Today was a lot of fun, and Kip was very good, even with baby-blue teddy bears in his mane, although he was quite excited and went around goggle-eyed all morning at all the activity. He learned about the main thing that you do at shows, which is standing around for hours staying clean, and then we entered the bending when they started the gymkhana races. We were the slowest ones, we did pole-bending in slow motion, but he was good. Even in an arena with tons of other over-excited horses and ponies galloping around and pressing in at close range, he was good. Remember, he was a stallion until just recently and has never been ridden in the company of other horses. What a total sweetie. :)
The jumping classes were first, and we had the run-outs, stops and a couple of falls, all normal at barn schooling shows where people who haven’t ridden their horses all winter decide to enter a jumping class. All good fun, and no one hurt. Then gymkhana, spoon races, musical chairs and such. Then Best Six Legs, where the husbands and boyfriends showed their partner’s horses – one father wore the full kilt getup to show his daughter’s cob, and one husband rolled up his trouser legs to show black stockings; the horse had stockings on his front legs as well, held up with tape. Most Reflective Horse and Rider (excessive use of flourescent safety gear, which is really how people ride on the roads here), and Best Decorated Mane and Tail. Kip had already gone to bed, overtired and overexcited, by this time, but there were some amazingly decorated ponies out there.
I’m tired, but I did have a lot of fun today; I think Kip did, as well. I like this barn.
Congratulations on a successful debut. I still marvel over the barn, miss those stables so elegant.
he looks very tolerant of his sissy braids!
It is good to hear that he’s doing so well and adjusting to life as a normal horse (eg. non-stallion). And as always he just looks LOVELY. :)
They are beautiful, aren’t they? Not great for horses with respiratory problems, and not always well drained, but gorgeous all the same. It’s wonderful to have a horse on a farm that has been a working farm with stables and horses for hundreds of years – you really feel a sense of being a part of history, part of a long progression of horsemen.
He’s adjusting quite well, actually – better than I feared. He has issues with other horses, i.e., getting very excited and losing all concentration when he can see any, but I think that has more to do with the enforced isolation of being a stallion than anything else. He just doesn’t want to be left behind. Being out in pasture as part of a herd has made an amazing change in him. And he’ll get better as he grows up, obviously.