I Will Never Forget Sunscreen Again!

I am back from the horse show! I will start at the beginning since so much happened before even getting to the show. We took the farm truck and 6-horse trailer and the assistant trainer's truck and her 6-horse. A few days later our halter trainer was going to drive down the other truck and 5-horse with 5 halter horses. The assistant trainer, M, had her truck and trailer serviced before the trip. She wanted to make sure everything was good to go for this trip. We left on Sunday June 20th around 9:00 a.m. It was supposed to be a 10 hour drive. Going over the first mountain pass, M's transmission in her truck overheated. After a cooling down period, we continued on. Around noon, while we were going through a construction zone on the freeway, a tire blew on the horse trailer. We were close to an exit, so we made it to the exit off ramp and pulled over. M didn't know how to change a tire and I have only watched a tire being changed before. So we searched her truck and tool box looking for the right tools to get the job done. She couldn't find the tire jack, to loosen the lugs on the tire. She did not have one. She found a small jack to lift her trailer up off the ground, I couldn't believe she didn't have a drive up jack. That is one of the first things we got when I bought my horse trailer. A man pulled over to see if we needed help. He said he'd drive to the local Les Schwab to see if they were open. Right after he left, a cop pulled up. He pulled around behind the trailer and looked to see what he could do. Since M was missing pieces to the jack, and she didn't have the proper tool to get the tire off, the cop sent her to Lowe's to get what we needed to get the tire off. Once we had everything, the cop took the blown out tire off and put the spare on. This cop was a lifesaver! I could have done it with the proper tools, but it sure was nice to have help and by someone that knew what they were doing! After an hour and half delay, we were back on the road.

This amazing cops help was greatly appreciated!



Everything seemed to be going fine, until we hit the passes. M's truck's tranny gauge kept saying that her tranny was getting really hot. We almost get to the top of one of the passes, and the tranny gauge was way in the red. We pulled off the side of the road and waited for her tranny to cool down. So much for taking her truck in and getting it serviced. They even had gone throughout her whole tranny to make sure everything was good, and installed the tranny gauge. Plus her tranny was only a couple years old. We waited.......and waited........and waited. It seemed like forever.

Waiting on the side of the road for the tranny to cool down.



Once again we got back on the road. We trekked along and were hoping that there weren't too many more hills to go. We were already a couple hours behind the other truck and trailer. About two and a half hours to our destination, we hit an out of this world thunder and lightening storm, including severe rain and hail. We had to pull off the road because we couldn't see the road. It was unreal. Once we got out of the storm, we couldn't wait to get to the show grounds. We were tired, hungry and so done with this trip. The time changes to mountain time, so that put us arriving at 10:30 that night. We get out of the truck, and there were a couple guys there to help unload the hay, grain and wood. We unloaded the horses, made sure they had food and water and went to go find some food. We didn't get to bed until 1:30 in the morning.

On Monday, we had one horse showing in the morning, and the rest of the day we set up our groom rooms, dressing room, tack room, kitchen/bar, and all the curtains, tables, flower beds etc. We also had one horse showing that evening. I had forgotten my sunscreen at the hotel room, and boy, do I ever regret that! Within hours, my back and shoulders were so sun burnt! By the time we were able to get to the store to purchase some sunscreen, it was too late to do anything about it. I knew I would be hurting the next day. Monday was in the mid 70's. Perfect! By Thursday, my sun burnt back turned to blisters. I have never blistered before.

We were going to be having a light show schedule until Friday. So there was a lot of relaxing time. Which is nice. I haven't worked a show yet where there wasn't a hectic schedule. On Tuesday it was 95 degrees. Thank goodness for that light schedule! It was HOT, HOT, HOT!! But it was exactly what I was looking forward too, sun and heat! Wednesday and Thursday was in the mid 80's. Thursday and Friday evening around 6:00 p.m. both nights, the wind picked up and we had a rain shower for about 15 minutes. I have never seen the wind pick up so quickly. It was calm and quiet, then all of a sudden the wind just howled, dirt and shavings went flying everywhere and the rain just poured down. But before you even knew what was happening, it just stopped, the sun came back out and everyone went back to what they were doing.

