The Summer Show.............A Little After Class Adventure

Part 1

I must admit it wasn't until after my class that I realized how really HOT outside it was. My show shirt was stuck to me about every place there was for it to stick. It clung like a wet T and on this sixty-three year old body it was NOT a pretty sight. I couldn't wait to get back to the stalls to shed the sticky thing.

Surprising my horse was not all that hot. He had the beginnings of sweat rising on his neck, nothing that a nice shower wouldn't fix. I think we both hung our heads from the sheer heat as we made our way back down that asphalt path to the back side of the barn.

I didn't even tie Legs in his stall once I got him in there. There was still so much of his breakfast scattered about I knew he would go right to eating. My show saddle and pad wouldn't be in any danger of taking a roll as long as the hunger pangs were Legs' driving force.

We were using the closed in stairwell up into the hay lofts for our own personal little dressing room. There was no light just a fake skylight from the overhead loft but it worked fine in the daylight.

I checked for occupancy. Then made a beeline to get my sad show shirt off my body. It didn't even want to let go of my sticky skin as I pulled it off. Then it seemed to stick to itself like it was coated with adhesive. I haven't thought about how you clean a shirt with all of that lambskin and studs but I can assure you I'll be doing it know. Even the thought of putting that thing up against my bare skin for the morrow made my skin crawl.

I don't know how those in hotter climates survive. The mid to high 90s was killing me. The heat rising off the asphalt probably bumped it into the 100s but my body is not meant for such heat.

If it were I might just be living in eastern Washington. The hay's a lot cheaper and easier to get. The open spaces a lot more open but HOT over here leads to even hotter over there so there's no way I would survive.

Once I got out of my hot sticky clothes, I went back to tend to my horse. Legs did not disappoint with the trust I'd entitled him with. The horse was busily munching his hay totally unaffected by the fact he was still wearing my custom Sky Horse show saddle and a very sticky red, black and off white show pad.

I just left Legs loose while I stripped the horse of his show gear. He breathed a funny little sigh as the saddle slid off of his back. Then he went to nosing his hay around looking for the sweetest piece.

With the show gear all stowed, I retrieved my horse and took him for that nice luke warm shower I'd promised. As the comforting water hit the horse's neck he stretched it out and his eye softened. The expression on his face clearly said the shower felt "SOOOOoooooooooo GOOOooooooood!"

As I took my time hosing my horse down, two teenage girls approached with a mare moving right into our space. I warned them I was working with a stallion but they didn't seem to get the picture. I knew that Legs would behave but you just never know about strange mares. Mine mares know better than to flirt in the shower but that didn't mean this one did.

One girl spoke with an accent. I don't know if she was British or from down under since I'm not an aficionado on dialects. Wherever she was from her horse skills were limited and so were her friend's. They wanted to use my hose, which was ok with me, as long as they could keep a reasonable distance. I did not want to end up in the center of something dangerous because these girls had little control over their horse.

I reminded them again that Legs was a stallion and that they needed to be keeping a safe distance since they didn't know Legs or how their mare would react to this kind of proximity to him. It all fell on deaf ears as the mare moved closer and closer to Legs.

The next thing you know the mare was swinging her hind end right toward Legs' nose. He tried to get a quick sniff but responded immediately to my admonishment and turned his face away. That was the only thing the stallion turned. He didn't move a foot so there was no swinging of his hind end towards hers, thankfully.

I side passed Legs over to a safer distance only to have the mare follow. She did not lock into a breeding stance but her behavior clearly indicated the mare was at least coming into heat. I couldn't get my boy out of there fast enough.

I quickly finished up rinsing off the horse's face. Both girls were more intrigued by the fact that Legs drops his head to get his face watched than they'd ever paid attention to the behavior of their mare.

At least by the time we got out of there, I'd managed to get enough spray on me to cool myself off as well. Making our way back into the barn I think both of us felt refreshed and I was definitely thinking we'd dodged a bullet with our wash rack time with that big pretty pinto mare. I'm thinking had the circumstances been different, as in maybe at home on his breeding grounds different, Legs would have loved to talk to her. As it was he never made a sound nor did he expose anything he shouldn't have. I have to admit his manners never cease to amaze me.

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

Legs isn't really using his shoulder well in this picture and it's an old one to boot but it's what I've got from a previous show. No one but the pro taking pics of Legs and me at this show.

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