Daffodil All Arabian Spring Show - The Set-Up

It's been a really long day and my brain has turned to mush but I thought I would at least try for a short post about our set-up at the horse show. Life is never dull at Rising Rainbow Arabians. That is a given and setting up for the horse show has been no exception.

The brief highlights might be Rachel managed to get Dandy into a pickle schooling in the main arena and nearly banged his head into the wall. That scared Rachel and probably the Arabian horse so schooling after that was nothing short of a bomb.

Grandma, however, missed the near collision because she couldn't see through the crowd of Arabian horses they had gotten themselves into. I was still giving Rachel instructions trying to get the horse rounded up and into frame and couldn't understand why the usual things were just not working.

I had schooled the horse first. He had been absolutely amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better ride. So to see Rachel having such trouble and making no headway was frustrating to say the least. I finally gave up and called the duo to follow me out to the beef barn arena. There was not point in continuing this the way it was going.

We headed to the Beef Barn Arena at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. I knew there would be less traffic and it should be easier to get this problem resolved. But Rachel seemed to be in a mood and so was her horse. I finally gave up there as well.

I got back onto Dandy to school him again and get him back into frame. Maybe I couldn't get the pair fixed but at least I could fix the horse. However, it didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd hoped. I did get the horse together but it wasn't easy. Something had clearly caused this kind of reaction. That's when I found out about the brush with the wall. Poor Dandy has the worst luck with traffic of any horse I have ever known. But at least I got him fixed.

Then it was onto Legs. I rarely longe this horse and he's been to shows before. Heck! The horse has championships in both hunter and western pleasure. He's always just a jewel at horse shows............until today.

I couldn't even believe what I got on.............it sure wasn't my well behaved stallion. Some fire breathing dragon had taken him over and I was off as fast as I'd gotten on. Nope, I didn't get dumped. I called for Colleen or Rachel to grab him so I could get off then I had to longe the beegeezus out of him. I can't even tell you what got into him.

I actually didn't longe him once but twice. The first time after I longed him I got on and rode into the arena to school. One lap walking around the ring and I exited again for more time on the longe line.

I didn't longe him loose. I bitted him up with a drop line and let him run his little legs off. The horse even kicked out at a couple of horses that got too close, something I have never seen him do. I suspect the young (maybe 2 year old) stallion right down from us that is pacing and screaming since he arrived has gotten my boy rattled. All I know is it took working his tail off to even find a remnant of my horse inside.

I finally did ride him and he was OK..........not great, just OK. He was trying but he is having trouble in the bridle. He's having flashbacks of a not so kind trainer (that's a story for another day) and is afraid to go forward into the curb. It is very frustrating to have ridden the horse in the snaffle and have him be coming together well enough to do entries only to put him into the curb and feel like we've run right smack into a brick wall.

The horse finally is doing better at the lope but his transitions are lousy and it's really hard to take a hold of the horse without him wanting to stop. He is afraid of the bridle and that's all there is to it. I will be doing a series of posts about the issue of re-teaching horses who have been made afraid of going forward. In my opinion it is the hardest problem to fix and I'm not alone. Many trainers think it can be next to impossible to resolve these kinds of issues.

Back to the horse show, we're not starting off great but we're there for the duration. I help them (show management) with setting the trail course in the early morning. Then I don't show until the evening. In the middle I must run a mare to the vet. It will be a long day an I have no clue if I will manage a post tomorrow night or not. But whatever happens you can bet I'll have a story to tell.

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The top picture is Legs visiting with not one but two horses on the other side. I think the delay on my camera missed those two noses, but they were there for quite a while. In case you're wondering neither nose belonged to Dandy. These were new neighbors on the other side of the partition. There was no talking just smelling.

The second picture is Dandy and I in the Beef Barn Arena after all the exciting stuff was done but before I actually got him back into his head where he belonged.

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Coming Up Posts Update on Rhythm (waiting for picture of the show clothes we all helped her to pick out. They arrived today!!

How to teach your horse to drop his head for bathing

Body Clipping (Shaving) 101

The already mentioned Fixing the horse that is afraid to go forward.

Balance and the Young Horse

AND the rest of My first trip to Nationals with Dandy

Is there anything I missed or that you would like to see??

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