Day 40-46 Williamston Horse Show

Goodness, did not intend to get behind on this! Lindsay has been great, we have been so very busy.

Went to Williamson, NC to the East Coast Open Horse Show Friday. I was judging Sat, so I figured what a wonderful opportunity to get Lindsay some horse show exposure. We reserved her a stall and arrived Fri. night. When I found her stall I was a bit concerned b/c it was in a very very busy area. Horses and horse show stuff spread all through the aisle way.. tables, chairs, fans, curtains and more! I was not sure about leading her through all that the first time and thought it would be better for me to ride. The Williamston facility is so nice, there are arenas everywhere so I unloaded her and tacked up in one of the round pens and we went to work. She was curious about her surroundings, but really seemed to enjoy checking things out. We rode around all over the facility..in the covered ring..in the indoor arena. The other horses do not seem to bother her, but strange objects along the rail certainly get her attention. We did lots of walking around soaking it all in. After our ride we walked up to our barn. It took some gentle encouraging, but after a few tries Lindsay built up the courage to walk on in among all the scary chairs and tables and to her stall. The next day she had much to watch as I was busy judging. As I said, she was in a busy area, so she saw many horses go by and prepare to show. She seemed to be pretty settled by the end of the day and was standing in front of her fan not to concerned about the commotion outside when I went to check on her.

We rode again Sat night, it was dark and we wandered around into the different arenas. I tried to ask her to walk over everything I could and she did quite well with that, crossing over a cone on it's side and a few drain grills. We even ventured into the jump ring and stepped over a few cross rails, she did not even hesitate at that, just stepped right on over. I rode her back in the barn Sat night and untacked and lead her to the wash rack for a rinse off. She was very brave walking through the dark, crowded aisle of the barns.

Sunday morning we rode again and continued to explore the facility. I spent lots of time walking around on the rail to try and get her as comfortable as possible being close to it. She got better and better...until I decided it was a good plan to pick up a water bottle off the rail, that frightened her and we regressed a bit, but she gradually gained her confidence back. Ever since I had to treat her for the ticks she has been a bit afraid of bottles..I can not really blame her for it, but it is something we need to work through.

After our Sunday ride I hand walked her to her stall and she followed me bravely past the now loading up horse trailers and various objects still sitting around. We loaded up and headed home.

We used our Soft Ride boots this weekend too! Oh how I am so pleased with them. Lindsay does not seem to mind them one bit. The stalls are that hard clay, so I was so happy to have her cushioned boots for her to stand in. We used them on the trailer too and they worked wonderful. www.soft-ride.com These boots are really a must have for any show horse!

I think I forgot to mention we have been starting to learn to bow a bit. I asked her Thursday and within about 20 minutes she had it figured out! I could not believe it!! She does not know to "hold" the position yet, but she will willingly drop to one knee for me very well now. She is just brilliant!

I started riding Lindsay in a Bosal Tuesday. I love her in the snaffle, but I wanted to try her in the Bosal too. She likes to "work" the snaffle so much that her mouth never stops going..it's not as if she is chewing on it aggressively, or appears tense, it just like she "works" it all the time. It's not a problem, and really keeps her face soft and supple, but I thought I'd try a Bosal and just see her reaction. So far she is doing really well in it. It works off different parts of her face of course, so it's an adjustment, but she is taking to it rather quickly.

Our canter transitions are getting much better and she gives me her left lead very well now. She is actually a bit more collected to the left now than the right..go figure..we started the other way around. Now we are really working on cantering at a steady speed in a straight line. Our big ring has no fencing around it and she has a tendency to want to drift to the outside at the canter when I ask her to track straight. We worked in the small ring today that has a rail and that seemed to help her understand she could canter straight w/o drifting off laterally. I just have to remind myself that she Always is quick to learn if I explain things clearly. So when we run into things she does not understand I have to step back and think of a better, more clear way to explain to her what I want.

As far as the bottles, I have given her quite a few "Friends" in her stall. We started w/ one, but now she has about 6 various bottles tied with hay string all around her stall as well as a feed bag and an empty shavings bag. She seems to think they are silly and rather irritating at times, but she is starting to ignore them and not be frightened anymore. It's so funny how they are all so different...many horses would be playing with those bottles and ripping them off the hay string in a heart beat. Not Lindsay, that's never been her style...it's like she is "above" that silly behavior. I believe tolerating the bottles is about all she is going to offer and that is just fine, that's all we need.

I'm not looking forward to it, but I think I'll treat her again for the ticks in another few days. I can not see any in there, but I want to be sure I got them all.

For now it's lots of hosing down and standing in front of the fan during the day and riding late at night...or the sporadic morning ride every now and then.