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So woke up this morning with the pitter patter of
rain outside and was like OHNOES I HAVE A THING TO GO TO. But they'd
said they wouldn't cancel as long as it wasn't storming...so I just got
up and got ready and went and grabbed the pony and trailered him down
the road. A nearby farm was having a "fun show" which really mostly
means come as you are and do some show type classes. I had meant to get
Kieran cleaner before we got there (if I'd realized it was going to warm
up as much as it did, I would've just bathed him) but between rain and
mud..well, I did the best I could (he looks better in the pics at least,
hah).
So the first part of the day they had like...an in hand class, a lead line class, a few "go as you please" classes (w/t for everybody, then w/t for spotted horses [hah], then w/t/c open), some western classes, two english classes (the second one was w/t/c and it was only me and another lady. The judge had to keep coming up with different things for us to do before she could make a decision because apparently we were pretty closely matched), some games (ribbon race, egg and spoon, red light greenlight) and finally...an obstacle course. Most people did that last one in hand, but three of us did it riding.
Everybody was in love with Kieran...I think if I'd said he was for sale, somebody would've made me an offer. Several people invited me to go riding with them (yay, horsey friends). We did really well, and actually ended up winning the high point award at the end (which included a pretty horse-head shaped wreath).
We did, however, fail at red light green light, LOL. Kieran did find with the going and stopping thing. But he didn't want to stand still once stopped so we got disqualified pretty quick, alas.
The obstacle course was mostly good. There were two options for using the rain slicker, you could just pick it up and drape it in front of the saddle, or you could put it on for bonus. We'd done a rain slicker before at a competitive trail ride so I figured he'd have no problem with me putting it on. That slicker had been rather smaller though and a much less offensive color. So Kieran was fine with the picking up but the putting on...well. Not so much. We got it sorted though and no harm done. Anyway, there's video of that.
And also...pictures!
We're way on the end.
This was the other obstacle he had a bit of trouble with though he'd had no issue walking around it. Walking through was just disturbing, yo.
Obstacle course video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgt0uPQe1gY
So the first part of the day they had like...an in hand class, a lead line class, a few "go as you please" classes (w/t for everybody, then w/t for spotted horses [hah], then w/t/c open), some western classes, two english classes (the second one was w/t/c and it was only me and another lady. The judge had to keep coming up with different things for us to do before she could make a decision because apparently we were pretty closely matched), some games (ribbon race, egg and spoon, red light greenlight) and finally...an obstacle course. Most people did that last one in hand, but three of us did it riding.
Everybody was in love with Kieran...I think if I'd said he was for sale, somebody would've made me an offer. Several people invited me to go riding with them (yay, horsey friends). We did really well, and actually ended up winning the high point award at the end (which included a pretty horse-head shaped wreath).
We did, however, fail at red light green light, LOL. Kieran did find with the going and stopping thing. But he didn't want to stand still once stopped so we got disqualified pretty quick, alas.
The obstacle course was mostly good. There were two options for using the rain slicker, you could just pick it up and drape it in front of the saddle, or you could put it on for bonus. We'd done a rain slicker before at a competitive trail ride so I figured he'd have no problem with me putting it on. That slicker had been rather smaller though and a much less offensive color. So Kieran was fine with the picking up but the putting on...well. Not so much. We got it sorted though and no harm done. Anyway, there's video of that.
And also...pictures!
We're way on the end.
This was the other obstacle he had a bit of trouble with though he'd had no issue walking around it. Walking through was just disturbing, yo.
Obstacle course video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgt0uPQe1gY