August 22, 2008

This weekend, I'm at a horse show. I had seriously considered bringing Billie, but have had all sorts of things come up the last three shows which caused me to not be able to go to them, that I decided to focus on MY show and not take the mustang. At this last Summer Circuit show each season, there is a hunter breeding class for yearlings. It's not that I'm really considering Billie for hunters that I was thinking of taking her, it was the experience of getting her away from home. But I've not attempted trailer-loading her or even tying her yet, so opted not to take her.

I got to watch the yearling event today, though. Who knows how she'd have done? And when it started, this giant gust of wind hit and made a lot of the horses bonkers.

This morning, I put a log in the round pen with Billie. I was thinking that each time I looked out at her, she was hanging out on the other side of the pen. Surely she was not afraid of it?! I went out later and had her approach me at that side, then step over the pole, and she was fine. She must have just been sunning herself!

I found out today that for the event, we need these basics: walk in hand, trot in hand, back up, walk over poles, pick up feed, and trailer load. I expect we'll have more than this to demo, but we have most of these down. Next week I'll try trotting in hand in the pen. I'm not sure when we'll try the trailer-loading--hopefully not the day we are trying to leave!