The Moody Mare: We are the champions!

Well that happened!

Fair is over, and I survived. It was hectic and completely tiring, but worth it. A lot happened, and I will leave you with this recap of the classes before I relax. More to come!

Haul in - Two hours for Ypke, 2 seconds for Jethro.

Jethro's Green horse showmanship - The little man did AWESOME! He was on his very best behavior and did everything great, but I forgot the pattern and screwed up a bit. Despite that, we walked away with a grand champion rosette and red flat! Even though we were the only pair in the class, I do think that I deserved the red flat and he deserved the grand champion. He is an awesome little dude.

What a dandy

Jethro's costume contest - The 'lil man dressed up as a manly harvest fairy and won the special award for his personality and a blue flat. He is one of the first, if not the very first, donkey at our fair and everyone was obsessed. We literally had to bulldoze our way out since there was a sea of people waiting to meet him. Little kids were running up behind him while waving balloons and screaming while others pulled on his ears and tail. The little dude was so tolerant and just stood there.

Ypke's showmanship - Let's just say that I was "that person." It was awful. She was prancing around every which way, neighing, and was not listening to me at all. I was very confused about the pattern and freestyled it. I knew we didn't stand a chance at all, so I was just like, "Screw it, this is how it is going to be," and went this way and that during our pattern. Unfortunately, the judge just couldn't follow the greatness of it all and we came in ninth out of eleven. I don't know how people managed to place below us, but whatever.

Ypke's walk/trot English equitation - I went through heck and back getting into that class. The cheek pieces on the headstall somehow got twisted and Ypke had a meltdown over that. I had to do an emergency bridle change, and then she got loose. Luckily a kind lady helped me out, and Ypke didn't go far. I was a complete mess after that ordeal and Ypke was being high-strung, but luckily my trainer swung by and really helped me through it. With a mere two minutes left before the class, I quickly warmed up,and completely forgot to put on my gloves and ratcatcher/collar. Oh, and I also dropped my black show coat in the dirt, so I guess you could say I looked like a ratchet mess going in there.

Once in the ring Ypke was a little superstar, and everything went smoothly with no issues. The judge docked me down for "inappropriate apparel" (missing ratcatcher/collar) and picking up the wrong diagonal once. She also said my legs were rather far behind me. We pulled away with a grand champion rosette and red flat.

Pretty much my equitation was bad, my apparel was a mess, and Ypke did great.

Ypke's walk/jog Western equitation - This time I was against numerous other people. I rode Ypke in her snaffle with two hands and thus was marked down some points right from the start. When we were asked to trot our horses, Ypke stopped and urinated. What a great way to start a ride in the ring! Luckily we did great after that and nailed everything. Ypke did a great slow western jog and completed the pattern flawlessly. We won a blue flat and grand champion. To make it sweeter, I wasn't nervous at all during this ride.

Dressage - They ran this way ahead of time and I had all of 5 minutes to tack up, get dressed, and head to the ring for our Intro B test. I rode her in a French link snaffle that I had only ever ridden her in once (and it went AWFUL that one time). I didn't get to warm up at all and pretty much mounted up and went into the ring immediately. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous at all.

Ypke really wanted to move out, but she was listening well. The judge said we had soft transitions, quiet cues, nice impulsion, and were overall very straight (also- my leg was not too far back behind me!) However, we do need to work on adding more bend in our corners and circles - something I have never really thought about or focused on. We received a blue flat and grand champion.

Photography - I won reserve grand, the special award, and the fair theme award. All of my other photos received blue flats.

Public presentation - I did this on therapeutic donkeys and received a blue flat and grand champion.