Saturday
Pics by Matti
Sunday
2007 Expo Report
Now that I've had a few days to catch up on my sleep, I can post a full report. You can read all about it below or you can just go to the pictures....
Videos:
Paisano doing liberty work during an afternoon break on Sunday
Demo videos coming soon
I arrived on Thursday morning around 10 AM, so the horses could settle in. I had taken Wednesday off work to clean everything... horses, tack, etc. I hauled all the booth stuff, tack, feed and such in my new trailer. The floor needed to be replaced, so my friend Karen, hauled my horses. It was good to drive the trailer empty to get the feel for it.
Chuck and Kay got there with their crew Thursday evening. I had set up everything that I could and we quickly added more decorations, finishing up on Friday morning. We warmed up at 8 AM with most of our group before opening time. Traffic was light after the 10 AM opening time, but we did talk to a few people.
Our demo was at 11 AM. We were ready and waiting, only to find that people were still schooling in the arena. We had about 5 minutes schooling before being shooed out, so that the flag bearers could go in for the national anthem. After that it was us!
We were in the ring and doing well. On the second pass of the arena, Joanna took Lily into a canter in front of us. We were trotting and he wanted to follow her. He did his first few strides of canter under saddle ever. I checked him back to a trot and he was unhappy enough about that to jump off the ground and boing around a bit. He wanted to buck, but I held that head up and didn't let him. My friend was taking video and caught his head shaking, but missed the actually tantrum. Just as well. He did settle down and we walked and trotted fine for the rest of the demo. The announcer talked a little too fast, so our music was still playing when he finished. Other than that it went well for a shakedown run! Luckily, there were only a few people in the stands what with it being Friday morning.
The rest of the day, we talked to people, played tapes and DVDs about the horses and just visited. In the afternoon, I took Paisano out in the small round pen they had set up outside for a little break and some tricks. It was nice to turn him loose for a bit. He pranced around looking lovely, and did his salute, bow and liberty work while a bunch of people, mostly children (girls) oohed and aahhed over him. He seemed to enjoy it!
He got a number of comments on how unusual and beautiful his coloring is. Overall, he behaved very well for a green, young boy with minimal bellowing and no overt studdy behavior. He just likes to try and talk to all the mares he meets.
It was very good for him to be in the arena during warm up times with several other stallions and many horses going all different directions, lunging, cantering, walking, gaiting, etc. At times, I could just see his little brain not knowing WHAT to think of first! That really cut down on him spooking at things around the arena. There were just too many horses to pay attention to.
I did wear my skirt and had positive comments on that too. It was a good first day.
Our second demo on Saturday was the best. We had the timing down, so that when our script was wrapping up, Joanna and Krysta did gallops in opposite directions around the arena, while the rest of us came to the middle. I hopped off Paisano and had him salute and bow. I had treats in my vest pocket.
Sunday we were in the large arena with better lighting. I didn't have the pockets for treats, since I was wearing the sequined silk top instead of the vest I had on before. Paisano did not oblige with a bow.... I also found that my mecate had come loose and was dragging in the dirt for the last few minutes. I didn't know until I got off! At least he didn't step on it.
By the end of the weekend, Paisano was comfortable being ridden around outside. We had only ridden out of the arena a couple of times at home and there were all sorts of suspicious things like garbage cans, strange equipment, baloons, food carts, strollers, people walking around. Besides the one little tantrum in the first demo and a minor one in the warm up, he was great!
Enough gushing about Paisano. The rest of our crew did really well too. Daveen cantered Annie for the first time and was popping out in a big grin all weekend. Annie was just back from Erin for training and is still green. Deveen did great with her once she relaxed.
We played the DVD that Duane sent me last year most of the weekend. I has all his meeting videos as well as a couple of the SMR promo videos on it. It was fun to point out Lily and Paisano's sires at the Cayuse. It really showed the range of what our horses can do and the various types, colors, history, etc.
Other than the 10 minute demos once a day, the horses stayed in their stalls during open hours while we visited with the public. Friends stopped by too. We met a couple who have one SM in the Portland area and are getting another in a couple of weeks from Kim Kingsley. We hope to see them at Expo next year! Patty Vandiver also came on Friday to see what it would be like to bring one of her mares next year. Our group is growing!
I made up 50 color flyers for Paisano and have only 14 left. We ran out of the full color Cayuse Ranch brochures that I brought the first day and more than half the SMR brochures were gone.
One of the first questions people asked was, "What's the difference between a Spanish Mustang and a regular mustang?" There were also groups there from the Kiger organization and the Pacific Wild Horse Club. We were next to the NW Andalusian club too. They had 4 stallions and most were HUGE. I took video of their group too. They do everything from dressage and western pleasure to charo type piaffe, passage and spanish walk. They also had one of the two imported Sorria horses in the US with them, Sovina. Chuck and Kay have their young horses started by his owner, Erin Grey. It was nice to get to know her better.
Oh! I also met some really nice people who do mounted archery with their Mangalarga Marchadors. I've been wanting to learn this for about 20 years. They were really nice people and very taken with Paisano. They like a small, agile horse. I'll be visiting them in Bend sometime for sure. They travel all over the world to competitions representing the US in mounted archery.
I love our Expo! It is just a kick to see such a variety of equine breeds and disciplines in one place. I always learn a few new things. I did get to a couple of clinics this year. I enjoyed lectures on the classical dressage seat and bosal training.
Oh, the last day, I ran into a woman who trains gaited trail horses. I grabbed Lily from one of the kids who were cooling her out and showed the lady her gait out in the parking lot. She was very excited to see how Lily moved and thought that even her flat walk and trot were "gaitey". She will be in Eugene for the Mountain Trail show later this year and wants to come see us at my barn. She talked about taking gaited horses very slowly and doing a few years of long walking trial work before working on their gaits. I liked her.
I had people video all three demos with varying success. I'll post it on YouTube when I have it edited. I also had Daveen video Paisano and I in the little round pen on Sunday afternoon playing with some tricks. It had rained really hard Saturday night, so the footing was a little deep, but it was fun none the less.
I am really looking forward to next year's Expo. It is great to visit with old friends and make new ones. See you there!