Mikael over at Mikael Arabians wanted to know what the facility was like. This show was a regional show, and this was the first year it was held at this facility. There are pros and cons to this facility, as there are to most facilities. But I do have to say that there are probably more pros. First, the staff was WONDERFUL! I have never seen such helpful staff at any horse show. Those guys that helped us unload the hay, grain and wood at 10:30 at night? Yep, show staff. They were a lifesaver!! Throughout the show, the staff would bring us ice for the cooler, raked our barn aisles, watered the barn aisles, delivered coffee and donuts in the morning, and anything we needed, they would get. They even offered to help us set up on Monday, which is unheard of.

Second, the arena was a good size and the footing was wonderful. I did not hear any complaints about the footing at all.

Hunter gelding class. The bay horse on the left is our assistant trainer, M. She placed first in this class and third in the afternoon class on the same horse.



Third, there was plenty of room for lunging, as long as they didn't have cow classes going on.

Fourth, the hotel that we stayed in was right on the show grounds. Which worked out perfectly. Since M's truck had tranny problems on the way down, she took it to the dealer to have it checked out. We were able to walk to the hotel room after we were done showing, and walk to the barn in the morning. The hotel was really nice and I have no complaints whatsoever about it.

The cons for this facility are:

Unfortunately there were not a lot of permanent barns, so almost all stalls were portables. Under one tent, there was a warm up area with a couple rows of stalls, but in those stalls there was concrete flooring. There were a couple of other rows of stalls that were in a permanent structure, but they weren't as close to the show arena as the portables were. We ended up in the portables right across from the show arena. The downside to being in portables is that if the weather should turn ugly, in other words, rain, then everything gets soaking wet. Literally. There is no way to get out of the rain. The other downside is when it is extremely hot, like it was the whole week we were there, there is no way to get out of the sun. If only I had a picture of my sun burn, then it would all make sense!

Here is our aisle of portables at 7:30 in the morning. Around 8:00 a.m., the aisle is pure sun, all day!



Besides the portables being a downfall, the other downfall would be that if it did rain, then that would severely limit lunging. The one covered warm up was usually too crowded to try to lunge, so lunging had to be done in the cow arena, or the round pen, which was outside. I would not want to be at this facility if it was going to rain all week.

The only other downfall of this facility, is the drive. 10 hours might not be that long to drive, but it becomes long when hauling horses and when every one is used to a lot shorter drive for this regional show.

All in all, I was impressed with the facility, and the people. They served food for the patrons, we had spaghetti and meatballs, ceasar salad and bread one night and taco salads another night.

Our farms clients are absolutely wonderful! I do not know what I would do without them. They brought me lunch everyday, and sometimes dinner. They were so concerned that I wasn't eating and would go out of their way to make sure I was fed.

We have one client that didn't have a good year showing last year, but there has been so much improvement this year. (This is not the older woman I mentioned in my last show post.) She got a Top 5 in her English Country Pleasure class, out of 14 horses. She was so excited! A lot of people don't get happy about Top 5's, they want Grand or Reserve. But Top 5 was such an improvement over the last year, that she was on cloud nine! Plus there were a lot of really nice horses in that class! Most of our horses did really well. A couple clients had a tough show, but they are young girls and it will come together for them.

I headed home on Saturday. The halter trainer and I hauled the five halter horses home. It was a beautiful day for a drive.



In case your wondering about the assistant trainers truck, her tranny was toast. Which meant she wasn't going to be able to drive it back home, not unless she wanted to risk breaking down somewhere. She has had some problems with the transmission since it was installed, and she decided to just buy a new truck. She's been wanting to do that for over a year now. This is what she ended up getting.



She really wanted me to drive home on Sunday with her, but I just wanted to get home on Saturday so I could have a day with my OH!

We have another regional show next week, and I don't know yet if I will be working at it. I am sure I will be. So I will be around for a few days, then most likely won't be around for another week. I will keep you all updated and will let you know what I have been doing on my two days off!