SEW SEW SEW...





I have three show shirts on the table...they are turning out fabulous! Working at the same time on SIX horses (Novilheiro, ISHi(2) a Pandy, Matriarch and a Lonestar...Oh yeah...finishing up a Chip too...Busy as hell and I love it...Gotta order black crystals...none of this cheap craft store junk, getting real swarovski crystals...$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Pic above of Cleo at an open show a couple weeks ago; she didnt feel real well so I only did 3 easy classes and we still ended up high point...came home and gave her some injectibles and she feels much better now. We have the Jacksonville show next month and I would like to score another belt buckle...this has been a slow year. Caitlin wants to go to the Dixie Nationals in Mississippi in February. Not sure if I want to deal with that state in the cold...

Well I am missing lots of show when I go away to judge...apparently not the idiocy of bad judging...I look forward to the shows I DO make...next one is weekend after next in Bartow. Never heard of the judge. Just taking Cleo.
New York was a blast. Got to hang out with Morgen, Steph, Barb, Jackie, Sonya, Corrie, and all the rest of the internet acquaintances. Wish I could have gone riding but I didnt leave the hotel except to go jogging at night...

What a weekend...I must have worked 12 hours in the studio Friday and then another 12 yesterday! Cleo cut her coronary band on something so she is recovering with turn-out, and so I just have been grooming the Doofus and playing with showmanship...He is such an awesome backer in hand.
I leave Thursday for Minneapolis and it will be so much fun...
I am working trail on Crush and he is learning that it is easier to pick up his giant clodhoppers than to step all over the poles on the ground. Teaching him how to side pass is on the order!

Been so busy I am squaring away every second of the day to accomplish all I have to do...Today was another one of ride, paint, clean, ride again, sew, oh yeah cook for the fam, and then go feed the horses...
We went to a Paint/Pinto show last weekend...first official breed show for me since last April...we did incredible. I took Cleo and Crush...I showed Crush in walk/trot showmanship and got a 2nd...he has his official Pinto papers. I was going to show him in the walk/trot division but there was a massive car show on the grounds as well, and all the old feks were revving their engines. I rode Crush out into the huge covered pen which he had never been in before and he got very frightened, he was almost shaking...so I slid off and at the VERY moment I did, some GTO asshole blew his muffler up and also a loose stallion raced INTO the covered pen, dragging a longe line and beat it straight up to us...Poor Crush; his eyes were almost rolling in his head! I grabbed the stallion's longe line and smacked it away from my poor terrified gelding while the owner panted up with lame excuses...Anyhow I rode him around some more during the three days we were there but only after I was sure the morons had turned off their engines...He did not like being left in his stall and fussed quite a bit...more open shows are on the order for him...two next month...maybe I can find one in this month but next week I have to fly out to Minneapolis to judge an art show. Get to ride a fancy western pleasure Arabian!!!
As for me and Cleo, we were high point amateurs!! I won showmanship, numerous trail classes, and really truly saw a major improvement in our riding...
Our next show is in December as we are, for the first time in 6 years, going to skip the Perry Georgia Thanksgiving Day 4 day show. The second Paint world show will be just finishing up and with the sh*tty economy I can just imagine that I will be like the only ammy there besides the usual people I am so sick of competing with. I sat and calculated that the T-day show would cost me $3000 and for what? No competition is for what so I will dredge out a turkey and surprise my husband by staying home for once and cooking dinner! We will do Jax in December and have waaaaay more fun (Randy's Tiki Bar!!) and hopefully I can kick some sorry doped up asses with their dead tails and bring home a belt buckle!

I have been riding all week...Crush is beyond amazing...just when I thought I was never going to get him to step into his lope, he broke a lightbulb over his head and OMG! he is absolutely delighting me with his lope departures...I think when I start laughing with glee he gets the idea he has done something so right, so his interpretation of 'good boy' is spot on! I was thrilled to pieces today as he is just loving showing me how good he can do it...I love this Doofus!
It has been a crazy month; I worked a driving show at the saddle club in Daytona and it was incredible fun...So next month I am going to a driving clinic to get either Crush or Cleo ready to go into harness so I can show them...Got this incredible Jerald show cart and it cannot be much longer before I get out into the arena with it.

