Arabian Show and Fritzy Update

I know I have said I have been very busy as of late, and that is an understatement! I never knew that being unemployed, I would find so many things to occupy my time! But as some of you have said, I probably would not have gotten a lot of the things I needed to get done, if I was working, very true.

But I did happen to squeeze in a day at that Arabian horse show I wanted to go too. Like I said before, my trainer/very good friend, is an assistant trainer for a nationally known Arabian breeding/training barn. I went there last week and spent a day with her. I went to the horse show to hang out, watch and help if needed. I ended up staying for 10 1/2 hours.

I also have to say, I didn't get that many pictures, and the quality of the pictures I did get, aren't that great. I only took pictures in the outdoor warm up arena. I have been to this place before, and can't get good action pictures in the indoor show arena. So warm up pictures will have to do.
I arrived to the show at noon. I planned on being there quite a bit earlier, but other things prevented me from an earlier arrival. When I got there, I went to go find my friend M. They were in the same barn as before, and found them easily. The barn M works at, had 13 Arabians at the show. I had fun watching them get the horses ready for classes, and I even got to help out quite a bit.

On the left is M, warming up T, and D is riding the horse on the right. D's daughter K would be riding T in the country pleasure class. T was having an off day, she didn't want to give to the bit. The night before, M rode her in a class and took Grand Champion, and K rode her in a class and also took Grand. It was starting to look like K's class on T was not going to go very well.



M still warming up T. Trying to get her to quit fighting her.



Here is K. She was getting a lesson from her dad, D, in the warm up before her class.



K getting ready to go to her class.


K took Reserve Champion in her class. T did so much better in the class, than in the warm up arena!

I always will find me a black and white, no matter where I go! This here is a beautiful 1/2 Arab! Loved him! And he looked awesome warming up!




This cute guy, is F, he is a 3 yr old stallion. He is a western horse in training. He was not being shown here. He was only along for the ride, to get used to the show grounds. He is absolutely beautiful, I wish I would've gotten a better picture of his face! Loved him!



This beautiful stallion was brought in specifically for D to show in the halter class. H is already a Canadian National Champion and U.S. Reserve National Champion. He is the most beautiful horse, and has a great temperament! I hung out with him quite a bit. There was a lot of commotion about this stallion being at the show. We all watched his class in anticipation. There were some beautiful stallions in his halter class, but we knew this horse was going to win! He took Grand Champion. Once we got back to the barn, people were filing into the barn to see him. Some people had babies by this sire and wanted to check out his size. Others just wanted to come see him, and I can sure see why!



It was a great day, to see beautiful Arabs and half Arabs. No wonder Arabians are one of my favorite breeds. My friend M has been wanting me to get a purebred Arabian, so I can show on the Arab circuit with her. I would love too, but unfortunately that can't happen anytime soon. One can dream, right?

I have been spending everyday doing ground work with Fritzy. She is getting a lot better about being in my personal space. She has learned to back off and not be right on top of me. It is so great to see her stand away from me as I unlock the gate, at least 10 feet back. She used to be right on top of me, with me always trying to push her back. That will never happen again. I blame myself for letting her get away with it for so long. But I do have to say in my defense, that she was way worse when I first got her 3 years ago. The little bit of ground work back than did help. But I became a slacker, and didn't continue her ground work. Bad Paint Girl!! Bad!

I also took Brandy out and rode her. She wasn't as good with her jog or lope, and we did alot of loping! And this would be the 2nd ride in a row, that she didn't crowhop at the lope! I have been trying to be better at keeping my eyes up and looking ahead while I am loping. I have always been so bad about looking down, to see if she was staying collected. I am not going to worry about her being collected at the lope right now. I just want her to be comfortable loping and once we accomplish that, than I can worry about collection. Although, she does seem to collect on her own, must be all that training she had a couple years ago!

As I was opening the gate to put Brandy away, Fritzy came out of the barn to pester us, she always does this. I sometimes have a terrible time trying to get Brandy into the pasture because Fritzy tries to butt her way out. Now with the ground work training I have been doing, I opened the gate and waved my hand in front of Fritzy to back her off, guess what? She immediately backed off and away! That has never happened before! I am usually slapping her with the leadrope, or trying to push her off with no results, remember, brick wall. I was so excited to see that she is responding in the way I want her too, although we still hit that brick wall on occasion, but I think eventually that brick wall exterior will slowly go away!