First Horse Show of the Season

Our weather here on Saturday was windy, blustery, rain, sleet, hail, you name it.  We got to the barn about 5:00 and hitched up the trailer to get Stanley loaded between rain bursts.  He loaded like a dream (occasionally he likes to go halfway in and just stand there - not backing up, not going forward) and off we went to the fairgrounds where they'd had a 4-H show all day.  When we arrived the fairgrounds manager was waiting for us since we were the only ones staying over that hadn't been there for the 4-H show and told us about the disastrous day they'd had with power going out, horses getting loose, riders getting dumped in the mud, etc., etc.  I got really happy that I had to work so we couldn't do that show!!  Talk about miserable!

We got Stanley settled in with grain, hay, water and a THICK bed of shavings since it was a concrete floor barn, and then got the trailer parked and plugged in.  And I have to brag her for a second...I managed to BACK the trailer into a space about 25 feet wide between two barns!!!!!!! !!  And I was even fairly straight!!!! !  That big ol' battleship of a trailer and I are becoming better friends.  Equestrian Girl and I heated up some pot pies for dinner then went back in the barn to start banding Stanley and give him a quick shave.

We finished up about 9:30 then made sure all the horses had water since we were the only ones staying over and then traipsed out to lock the gate to the fairgrounds.  By 10 we were in bed, read our books for a few minutes and then lights out.  We were literally parked along side the barn where Stanley was stalled with a side door into the middle of the barn right behind the trailer.  It was nice knowing he was so close.  Temps went down to 33 but we were snuggled up under a couple of heavy sleeping bags and a big down comforter so we stayed warm.

The morning was cold but with a bright sun and NO wind!  We got Stanley fed and soon after the trailers started pulling in.   By the time Equestrian Girl got him out for a warm up ride, the place was getting crowed and it was only 7!  Last year when we did this show series and we showed up at 7 we were usually one of the first ones there so this was kind of surprising.  I went down to register at 7:30 and they were already pretty busy.  I found out later there were over 800 entries!!  This is more than some of our bigger Paint shows and that didn't include the speed people who come in much later in the day!!

First class of the day was Halter.  Stanley is sooo not a halter horse but at these open shows if he places it counts for PAC (Paint Alternative Competition) points so we usually do them.  He placed 4th out of about 15 horses!  

Next class was Showmanship.  Equestrian Girl looked awesome, Stanley looked awesome, but they started the pattern too close to the fence.  When it came time to do her 270 degree pivot, she about had to climb the fence to make it.  Everything else was perfect though and she got 3rd out of 22.  (I might have video of this - haven't downloaded it to see how it came out yet).

Next were MY two classes!!  First up was walk/trot Western Pleasure immediately followed by walk/trot Western Equitation.  For those of you that don't show, Pleasure is judged more on the horse and Equitation is judged more on the rider.  There were three others in the class - two of them good friends and parent of girls in our 4-H club.  One dad riding his daughter's Morgan gelding who can be totally perfect one minute and take off in a whirling frenzy the next minute, and the other a mom riding her Arab gelding who is drop dead gorgeous but can be a bit nutso too.  A fourth lady joined us at the last minute riding a QH wearing her daughter's show clothes and looking scared half to death.  We welcomed her warmly, and were all laughing by the time we went in.  

The judge was an older guy and VERY talkative and friendly and greeted each of us as we came past him at the entrance which helped - relaxed us all I'm sure.  So around we went at a walk, trot, reverse, walk trot, walk to the center.  Stanley was an absolute doll even though the wind had picked up dramatically and I was freezing and might have asked for a slow down a little teensy bit too much on one side more than the other which gave us a couple lope steps but I yelled NO! and he dropped back to a jog without the judge seeing!  We lined up for the placings and I got FIRST!!!  Then the judge sent us back out for equitation on the rail - NO PATTERN!!!!!  yeah!!!  More of the same thing except I had to keep my non-rein arm bent in equitation form and this time, I didn't goose Stanley into a canter though he really wanted to walk as fast as his Arab and Morgan friends.  When we lined up for the placings the judge had us each walk forward several steps, stop, and back 4 steps as our "pattern" for equitation.  We did that very well since Stanley will do all those with just voice commands so I don't have to move a muscle.  Then while waiting for the announcement the judge gave each of us feedback.  He told me my legs and heels looked great, my arm positions were good but that I was too stiff.  I told him it might have something to do with the fact that I was freezing and he laughed and told me that was no excuse and that my lipstick was covering up my blue lips so it didn't count.  My friend Kristin on the Arab got first and I got second.  Mark on the Morgan got 3rd and the terrified woman on the QH placed last.  We all came out laughing again and very exhilarated - and THIRSTY!!  I had no idea showing gives you such bad cotton mouth!

