Rachel & Grandma and Arabian Horses Go Show in Salem

The May 30 deadline for submission to the Carnival of Horses is fast approaching. All you horse mommy bloggers out there, it's time to step up and Submit your entry ! Let's use this Carnival to spread the word about horse blogs and what a great resource they can be.

Now onto the show...........

It's been several years since I've shown Arabian horses at the fairgrounds in Salem, Oregon. Mostly that would be because I just haven't had horses ready to show with the birth of the twin Arabian foals and other interventions by life along the way.

I've always like showing horses in that facility. The walls are solid up over the horses' heads making it less distracting particularly for young horses. The warm-up arena is much much bigger than the one at Puyallup or the Tacoma Unit. Some horses come up from California and Nevada to show. That makes for a different mix than we get to see here in Washington. Then there's just a warmer feeling about those shows.

The downside of showing in Salem for me is the drive and of course a place to stay. Not that four hours is anything terribly awful but I have my horror stories of a couple of breakdowns. I guess that makes me leery. Between that and always going alone it's just not one of my favorite things.

This time was different because I had Rachel along. It's the first time I have made the trip with anyone with me. I was looking forward to the company. It was going to be nice to have another set of eyes going through Portland on the interstate. There are a couple of tricky lane changes there in a short amount of time. Rachel would be a great look-out.

As for a place to stay, Rachel and I brought along a tent. We would camp there on the fairgrounds in the RV parking area. Angie and Richard's trailer has living quarters so we would pitch our tent right across from them. There were others from the barn who would be camping as well.

Ideally we would have left for Salem at the same time as Richard on Wednesday morning and caravaned down. That would have given us plenty of time to move the horses in, get them schooled and set-up our camp before dark.

However, life had another one of it's little fits. I had a mare that I have been trying to breed. The original plan was to breed her the week before the show on a short cycle. The mare didn't think much of that idea and didn't respond to the shot to bring her into heat (One of the reasons I hate all that interference!) so she had to have another shot the Friday before the show to try again to get her to cycle.

As Mother Nature would have it, the mare was ready to breed the day Rachel and I were leaving for Salem. Instead of heading down the road with Richard we were waiting on semen to make a 1 o'clock appointment with the vet.

The stallion station collecting the semen had called the night before to say they would met us in Tacoma with the shipment in the late morning since they had to inseminate a mare in Enumclaw. That was a great plan. It would save us nearly two hours. They would call when they were leaving and give us the location to meet.

But the late morning came and went before we finally got the call. Their plans had changed and we now had to come to their offices two hours away to pick the semen up. Instead of having semen by 11 as originally planned, it was 11 before we were even leaving to pick it up. Our departure from Salem was getting pushed again.

Poor husband, Dave, hopped in the car and headed off to the Key Peninsula playing courier for his goofy wife. He called as he got close to the stallion station to suggest I reschedule the mare's appointment. There was no way he was going to make it back in time to inseminate the mare at 1. It was looking more and more like I'd be driving through Portland in rush hour traffic.

Fortunately the vet had an appointment open at 3 and moved us into that slot. Dave arrived with semen just in time for me to throw poor Dare into the trailer and head to the vet.

When we checked the mare she had a 50mm follicle that was beginning to collapse. We couldn't have been better on timing. The mare would be ovulating soon. Although I think the poor mare was getting sick of all the ultra sounds. (I really feel for mare's in heat and all the intervention it takes to breed with shipped semen. They must really be confused!) The vet inseminated the mare and I walked her for a bit then loaded her onto the trailer and headed home.

At home I swapped out the mare for Legs and Dandy and we were headed back down the road within five minutes. This time we were finally headed for the horse show. It was nearly 4 pm and there was no way we were missing Portland at rush hour.

Stressed would be a gross understatement. I wasn't even out of my driveway yet and I was wondering what the heck I was thinking going to Salem to show when I could be showing right here in Washington. Let alone thinking I could show and breed in the same life time...........but Salem here we come.........

To be continued.............

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The picture above is Scandalous Dare, the mare we breed to the AQHA reiner. Keep your fingers crossed that all the craziness resulted in a bred mare.