well wish us luck!

Tomorrow with be my first show with Sonny....and to my knowledge, Sonny's first show also.

I spent a good 8-9 hours today at the barn practicing and getting him ready for the fair. We worked mainly on getting a slow trot, listening to my cues when asking to turn, and then my equitation.

Then I brought him in, gave him a goood bath, and then turned him out for a while. I originally was going to keep him in a stall all night long, but I thought he'd be too crazy and unhappy so he'll stay out all night.

We trimmed his legs, briddle path, and as much as his face as I possibly could. I believe that sometime in his past he had a horrible experience with trimmers cause he's petrified of them, but he seems to know what they are. His legs he gave no problems on at all, same with his ears, eyes, and briddle path...but he would NOT let us get to his nose. When he lowered his head and calmed down, we turned off the trimmers and ended it. We don't want to make him even more afraid than what he is now. I did some of his nose with a razor, but I only got half maybe. So tomorrow I'll touch it up with scissors to make it look halfway decent.

For tomorrow, all I have to do is give him a goooooooooood grooming, rewash his socks to make them all white again, apply the black hoof polish. Comb his tail and then load him.

I am probably going to enter three shows.
Western w/t equitation
Western w/t pleasure
Western w/t obedience.

Since it's our first shows I want to keep it slow. I'm not going to win, though it would be nice to come home with a ribbon but I doubt I will.

His mane is still too short to do anything with so I hope I won't get marked off for that...even though I don't think I would, but you never know.

So, please wish us luck! I'm kinda nervous that he'll act up and I won't want to show, but I'm sure it's just me and he'll be fine.

I got terrible sunburns today because I forgot to put sunblock on...and to make matters worse, my show clothes is red....so I'm going to apply alot of makeup to hide it and we should be good

I'll take LOADS of pictures and make sure my friends take loads of me and Sonny....some videos as well.

Here is a picture of Sonny all cleaned up



I'll take more pictures tomorrow




Also if anyone has any cool ideas for his mane let me know. I'm totally open. As long as it doesn't take too long to set up I'll see if it will work. Otherwise it'll stay the way it is

good luck! WE WANT PICTURES!!!

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do great.

Good luck! You have a good attitude going in. It'll be a great learning experience and I'm sure you'll have some good times. Don't be antsy between shows -- they're always late I'm sure you know. That's a great time to just pick around on Sonny's mane or whatever!

good luck Sonny! let us know how you go!

well it's 4:45 am and I'm tired, but gotta get ready. Makeup needs to be applied, outfit needs to get on...hair needs to get ready. Why do shows have to be early in the morning :(

I'll let everyone know how it goes and will put links to all the pictures (or all that don't turn out blurry).

I'll post an update probably tomorrow (after college......ickies)

ALRIGHT AN UPDATE YAY lol

Note: Pictures will come sometime tomorrow...I am wayyyy too tired to spend all the time uploading them...so sorries that will have to wait.

I am 400% pleased with how Sonny was today and I'm 10000000000000% proud of him. He loaded fine, he unloaded fine. NO SPOOKING AT ALL!
He was really calm and laid back and responded better at the show than at the barn lol

I entered 4 classes and got ribbons for each of them. The judge was really good and would disquality any rider (well not place them...or give them the lowest ribbon she could) if they were rough with their horse.

Below is a list of the classes I did...and how I placed
1) Western equitation w/t: fourth
2) Western pleasure w/t: third
3) Western obedience w/t: sixth (would have placed higher, but won't explain tonight)
4) Western pairs w/t: second wheeeeee

Sonny seemed like an old pro at showing and seemed to enjoy himself!!

Here's a picture to tied you all over till tomorrow ;)
Also more info will come tomorrow also...I'm about ready to pass out :(

Congratulations!!!! You really should be proud for doing well on your first outing!

An excellent beginning! Well done! Extra carrots and numies for Sonny.

oh don't worry...Sonny got extra treats and lots of hay for doing such a good job. He also seemed to enjoy all the attention everyone was giving him at the fair. "Look mommy a horsey!", "Can I pet your horse?" lol. His ears perked up when each person came up to say hi and he searched them over for treats lol.

On the obedience, I went in by accident thinking the judge told me to come in, but it wasn't me....the girl that should have gone in "played politics" (as the BOs mother said hehe) and stayed out....and she won second. But one of my friends won first in that division and I'm extremely happy for her!

For western pleasure I was totally and completely surprised that we got third. He was going way to fast in his trot, and he broke twice into a walk.

For equitation, my western hat wouldn't stay on so I kept having to catch it so it didn't blow off. So I think I was marked down for that. And if they judged Sonny at all on the way he looked, I wasn't able to trim his whiskers on his face because he wouldn't let me...so that was unshaven.

For pairs: Both my horse and my friend's horse Max (who won obedience) doesn't really get along. Sonny tries to beat up Max and this section was a spur of the moment thing. I thought for sure that we'd get last because our reverse wasn't even close to perfect. I was infront of Max and Max didn't really want to reverse. But all the same we got second.

Pictures:

























And that's it. We had a blast and next year we shall probably compete again!! Probably just w/t again because I want to perfect equitation in w/t before going on to w/t/c but who knows hehe

Hope you all liked the pictures!