Plus, my dh & the other dh that was here went out to start the fire in the fireplace. The wind kicked up & somehow a huge pile of brush nearby caught on fire really fast & was like 15 ft tall of flames. 3 trees caught sparks & started to flare up. Scared the living daylights out of me. They got it under control with the hose after awhile, but I was ready to call the fire dept. After about an hour, the fire was small enough to toast marshmellows. :)
Sunday, we had a 4H gymkhana horse show. Last week the show was not thru 4H. Anyway, 2 hours before we leave (and Hannah had been outside for an hour already getting everything ready for the 2 horses & pony we were bringing) one of Hannah's friends calls to see if she can come & can we bring a horse for her. My dh took the call & said sure without checking with me or Hannah.
All week long Hannah had been asking this friend if she was coming so we could plan which horses to trailer. We have 2 sets of horses. The 2 young ones & the pony. The 3 older horses. These 2 sets of horses don't mesh well-we've had hematomas, lacerations and a broken jaw to prove it. The friend isn't a good enough rider to ride one of the young horses & has to ride an old one. SO, the original plan (when we thought she was coming to begin with) was to bring Copper (young) and Retro (old). We have a stock trailer w/ a door in the middle. Put one in front, shut door. Put one in back, shut door. Saturday she said she was going to her riding team thing instead. Sigh of relief for me because we really wanted to bring Casey for his training & the pony to keep at the trailer to keep Casey calm when Copper wasn't at the trailer. For those with horses, you'll understand this. When we bring just 1 horse, that horse is fine. When we bring more than 1, there's separation anxiety.
So, Sunday morning she calls & says riding team wasn't happening because most of them were going to be at the 4H show. She never checked ahead of time. If I taken the call, I would have told her maybe next time as we already had the other horses washed, braided, tack ready, etc. So, we deal with it. We decide we have to leave the pony home. Our trailer can hold 4 horses positioned in a certain way if they all trailer well & get along. Copper dances in the trailer. Casey paws in the trailer. We tried putting Casey & Copper in the front half of the trailer. Copper swung his butt around & got it under Casey's head. Casey swung his butt around & tried to kick Copper with both back feet. We very quickly got them both out & pondered what to do. I'm angry about the whole situation, but trying not to show it in front of Hannah's friend. The only safe thing we could do was to take the young horses, leave them there w/ Hannah & Jonah. Then, go back to get Retro. So, 2 trips. The biggest problem with that is Pat had to leave the show early to go to work & I had to tow the trailer myself, which I can do, but don't really like to. My stomach was in knots all day knowing I had to tow the trailer.
So, we get to the show. Hannah's riding Copper mostly, so Casey had to stay at the trailer. The friend had Retro, but she needed help. Her parents didn't come. We had all our kids with us-including the 2 yr old. So, things are going pretty well, when someone else's horse gets spooked & breaks it's rope to the trailer, also breaking another horse's rope & freeing that one. The first loose horse didn't have it's saddle tightened, so it slid under it's belly & completely panicked the horse. It ran uncontrollably, bucking like crazy. Most of the horses were then acting up. It almost ran into Retro (who was actually very calm thru all this). The saddle broke, it fell off, but the horse left the fairgrounds at a gallop, crossing a road & went who knows where. People in pickups and people on horses went off in search of it. The fairgrounds are on the edge of town. Girls are crying. I look over at Retro & the friend is holding him totally oblivious to the fact that his saddle is now under HIS belly. He's such a good boy-it never bothered him. So, we got his saddle tightened up correctly. I'm holding Casey & he's spinning around me in circles w/ his tail up & whinnying wanting to get in on the excitement. Got him settled, the loose horse was caught and thankfully no one got hurt.
The show resumes. I have to hold Casey the whole time , though, because he was very upset about Copper leaving him to go to the arena. Alyssa was soaked & I was taking her to the car to change her with Pat now holding Casey. He was behaving well as long as we walked him around & he ate grass. We took him around all the sights, the other horses, the announcer's stand, etc. He's been to a different arena before, but it was last year & he's young & inexperienced still. So, I'm taking Alyssa to the car & the friend asks me if I can shorten her stirrups. If I set Alyssa down, she'd run under a horse-they were everywhere. I couldn't do it one-handed either. I asked her if she knew how to do it & she said, "sort of I guess." Pat couldn't do it since he was holding Casey (retro & casey don't get along). I told her to find Hannah for help. Every little thing was making me madder. If the pony had come, Casey probably would have been ok at the trailer. Anyway, the show goes on, the girls & horses had fun, they did well. Susanna did 2 leadline classes on Copper. This was a "fun show", so there were no ribbons given out. Here's Susanna on Copper w/ Hannah alongside. Susanna is holding a glass of water for this class-she ended up all wet, but since it was so hot she didn't care. :)
I was starting to feel panicky wondering what I was going to do when Pat left. I couldn't hold Casey & watch Alyssa at the same time. Jonah was helping me, but still. We also had drill team after the show at the same place & Hannah wanted to ride Casey for that. Well, Pat made the decision for me. He talked to Hannah about it & then he trailored Casey home. She rode Copper for drill, the poor horse. He was so tired & it got very hot that day. The 4H arena isn't that great & is very dusty, too. He was coughing by the end of the day. Here's a pic of Hannah waiting her turn for something & letting Copper have some grass:
After the show was done, the friend asks me if she can call her dad to pick her up. Hannah (who was also not happy about the events of the day) told her she needed to take care of Retro during her drill team practice. After awhile, though, I told her she could go. I just wanted less kids & Retro was good at the trailer, happy eating his hay. We left the house at 9:30am and got home at 7:00pm. We all were tired, hot, sunburned & dusty & knew we had a ton of cleaning, horse bathing & putting away of things to do when we got home. Got up at 5:30, got to bed at 10:30.
But, the positive points are I did fine trailering the horses home. It did not rain. Alyssa was so amazingly well behaved-thank you God. I couldn't believe how good she was-all day long. Susanna was also very good & never whined or got dramatic about anything. :) Jonah was very helpful, although, he had a mishap with Alyssa on the swings. He put her on a big kid swing & she fell off & smacked her chin-it's all red & purple today. Here's Alyssa before I changed her into shorts (the day started cool & looked like rain):
Lesson learned-no last minute horse changes the day of a show or even the night before-it's too stressful and it's too much work to begin with to add to it. Pat apologized & felt really bad that he had to leave me with all that. He left to get us subs for lunch & also bought enough so we could have them for dinner so I didn't have to deal with that, which was so thoughtful. I normally enjoy the shows & I didn't enjoy this one. That's important to me since it's also so much work to make it happen. So, I think we learned this lesson very very well. LOL
Weekend horse shows... so much fun, so much work, so many opportunities for accidents, sometimes lots of drama.
ReplyDeleteAlways memories. LOL
~Faith
Faith, that is a perfect way to sum it up!! :) Holly
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