Foaling and Showing Rolled into One - Finally The End

Before I left my farm I checked in with Richard to see what the schedule was for our barn at the horse show. I'd been so preoccupied with Dare that I really didn't have a clue. All I knew for sure was there would be championships for Rachel, Mel and me. I had no idea when they were except for mine which I knew was in the afternoon session.



Because of my problems with Legs in the ring I really wanted to school the horse at the lunch break in that arena. I certainly didn't want to be riding another class without the horse having an opportunity to work his issues out beforehand. I'd set him up once and didn't want to be doing it again.

When I talked with Richard he told me that Rachel's class would be heading into the ring in about an hour and a half. That would be cutting it close to take a quick shower to shake off some of my fog and get to the fairgrounds in time to see her ride. If I flew I might just make it.

So that's exactly what I did. I arrived at our stalls and there wasn't a soul around. Not only that but Dandy was only partially braided. I wasn't sure what was going on so I headed to the arena. Imagine my surprise to find they were still doing reining. When I checked in to see how many rides were left, I knew there was probably no chance I was going to get to school Legs. There was little chance there would be any kind of lunch break at all with thirty more go's in reining left.

Those thirty reining gos hung on and hung on. I watched for a while but I was too rummy to even figure out the patterns. I spoke to a few of my friends and told them all about my new filly. It would have been usual horse show fare but my fanny was really dragging and I just couldn't keep myself focused. I was functioning in a fog.

I did watch Richard work with Rachel and Goldie. They had scratched their class because neither one of them was comfortable in the ring. Instead they were doing lots of riding in the warm-up arenas getting the two of them used to the show ring scene as a team.

I thought about schooling Legs in the beef barn arena but the footing wasn't great and there were some out of control kids riding into people. Neither one of those would help the problems I was having with Legs. I was going to have to hope he remembered the schooling session we'd had the day before after our class.

The reining classes just kept dragging on. It was after 1 before the rest of the morning classes even began. I watched Rachel ride Dandy into the ring then I zoned out. I swear I stood there on the rail watching the horses go by and I couldn't even pick out the one I owned.



Dandy is always the biggest horse in any class at 16 hands. And with those four white feet of his, I've never had any trouble finding him in the ring........well, until now that is. I was staring at horse bums moving away from me and next thing I knew they were all stopped. My poor brain did a double take trying to figure out what in the heck was going on. Then it dawned on me, the judge had called for a halt so she could as them to back in unison. After that the next thing I noticed was the horses were lining up. Not my finest hour as a coach on the rail. I can't even tell you how they placed.

Then we headed back to the stalls for lots more sitting around. Mel and I were in the same championship class and it was five classes from the end of the session. At the rate things were moving along we'd be lucky if we got out of there by dark.

We loaded everything we didn't need into the horse trailer. I saddled my horse up and put all the rest of his stuff in there too. After the class I would unsaddle him at the trailer and we'd be good to go once I changed clothes. My bed was calling me............I had no intention of spending one more minute at the fairgrounds than I needed. Foaling and showing in the same weekend just isn't my thing.

When it was finally time to ride, I headed off to the warm-up arena wondering what I was going to have for a horse. Would he remember his spook of the day before? Or would he be good? I just didn't know what to expect.



There weren't very many riders actually warming up in the arena. Legs started off more relaxed than I expected. We actually had a pretty relaxed ride warming up for the class, I was hopeful things would go smoother than the day before.

Those hopes were dashed as I got into position on the runway. My horse got pushy and wasn't really responsive. The drape we'd been riding with warming up probably wasn't going to hit the ring.

I remember thinking as I was riding through the in gate that I really should have scratched this class. I guess if I hadn't been sleep deprived I might have had to good sense to do that. But I was sleep deprived and I had NO sense. My horse was on the muscle and it was clear he was looking for trolls.

That far end of the arena is where all the trolls lurk. Not just for my horse but pretty much most of them don't really like that end. Most amateur riders don't even try to use the rail across that far end. On this day, with beams of light bouncing between the tarps, it was especially scary to Legs.

We almost made it around the far corner through all the scary stuff when Legs bolted. Unlike the previous shows, when he hit the bridle he pretty much came back down. Although he had jumped with such force he threw me off balance so sharply I had to grab the horn to stay astride.

My neck hurt and so did my lower back. This was NOT the relaxing let down after foaling I was hoping for. Instead my horse exploded two more times before the class was over. I was really mad at myself for riding the class without schooling in the arena first. I was also thinking I'd probably taken a huge step backwards with this horse. It was really a disappointing ride.

Then to top off my day, I had a couple of the kids from the barn follow me home to see the new filly. What's wrong with that, you might wonder. Well, as I'm looking at the face of this foal it dawns on me that it's got to be a colt. The look of the head just screams "Colt!" to me. Upon closer inspection I discover that's because the foal is a COLT! (Some much for Dave's predictions and all that talk about smary fillies and dumb colts! HA!)

What a way to end of complicated and stressful weekend of showing and foaling all rolled into one. If I ever think I'm going to do this again, will someone please shoot me! I think it'll be easier..............

NOTE: I'll post more pics and videos of the horse show when/if I get them.

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