The Morgan Show..........a Second Ride

I never did get Legs passed feeling like a coiled spring beneath me. The horse did, however, get to the point he was doing what I asked. I worked on getting the lope nice and slow and keeping the jog true and about the time I began putting it together I got called to do "my real job" for the week.

I decided that I would just tie my horse up in his stall and let him chill while I took care of exhibitors. I knew the work would probably be one big spurt and then it would be just little stuff the rest of the day. Once I got through that spurt I could ride Legs again. I knew by that time there would be other horses in the arena.

When I tied Legs in his stall there still wasn't a single horse that had moved into that small barn. By the time I retrieved my horse for another ride, the barn aisle was buzzing with activity and Legs had horsey neighbors. It was easy to see the horse was happy to no longer be alone.

Going back into the arena was met with mixed reviews from my horse. Legs was relieved there were other horses in there but already convinced there were other bad things there too. Getting aboard was not as bad as the first time but still I didn't have the relaxed horse I normally ride.

The difference in his attitude was enough that I began with my normal workout. I let the horse drop his head clear to the ground stretching out his back as we walked across the arena. A handful of times he started to "pop up" out of that relaxed walk but he dropped back down immediately when I asked. Still I could see the worry on his face, I knew not to take for granted his issues with this arena.

Just like in the Puyallup arena, the horse seemed to dislike the same places on the rail. He didn't like the far end of the arena nor near the mid point of the far side. Then there was that midpoint on the near side that might just catch his attention too, just not as often as the other two. Funny how they can get an idea in their mind and it'll carry over into a new situation.

There was one point on the far end where the horse did a big leap followed by a couple of pretty healthy bucks. I remember thinking the exercises I have been doing to improve my core strength must be working by the way I managed to stay with my horse. I looked around to see in anyone had really noticed my silly Arabian stallion impersonating a rodeo horse. If anyone noticed, I couldn't tell. Everyone seemed to be having their own issues with horses in this arena.

I remember last year on this day I saw a rider hit the dirt. I was told it was a common occurrence for this particular rider but I'm still not really sure what that means. Looking around it seemed possible I would see riders in the dirt again this year. I was just hoping one of those riders wasn't going to be me.

After that one big incident Legs came back to me much easier than the earlier ride. It wasn't too long at all and my horse was loping as slow as he can go on a relaxed rein and keeping himself together better than expected. With just a little more work at the jog, I decided it was time to reward his good behavior and quit. There'd be plenty of time to school the horse the rest of the week.

I toyed with the idea of riding him one more time on that day but then decided I didn't want to burn me out. As stressful as managing horse shows can be I didn't want to push my limits and then pay for it the rest of the week.

Move in days put a lot of mileage on my feet. It seemed like I'd just get back from the farthest barn and there was another reason to go back out there. Whenever I got the chance I stopped by Legs to see how he was managing with his new neighbors.

On one of those checks I found him watching the neighbor hang drapes. She's hung a 2 x 4 across the stall front to attach the drapes to and was using a pretty noisy stapler to attach the drapes. Legs had his nose right up to the corner to get as close to the action as he could be.

The trainer was getting a big kick out of the horse's curiosity. She laughed as I approached and commented about Legs not being afraid of all the racket. I'm pretty sure Legs was dispelling more myths about Arabian horses because it was clear his behavior was not what she'd expected from THE Arab horse.

Legs looked like he was enjoying the entertainment. He couldn't be bothered to come visit me. His nose was still stuck up in that corner trying to get a hold of the corner of her drapes.

I was hoping he wasn't going to figure that out because I knew if he did he'd be dragging that section of stall drape right into his stall. From the looks of it she had just enough of an edge to tempt the horse but not enough of one for him to get into any trouble. Once I was assured he couldn't cause any trouble I was back on out to the far barn.

When things finally slowed down, the show secretary and I closed up the office so we could go to dinner. It's not normal to get to eat at a reasonable time during a horse show so we wanted to take full advantage of it while we could.

I had an ulterior motive for wanting dinner at a reasonable time. There's a restaurant in Monroe that has a dessert that I crave BUT sugar after 7 keeps my up all night. If I was going to get to indulge dinner needed to be at the real dinner hour.

Once we arrived at the restaurant I had trouble figuring out what I wanted to eat. I probably just should have started with dessert and skipped the main course but I finally order some "real" food but only because I could hear Dr Oz or some other TV health guru telling me I should.

I only ate less than half my food and then dove head first into the dessert. Thankfully the show secretary shared one with me because the serving size is probably big enough for a family of four. What is this dessert that makes me salivate just thinking about it? Marrionberry crisp ala mode...................... nummy..............

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

Dressage Day