Colorado was incredible...I could live there if I didnt have to drive a rig up and down those twisty slippery mountain roads...Grand Lake was gorgeous but expensive! Figure ya gotta get that feed up those mountains and it is gonna be costly! Anyhow I loved being there, was like a mini vacation, and I shot close to 300 photos. People love to take their horses into the mountains and go trail riding. I would be like that too if I lived there.
Getting ready for our first Paint show in MONTHS...hopefully I can do western riding...need to go memorize those patterns some more...just when I am getting a clue, they add two more!! FRACK!

What a terrific weekend this has been!! Okay so the hurricane wanna-be Fay ended up keeping us house bound all week and while the remnants are still tossing rain down, I just couldnt stand it anymore. It has been two weeks since I rode since the one day I tried to ride Cleo I discovered she had lost a shoe and then the hurricane moved in...anyhow it had been a while...
So I rode all weekend; Crush was amazing...he jogged so nicely and so steadily and like I have mentioned before, he is a better loper than he is a jogger! We are really getting good at lope departures; he barely trots a step or two before he is moving just like I want!
And Cleo...Wow! She and I just rode the crap out of the back arena! She did the water box for me, flying lead changes like an old pro, and pivoted/side-passed...the works! I cannot wait till October and my first Paint show in MONTHS to get back into it!
Wish I had some 'fresh' pictures but Caitlin spent the weekend in Clearwater...so this old one will hafta do...

Trailer is almost loaded, Amanda is bringing Brooke over tomorrow, and we will leave out of here for the loooooong drive to Virginia. I have some DVDs, my Honda is loaded and full of gas (still gotta find out about the helmet laws!) and I am taking my Sugar dawg with me for company! Amanda's mom will drive her Prius up there and once we get settled, we are going to see about taking the kids on a ghost tour! Brooke will get all of Tuesday and Wednesday to relax as come Thursday, all the competition will be ON!
More later...gotta go get a few horses off the pasture!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!
We are going to regionals in Lexington Virginia after all!!!




Just found out when Amanda called tonight to say they called her as an alternate...so now we are scrambling to get Brooke with a health certificate to get out of the state of Florida, make campsite reservations (Amanda will stay in a hotel with her mom and friend Carra) and get prepared for a very long drive!

Pictured is Amanda winning a hanger full of ribbons from showing my mare Cleo (Zippos Dream Maker) So see!? Everyone who ran down Amanda and her toughing out that incredibly weird English judge at the state show, well all I can say is LOOKOUT for Miss THANG and Miss Cleo next year!!
Anyhow the upcoming 4H year, Amanda will be using Cleo as her show horse...we are hoping they make it to Oklahoma regionals...and why not? They are TALENTED together!



I am so glad to help such a good kid out with such an awesome horse like Cleo...Amanda has a really nice Paint mare but she has issues at all the wrong moments. Cleo isnt like that...

Oh and I want to hear about what happened at Paint world that had everyone in sucha uproar!! Dirt, gimme dirt!!!!!

The state show was GOOD and BAD...Good because the kids we took (my daughter is their trainer) are terrific well grounded kids...no spoiled brats or drama queens...Bad because first Clyde got sick the moment he arrived...down he went...Collicked three times. He is 26 yrs old (you wouldnt know it to look at him) Then Truman got sick (22 yr old qh) so that Carra couldnt finish showing her classes with him. Then on the afternoon of the last day, Sugar collicked and was taken to Gainesville with a blockage...she is okay now but WTF!!!!!??? Bad because, once more, Florida weather puked all over us! RAINED and stopped, RAINED and stopped...ENOUGH already!!! Take your freakin' lightening bolts and jam 'em where the sun don't shine...
Anyhow Kaily did awesome (pictured above wearing the shirt I made her!!) as she and her 3 yr old "Elmo" cross the water box...she got incredible placings for her first even state show...she ended up 6th high point 13 & under. She got a 2nd in showmanship out of 61 kids, a 4th in trail out of 70+ exhibitors, and her whole weekend went on like that.
So on Monday we have had a crazy round dance to find all the kids new YOUNGER horses...Jessica, Clyde's mommy, is going to come out next weekend and try out my mare Foxy...She is a lovely rider and I think Foxy will like her a lot. Caitlin's adult client Priscilla may loan Carra her show mare "Zipproof" and Melanie, Sugar's mommy, is about to lease the little darling pony out to a child rider and move onto a big full-sized model herself.
I wish I could have had parents like me and these kids'...I would have enjoyed 4H so much more!
So now since Carra and Amanda didnt make the points needed to go to Virginia, we aren't...Amanda got ripped off...the english judge was so weird. She placed a bucking warmblood that loped his trot pattern SECOND in the HUS class...still scratching my head over that!
Oh well...by next summer, these kids will be spectacular and then regionals is held in Oklahoma!!!!!!!! Jeez...

