hobbyhorse23
Well-Known Member
I am determined to get this done tonight since I won't have time tomorrow and then leave for the NEXT event on Friday. :new_shocked:
: That means for once I am going to skip the intro stuff except to say that as everything was still packed from Happ's it was pleasantly easy to get ready to go for once and that meant that while I left two hours later than I wanted to I still arrived in Spanaway by about 10:30 on Friday morning.
I've only attended one other AMHR show and wasn't sure if I needed to check in first or get measured so I took my paperwork and left Kody tied to the trailer in a shady spot as I marched off to find the show office and ask. Partway across the parking lot my interested gaze fell upon a certain bay gelding...hmm. I debated being cautious and then muttered "Oh, the heck with it. You know who it is." So I detoured towards the gentleman holding the lead and said "Hi, you must be Keith because that has got to be Mingus." He admitted that it was and I introduced myself, explaining that I knew Susanne from Lil' Beginnings and my horse Kody was tied up over at the trailer. He promised to inform Mingus's mommy that I'd said hello and I went over and took care of all the paperwork and got measured, etc. Now I was hoping to hide Kody from the public gaze as long as possible since it had been too cold to bathe him the day before and I hadn't even gotten him clipped yet. Ha! Like that was going to happen. Sure enough Susanne saw us as we headed over to our stall and I surrendered to the inevitable and allowed my dirty dusty hairball to introduce himself. Which, of course, he manages with no help whatsoever.
: In typical Kody fashion he neatly inserted himself into the center of the group, tried to snag a roll out of Susanne's hand, mugged her pockets for the treats he just knew she had, tried to eat Daryl's camera, was going to bug Keith except he left to distract Mingus on the other side of the trailer...all very politely of course! :lol: Actually he was being quite sweet. He stayed out of everyone's personal space with his body and kept his ears up and his lips gentle the whole time. Susanne gave him everything he could have wanted except the food, fawning over him and saying admiringly that his pictures did not do him justice and that he was beautiful. Kody ate it up like it was peppermint flavored.
:
She had her gelding halter classes coming up and I wanted to get Kody clean and clipped before his obstacle driving classes if possible so we went our separate ways with promises to chat later in the afternoon. I'd already said hi to Liz (nootka) in the barn where we shared an aisleway but Kody just had to mug her as he went by while Mouse stared wide-eyed like "Hey, look, another gelding! He's just like me only not so pretty or well-dressed!" I swear I heard Kody snicker and say "At least my mom doesn't make me wear makeup." :xkngt: Honestly, that horse. When Liz got a moment to come over and actually meet the little man she said that after all she'd read about him somehow she'd expected him to be bigger. I loved that and made a mental note to use it as a headline quote in Kody's online scrapbook. It's so him! His personality just overflows onto anyone in his immediate vicinity and he got a lot of comments over the weekend about how friendly he was and how he simply steps forward and introduces himself to any human who crosses his path. It occurs to me that "Larger Than Life" might make good Liberty music for him someday. :risa8:
Anyway, I parked him in the aisleway and did a fast job of making him at least somewhat presentable by clipping ears and whiskers, jawline and pasterns, and undercutting his mane to take out more of the bulk so it would flow a little better. He was still dirty but by then I'd heard Mingus's results called over the intercom and Mouse was off showing as well so I figured I'd better get the cart and harness unloaded and ready to go for my own classes which were after halter. Amazingly we got harnessed and hitched and dressed and warmed up in time for our walk-through and Liz kindly volunteered to head Kody while I examined the course. I had decided it was more important to be ready than to look fancy so I left his harness in it's CDE configuration and wore my in-hand outfit of white western shirt and black pinstripe vest with black nylon rain pants from REI to hide the fact I'd forgotten my slacks at home. Oops! LOL. I'd left a voice message with Mom asking her to bring them and the dress I'd forgotten when she came that night.
