This morning Rob and I loaded up Amanda and Huey to go to the UCONN 4H Tolland Agricultural Center for the annual CT State Horse Show. Amanda mostly wanted to go for the costume class. She loves to dress up that pony. But, I made her sign up for some walk trot classes too, and everyone has to do a showmanship class.
We had a discussion about whether she was staying with walk trot or doing walk trot canter classes. Considering Huey’s potential antics in a ring full of cantering horses, I lobbied we give Amanda a “glory year” and have her just stick with walk trot. We do not ride in the ring a lot and Amanda spent last week at 4H camp, leaving her a little tired still.
Saturday night Amanda and I washed Huey, first with Dawn soap (because he was filthy from all the rain lately), then with Zephyrs Garden Calm and Clean shampoo. That shampoo smells amazing!
Huey was great for warm up and Amanda did just fine at showmanship. The most hilarious moment was when Amanda forgot she was not supposed to move Huey’s legs like with a goat. She reached back and picked up his out of place foot and moved it into place. He tolerated it too! I guess she has been practicing with her goats a lot…
The walk trot classes went great. Amanda has matured as a rider and controls Huey better these days. He can be a challenging pony at times. Huey was a little bit impatient standing, hated the bugs and wanted to eat grass, but Amanda had no major issues. She got a first in Equitation, a second in Pleasure and a third in Discipline. She did win Walk Trot Champion overall. Time to move up next year!
We had a short break while WTC classes were going on after that and then we dressed Huey for the costume class. Amanda was a dragon rider atop her fire breathing dragon. We did buy the wings and viking helmet off Amazon, but the rest of the outfit was stuff we had laying around that we altered and put together. A sleazy, a rump rug, some felt from another project, some green cotton fabric, a sword and some additional things from previous Halloween costumes. Huey is such a good sport for allowing us to do this. They won the costume class.
Good half day at the show today, next year Amanda wants to show Huey driving as well, so that would be a longer day.
Meanwhile, at home, the teens took care of chores and did a long ride of 13 miles on Amira and Eli. They elected not to show and to spend time conditioning the horses instead