I am getting freaking TWITCHY with no shows...we leave tomorrow morning for almost a week in Tampa watching everyone ELSE show their horses...I am bringing my shihtzu and some work, and just kick back but it makes me nuts when I see obvious mistakes and horses getting ridden wrong...This is Caitlin's chance to shine with her kids (did I mention it is the state 4H show?) If either Carra or Amanda make top numbers, we are going to Virginia, hauling Truman and Brooke up for them...Caitlin reminded me today that I will not be taking Cleo this year...for the last two years the big girl has accompanied us to the Southern Regionals and was a huge favorite. At least I got to ride. Not this year. Maybe I should stay home. It will be LATE September before I get to show again...Gotta get my butt to the world shows...I can do it!!!

I rode Crush this morning before this evil storm blew in...hadnt ridden him since last Thursday; I am always testing him...So today minus spurs and after his usual half hour of jogging in the round pen, I mounted up and he RETAINED what we had worked on last week...RETAINED...what a lovely word...He remembered that jogging is easier than balls-to-the-wall trotting and he JOGGED...I was ecstatic... I think the cutting horses over at Ham Browns' place must have heard me yelling "GOOOOOOOOD BOOOOY!!" I almost cried. His lope was soft and responsive. We loped around the cones and he held it well, no speeding up, no ducking out, no wobbles...Twenty minutes of happiness and I cut it short...he got a rinse and a hug, big nose kisses and turn out until the lightening started up...he was so relaxed he came loping right in when I called him. I see where this may take a while but I got nothin' but time for my big white Doof...

Ever wanted to try something new?

I spent all day watching the live feed on the internet from the Paint world show...at the end of the day they had a cattle class that looked like amazing fun. If I had married a cattle rancher instead of a plumber, I would be riding those classes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-gFqmeK5GQ&feature=related

I could live on a horse...Caitlin and I agree there is no such thing as normal people unless they are attached to a horse...

I should give some updates...me and Cleo are truly making huge advances in the push towards competing in the bigger classes shamelessly at the fall shows...The gym has been a huge help with my balance, my over-all fitness and I just got my all my hair cut off and it doesn't look AWFUL at all! Confidence helps when all your competition at the world got their asses sacked...yeah yeah...it could be me but it wasn't...I hope to go out there and at least get mentioned...Me and Cleo.
As for me and Crush, he is really getting the idea...he is figuring out that when I ask for a slow jog, and I don't get a slow jog, we are gonna spin some circles out in the middle of the arena...I laid out some big traffic cones (they followed me home) and we started out first jogging them...well, I called it jogging and he called it jogging, but it was pretty ground-shaking...so he finds out what the word jogging means cuz it ain't fun to RUN cones at a hard trot. He actually is a better loper than he is a jogger. Amazing. Oh yeah, I also took off my spurs. That helped a LOT...I stayed in the cowboy snaffle...no harsh stuff on the Doofus as he doesn't think about learning when he is worried about his tender little body...
Feed is now $14 a 50 lb bag. Help us oh Lord. I can't bear to tell the old man.

The above is an outfit I would love to make!
Below is one I have for sale becxause it didnt fit me...I had a lady make it for me and she did a fabulous job but they werent MY measurements!! So I went down, bought more fabric and am making myself one that fits me. It is upholstery fabric!

Fashion Nazi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is so enlightening to find other people who create their own outfits...I got talked into sewing a purple top for one of my daughter's kids who had found chaps but couldnt match the color...so Caitlin found material and I sewed a top for Kailey...first off the material was a BITCH to sew...was like tissue paper...it wouldnt press for nothin' either...it would skew under the feed dogs of the machine and I must have torn out seams 4 times on every turn of the way...the pattern sucked so I came up with my own!
Now that it is done, I am never going to buy material like that again...I love working with Brocade so I have two outfits I am working on now; a gold brocade and a black one. I also am making pants for a Lisa Nelle top one of Caitlin's clients bought that had never worn!!! It is a size TWO!!!!!!!!!! I hate people that small!!!!!!!!!! And then she has me take it in!!!!!!
I pour over the Equine Chronicle out of Ocala and study what everyone is wearing in their pictures...I think I could do it full time but MY problem is that *I* want to wear and use everything I make! BAAAAD business!
Anyhow I would love to see what people wear to their shows!