Open Obstacle driving was a difficult course and other competitors were heard to jokingly ask who had ticked off the designer. I went ahead and tried everything but I'd made up my mind before I went in that I wasn't going to do anything that would upset Kody and I was going to treat it as a training run and pretty much ignore the judges. He trotted the tight cloverleaf nicely and even managed the impossibly narrow serpentine of five or six cones at a trot but I didn't ask him to run the right wheel up on the very high and narrow piece of wood they called a "bridge" and we missed the flat metal bracket we were supposed to put the left wheel in, a foot and a sharp swerve later. He over-ran the end of the L we were supposed to stop by so instead of simply turning 90 degrees at a walk he had to crank the cart around and then try to back through the tight L. Backing around corners is not something we do well so I took it slow and simply asked that he stay calm and move over one step at a time when I asked him to. He actually almost did it except that he got rattled at the last moment and bumped the corner with a wheel and then stepped over the pole in front of him and started pawing it.
: The pivot was of course a disaster and then he wouldn't trot in the whopping two strides they gave us before we were to walk over the scary blue tarp with streamers on either side. I didn't force him and he went over the tarp with nary a glance and trotted to the outgate. Good boy! I was chagrinned that that was the first impression of him that Susanne and Keith and the McMasters and the Crabby Chickens (all of whom were in the stands) were going to get, but as Kim and Hillary pointed out later it was obvious that he was trying very hard to do what I'd asked and that we had a good relationship. I certainly appreciated the support as it was an odd feeling to have friends in the stands. Usually it's either just me or there are no stands at the events where I have friends! LOL
We got sixth of six and no ribbon under both judges, not surprisingly. Ammy Obstacle Driving was much the same except I think we actually got the wheel through the bracket at a walk and all you had to do was trot through the L. There were only two of us in the class and to my surprise it turned out the other horse had DQ'd and Kody and I got to have the blue! Woohoo! LOL. I shamelessly took a picture of our ribbons even though it's nothing to brag about.
I got him unhitched and staked out and found to my delight that I was going to have time to watch Mingus's Liberty go. I got some cute pictures of Mingus standing around waiting between his halter classes and Liberty, and the Liberty pictures are on Susanne's thread.
Equusize came over before Mingus's go and introduced herself as Nancy, I'm afraid finally had to admit I didn't know who she was and forum names were properly reintroduced to everyone's amusement. When Mingus did his Liberty run I liked the music Keith had composed but it was so relaxed and easy-going that it seemed Mingus was content to relax too. They unfortunately didn't get a ribbon but I'd like to see what happens if they ever used something involving Spanish guitar! I think Keith would look striking in one of those flat hats the Andalusian riders wear.
: We all chatted for awhile by the arena and then I dragged Mingus and his entourage back to the barn for a photo shoot. Kody was out back by the trailer but Nancy and her hubby got to meet Mouse and Lark and Kyan and Mingus got to give rides to Colton and Brandon and get a drink from Martin.
Doesn't he look gorgeous? He had his new Shetland halter on too.
Mouse was all wrapped up in his jammies so we didn't get a picture of the three geldings together but that's okay. I took both Keith and Susanne around in the Hyperbike and showed them the adjustments on it and Nancy and Daryl both took time to lift it up and exclaim over how light it was. Then it was off to the great outdoors and the still-dusty Kody!
He and Mingus made a striking sight, I only wish he'd been clean and more recently body-clipped. I thought this was the coolest photo.
Mingus gave Brandon another ride...
Then Kody had to take Colton because it just wasn't fair that Mingus was getting all the attention.
The McMaster clan had set up one of their jumps in the back so we meandered over that way and played with it. Mingus wouldn't cross it even on the lowest setting at first so we ended up removing the scary ground poles on either side and putting the bar on the ground to build his confidence, then slowly raising it. Once it looked like a jump again he went back to refusing so I got brave and offered to have him follow Kody across. Considering Kody is at best a green in-hand jumper himself I felt very daring! LOL. So there I wait facing the jump while Mingus circles around at a trot with Martin and then we're off. Kody is mildly distracted by this horse who is five inches taller than he is bearing down behind him but over he pops without hesitation and Mingus bravely follows. Yay, Kody and Mingus! Our audience cheers and both boys preen. After that Mingus had it all figured out and he was all over it, pun intended.