Equestrian Girl's next classes were hunt seat so we had to do a quick tack change.    The class had 22 riders so they split it.  She was in the first split.  I watched the second split but didn't see anyone great.  Then the judge called back 10 riders for another go.  Equestrian Girl and Stanley had another amazing ride but the judge kept them cantering forever and....she got 1st place!  

Next was English Equitation with a tough pattern and...1st again!  We had a short breather and on to Western Pleasure for another 1st out of 18 riders.  

We quick ran over to do trail class where Equestrian Girl ended up with a second.  It was a super hard pattern and ALL poles and cones!!  Equestrian Girl did it first and then we had to do a quick swap for spurs and shorten stirrups for my turn.  We started out good and then I sort of lost my way and made up my own route!  I didn't get DQ'd since I didn't actually go off course but I skipped a few things I think!  But that judge was really nice too and we were all laughing. She hated the pattern and said hardly anyone did it correctly so she was having to score it just simply based on how many poles you ticked more than anything else.  Only Mark and Kristin did it from our Walk/Trot adult group.  Kristin and her Arab took the 1st because she actually did it correctly but ticked almost every pole.  Mark and his Morgan went completely off course and got DQ'd.  I got the 2nd.

Back over to the main arena for Equestrian Girl's Western Equitation class which was another tough pattern that included a figure 8 with a lead change.  I stood there with my friend who is a VERY experienced show mom and rider (husband to Mark on the Morgan) and thought Equestrian Girl's pattern was perfect as perfect could get.  When Equestrian Girl came out she asked if Stanley had switched leads because she didn't feel it.  Well apparently he didn't because she got 5th in that class even though neither of us saw anything wrong!  There were 18 in that class.

Equestrian Girl and I got high point for our respective "age" groups!!  Yeah us!!  We got packed up and Stanley decided to play his not loading game.  But we have a trick that has worked before and because we were trailering another horse home with us (slight detour to drop him off but she's a friend), I took advantage of that.  I had Rachel take her horse up to the escape door and let him eat the hay on the floor in front of Stanley's hay bag.  Gee he gets excited about that and has to go tell him to go away!!  LOL!  

We got this massive TB dropped off (I honestly wasn't sure he was going to fit in the trailer!) and then got Stanley home and tucked into his stall.  Equestrian Girl and I were both dragging butt but were starving since it was after 9:30 and we still hadn't had dinner.  We decided we had to do a quick stop at BK and mentally I pictured the parking lot figuring it would be close to empty so I'd be okay with the horse trailer.  What I didn't think about was the exit.  There is a sharp left turn after you pass the drive through and then a sharp right so you exit out the same nice wide drive that you enter.  Some great big giant parking blocks along the edge of the driveway prevent you from taking it wide and going on the grass.  Uh oh.  I couldn't make the first turn without taking out my trailer fenders.  Some frantic backing and maneuvering ensued and I had Equestrian Girl calling Scott ready to have him drive over there to back me out around the building (no way could I do that!!). Amazingly enough, I did it!! 

When we pulled into the driveway at home and stumbled out of the truck it was 10:00....and other than the few minutes I was in the saddle, I never sat down.  

Spring Fever and Schooling

Homeschooling:  While there about a million things I love about homeschooling, one of the best is that we can take spring break when it's really spring and not that late winter rainy/snowy/slushy week that public schools call spring.  Well actually, we can take breaks whenever the heck we want but timing is important. I think we are going to take the week after Memorial Day.  That's a big weekend for both kids with horse shows AND motocross races and then more the following weekend so they'll need the break and the weather should be good!

Last year I decided to school through the summer.  And we did, sort of.  We made it to 4th of July and then slacked off until mid-August when I started slow and ramped it up until we hit Labor Day flying fast.  The problem was that kids weren't really on board with the whole schooling through summer idea.  This year might be different.  We are going to gear down to core subjects by mid June which should result in about a 3 day per week schedule and no more than 2 hours per day.  Both of them are good with this and have agreed that it will help them stay on track and maybe get them a little ahead of where they want to be by September so we can take some extra vacation time in the fall and winter.  I LIKE that they are thinking ahead!  They both have been really plugging away even with some additions and changes in curriculum.  Motocross Boy had an easy peasy social studies gig going most of the year and I recently popped him over to AOP's Monarch 7th grade social studies with 3-4 assignments per week.  These are MUCH harder and more involved than what he was doing but he's dug right in and has done nothing less than a 73% on anything and most grades have been in the high 80's or 90's even.  Equestrian Girl added in Spanish a few weeks ago but we didn't stop doing anything else and she's doing well too!  (Don't tell her I really don't know how to grade the stuff that doesn't get graded by the software - my Spanish is horrible!)

