Expo Photos

Daveen on Annie, Vin and me, Bonita and Kristin, Savanna on Lighting and ?? with Cruzer. Kristin was going to ride Cruzer, but she came down with a bug and was out of commission for most of the weekend. We went low key this year. None of us had a lot of time or energy to do fancy costumes or plan a routine or pattern. Just getting there was a good thing. And I have to say that Savanna had such a good time that she carried us through.

I didn’t have time to do a pedigree for Vinnie, so added “Sire” and “Dam” to the ones that I had made for Lily and Paisano. I realized on my way that there were no photos of them, so I stopped at Shopko and bought a couple of picture frames. I pulled photos from my album. I think that it actually ended up looking pretty good.

This was Bonita’s first time out to a big event. And Kay had not done much with her, as she had not really planned to bring her. I am out a riding horse, so asked if she had a horse that was ready to start. She chose Bonita for me to bring home and play with. Bonita did well for her first big outing! I hope to have her under saddle and doing well enough by the meeting in June for some trail riding. Stay tuned to see how that goes, as I’ll be posting updates here on my blog. Bonita is a smart and dominant mare. I was able to do a couple of short ground work sessions with her. The first order of business was learning to yield her shoulder. She liked to get on top of you when she’s scared. She was also always looking most anywhere but at the person leading her. Yes, we will have fun! I didn’t get any good full body photos of Bonita. I hope to remedy that later this week, if the clear weather holds.

Speaking of weather, I was so happy when Friday turned out to be pretty warm. It rained a little, which was no big deal. Last year was really cold, so I looked forward to this change. It turned out to be only a tease, as Saturday was colder and Sunday windy and freezing! On top of that, our demo on Saturday was over an hour delayed, because of the Mustang Makeover auction. I figured that would happen.

We were all icicles standing outside in our show shirts waiting. We didn’t have a crews to toss jackets to. Chuck was our crew. With his camera, there was only so much that he could carry. So we were just cold…

Vinnie had daily spot baths to try and remove the yellow manure stains from his hocks, knees and body. I think that I got his body pretty clean, but never really whitened the legs…. Anyone got a surefire trick? I used the purple shampoo, leaving it on for over 10 minutes, then touched up with cornstarch.

I had quite a few groups of people, kids mostly, visit Vinnie in his stall to give him scratches. He really enjoyed all the attention. By the last day, he would get indignant when anyone left his stall, as he can stand for a very long time, while being scratched!

We served over 100 cups of coffee and tea each day, chatted and answered questions. As always, it was fun to talk about the horses. I ended up hoarse myself from it all. Well, I also got a head cold by the end of the weekend, so it might have been partly that.

My friend Pam took video of all three demos, our booth and a few other bits. I’ll be getting a DVD from her soon and will see about putting clips up.

All in all, it was an excellent Expo. This was our forth year, so we’ve developed a method for our booth, decorations, etc. We were packed and out in record time, under an hour! I even got home before the hail hit and dark fell. Miraculously, only a few drops of rain fell on me during my drive home, though I could see dramatic storms on either side of me. It was fitting show to end a great weekend.

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