As Susanne said, Kody went back to more important things like eating grass and trying to check out the daisies the boys had been giving her.
The rest of us checked out Mt. Rainier.
Another mini started working over the rail and this experienced jumper decided to refuse the larger heights he was apparently used to. Over, and over, and over. He'd plow through it, knock the top rail off, refuse point-blank, run out, just about anything you could think of. I got to the point where I wanted to cover Kody's eyes and say "For once in your smart little life, do NOT learn by example!" They finally got him over it and I had a sudden spurt of bravery and decided to see if Kody would do it. He's gone over something I figured was close to that height before, it's the leading part he doesn't do well. I handed Daryl my camera and faced the hurdle and said "Come on Kody!"
And without hesitation, over he went.
:aktion033: He felt very macho and pleased with himself after that as Susanne fawned over him again and his mommy was clearly proud of him so he swaggered off to the trailer where we all sadly parted ways and Susanne and Keith left to go home. Kody did finally get his bath and his dinner and looked much the better for it.
The rest of the night is sort of a blur and that's probably a good thing considering it will save me some writing at 2AM. I know my mom showed up and we bought some panels from Estate Horse supply because Kody had decided that he was claustrophobic and couldn't stand being in his stall with the door closed. We had a visitor at one point who asked if that was Kody tied to the front of the stall, then admitted she was a Lil' Beginnings lurker and had seen our post about Happ's. I sat in the concrete aisle on my bum for awhile clipping the winter hair I'd never removed off of his legs and blacking his hooves for the first time, then got him into his jammies.
We jury-rigged the panel across the door with some bungies and rope and then went to bed.
Okay, time to shorten this story up. The next morning I got to watch Lark do some of her halter classes and got Kody ready to go for his first Jumper class ever. As it turns out I got him ready way too early and I took him out to the trailer to take a nap.
Does this braid make my butt look big?
When it was time for our class he didn't even hesitate at the scary patriotic jumps but our leading wasn't exactly refined and it cost us. There was one jump that he was willing to go over but he was just too far ahead of me and I had to pull him back in a circle, and another jump HE cleared but I hit the standard with my foot in a novice move and took the jump down! Yipes.
: So we got second out of two behind the horse who had had such problems the night before over the high jumps but was flawless over this course.
Kody, of course, could not pose nicely for our ribbon photo. No, he had to grab the ribbon and fling it around as usual. Little clown!
Our driving classes went fine but were nothing to brag about, he was looking like what he is which is a green training level dressage horse and not a mini country pleasure entry. I think we got one fifth out of two classes and that's okay. He did a good job for me and made progress which is the goal with every drive we take.
But then we had the fun class! I had decided that morning to post-enter Liberty, something we had never done before. I'd picked out music and brought it just in case but really hadn't thought I was going to do it. Finding out that to buy an ammy card I had to buy an AMHR membership I didn't need and couldn't afford had gotten me so frustrated I figured what the heck, I'd enter Liberty just to let off steam and see what happened. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? I free-lunge him in our little arena every time I get him out so we've practiced the whole chase-and-be-chased thing but I've never done it to music nor turned him loose in a strange arena. I didn't know if he'd try to roll (his one major fetish besides napping), hover by the gate, get confused, get so hyper I'd never catch him, or do one of his perfect circle-Mom-like-I'm-glued-to-her-by-an-invisible-lunge-line-and-then-half-pass-and-halt things. It was a total gamble.
We were tenth in the order of go out of eighteen and Kody was tired from his other classes and the heat. When Liz and I entered the ring he walked in quietly with his head down in western pleasure QH mode and I was wondering if he had any juice left at all. I wasn't sure what to do with the whip and halter so I dropped the whip in the dirt and waited for Mark to start the music. There it was! A lively rock tune by Bryan Adams off the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack started up and I pulled the halter and reached for the whip. Kody moved off and picked up a trot as I got the whip in my hands. The lyrics began: "So you think that you can take me on? You must be crazy..." He circled the gate with mild interest and headed up the rail in response to Liz's whipcrack. "There ain't a single thing you've done, that's gonna phase me...." I started to run at his hindquarters from the side, waving my whip with its tied bag, and realized why his eyes were dull even as I was doing it. I know better than to chase him! Kody only comes alive if I run with him like another colt. I turned the run parallel to him and started to match his stride and his eyes lit up and I knew we were about to have the time of our lives. I couldn't help it, I whooped. The audience joined in and Kody took off for the other end bucking and kicking and suddenly alive with fun. "Oh but if you want to have a go, I just want to let you knoooowww....Get off of my back, and into my game! Get out of my way, and out of my brain. Get out of my space or give it your best shot, but I think you'd better face the fact...Get off of my back!" Man, he was awesome. He galloped with his tail flagged, he switched directions, he used the whole arena, when the music slowed he threw his head in the air in my direction in challenge and broke to a flashy, elevated trot that he held for half a circle before breaking into a gallop and heading back the way he'd come in time with the next chorus of the music. I realized with a tiny distracted corner of my brain that I was running the whole ring with him instead of letting my helper do half the work but dang, I'm just so used to it I did it without even thinking. The judges must have thought I was crazy the second or third time I skidded to a halt by their stand and nearly fell trying to reverse as fast as the horse. :lol:
I slowed my chasing and managed to snag the halter as I ran by when I knew the music was about to end and Kody went into another of those lovely "Do you see how cool I am? You can't catch me!" trots at the far end of the ring. Suddenly there silence. I dropped into a crouch where I was and held out my hand and watched as Kody looked back over his shoulder and trotted around so he could see me. He met my eyes and broke into a gallop and I thought "Okay, he's going to buzz me and make at least one more lap or stop by the gate. He's way too jazzed to want to come in." He cut left around the judges stand at a full run, still holding my eyes, and I saw the moment he made the decision. I was like "He isn't. No way. Is he?" And he replied as clear as day "Oh yes I am!" He GALLOPED all the way to me at full speed and in a straight line, skidded to a halt exactly as far away as was respectful, half-reared and leapt slightly to the side to kill his momentum, then stomped his forefeet into the ground and stopped dead in front of me. :new_shocked: You could tell the audience was as incredulous as I was. I came out of my crouch and he started to walk past me but it was only because he was going to walk with me to the gate. I stopped and tapped his rump as it went by to get his attention and said "Whoa, Kody" and he flicked an ear back at me in confusion and stopped. He stood like a rock while I went to his head and with shaking hands got the halter buckled, then I stood back and slapped his neck in truimph and we trotted out in a big flurry of newly-flagged tail and prancing hooves.
I could not believe that run. Not only did he do everything textbook perfectly, not only did he match the rhythm of his music, his attitude matched the lyrics in a way that was eerie. The whole "you don't own me and can't make me, I'm my own horse, but I'll do it because you've earned my respect and I want to. I'm your equal" thing was exactly his flavor. I will not be able to beat that catch if I spent the rest of my life trying. I walked out of the ring thinking with shock that we had a real chance at the ribbons. And we did! We came out of our first liberty class with a fifth and a fourth out of eighteen experienced handlers and much better bred horses. And even better Martin had caught almost the entire thing on video so someday I'll figure out how to load it on the web for everyone to view. Mom and I spent the whole night on a total high and to my amusement as soon as we were out of the ring Kody went back to his head down, western pleasure stroll. I guess he's figured out when to turn it on and off!
That just made our entire show.
And as it is now 3:15AM and I have to work tomorrow I'm going to skip whatever else I had in mind to write except for pictures. I mostly wanted to share the socializing with LB members and that liberty run and I've done that so I'm happy.
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Susanne, please note I got a picture of Prince for you.
Here was Mouse showing off his Shetland halter on Sunday morning before his jumper class.