Clinic and updates...

The clinic was so much fun...I woke up at 7:00 am to the sounds of the golf cart rattling across the front paddock which startled me so I flew to the window but it was my daughter who usually (here at home) isnt up much before 8:30...Moved the 2 horse, moved the backhoe, the bobcat, the grove machine (all hubby's toys) so we would have room for all the rigs...Caitlin let me leave my two goosenecks where they were...gee thanks!
Anyhow ten riders (and all their supporters) showed up as well as my blacksmith who trimmed and reshod three of the horses while they were here, then gained another half dozen folks for clientele as they were so impressed by his work...He joked that he would have to move down here (he is from Ocala...trips to our place are worth the 2 hour drive!) and then he asked us to take in his new Paint to train...I wanted him to ride Cleo (he is normally a dressage rider) but he got busy and by the time he had a free minute, it was thundering and lightening. Caitlin moved the crowd to the indoor barn, and the kids asked tons of questions. This is a terrific group! Luckily we had empty stalls for most all of the horses; the rest were loaded onto the washrack to wait out the storm.
Anyhow Renan got to see me ride and he was very complimentary! I am pleased as the gym work has helped my legs (knee stays tight, heel stays down, and toe stays slightly tipped out...) Priscilla has the world champion mare and she too said it looked like my form has improved. When other riders note that your form has improved that gives me great faith...
I actually got Cleo to cross the new water-box my husband built...you could sail a boat in that thing...it holds water and lots of it...she stared at it, whooooofed twice, and with Caitlin kneeling down and showing her it was just water, stepped into the box and gingerly crossed it without the disaster it was the LAST time we crashed and sank our old water box...
I was so excited! Will ride her again tomorrow and try it since the trail course is still all set up...
Crush stayed out all day until the storm came; he loves his free time and can be hard to catch but he let me walk right up to him...I didnt saddle him today (he was saddled until late last night but I didnt get a chance to ride) so I will ride him as well tomorrow.
Kaely tried on the shirt I made her and it fit perfectly; I was so relieved as I hate that material since it has been such a bitch to sew...Now all I have to do is add the crystals and the cuffs (the kid is a bean pole with arms like a monkey!!!!) and she will wear it at the state show in 3 weeks.
Anyhow today was great despite the weird weather...two really awful rain storms but I am inspired by the comments people gave me when they saw me and Cleo working...Sometimes I let my age get me feeling like I may never get as far as I want with my horses, and I ain't getting any younger...
Pictures coming from the clinic today...just gotta remember where I left my camera!

Clinic on Sunday

We are holding a trail clinic here on Sunday...if I hadnt mentioned it before, my daughter is a trainer...one of those 'overly' talented youth that went straight from youth classes into pro trainer. Of course this leaves me in the mud so maybe this post should be on one of the blogs where they are fat middle aged etc...but I am trying to spend less time on the computer and more time doing actual saddle time...which is working.
Anyhow the clinic takes place in my arena...7 riders are coming. I have been invited to participate on Doofus...Gee, thanks! Think I would rather survive the day and ride Cleo who is my show mare...It has been really discouraging on the Doof...he does well one day, sucks the next...I am staying out of using harsh methods other than 'look bud, it is so much easier if you would just...' So pending this post I am headed out to ride before the rain hits.
I appreciate all half dozen or less of you hanging on there...I have no clue as to why my blog wasnt added to the list. I dont think I insulted anyone...
Picture...need a picture...
Okay this was this picture that made me decide to join a gym (what an ass!!) and get a sewing machine so I could lengthen my pants...I also decided I didnt want to show the short fat horse anymore...I want MY mare Cleo back so now we are a team again and I cannot wait for the fall shows. We have been practicing showmanship in the evenings...

Until we meet again...I will bore you...

