Whew! I Survived!

I was really looking forward to the smaller horse show to see how different it was from Scottsdale. Well, to put it mildly, it was crazy! We ended up taking only 11 horses instead of the 12 we were going to take (we took 15 to Scottsdale) but we had a couple clients bring their horses in and kept them in our section of the barn. The first day consisted of getting the horses settled in, then we had to do the barn set up. The set up wasn't as much as what we do in Scottsdale, meaning it only takes a few hours instead of a few days to get it all up. Then all the horses had to be worked. I think we strolled into our hotel room around 9:00 p.m. I was exhausted. Work day: 13 hours.

The next day we were up at 5:00 a.m. Every horse we brought with us was showing that day. It started with the halter classes. The halter horses are easy to get ready, but they were being shown back to back, so we were hurrying to make sure we could get them to the arena on time. All of our halter horses took Champions. Our halter trainer was very disappointed in the turnout for halter. There weren't many halter horses being shown. I am actually not a huge fan of Arabian halter. Yes, they are beautiful to look at, but behind the scenes of Arabian halter, I can do without it. The rest of the day consisted of non stop, hurry, go go go, don't even think of breathing work. But somehow we got it all done and our farm did very well. Some horses are shown in a couple classes a day, so just because we only have 11 horses there, doesn't mean we only show in 11 classes. We probably had over 20 classes that day, if not more. Again we got to our hotel room around 9:30. Work day: 15 hours.

The second day of showing was hectic at first, but we actually were able to have a small lunch break, and when I say small, I mean a couple minutes. Thank goodness! There isn't much time to eat at these shows, so if you can sneak in a snack, then we do it quickly. I was able to go get a hamburger and fries for lunch, munch it down so fast that I barely had time to swallow, and get back to work. Just because the show arena is taking an hour lunch, doesn't mean that we can take a whole hour for lunch. We had horses showing right after the lunch break, so we had to get them saddled and down to the arena for their class. The afternoon ended up being kinda nice. I think we had 2 hours of down time. We spent most of that time talking to people coming through the barn and cleaning up before it was time to start all over. At these smaller shows there are morning classes, afternoon classes and evening classes. In Scottsdale there were only evening classes on the weekends, we could usually get back to the condo around 7:30-8:00 at night. Not so at the smaller show. If only it was that simple. We had horses showing at 7:30-8:00 at night this time. And it was freezing! I was telling a client of ours that it felt like December. I thought I had planned out my clothes pretty well, I even had looked at the weather report. But it must have changed because I did not dress warm enough. I even drank a black coffee, and I hate black coffee, just to get some warmth in my body. Once the night classes were over, we drug our exhausted bodies back to the hotel room around 10:30 p.m. Work day: 16 1/2 hours.

The last day we had scratched a couple horses from showing. One client had a good show, and her confidence is building on her new horse, so she wanted to stop while she was feeling good, plus her other horse that she was showing she was taking back home with her, and she had a 7 hour drive, she wanted to get back before dark. The other scratches were just because the horses had all shown and done well, and there was no need to show them. So we only had 7 horses left to show. In between classes we had to tear down our set up, groom rooms, dressing rooms and tack room. I hate packing and unpacking and this was the worst part having to pack everything that we had unpacked days before. No time for lunch. I had a couple crackers after I started to get a little light headed. Once all the horses were done showing for the day, we brought the horse trailers down and started loading all the set up stuff, tack etc in the trailers. Again it was hurry, go go go, get it in the trailer and let's get outta here. Around 5:00 p.m. we were able to load the horses and we got on the road around 5:45. Work day: 12 hours.

I could barely move last night once I got home. I was so done mentally and physically. But I do have to say that I really liked the smaller show. It was totally crazy and hectic, but it just had a better feel about it. Probably because there were only a couple hundred horses there, instead of over 2,000 horses.

The one thing I am having a hard time with at the horse shows, is the lack of time to eat, and it's not that I am not finding the time to eat, it's that there is no time to eat. I get really grouchy when I don't get to eat. And I am not the type of person who can go all day without food (we have a couple people who work at the farm that can go all day without food), but I am NOT one of those people. I have to eat. But there is no time to eat. I take snacks, and am barely able to get a couple crackers down before I am needed to get the next horse. It isn't like I don't bring any food, it is just that there is NO time to eat the food I bring. Literally. When I started to get lightheaded on the last day, I told the assistant trainer that I had to stop and eat something. I was dizzy. I know that isn't good when that happens, but what am I to do? No one else stops to take a lunch break, and when there is a break in between classes, my boss wants a horse ready for him to work. There goes my opportunity to eat something. The farm even gives us a food allowance. I only used like $25.00 for food the whole time. In 4 days. I swear these people are robots, they don't need food, it is all about work, work and more work. But seriously, I can work, work and work, but I NEED FOOD! That is my only complaint. The lack of time to eat, and not being given any time to eat. What is this girl to do?

Also this show made me realize what I miss about showing. When I was younger I showed in 4-H, local shows and the county fair. I showed Fritzy in a local schooling show a few years ago. But for some reason this show made me want to re-evaluate my goals. Maybe getting back to showing again will be in my future. I don't know if it will ever happen, I don't really have the money, nor the time, to do it. But I could always start with some schooling shows and see what happens. It doesn't cost a lot of money for schooling shows, and you don't have to have fancy tack and show clothes. I don't know. We will see what happens. I might just be going through a phase, because of what I see at the horse shows and I wish it was me up there showing one of those western horses!