Schooling and Showing

May was a lot! And all of it was awesome! After the awesome experience with the Alberta Ballet, we had a site visit to Westlock Continuing Care and then started schooling days. First we went to Minds Eye Ranch. Ali and I took the 4 driving ponies, Falcor, Jasmine, Phillippe and Toast, and had a great time exploring the grounds. Ali got Toast going through the water without hesitation. I didn't push Falcor for that, but Phillippe did have a go through. Not happy, not fast, but we got there. Our good friend Brooklyn brought out her jack Norman and had a great go with him too!

The following weekend was the Sparrowhawk Spring Fling. It was the very last of these events as the event hosts are retiring and moving on to other adventures. We spent 2 nights with the 4 littles. Ali and I camped in our 2-horse bumper pull trailer. We had some canvas slings made to fit into the stalls. It wasn't perfect, but it worked well enough. The littles were golden in the electric fencing with a little solar powered charger. It was a great dry run for the Bonanza coming up in July where I'll be away for a full week! Falcor schooled his first full marathon course. Toast and Ali went ahead of us, but we went for every step of it and I was thrilled!

The following weekend, the end of May, we held our collaborative show weekend with the Alberta Donkey and Mule Club and the Northern Lights Driving Club. Saturday was driving. I had entered my mom in the show with Phillippe to do a few rail classes, but a day or two before the show, she had something very urgent come up and wasn't able to make it. So I showed both Phillippe and Falcor myself. Phillippe missed 1 rail class as I prioritized Falcor, but Falcor rose to the occasion and won that class (Pleasure lady to drive.) He also won Pleasure, ponies and taller and the Super Reinsmanship class. He took 4th in the two cones classes and the barrel race. All in all, he was a wonderful animal to show! He walked a lot, hung out politely at the trailer, and was relaxed in the show ring. Phillippe had a great day too and did well in all his classes. He missed out on the high point long ears this year. Brooklyn and her young gelded jack Pete had a great day ground driving and took the accolades! It was just awesome to watch her success!

Sunday we had the ADMC open show. It was a blustery, windy day, but the rain held off. We had more long ears this year than we ever have before! Ali took Phillippe in a couple of in-hand classes and won herself the junior high point long ears belt buckle! I had a great time with him in hand and we placed really well in the long-ears class, showmanship and in-hand trail. We had a riot in the costume class. I wore my sombrero and poncho, and put the wee sombrero back on Phillippe with a hand-made Navajo Germantown Sunday Saddle on him. We were waiting for Ali to get into the class so I laid down in the sand to "siesta". Phillippe is just as good at ad-libbing as I am and laid right down with me. He had a roll but then stayed down and relaxed while we waited. I'm so glad there were people around to take pictures. I couldn't have trained him to do better, but he did just what donkeys do!

So now we're on a bit of a "break" while I work on other projects. We have a competition on June 28 with the Klondike club for their 40th anniversary show! Phillippe and I are going to go for some fun!

So until next time, Happy Horseing!