Horses Sneeze At All The Worst Times

Last Saturday I had my county fair horse show. Naturally I didn't get to sleep for hours and hours the night before, and then had really creepy dreams that woke me up. Then we woke up at about 6, when it was still pitch black and started washing horses. We had done all the trimming of mane and tails earlier, along with some of the washing. I'm sure we had a five gallon bucket full of horse hair when we were through, and I was certain my lovely black gelding was going to come out of it bald, but he actually ended up looking better than ever.

We got to the show at 8 and it was actually raining, which was really strange, because usually we cook all day during the show. You know, dark blue jeans, and long sleeved white shirts. Not the coolest outfit in the world. We had the horses all clean and neat, and us girls were all spiffy looking. And my horse sneezed. All. Day. Long. My horses eat green hay. And that stuff gets in their nose when they eat. And when you're showing a horse, 90% of the time, you are standing in front of their head. So every time he sneezed, he nailed me. All over my white shirt. Thank goodness the judges can't take away points for horse boogers on shirts. Because I would have come in dead last.

The first class I was in was a halter class for geldings age 3-6. I took my black horse, Flint. Everyone thought he was really pretty and wondered why I hadn't brought him before. Well...you can't take a stud horse to fair, and I refused to geld him until he was three. I really wanted to keep him a stud, but now I think I'm glad he's a gelding. My friend did yell at me though. She wanted to breed him to her mares I guess. Sorry. Having been a stud so long though, he really packed on the muscle and he won his class.
When we did the aged geldings class Minion 2 and her horse (that I trained for her, and love to death) took first, Minion 1 and her horse took second, and me and my little Woody horse took third. We thought that was pretty fun.
When we combined all of the gelding classes Minion 2 won the top horse out of them all, which thrilled me, because I've been arguing for years that the horse she took is the best of all of them. Now maybe people will listen to me. Probably not though.

Then we started the riding classes. For the first time in three years I had another girl to compete against in the senior class, which I really liked, because it's just no fun winning be default. I like to have to try, even if I get beat. The first class was for 2 and 3 year old horses that don't know anything. Flint was scared of some kids playing on the bleachers, so he was going a little faster than he should have, so I didn't win that class, but Minion 1 got first on my dad's little palomino, and my friend got second.
This was my last year in 4-H so I was really hoping to do okay. I hadn't got in very much practice at all, so I was a little nervous, but my dad told me to just stay calm and ride. So I tried it.
I was able to win the Western Pleasure, Reining, Trail (like a horse sized obstacle course), Barrel Racing, and Pole Bending. The girl I was competing against won the Horsemanship class. I usually prefer to win that one instead of the Pleasure class, because Horsemanship is where they judge the rider's skill, instead of the horses skill. She did beat me fair and square in that one though. She did the pattern a lot better than me. She also won in the Showmanship class by one point, which we thought was pretty neat.

At the end of the show they tally up all the points they give an additional prize to the winner in each age division. Minion 2 won by 1 point in the Junior division. It was the first time she's ever won the all-around prize, so we were thrilled for her. Minion 1 did really good as a rider, but for some reason her horse Lucky just wasn't cooperating with her, so she didn't win the all around, but she did win several individual classes. I won the Senior all around, and I was really happy with that as an ending to my 4-H career. The prizes were halters with engraved leather nose bands, which was really cool, since I am running out of belts to put my belt buckles on. It's a really cool halter that I would be able to show my horses in for the future.

So that's the conclusion to my fair days.