Baby's First Show

I've been meaning to do a clinic recap, then I lose all motivation once I realize I have very little media since my phone got cold and died. I'm going to track down some, or get creative with Paint and do one though because the clinic was very interesting.

An organization just over an hour away is hosting a winter Fun & Fuzzy show series. I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to get Sullivan out and about. So I loaded him and Chase up in the dark on Saturday morning, stopped and picked up a friend who's mare needed some show miles, and we were off.

It took us quite a bit longer to get to the arena than anticipated as the roads were icy and it was further away than we were originally told. Thankfully Chase is the best babysitter and requires absolutely no time to settle in. Since Chase was unconcerned and stuffing his face from the hay bag, Sullivan settled in within minutes as well. I was able to leave them while I finished up my registration and when I returned they were both still content.

Babysitter extraordinaire!

I had signed up for Halter (2 and under), Showmanship and In-Hand trail. I went into the day with no real expectations. This was the first time Sullivan was in an arena by himself (he's been to two other indoors, once for his foal inspection and once to the barn where Dee lives to romp with Chase). He was surprisingly good. Standing still is a skill we obviously need to work on, but as long as he was moving he was stellar.

He's such an ugly duckling right now.

We were allowed to school the trail obstacles for about 10 minutes before the class. He led quietly across the "bridge" (just a simple piece of plywood), backed through the "L" and had no issues with the gate. The only part we really struggled with was the trot poles. Now this horse has seen plenty of trot poles, he's even jumped little cross-rails in hand. But on this day it was a challenge. The first time through he leaped over all 3 poles. My friend made the smart crack, "Well, you did breed him to be a jumper" which the audience found endlessly entertaining. The second time though he treated the 3' trot poles like canter poles and he was so proud of himself he landed bucking and kicking and generally playing around. Unfortunately the #littleasshole managed to land a solid kick to my upper thigh. A mild reprimand was all it took to get him back under control. A few more times through the poles and he was trotting quietly.

Fuzzy indoor iPhone pictures :)

Overall, he was much better behaved than I expected. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can go to a few more in this series.