I still muse over how well homeschooling has turned out for us.  It came to us out of necessity but by gosh, it was a gift.  I talk to friends whose children are in public school and some of the issues they are dealing with right now and I just say, thank you.  Our kids are safe, being educated better than anything they might have gotten in school, and our family is as close as any I know.  We are pretty darn lucky.

Mommy gets to ride sometimes too!

Smart mommies always wear a helmet.  Sometimes it helps to cover up a bad hair day leaving it no worse than it was before.  Besides, bad hair is a sign of intelligence.  Look at Einstein!

Mommies also wear jeans that are too big and too short and are very unflattering.

But our horses don't care about any of this fashion stuff.  They just chew and smack their lips because they know they did such a good job packing you around with very little effort.

Stanley's Birthday Part 2

When you are a mature 13 year old horse and it's your 13th birthday - you get a shave and a hair cut.  

And then if you are good, you get cake.

And you eat it feeling very handsome with clipped whiskers and ears.

Yummmmy!!!

Happy 13th Birthday Stanley!

A New Roof!

Our roof was long over due in needing to be replaced.  We've lived in this house about 16 years and the roof was probably close to that old when we bought it.  But it hadn't leaked!

A month or two ago we entered a contest to win a new roof with Rapid Roofing.  While we didn't win first place, we did win second place which was free shingles.  We were pretty happy since replacing the roof wasn't exactly in the budget.  We met with one of the owners, figured out what we needed to do and low and behold, we have a new roof!

The guys that showed up this morning were incredible.  They got to the house about 8:20 and were done by 4:00.  The pictures don't do the job justice - the house was covered in guys working like crazy.  I was totally amazed at how fast they had the 2 layers of old shingles tore off and the new ones on.  It was all the detail and trim work that seemed to take the longest but they were FAST!

The Sign

This is the skylight into Equestrian Girl's room.  Had to remind her to keep her blinds closed today!

We also have a section of roof that is flat with no access to the ground from outside.  The guys had to climb up there with ladders or come through the house.  They used ladders.  They also fixed that roof.

Here's how it looks now - all done!  We still need to paint some trim pieces that were replaced.

The other side.

The Great Big Book of Everything to do with Horse Shows 2010 Version

Horses:  We were a couple of years deep into horse showing when I was introduced to having a "show binder".  We were at one of our first "bigger" shows and I noticed all the mom's carrying around binders and a new friend asked me where mine was.  Ummmmm.....what is it and why do I need it?

She explained it was a place to keep all your horse's papers and anything you else you might need at the registration desk including copy of the Coggins, registration, numbers, show bills, ID cards, and most important - your check book.

We've now call our show book "The Great Big Book of Everything".  It's now my horse show bible and I'm totally lost without it.  I'm probably a little extreme in how mine is organized and in what it contains but I'm a bit of a binder queen...I find peace at the local Staples.  

The cover of our horse show book is just a copy of Stanley's registration paper - with a cute baby picture of our Stanley!

Inside is another copy of his registration in case I actually have to give it to someone along with several copies of his current Coggins - in a plastic sheet protector of course!

Next are copies of Equestrian Girl's ID cards for Paint, Novice Youth, and PAC (Paint Alternative Competition where you can track points at open shows)

On a nicely color coded chart we have our show schedule for 2010.  On my office wall this chart is greatly expanded to also include all our motocross races.  I kinda have a thing about color coded charts too... (I'm sounding nuttier by the minute)

After the pink tab are show bills for all the Paint shows with the classes EG will be doing.  There are several copies of each in the plastic sheet protector since I can go through 3-4 of them over a long weekend as I fold them up to stuff in and pull out of my pocket several hundred times per day.

Next are a bunch of copies of a chart I use to track EG's placings at the open shows and how many entries there are.  I need this information for the PAC forms and it also lets us see how she might be doing for high point for the day.

After the next tab, we have an entry form for each of the 5 open shows we will do with the Spur of the Moment Horse Club .  In each page protector with the entry form is the form that must be filled out and signed to send to APHA for the PAC points.  We messed up on this last year and waited until the end of the year to send them all in together not realizing they had to be mailed within 30 days of the show!  Oops.  EG lost out on a lot of PAC points because of that mistake.  This year all the forms are filled out as much as possible so we just have to fill in the results.

In the back of the book I keep extra copies of show numbers since we use the same two sets all summer long.  In the front I keep a set of blank checks and a couple of pens.

And this is how a slightly nutty homeschooling/horse show mom keeps organized.