Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Fair Report: Windsor County Agricultural Fair

Alternate titles:
"Dressage Divas gone wild"
"And now for something completely different"
"Ladies laissez-faire a la fair"
"Show horses shown-up"
"Flags???! We didn't practice this!"

We went to the Windsor County Agricultural Fair's horse show. A friend has been borrowing Huey on occasion. So Armani and I invited them. It was Huey's first time away from home since we bought him last year.

I thought it would be a fun, casual experience. We didn't have a clue what we were in for. We got the program when we arrived. Apparently we were competing in a gymkhana! Hmm - I wonder if we could pirouette through the key-hole?

Throw caution to the wind! We signed up for every event offered! We arrived just barely too late for "Egg & Spoon". Dang! We did Key Hole, Barrels, Flag Race, Pony Express etc. It was a very warm day. So after the first few minutes of nervous excitement, both horses snoozed between games.

We saw many quiet horses. We stood out a bit. The other horses were in western tack.

We met a few interesting people. We chatted with my barn-owner's neighbor whom we'd met before. We met a nice couple with a mother-and-son pair of Peruvian Pasos. We met another nice couple who were just there to watch. They said they watch many horse shows in the area. So perhaps we'll see them again. Armani liked getting his nose scratched by the lady. She had a dog brush with metal bristles. Guess what's on his Christmas list?

Both boys behaved very well. But boy were we shown up! We traded back and forth between second-to-last and last place in every event. But we had fun! Guess we'll need to practice before next year.

Armani runs around the barrels. At first he thought we run away from them.

Chugging to the finish line. Can't seem to find 3rd gear.

Huey hustles to the finish. He earned some praise for OTTBs from the crowd.
"What the heck is that?" 3.5 minutes on the flag race might be the new "World's Worst" record...
Huey shows Armani how we do flags.Happy losers

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a blast! I'll bet you had those Western folks shaking their heads! But it looks like a good time was had by all!

A Bay Horse said...

Ya we totally had fun! I'm pretty sure the other riders were thinking "What the heck are these silly English riders doing here?" But everyone was much too polite to say as much! All the competitors were really friendly.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your comment on my blog - I left you a response over there.

Grey Horse Matters said...

Looks like you all had a great day of fun and games. I love that kind of stuff.

Jen said...

I haven't seen a gymkhana in years - it's great to see someone competing from the right perspective! (as in a fun one :o)

Meghann said...

What a great show! I don't care if I finish last, as long as I learn something and have fun, you guys sure looked like you had fun! You looked great, the horses were turned out well and you all got to experience gymkhanas with each other - how fabulous!!
I can't wait to see more photos :)