The Open House Begins.............

The clock struck 1 and the first vehicles pulled into our pasture. Rising Rainbow Arabians Fifth Annual Open House was underway. The first people to arrive were my old friend, Bill Cunningham and his wife soon followed by a woman I though was my blogger friend, Lady of Chaos. It was nice to start off with friendly faces.

I only got a couple of minutes to speak with LOC before I spied Bill and Ann heading out to the mare pasture. Wouldn't you know it the one year I decided not to show my broodmares and that's exactly what Bill had come to see. At 80+ years old, my bumpy field wasn't the safest place for Bill. I decided I should head him off and retrieve any mares he might want to see.

From there the next hour was spent "mingling" with the guests as they gradually trickled in and then browsed our open barns. We would begin presenting horses at about 2 giving everyone time to take a peak and the horses before they found their seats.

My brother whom I haven't seen in over ten years had also come to see the horses, so I got a few minutes with him as well. I was hoping I'd get a chance to visit with him later but he was called away on an emergency of some kind.



From there I did a quick inventory to be sure every thing was in order to begin showing the horses. As usual something must always go wrong and this time it turned out that my video camera decided the card was full. Despite our best efforts to figure out the problem, we were unable to get it functioning correctly.

Richard and Angie had their video camera in their car and Robin was there as well. So next thing you know I had a substitute camera and videographer and it was time to get on with the show. Now if I can figure out why my DVD player isn't recognizing my disc I might actually get video of the open house loaded. Cross your fingers!

The first horse in the ring was Scandalous Rhapsody. She is a two year old filly by Scandalous Legacy and out of my personal mare, Solidare. This filly is a horse I would really love to see grow up on my farm. Just presenting her as a sale horse made my heart sink.

Did I mention that I was wired for sound? Not my favorite thing but since my voice doesn't carry well, it's a necessity. Dave had set up the speakers right directly behind the gate the horses were entering and exiting. Those speakers blaring my voice at young horses made for some interesting problems around that gate.

My horses are normally so well behaved. Seeing them scoot through the gate pushing into Crystal caught me off guard. It took me a while to figure out that it was me talking causing the problem. Once I did that, things went smoother.

I'm not sure if it was with the first horse or the second, but I swear we're moving the horse around for people to see and I see the Medic One Unit drive right past our house. After the incident with Lindsay just a few weeks ago, seeing that aid car made me shudder. I sure hoped it wasn't some kind of omen................

Because we try to take pictures and video as we show the horses to the people in attendance, it's not just a matter of moving the horses to show their way of going but doing it in a manner that is good for the people with the cameras. That means keeping the horses a reasonable distance from the camera so the focus can be set up. That means pushed up along the far fence and moved in a controlled manner just like Johnny Johnston looks for at a photo shoot.

Normally, I have my friend, Jean, to help with that. She's an expert at controlling horses. It didn't take but that first horse, Rhapsody, for me to realize that Crystal didn't understand that concept. For her it was about moving the horses in any manner, just to keep them moving.

Not only was Crystal now aware of how I'd wanted the horses moved, being wired for sound I didn't think I was going to be able to explain it to her. Then there was the fact that for some reason the horses weren't really into moving, getting them to move at all became the primary consideration. I don't know what got into them, maybe it was the heat, but my showy blowy Arabians were pretty much duds!

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

The Open House continues......

The top picture was taken by Ray and the second one but Lady of Chaos.

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