A fair affair

Thank god the fair is finally over! I’m exhausted! I’d like to relax but unfortunately that isn’t going to happen.

Thursday night Black was great as she entered the arena before the drill team carrying the flag. If I didn’t know where she came from I would swear she was an ex-barrel horse. As soon as we entered the ring she immediately turned sideways and did a flying side pass down the back of the chutes (but close to the cutes, she wasn’t afraid of them).

Unfortunately I can’t say the same thing for Abby’s performance. She decided humping up and offering to buck was a good idea. Since MIL hasn’t ridden her enough she wasn’t sure what to do. I told her next time to knock the snot out of her!

Friday night as we were preparing for our practice run our drill captain mounted up and noticed her horse was very sore/lame. She asked if I felt I could fill in with Black and I said I’d give it a try but I couldn’t guarantee she could make the entire run. Typically we don’t get a practice run before a performance but we were able to get one in. Black did great! I didn’t push her because I wasn’t sure how much she had to give. After the practice run we decided to give the performance a try.

I have to say, we had a lot of things stacked against us (her age, her feet, her lack of conditioning, her dislike towards other horses, etc.) but when it came time to perform I can guarantee no one knew any of those issues existed. She was wonderful! I only had to “ask” her to speed up a few times. And even better she didn’t act stiff or sore at all afterwards! Our performance is almost 8 minutes long too!

Abby was better this time. She didn’t hump up but she did kick one of the horses during one of the maneuvers. MIL was pretty upset. I tried to explain to her that Abby has just been thrown into this and she hasn’t been eased into it like the other horses have. ALL of them kick at one point in time (including Max). The difference is, in practice you can correct them. Abby had only had 3 practices (one with MIL) and then was thrown into the two performances. I’m not trying to dismiss the kicking but at the same time I do feel MIL should cut her a little bit of slack.

I have a video I’ll post as soon as I can figure out how to edit DH’s comments.