Curly's first show...

E. and Curly participated in "Hot August Nights" yesterday. And yes, it was VERY hot! The thermometer was reading 102 in the shade - Uhg!

E. spent the afternoon washing and primping Curly for the show and he looked wonderful. After the kids got themselves cleaned up, we loaded up the horse trailers and set out for the fairgrounds. This was Curly's first trip out there so he was quite excited and wanted to look at everything.

E.'s first class was a walk, trot division. They both did well - no ribbons, but no obvious mistakes either. The next two classes were not quite so smooth. Curly did fine until E. asked him to lope (a.k.a. canter). I'm sure she was nervous because he had tried to buck her yesterday when she asked for a lope. And her nervousness was definitely communicated to the horse - so he tried to buck again. She immediately stopped him and then waited patiently in the middle of the arena until the judge asked everyone to slow to a trot. But Curly never really regained his composure after that. It didn't help that there were over 20 horses in a relatively small ring. All that nervous energy and activity was just too much for both E. and Curly.

This was a good practice, however. Now E. has a better sense of the specific things she needs to work on over the next few weeks before fair. And Curly will get another chance next week since "Hot August Nights" runs every Thursday until the fair.

I had a "first" last night as well. I drove the truck and trailer home from the show. Talk about being nervous! But we survived and the trailer is back in it's spot. Maybe not straight, but there nonetheless.