox wasn’t going to eat me.  Then I discovered that it opened up.  I was OK with that too.  Then I found out there was something inside of the mailbox.  It was yellow.  Mom took it easy with me.  I was a little leary about the yellow thing, but decided my mom was trustworthy, so I just stayed still but a little tense when she rubbed me with the yellow thing.  It didn’t hurt or try to eat me either.  Finally, I decided that mailboxes could be trusted.

We zipped around the arena at times and when I got a little out of breath, we played with the obstacles.  Oh I forgot. There were three poles sticking out of the ground in a triangle shape.  My mom wanted me to back thru the poles.  I had to turn around and back at the same time to back thru the other side of the triangle. What a wierd sensation that was.  I tried to back over the poles with my rear end, but my mom was insistent that I back thru, not over. humph.

I had a pretty good time in the arena and we left.  I got to be tied up again.  I had eaten all the grass, so I got to have my hay bag filled with delicious hay.  My mom loosened my girth and I got to eat.  People were buzzing around.

All of a sudden I looked up and there was a gorgeous human being that looked a lot like my mom. But she had on an outfit that blew me away.  Lordy, the cowboy hat was fabulous.  I liked everything a lot because her outside was the same colors as I am. Wowsa!

Mom looked ready to ride.  She got Kelley to hold the saddle while she mounted from the trailer living quarter.  Guess I’m short enough that she can get on from the door.  I wasn’t able to tell mom, but she didn’t tighten back up my saddle.  I decided to keep her balanced so she wouldn’t fall off.  I like her.

We stood around for a while and took pictures of all the other dressed up people.  It’s amazing how people can change their skin like that.

Mom decided to go check on the arena. She discovered that “my class” was next.  I wondered what a “my class” was.

All of sudden someone decided I was the first to go into the big place insomething they called Trail Class.  I zipped into the arena at a fine fox trot to find that it had totally changed.  I was headed right for a row of poles. They stuck straight out of the ground. I was going at my fastest fox trot.  WHOA…Whoa! What are those things!?  I slowed down to get a look at them.  I decided the poles weren’t going to eat me when mom decided to make a course change and we ended up weaving thru the poles.  That was above my pay grade and I argued about the direction changing on such a rapid gait.

We came out of the poles and mom charged me up into my flat foot walk.  After a while I let her think she had talked me into going at that speed when we came to some poles on the ground.  No problem here. We had practiced backing thru the “L”.  I did that pretty darn good and only touched the poles when my mom was celebrating me doing so well at the end.

Now we turned  and went slowly to a pole laying on the ground. Mom told me she wanted me to sidepass over the pole and I did that pretty darn good. Good enough that she had me sidepass back over it again the other way.  I told my hind feet that they could bang into the pole right when she was thinking how perfect I had done.  I am only a beginner horse.  I don’t want mom to think that I’m perfect and stop practicing.  How dull that would be?

We turned to the back of the arena and there was the  mailbox in a new corner.  The mailbox was near that different colored ground (cement) and there was a dog sleeping on the ground. Good GAD! she wanted me to sidepass so she could touch the mailbox in this scary place.  I didn’t move for a while, but thought about it.  I decided that no one was going to eat me and decided to sidepass over to it.  I could tell this made mom really happy.  She took the yellow thing out and put it right back. That dog never moved.  We were done with mailbox!

Mom made me walk over some poles on the way to freedom out the door. Whew.  You know I was the only horse in that entire arena.  Why was that?

I stood there for a while with all the other horses and everything was nice and relaxed.  Mom was chatting chatting chatting and I got to flick my ears at all the other horses.

Later all the horses and riders went into the arena.  There was a bunch of noise from the riders and the people standing and sitting inside the arena.  Mom called it clapping. She clapped a lot too.  No one handed me a ribbon or clapped for me.  I was OK with that because the judge came over to tell me I was “coming along”.   He smiled and mom smiled so “coming along” must be a good thing!

We got to rest outside the arena again. Someone said Western Pleasure horses into the arena.  All the horses and riders single filed into the arena again. We zipped in. All that obstacle stuff was gone and the arena was wide open.  As we went down the side with the strange ground (cement), it looked more threatening and I veered to the inside.  The judge spoke to me about that as he might have been only about 6 feet from where I zipped.

I was pretty concerned about that different ground the entire time I was in the arena.  I tried really hard to keep myself as far to the inside as I could.

We lined up again and people clapped again.  My mom was happy and we left.

This is all that happened to me on this strange day called Horse Show. This is totally a different life from being a former pature ornament.  I like the excitement of this life!”