"It's cold. Its really, really cold." Thats all you are thinking when arrive with the truck and the trailer in the early morning at the show. Snow is on the ground, and you can't really remember when you felt your fingers or toes last. Your saddle and bridles are stiff. You unfortunately forgot to bring your bridles inside last night, so you pull your barely warm hands out of their mitten cocoons and try to warm the bit. Hopefully you can get in the saddle soon so you can begin to forget this cold.
In the northern regions, and even some middle states you have one option to avoid "barn-fever". If you don't have a ton of money and a horse that competes at high levels, Fuzzy Shows are what you are restricted to for the next 4 months. With the economy like it is, and prices of horse shows still high, the open show circuit attracts a lot of competition. Good competition. For some, it means that even these shows will land their horse out of the ribbons. I am looking forward to see who will be coming to the Fuzzy Shows this year.
I am SO thankful for Fuzzy Shows. I am competitive. I love to have a goal to work for with my horse. I think he also enjoys going and competing. I love that I don't have to get up at 5am to get the horse on the trailer and ready, but I also love the laid back atmosphere.
Now laid back doesn't mean that my horse doesn't look like he is ready to go to a show. My trainer has taught me that it is called a SHOW for a reason. You are there to SHOW OFF. If your horse shows up to compete and looks like you just pulled off his mud encrusted blanket, it reflects badly on you all year round.
The judge is there taking this seriously, and so should you!
No comments:
Post a Comment