Kody got to try it on too before Liz bought it.
I'm sorry but I just have to ask- doesn't this remind you of a certain black-and-white-painted rockstar?
That pretty headshot of Kyan I promised.
This is what Kody and I looked like on Sunday after everything was finally cleaned, clipped, removed, added, or otherwise converted for mini showing. We even had a new velvet pad that although you can't see it had a gorgeous metallic blue center that matched my dress. The sun was so bright my eyes were watering if I tried to look at the camera so forgive the squinting.
Kim couldn't resist trying to tease Kody with the stuffed horse she'd won. He got her back though, he ripped Fiona's registration paper copy off the wall and tore a perfect impression of his mouth out of it after she'd gone home on Saturday!
To see all the pictures I uploaded you can go to this link: My Photobucket Album
There are more of Kyan, Kyan and Kody, Brandon and Colton, Mt. Rainier, Susanne, Mingus, and Kody napping (of course). I'll probably post a little more about Sunday morning after I get some sleep. Goodnight, all!
Leia
I've only attended one other AMHR show and wasn't sure if I needed to check in first or get measured so I took my paperwork and left Kody tied to the trailer in a shady spot as I marched off to find the show office and ask. Partway across the parking lot my interested gaze fell upon a certain bay gelding...hmm. I debated being cautious and then muttered "Oh, the heck with it. You know who it is." So I detoured towards the gentleman holding the lead and said "Hi, you must be Keith because that has got to be Mingus." He admitted that it was and I introduced myself, explaining that I knew Susanne from Lil' Beginnings and my horse Kody was tied up over at the trailer. He promised to inform Mingus's mommy that I'd said hello and I went over and took care of all the paperwork and got measured, etc. Now I was hoping to hide Kody from the public gaze as long as possible since it had been too cold to bathe him the day before and I hadn't even gotten him clipped yet. Ha! Like that was going to happen. Sure enough Susanne saw us as we headed over to our stall and I surrendered to the inevitable and allowed my dirty dusty hairball to introduce himself. Which, of course, he manages with no help whatsoever.
She had her gelding halter classes coming up and I wanted to get Kody clean and clipped before his obstacle driving classes if possible so we went our separate ways with promises to chat later in the afternoon. I'd already said hi to Liz (nootka) in the barn where we shared an aisleway but Kody just had to mug her as he went by while Mouse stared wide-eyed like "Hey, look, another gelding! He's just like me only not so pretty or well-dressed!" I swear I heard Kody snicker and say "At least my mom doesn't make me wear makeup." :xkngt: Honestly, that horse. When Liz got a moment to come over and actually meet the little man she said that after all she'd read about him somehow she'd expected him to be bigger. I loved that and made a mental note to use it as a headline quote in Kody's online scrapbook. It's so him! His personality just overflows onto anyone in his immediate vicinity and he got a lot of comments over the weekend about how friendly he was and how he simply steps forward and introduces himself to any human who crosses his path. It occurs to me that "Larger Than Life" might make good Liberty music for him someday. :risa8:
Anyway, I parked him in the aisleway and did a fast job of making him at least somewhat presentable by clipping ears and whiskers, jawline and pasterns, and undercutting his mane to take out more of the bulk so it would flow a little better. He was still dirty but by then I'd heard Mingus's results called over the intercom and Mouse was off showing as well so I figured I'd better get the cart and harness unloaded and ready to go for my own classes which were after halter. Amazingly we got harnessed and hitched and dressed and warmed up in time for our walk-through and Liz kindly volunteered to head Kody while I examined the course. I had decided it was more important to be ready than to look fancy so I left his harness in it's CDE configuration and wore my in-hand outfit of white western shirt and black pinstripe vest with black nylon rain pants from REI to hide the fact I'd forgotten my slacks at home. Oops! LOL. I'd left a voice message with Mom asking her to bring them and the dress I'd forgotten when she came that night.
