Our second FEH show

So I let Dan have a week off after the FEH show at the ARK. We didn't really work on anything, but he still had to behave for the daily stuff. Well, that might have been a bad idea. I finally decided that since the second show was coming up quick... I should get back to work. Unfortunately real work got in the way. But we got to it... and Dan was a big ol' butthead!!! He just didn't want to cooperate and only wanted to play. Sigh... So we tried again the next day and made a bit more progress. But it wasn't looking good for the show. They did have a professional handler, and I struggled with the decision on whether to use the pro or do it myself. Part of me wanted to do it myself. That's the whole point right? I mean, I'm not showing him to sell him or even for his show record. It's the whole bonding experience. To get Dan out and about and exposed. BUT.... it might be nice to see if the pro could do a better job than me. I really went back and forth pretty much up until 2 minutes to "post"! I finally decided to just man up and do it myself because the whole reason for doing it was to have US do it together. Probably not a good idea. Oh well... I'm not sure it wouldn't have gone much better with the pro. He was just naughty. I mean, he wasn't horrid.. except during the actual Judged part. ha!

 

He was decent for his bath at 0-dark-thirty. He was decent hauling by himself and then with May. He was decent for his braids, which did NOT look good. Last time they were too long. This time they were too short and kept popping apart! Oh well. But then it started falling apart. I think that there are some things I could have done that would have made it better, but I'm not sure that they were options. They put us in stalls and pretty much told us to stay put until it was our turn. Which... I understand... you don't want a bunch of babies running around getting each other riled up. And last year, that was the case. But.. that meant that Dan was locked in a stall, freaking out about May leaving him, and then he had no "warm up". I think if I could have jogged him around a bit and loosened him up... he would have been more wild?!? hee hee.. I don't know. I think it would have helped May for sure.. maybe not Dan so much. But anyways, he was okay but screamed for May the whole time. He stood still for a few minutes then started dancing and knocking over flower pots. Argh. Then we really didn't even walk the triangle. He sorta jigged it. Then our attempts to trot the triangle resulted in him cantering and spinning around me in circles. We finally got a few strides of trot and gave up.  But then... little turd.... I walked him back to the stall and he walked, stopped, trotted, stopped all in hand BEAUTIFULLY down the lane to the barn and past the barn. Really baby horse? Really?! I honestly think it's not that he doesn't know what to do. It's that he just wants to show off. Only he plays instead of showing off that lovely trot of his.

Sigh... so we got last place. 6th out of 6. The funny thing is... he got better scores on his comformation from this judge, so had he cooperated, he probably would have done better. We ran into the judge as he was leaving and thanked him. He said that he would have scored Dan better but he didn't really ever walk or trot.. so he couldn't judge us. Then he said "You know, you really ought to practice with him.. so he knows what to expect". Really dude? I almost kicked him. Argh... Oh well....

I do think hormones may be playing a role, so...after he was so naughty at home that Thursday... I called UGA Friday morning and made an appointment for him to be gelded. Ha!!! Take that Danaroo!

But anyways.... I was a little frustrated... and I'll admit it... I had myself a little cry over it. Not sure why, but... I did. BUT... a friend made me laugh.. she said that Dan was practicing for his XC. I thought, you know... they did say Future EVENT HORSE... which means cantering and jumping and galloping... So Dan was showing it off!