If anyone even reads this blog anymore...
The story of Doofus...
whose actual name is Rockin to the Core...registered APHA/Breeders Trust/Pinto horse too...so with all this royalty (Grandpa is Dirti Rocki) why does he give me so much grief...
Day one...Doofus is born...actually at night...
ME: OH SHIT!!! It is a Lethal White...(tears and sobs...what else can go wrong in my life?) Waaaaiiiittt a minute...(pulls gently on snuffling little face emerging from mare) There's a medicine hat!!!!! (Relief) Oh wait!! He doesnt have an ear! (shit!!!) Oh wait! It's there just mashed down...
Anyhow he was born with a 'crushed' ear...all tangled up and turned inside itself...I named him "Crush" for a barn name...
Cut to a couple months later and multiple arguments with a blacksmith looking to get fired...but what the HELL do I know? I call the vet who determines that Crush/aka Doofus DOES have a club foot and if something isnt done LIKE TODAY I may as well put him down...it is BAD! I KNEW IT! By that afternoon I am on my way to Gainesville with a borrowed horse trailer...OH! I forgot to mention the day before we had lost our barn to Hurricane Charlie as well as our BRAND NEW Exiss gooseneck lying wheel up in the road since a tornado picked it up and tossed it and we couldnt move it until the insurance company saw it...SHIT! My life and welcome to it...anyhow, Crush, despite all his issues, hops right onto the borrowed trailer, a bumper pull, and waves buh-buy to mommy...welcome to weaning! We are on our way to Gainesville. Upon arrival I practically have to throw him off and turn around to race home as there is ANOTHER hurricane coming...Big kisses to my now weanling baby boy, admire his crystal blue eyes, his returning-to-normal ear, and I am back on the road battling 40 MPH winds and praying this borrowed trailer doesnt meet the same demise as my Exiss...
TWO weeks later, the hurricane debris is cleared from the med center at Gainesville and I can go pick up my baby boy...the board bill is $2000. He spent most of the time 'hunkered down' in the clinic kitchen with a group of trapped med students who treated him like a prince...I don't think he even missed his dam...Party on, dude.
So after that, his weaning was non-existant to me, his gelding at one year was uneventful, and when it came time to start saddling him, he took everything in stride...then one night he cracked his head open in the barn...I mean, open skull-this-is-it-get the backhoe kind of injury...Clint came in the middle of the night, picked the bone frags out of his poll, did meatball surgery on him for an hour and assured me he would be fine...Frickin' horse...Love my vet. He has hands that could sew up humans...
We deal with this...for 3 months, Crush recovers...quiet time in his dark cool stall...he loves it...
We start saddle time again...this time he is in the round pen and finds something imaginary to jump. He lands on a panel, cutting his hind leg to the bone...about a 2 inch swath. Cannot sew it so I tetanus him, pain killer, clean it and clean it...Now it is just a scar...
A year later...he is doing well. I decide to take him to his first show for just showmanship...no other horses, show off the trailer...his first time out for a real show...He wins his first class of 12, green horse showmanship! I am completely thrilled and he is such a good boy. We come home with great pride and feelings of accomplishment...let's get ready for the next show and I will ride him...Not to be.
The next day, a sunday, I turn him out for an afternoon in the woods. About an hour later I call him; he is standing oddly to one side of the pump house...he doesnt move...very unusual as he almost always comes flying in...I walk out to see his OTHER hind leg cut to the bone...I sob all the way in from the pasture; Clint will make me put him down...this is bad...
I don't call Clint (my vet)...I wash the wound out, tetanus, bute for pain, penicillin for infection, and scrub his stall down...In he goes for the next 2 months of complete stall rest.
Six months later...he is sound again...his hind legs look like someone dragged him down the road with a meat cleaver but he is sound. I take him to a show...he wins showmanship, green horse w/t pleasure, w/t horsemanship, and goes high point green w/t horse....I am living in fear of his self-destructive nature.

Guess this was'nt a plan...

Picture of Beats Being Broke, a well loved and much missed gelding we trained and sold a couple years ago...


Well I have requested addition to the list of Blogs twice now and since it hasnt been acknowledged, I guess we are dead in the water here...Thanks to everyone who DID participate but now I am thinking it wasnt a needed blog...

The misconceptions...