Open Obstacle driving was a difficult course and other competitors were heard to jokingly ask who had ticked off the designer. I went ahead and tried everything but I'd made up my mind before I went in that I wasn't going to do anything that would upset Kody and I was going to treat it as a training run and pretty much ignore the judges. He trotted the tight cloverleaf nicely and even managed the impossibly narrow serpentine of five or six cones at a trot but I didn't ask him to run the right wheel up on the very high and narrow piece of wood they called a "bridge" and we missed the flat metal bracket we were supposed to put the left wheel in, a foot and a sharp swerve later. He over-ran the end of the L we were supposed to stop by so instead of simply turning 90 degrees at a walk he had to crank the cart around and then try to back through the tight L. Backing around corners is not something we do well so I took it slow and simply asked that he stay calm and move over one step at a time when I asked him to. He actually almost did it except that he got rattled at the last moment and bumped the corner with a wheel and then stepped over the pole in front of him and started pawing it.
We got sixth of six and no ribbon under both judges, not surprisingly. Ammy Obstacle Driving was much the same except I think we actually got the wheel through the bracket at a walk and all you had to do was trot through the L. There were only two of us in the class and to my surprise it turned out the other horse had DQ'd and Kody and I got to have the blue! Woohoo! LOL. I shamelessly took a picture of our ribbons even though it's nothing to brag about.
I got him unhitched and staked out and found to my delight that I was going to have time to watch Mingus's Liberty go. I got some cute pictures of Mingus standing around waiting between his halter classes and Liberty, and the Liberty pictures are on Susanne's thread.
Equusize came over before Mingus's go and introduced herself as Nancy, I'm afraid finally had to admit I didn't know who she was and forum names were properly reintroduced to everyone's amusement. When Mingus did his Liberty run I liked the music Keith had composed but it was so relaxed and easy-going that it seemed Mingus was content to relax too. They unfortunately didn't get a ribbon but I'd like to see what happens if they ever used something involving Spanish guitar! I think Keith would look striking in one of those flat hats the Andalusian riders wear.
Doesn't he look gorgeous? He had his new Shetland halter on too.
Mouse was all wrapped up in his jammies so we didn't get a picture of the three geldings together but that's okay. I took both Keith and Susanne around in the Hyperbike and showed them the adjustments on it and Nancy and Daryl both took time to lift it up and exclaim over how light it was. Then it was off to the great outdoors and the still-dusty Kody!
He and Mingus made a striking sight, I only wish he'd been clean and more recently body-clipped. I thought this was the coolest photo.
Mingus gave Brandon another ride...
Then Kody had to take Colton because it just wasn't fair that Mingus was getting all the attention.
The McMaster clan had set up one of their jumps in the back so we meandered over that way and played with it. Mingus wouldn't cross it even on the lowest setting at first so we ended up removing the scary ground poles on either side and putting the bar on the ground to build his confidence, then slowly raising it. Once it looked like a jump again he went back to refusing so I got brave and offered to have him follow Kody across. Considering Kody is at best a green in-hand jumper himself I felt very daring! LOL. So there I wait facing the jump while Mingus circles around at a trot with Martin and then we're off. Kody is mildly distracted by this horse who is five inches taller than he is bearing down behind him but over he pops without hesitation and Mingus bravely follows. Yay, Kody and Mingus! Our audience cheers and both boys preen. After that Mingus had it all figured out and he was all over it, pun intended.
As Susanne said, Kody went back to more important things like eating grass and trying to check out the daisies the boys had been giving her.
The rest of us checked out Mt. Rainier.
Another mini started working over the rail and this experienced jumper decided to refuse the larger heights he was apparently used to. Over, and over, and over. He'd plow through it, knock the top rail off, refuse point-blank, run out, just about anything you could think of. I got to the point where I wanted to cover Kody's eyes and say "For once in your smart little life, do NOT learn by example!" They finally got him over it and I had a sudden spurt of bravery and decided to see if Kody would do it. He's gone over something I figured was close to that height before, it's the leading part he doesn't do well. I handed Daryl my camera and faced the hurdle and said "Come on Kody!"
And without hesitation, over he went.
