Spontaneous open show

So this morning my friend S and I loaded up our young horses - Hampton and Lilly (the Walker I sometimes write about) and headed down to the local fairgrounds for an "open show."

And by "open show" I mean "complete and utter clusterf*uck." Read on.

The goal was merely to give the horses a nice relaxing experience off the farm. Lilly has never left the farm and I felt Hampton could use another trip just for fun.  I entered two classes. Both walk-trot. :)

The both loaded and traveled well and when we got there, Hampton tied to the trailer (first time ever) and stood like a gentleman. Lilly was a big bug-eyed but eventually settled to graze.

As far as the riding goes, there was a lot of screaming at first. Hampton was tense and nervous. I just ignored him and went on with my business. By the end of the day, he was relaxed and so was Lilly so we felt the show was a success. Overall, I'm pretty darn proud of my horse. Here's what we encountered:

(warning: I am about to sound incredibly elitist and judgmental here. Sorry)

• One girl getting thrown in the warm-up arena. She hit the ground so hard I heard a SNAP! and low and behold the bone in her arm snapped right out of her skin. Also, her horse was loose and ROARING around the arena - spooking numerous other horses (about 22 were in the arena at this time). Hampton stood like a rock for me - although his eyes were bugging out of his head.
• Minis, ponies and mules (Hampton's phobia)
• The fairgrounds is next door to the fire station. So several times an hour, freaking loud sirens and horns.
• Stupid ass "open show" people lunging their horses and cracking their lunge whips repeatedly.
• Stupid ass "open show" people cutting us off while trop-ing their horses around (trot/lope combo)
• A kid in the bleachers who was jumping up and down making BANG BANG BANG noises (this was the cause of the poor broken-arm girl's demise)
• Riding in the ring with 17-22 other horses. Mostly going way, way slower than us.
• Pretty decent crowds lining the ring
• Dumb "open show" people yelling "YUP! YUP!" and smacking their horse into the canter - right as they pass us.
• Lots of little kids running around. Some waving various bags, ribbons, clothes

If a horse can handle the hilljack, clusterf*uck environment of one of our local "open shows," then you can handle anything. Yes he was screaming and was tense, but never once was he naughty. He tried so hard to be obedient despite the overwhelming, impressive environment. Good boy!

Pictures to follow soon.

To give you an idea of the disgusting displays of horsemanship found at this show, here are a couple of photos I took a couple of years ago. (I don't mind beginner riders - we have all been there, but it is those people who display terrible HORSEMANSHIP that infuriates me.) I could write an entire post on the pathetic riders I saw today, but I won't. I'm sure we have all seen them.

This girl went 'round and 'round yanking and jerking on this horse's mouth (for no apparent reason):

Eventually, the horse got sick of it and rebelled: