Show Today: CALMHS, Montgomery, AL

I’m going to a horse show today. It’s a live show. It has horses. It doesn’t have live horses.

Okay, enough cuteness.

I will be competing in my first model horse show: Central Alabama Live Model Horse Show. It’s a “live” show in that people bring their models to a physical location. The alternative is a photo show, where photos are mailed in while competitors stay home.

How are the models judged? How are the classes run? How will I know where to be when? Haven’t a clue. I’ve talked to folks. I’ve seen pictures of tables in show reports on Braymere Custom Saddlery. I’ve read “The ‘ABC’s’ of Model Horse Showing” by Tracy Tariska on the Breyer site as recommended by the show organizer. Still lost. Bearing peppermints, I shall respectfully throw myself on the mercy of the organizer and other competitors. I foresee no problems with this plan. These are my people. Horse folks are always willing to talk.

Who’s coming? Of mine, Spotted (actually a clean stunt double) and Mr. Spot. The are both Knabstruppers from the Schleich line. I’m also bringing about a dozen or so of the herd sent to me by a friend [Surprise]. This is the equivalent of pulling horses out of the field and saying, ‘Eventing sounds like fun. Let’s go.’

My goal is to have an adventure and get a blog post out of it. Win/win. If I do well, I will have a good time. If Spotted & I get thrown out on our ears for breaking every rule in the book, I will have a great story.

One thing I’ve learned already, getting the horses loaded is a lot less traumatic:

mh box backseat

~~~

Other model horses on Rodney’s Saga: All Hail Augustus Invictus, A Guest Post

State of the Blog: Lightning in a Bottle

[End-of-the-month commentary on blogging. List of previous.]

KW shares

Posted earlier this month, Why I Ride by Katie Wood is now my second most popular individual post, according to the WordPress stats. It was by far the most popular on Facebook.

In WP hits, it takes a backseat only to Watching the Tevis, July 21, 2013.

It beats out
Fotography Friday: Texture, March 16, 2012
Help Me Name My Horse, Prize Offered, April 12, 2012
Foto Friday: A Short Tribute to Amy Tryon, April 13, 2012

Facebook numbers for past posts have gone poof, but they weren’t anything like this.

The essay was an entry for a youth contest run by the state horse show association. As the winner, it was read aloud at the annual banquet. Upon hearing it, my first reaction was, ‘Oooh, nice story.’ This thought was quickly followed by, ‘Oooh, nice blog post.’ I got permission from Katie, text from her mom, & the okay to use family photos off Facebook. Up it went.

I spent the day watching the hits and shares climb solidly into the triple digits. These are NOT usual numbers for me. Initially, I got all kinds of excited and told a friend when it reached 14 Facebook shares.

All of the credit goes to Katie. The only thing I did was recognize a good thing when I heard it.

Bits From Hell

Saddle seat bits give me the creeping horrors.

Performance horses show in standard double bridles. The length of the shanks on the curb bits are midway between dressage and western, putting them midway between the two in severity. The bits on the work bridles for suit (performance) horses and on the everyday bridles for lesson horses are snaffles. Kind of. The twists and links and spikes fulfill every prejudice I ever had about saddle seat.

The horses are perfectly happy with these bits.

The lesson horses trundle along ignoring the flailing arms and yanking hands of their student passengers. The suit horses get on with their training. Some even prefer the work bridle to the double bridle. I’ve seen more horses resisting and pinning ears and tossing heads with riders sawing away on gentle eggbutt snaffles.

Nor are the saddle seat bits just for decoration. More than once, I’ve ridden a performance horse in a work bridle who refused to start strokin’ until I grabbed a big ol’ hunk o’ rein. I ask. They wait. I take hold. They say, ‘Okay, you’re ready, let’s do this.’

The more I ride, the more mystified I become.

Goldisnoot Revisited

buckets below
We have established that Milton likes his tea warm rather than hot [Goldisnoot]. At the end of last week’s cold snap, the water deliveryman provided reduced service for the final trip. Hot water placed next to cold leftovers.

No warm water for Milton. 😦

Instead, Milton took a sip of hot, then a sip of cold, then a sip of hot …

~~~
Odd angle photography brought to you courtesy of Charles Mann, author of Photographing and “Videoing” Horses Explained (Trafalgar 2006):

Mann cov

“One of the biggest mistakes I see photographers make is shooting only from their own eye level. I am usually the dirtiest one to leave a show or a photo shoot because I am always kneeling in the dirt – or even lying on my stomach – shooting up at my subjects.”
Get Down, Up or Over – Finding New Angles (p76)