:aktion033: He felt very macho and pleased with himself after that as Susanne fawned over him again and his mommy was clearly proud of him so he swaggered off to the trailer where we all sadly parted ways and Susanne and Keith left to go home. Kody did finally get his bath and his dinner and looked much the better for it.
The rest of the night is sort of a blur and that's probably a good thing considering it will save me some writing at 2AM. I know my mom showed up and we bought some panels from Estate Horse supply because Kody had decided that he was claustrophobic and couldn't stand being in his stall with the door closed. We had a visitor at one point who asked if that was Kody tied to the front of the stall, then admitted she was a Lil' Beginnings lurker and had seen our post about Happ's. I sat in the concrete aisle on my bum for awhile clipping the winter hair I'd never removed off of his legs and blacking his hooves for the first time, then got him into his jammies.
We jury-rigged the panel across the door with some bungies and rope and then went to bed.
Okay, time to shorten this story up. The next morning I got to watch Lark do some of her halter classes and got Kody ready to go for his first Jumper class ever. As it turns out I got him ready way too early and I took him out to the trailer to take a nap.
Does this braid make my butt look big?
When it was time for our class he didn't even hesitate at the scary patriotic jumps but our leading wasn't exactly refined and it cost us. There was one jump that he was willing to go over but he was just too far ahead of me and I had to pull him back in a circle, and another jump HE cleared but I hit the standard with my foot in a novice move and took the jump down! Yipes.
Kody, of course, could not pose nicely for our ribbon photo. No, he had to grab the ribbon and fling it around as usual. Little clown!
Our driving classes went fine but were nothing to brag about, he was looking like what he is which is a green training level dressage horse and not a mini country pleasure entry. I think we got one fifth out of two classes and that's okay. He did a good job for me and made progress which is the goal with every drive we take.
But then we had the fun class! I had decided that morning to post-enter Liberty, something we had never done before. I'd picked out music and brought it just in case but really hadn't thought I was going to do it. Finding out that to buy an ammy card I had to buy an AMHR membership I didn't need and couldn't afford had gotten me so frustrated I figured what the heck, I'd enter Liberty just to let off steam and see what happened. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? I free-lunge him in our little arena every time I get him out so we've practiced the whole chase-and-be-chased thing but I've never done it to music nor turned him loose in a strange arena. I didn't know if he'd try to roll (his one major fetish besides napping), hover by the gate, get confused, get so hyper I'd never catch him, or do one of his perfect circle-Mom-like-I'm-glued-to-her-by-an-invisible-lunge-line-and-then-half-pass-and-halt things. It was a total gamble.
We were tenth in the order of go out of eighteen and Kody was tired from his other classes and the heat. When Liz and I entered the ring he walked in quietly with his head down in western pleasure QH mode and I was wondering if he had any juice left at all. I wasn't sure what to do with the whip and halter so I dropped the whip in the dirt and waited for Mark to start the music. There it was! A lively rock tune by Bryan Adams off the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack started up and I pulled the halter and reached for the whip. Kody moved off and picked up a trot as I got the whip in my hands. The lyrics began: "So you think that you can take me on? You must be crazy..." He circled the gate with mild interest and headed up the rail in response to Liz's whipcrack. "There ain't a single thing you've done, that's gonna phase me...." I started to run at his hindquarters from the side, waving my whip with its tied bag, and realized why his eyes were dull even as I was doing it. I know better than to chase him! Kody only comes alive if I run with him like another colt. I turned the run parallel to him and started to match his stride and his eyes lit up and I knew we were about to have the time of our lives. I couldn't help it, I whooped. The audience joined in and Kody took off for the other end bucking and kicking and suddenly alive with fun. "Oh but if you want to have a go, I just want to let you knoooowww....Get off of my back, and into my game! Get out of my way, and out of my brain. Get out of my space or give it your best shot, but I think you'd better face the fact...Get off of my back!" Man, he was awesome. He galloped with his tail flagged, he switched directions, he used the whole arena, when the music slowed he threw his head in the air in my direction in challenge and broke to a flashy, elevated trot that he held for half a circle before breaking into a gallop and heading back the way he'd come in time with the next chorus of the music. I realized with a tiny distracted corner of my brain that I was running the whole ring with him instead of letting my helper do half the work but dang, I'm just so used to it I did it without even thinking. The judges must have thought I was crazy the second or third time I skidded to a halt by their stand and nearly fell trying to reverse as fast as the horse. :lol:
