About My Disappearance.........part 2

I know you're wondering about the most recent show but while I'm waiting on pictures and hopefully videos from last week's adventures in Salem, I thought I'd wrap things up on the Morgan horse show from the week before.

I left off posting About My Disappearance......... That post showed the connections that had fallen into place to open the door for me to manage Morgan shows. It's funny how small the world can be sometimes but the feelers were out there now it was time to wait and see what happened.

It took months before I ever heard from anyone from the Morgan club regarding their quest to find a new show manager. I received an email asking if I was indeed interested in speaking with them. Then it was a couple more months before a request to set up a meeting actually came through.

It turned out they were looking for a manager for two shows. The Key Classic Morgan Horse Show and the C-Fair Charity Horse Show. Both shows are held at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington.

After checking the weekends I thought the shows were held I agreed to do both of them. It was only after that commitment had been made I realized I'd made a mistake. I hadn't taken into account that my mare, Scandalous Dare might go past her due date for foaling AND I didn't realize the C-Fair show had been moved from August dates, to the last week of July. Those dates just happened to be during the Arabian Youth Nationals.

Doing these shows was going to add a huge amount of stress to my already stressful schedule. And it was going to make it impossible for me to go to Youth Nationals this year. Since I had already told them I would do it, I stuck to my guns despite the problems it created for my own plans.

At the meeting I'd had lots of questions for which there had been one answer repeated over and over. Speak with Lynn, the now retired manager of both shows, seemed to be the answer for all issues important to me. It was clear these committee chairs had no idea at all about what it took to run the show.

Since I already knew Lynn and that she was reliable, I figured I was probably ok. Yet it still bothered me that no one seemed to know any of the facility particulars pertinent to putting on the show. However, I hadn't figured on not being able to reach Lynn. It seemed they were in constant contact with her so the contact information must be reliable.........or was it?

As the show drew closer I became worried. I had tried to contact Lynn both by phone and email with no response. I still had no list of contacts for committees and the contact I did have for this show was not responding either. This whole thing could turn out to be a real mess.

I kept running off my knowledge of Lynn remembering her words the volunteer base was a good one that took their jobs seriously. I sure hoped she was right. The last thing I needed was a horse show in progress and no one to fall back on for help.

I had concerns about bedding since I knew the contract by the provider for the Daffodil Spring Show had been cancelled shortly before the event. I had no idea who was providing the bagged shavings for the Morgan show but I suspected it was the same company as the one Daffodil had tried to use. So while I was watching Dare for signs of foaling, I was also sweating finding bedding for the Morgan show.

I was beginning to get really stressed out. A show with no bedding would be a real wreck. so I emailed the show secretary. I knew she had worked on this show for at least a couple of years and maybe she had some answers to my questions or knew who might have them. I also put a call into the Evergreen State Fairgrounds to see what the logistics of the facility were.

Between those two contacts, I got enough information to at least resolve the bedding issues. The show secretary also had a contact to Lynn. She was able to get her a message that I was trying to reach her that finally resulted in a call from the former manager.

This only took place days before I left for the show itself. That last week my phone was ringing off the hook with class changes, requests for additional stabling and other typical last minute horse show calls. It didn't matter whether I was ready or not............the horse show was coming...........I sure hoped those volunteers were as good as Lynn said.

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


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