In August I am taking my 3 year old pony mare to a week long show(it is an open pony show held at the county fair we only show on one day but stay from Sunday to Saturday) My mare tends to be buddy sour, she will pace the fence line and scream when left alone in the pasture or stall, but is fine if we take her away from the other horses as long as there is a person she knows somewhere near her. Her companion is a 14 year old Miniature horse who has a badly overgrown hoof(at the moment she is companion only but once we get her hoof back to normal she may be able to do more) who really doesn't care but is defiantly more comfortable with one of her buddies around.
Hopefully by that time my appaloosa mare and foal will have sold and I will be down to the mini and my pony.
I can't decide if I should take both and put them in the same stall(we will have another stall if they can't handle being in the same stall and they are very large draft horse stalls) or leave the mini at home and take the pony. I'm not sure if she'll be better or worse with her buddy. And I can't take the mini home during the week if she's worse and can't bring the mini during the week.
I would say leave the mini at home. It's better to have her safe there in case something does happen, and you might not always have the option of taking the mini along if you decide to go to other shows with the pony, so why not get her used to it now.
Plus if the arena you'll be showing in is close to the stalls, the mini could call out to your pony during your class causing her to lose focus and get worked up. Posted via Mobile Device
i aqgree with everyone above, as i went to a horse show with my friends horse and she brought her other horse with that horse to keep her company and thats all she was doing. getting really worked up and nervous that her buddy was nieghing and looking for her.
You'll only be encouraging her buddy sour behavior if you take her companion to the show with you, which will make it even more difficult to take her places alone in the future.
I usually only take one horse of mine to a show. However, the last two I went to, I took two. The first time I took my mare to a show this year, I brought my gelding. However, this was a lesson for him, not for her, otherwise he'd have stayed home. I wanted him to get over being tied to the trailer while we walk away, and my mare had no real issues with this after the first 5 minutes. And actually, she wouldnt have cared at all, had he not been loud and acting up. Plus, I didnt care, I just go do fun western gaming stuff, didnt matter to me if we got ribbons or not. In the end he got over it, and was standing nicely whenever we returned for a drink after each event. I made the day a training session for him.
the second time, my mare was in season, and things were a nightmare. She was a total basket case, and he was a real jerk. He came along because a friend was riding him and he ended up throwing her off that day. We went in for keyhole, and she went past the box, to the end of the arena to yell for him. and it was everything I could do to control her. Not an experience I wish to have again.
so I would say just take the pony, unless you wish to make a training session out of the trip
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