At your shows, your friends can be a huge source of support or they can create all kinds of chaos...
Last year we took ownership of a halter gelding for a friend who was going through some serious health issues with her husband. He was so sick with cancer that she was gone from their farm all the time to the hospital. They are not young, she is 67 and he is 71. They kept a TON of cattle, 4 horses and all the dogs and cats, pigs and goats a huge farm might have even though they lived on a small 16 acres. She wanted us to show the horse, get him some points in APHA and expose him to the show ring. She would cover all his expenses, we didnt charge her anything, and she was to do all the 'homework' (neck sweat, lights, etc) to keep him ready for halter showing...
It was a disaster.
All went well for a while...we hauled the horse to several large out of state shows where he either won the class (youth geldings was his specialty!) or I came in 2nd and 3rd with him in large amateur classes. In 3 shows he earned his ROM in open, youth and amateur. The judges adored him and our halter friends gave us major 'secrets' to go above and beyond the horses that might beat him...None were dangerous or cruel (special rolling techniques to flatten his crest, etc) and in fact were things he might enjoy. This gelding came to us with horrible manners, he had basically run rough-shod over the woman and we were constantly straightening him out.
After a few months, when we would go pick the horse up (at our expense of tolls and gas) we noticed he was getting hairier and furrier, and that his neck was soggy and he was just generally out of shape. She didnt want to pay us to keep him at our place so after this one show where he didnt place due to how bad he looked, we started wondering if we were fools for trying to help this woman out...We were spending all our time AT the shows trying to make up for his condition and trying to stay competitive with him...we felt like chumps. Our own horses werent getting the time under saddle and it was a huge juggling act to do halter and then have our showmanship patterns down...
Long story cut short: At the huge March show, terrible weather prevailed. The woman decided to come with a friend and "help" out...What a disaster...I handed her the papers BACK to this horse and said so long...She had not only screamed at me about our techniques of showing, but had railed at me that she had done all this for US because my daughter didnt have a halter horse!! WHAAAAT?????? If Caitlin wanted a halter horse, I damn sure can afford to go BUY her a halter horse but she didnt particularly WANT one and after this episode she doesnt care if she ever has one!
In the meantime, a trainer friend had told us this woman had run around to all the halter trainers and asked THEM to take her horse...Sure, they said, we'll take him, but not for free...We had FOOLS written all over us...I am still recovering from this awful example of friendship. We will never do something like this again...
We have our show friends...we see them at shows. We loan them stuff, they braid in a pinch for us, we check their kids at night if they are gone, we are all supportive during ring time...But we worry that a situation like this would arise again and it sure did put a damper on my confidence.

Rainy days

Today is the aftermath of a terrible storm...last night we all huddled in the living room, eyes glued to the TV hoping the power would hold...a tornado had been spotted less than two miles away...I clutched my shihtzu while Caitlin had her dwarf hamster at hand in case we all had to pile into a closet...and of course we cringed inside for our horses. Four yrs ago during Hurricane Charlie, a tornado tore down our barn with 6 horses and 4 dogs inside...We couldnt get to them. In the dead of the night and the aftermath of a frightening blast of a storm, we heard nothing from the shattered barn. Caitlin was inconsolable. I couldnt breathe. My husband Jimmy scaled the 16 foot high pile of splintered 6 X 8 beams and got 12 pair of shining terrified eyes...the dogs were okay, the horses were trapped. Outside our brand new gooseneck lay wheels up, dented and twisted. The house had a single cracked window. My little filly Sushi had missed being speared by a 60 ft water oak by a mere 3 feet. She huddled in her stall, quivering and staring at the massive tree pile-drived into the center of her stall.
I will try and find pictures from this mess; I have long since tried to forget the scene we saw the next morning when dawn came.
My question is to all: What would you do in this kind of situation for your horses...we were smack in the middle of show season, I was the treasurer of a large Paint horse club, and I was due to be at a show the next weekend...Needless to say I ended up going horseless as my kids were too traumatized and I had no trailer.

Ground rules

Read the rules...that's the first thing they teach you in showing a horse...so for this blog I must insist that everyone respect everyone else...don't care about your language, just no hammering on someone because of how they may do things...I hope this blog will help everyone who goes to a show with their horse will understand that there are certain things to do and ways to make it as fun as it should be, as well as making it a competition to see just how well you are doing with your horse at home. I do not want to play moderator so here's my request at the start...
I love pictures, lots of pictures...lots of advice...lots of stories about what went wrong, what went right, and about horses (or mules or minis...whatever equid you show). This is not a blog to hammer trainers (my daughter s a trainer) or judges but please do relay stories of good and bad instances...no names please...
What shall we talk about? Horses and showing, what you do to prepare, how you practice, working shows (been there done that and wish I had better computer skills!!) tolerating politics, short cuts, tips, tricks, training, clothes, and all the fads...Let's hit it!!!