Lil' Horse Lover
Well-Known Member
A couple weeks ago our town had it's Sandpoint Winter Carnival. Lots going on downtown. Well this year they decided to add something different and added Skijoring (where a horse and rider pulls a skier through a course trying to get the fastest time). I thought it'd be cool to take Spirit down for the event, he hasn't been "out" since last summer so I figured it'd be good for him to get out and see how he'd do. The most challenging part was getting him clean, which, him being mostly white made it seem almost impossible. After an hour or so (and lots of waterless shampoo) he was ready to go. We loaded him up in my Ford Explorer and headed to the fairgrounds for the first day of the event (saturday and sunday). We got there, unloaded, and headed towards the arena. With all the stopping to let people pet Spirit we finally got to the arena after about a half an hour (its usually like a few minute walk lol). They were already running through the teams. Spirit was feelin' a little frisky so I decided to take him behind the bleachers and let him run around in the snow, while I was doing that a man named Matt (the man in charge of the event) came up to me and asked me if I would bring Spirit out in the arena and lead him around and let him show off a bit for the crowd. Well we never did make it to the arena that day, things were just too crazy but after the event that day was over Matt came up to me again and asked if Spirit would be able to pull his little 4 yr old boy Avery around the track (no jumps, just where the horses run) after the National Anthem, just for fun and cause it'd be SO cute. Well Spirit has never pulled ANYTHING behind him before, let alone a person on ski's. I told him that we could try it and see how Spirit would do. The plan was for Sunday after the National Anthem I would come out leading Spirit pulling this little boy around the whole length of the course (basically just making a big circle around the arena). Sunday morning came around and we were up bright and early getting Spirit ready to go, I put his blanket on him to help keep him clean and dry. We got the the fairgrounds and everyone was rushing around trying to get things ready. I told Matt I would need to see ahead of time if Spirit would even pull Avery so we'd need to practice a little bit before. Just minutes before the event was to start we got Spirit rigged up with a rope hitched to his blanket, and little Avery rigged up with his ski's. We didn't have much time so I had Spirit pull Avery about 10 feet (Spirit did great) and than it was time to head to the arena. After the anthem went it was our cue to head out. I wasn't sure how Spirit would do, being as he hadn't been out in a public place for months, there were lots of horses and people all over, and Spirit's only been in an arena setting a couple times, both times he was just turned loose to run around, and like I said before, he's never pulled anything behind him. Well we were off....I headed out into the arena having Spirit do a fast walk, Spirit didn't seem to notice that he had Avery behind him so I picked up the pace and had him going at a fast trot. We went around the arena and Spirit behaved perfectly the whole time, prancing with his head up and ears forward. You could tell he was enjoying himself. So we made our round and than got to watch the rest of the event, during the halftime break I was asked to take Spirit over to the grandstands and let anyone who wanted to pet him come on down. We were SURROUNDED by adults and kids for the whole time, Spirit was perfect and seemed to enjoy all the attention. Anyways, enough rambling on....heres a picture!