I slowed my chasing and managed to snag the halter as I ran by when I knew the music was about to end and Kody went into another of those lovely "Do you see how cool I am? You can't catch me!" trots at the far end of the ring. Suddenly there silence. I dropped into a crouch where I was and held out my hand and watched as Kody looked back over his shoulder and trotted around so he could see me. He met my eyes and broke into a gallop and I thought "Okay, he's going to buzz me and make at least one more lap or stop by the gate. He's way too jazzed to want to come in." He cut left around the judges stand at a full run, still holding my eyes, and I saw the moment he made the decision. I was like "He isn't. No way. Is he?" And he replied as clear as day "Oh yes I am!" He GALLOPED all the way to me at full speed and in a straight line, skidded to a halt exactly as far away as was respectful, half-reared and leapt slightly to the side to kill his momentum, then stomped his forefeet into the ground and stopped dead in front of me. :new_shocked: You could tell the audience was as incredulous as I was. I came out of my crouch and he started to walk past me but it was only because he was going to walk with me to the gate. I stopped and tapped his rump as it went by to get his attention and said "Whoa, Kody" and he flicked an ear back at me in confusion and stopped. He stood like a rock while I went to his head and with shaking hands got the halter buckled, then I stood back and slapped his neck in truimph and we trotted out in a big flurry of newly-flagged tail and prancing hooves.
I could not believe that run. Not only did he do everything textbook perfectly, not only did he match the rhythm of his music, his attitude matched the lyrics in a way that was eerie. The whole "you don't own me and can't make me, I'm my own horse, but I'll do it because you've earned my respect and I want to. I'm your equal" thing was exactly his flavor. I will not be able to beat that catch if I spent the rest of my life trying. I walked out of the ring thinking with shock that we had a real chance at the ribbons. And we did! We came out of our first liberty class with a fifth and a fourth out of eighteen experienced handlers and much better bred horses. And even better Martin had caught almost the entire thing on video so someday I'll figure out how to load it on the web for everyone to view. Mom and I spent the whole night on a total high and to my amusement as soon as we were out of the ring Kody went back to his head down, western pleasure stroll. I guess he's figured out when to turn it on and off!
That just made our entire show.
And as it is now 3:15AM and I have to work tomorrow I'm going to skip whatever else I had in mind to write except for pictures. I mostly wanted to share the socializing with LB members and that liberty run and I've done that so I'm happy.
Susanne, please note I got a picture of Prince for you.
Here was Mouse showing off his Shetland halter on Sunday morning before his jumper class.
Kody got to try it on too before Liz bought it.
I'm sorry but I just have to ask- doesn't this remind you of a certain black-and-white-painted rockstar?
That pretty headshot of Kyan I promised.
This is what Kody and I looked like on Sunday after everything was finally cleaned, clipped, removed, added, or otherwise converted for mini showing. We even had a new velvet pad that although you can't see it had a gorgeous metallic blue center that matched my dress. The sun was so bright my eyes were watering if I tried to look at the camera so forgive the squinting.
Kim couldn't resist trying to tease Kody with the stuffed horse she'd won. He got her back though, he ripped Fiona's registration paper copy off the wall and tore a perfect impression of his mouth out of it after she'd gone home on Saturday!
To see all the pictures I uploaded you can go to this link: My Photobucket Album
There are more of Kyan, Kyan and Kody, Brandon and Colton, Mt. Rainier, Susanne, Mingus, and Kody napping (of course). I'll probably post a little more about Sunday morning after I get some sleep. Goodnight, all!
Leia
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