Masisllon Saddle Club Show, 8/7/16

                We’ve only been to a handful of shows this year, mostly chasing points at VCSC.  I was hoping to get to the Ashland Paint & Plain shows, but that just didn’t happen (not having my own trailer is really frustrating sometimes!).  So, I decided we could use some extra practice on Sunday.  We headed to the Massillon Saddle Club Pleasure show, and I was very happy with how Lex did. 

                I was very surprised when I got Lex off the trailer-he just looked around once, then started munching through his hay bag.  He was completely calm and relaxed.  I decided to lunge him and ride around, since there were woods by one end of the arena.  He needed a few times going by there before he was completely comfortable with the trees and sounds of the birds!  I decided to put him in a schooling class before any of our actual classes started, and I’m starting to notice a few things about our classes.  First of all, Lex is learning to listen to the announcer.  He will change gaits based on when the announcer starts speaking.  This is a really bad habit to develop, and it’s really hard to break.  We will definitely have to work on this.  Secondly, Lex does not like standing in the lineup after the class is over.  He wants to be the first horse to leave the arena, and if he’s not, he starts to get antsy.  We definitely need to do some work on this also.  Lastly, I need to work with him on maintaining his speed in each gait.  He likes to rush, because he thinks the faster he goes, the sooner he will be done.  That is not how it works at all, but I have yet to convince Lex of that!  He’s so ornery and too smart for his own good.  He’s lucky he’s cute! 

                We still have some work to do, but Sunday was a nice, relaxed, fun show day.  Our classes were all bunched together instead of spread out over the whole day, and it was nice to be finished and then able to relax and just enjoy the show day.  It was pretty hot on Sunday and there was no shade at the showgrounds.  Lex drank one 5 gallon bucket of water, and I kept his full-body fly sheet on him all day.  He was still very hot and sweaty, but I was out of ideas to keep him cool.  At our next show, I will take a pop-up canopy and try to get him to stand under that to keep the sun off of him.  What do you usually do to keep cool on show days?

                P.S. Here’s a cute picture of Stubbs enjoying some ice cream after a hot show day!

                Also, this is really how Andrew & Stubbs spend show days….