Roadtrip! AQHA Show - Perry, GA

Diego shown by Wendy

 Last weekend,  I drove down to Perry to see my horse Diego show.  Now, I'm trying to sell him, so I had someone scheduled to come look at him show.

There were only 15 classes (all Trail) before Diego's Ranch Pleasure class, so I wanted to get there around noon since his class would be roughly around one.

I pack up in a hurry that morning with some snacks and drinks - its supposed to be a small show so I should be back home before dinner.

I drop off the dog at the kennel just in case I'm not back in a few hours - he digs enormous holes in the yard if he stays by himself and he gets way too bored at the horse show if he comes alone - and truck it on over to the fairgrounds.

It takes the usual 2 1/2 hours down 75, dodging the road tax collectors and the one major wreck to get to Perry, where I find to my surprise (though I REALLY SHOULDN'T BE SURPRISED ITS A HORSE SHOW) they have 70 Trail entries and are only on the 3rd class.

The showbill wasn't lying when it said it was a "Trail Specialized" show. Good grief.

I meet up with Wendy, she tells me she got up at 5 to bring down Diego and her Mom's horse to show, so she's already been there long enough.

After 4 hours of handgrazing my horse with a few water breaks (didn't bother to get stalls since it was a SMALL SHOW), finally time to watch Diego in Ranch Pleasure. 

 

For his first time showing in this class,  I'm pretty darn happy with him.  He had been shown in reining so much he was a bit confused (you want me to trot? We never trot in a reining pattern!) but he listened (up until the end, where he was SURE Wendy wanted him to rollback and got pretty mad when she told him to spin instead) and I was REALLY happy he went over the poles perfectly.

He did well enough for 2nd and a half point and that was plenty good enough for me!

Of course there was a another 4 hour break before the reining class, so Diego had time to get rinsed off and eat his grain and then be handgrazed for a few hours.

Sometime between Ranch Pleasure and Reining the woman who wanted to watch him disappeared (apparently a 9:30 show time was too late for her...whatever) and Wendy and I found out there were only 3 entries in the Reining class - which was not good considering two of them she was showing.

The Show Secretary nicely found a couple of Trail riders who agreed to show in the Reining so it would be a 4 point class (4 judges, 1 point each) and hopefully one of the horses would get those points.

And it was Diego! with 2 firsts and 2 seconds (2 points for 1st and 1 point for 2nd)! I was really happy with how he performed, Wendy's done a great job making him a show horse.

The other reiner in the class worried me a bit since she had enormous stops, but there are other maneuvers that get judged as well.

So all in all, even though the show day was a long one for just a day trip it went really well for Diego's show record (67.5 total points in reining).

This was the last show of the year for Diego, so for other than a few day trips to work cows he's on break until next spring.  Hopefully I'll find someone interested in buying him between now and then.

Until next time!

Reminics san Paolo, cowhorse or goathorse?

Reminics San Paolo

Hello, and welcome to a Georgia Suburban Cowgirl.


This blog is about dealing with horse ownership in the middle of a rapidly growing city in North Georgia - especially when 90% of all horse owners in this region ride dressage or hunter-jumpers.


The picture on the right is of my horse, Paolo.  He's the youngest one I own.  I figured I'd show a baby picture first of when he was adorable.

Who am I kidding, he is still adorable, but he has his moments of ... not being so.



I primarily ride trail horses now, for fun and for my friends who don't have time to ride themselves.  I also own a successful show horse, but that's another post.

I just wanted to take the time to introduce Paolo and the quest to make him into a cow horse. In the middle of dressage country. And suburbia.

And if the way he watches the goats next door is any indication, he'll be pretty cowy.  Heck, he might prefer chasing goats since they have climbing trees in common.

Yes, this horse attempted to climb a tree - a persimmon tree to be exact.  Why this horse likes those super sour persimmons is beyond me.  Last year I caught him rearing up, bracing his front legs on the tree to eat persimmons off of it.

Persimmons are sooo not good for horses.


The property owners didn't want to cut the tree back, so I got to pick off all the fruit (?) he could reach before he could colic/founder/God knows what on them.

He's too big to get up there now, I hope, but the offending tree parts will soon be gone, now that the property owners are tired of their farm vehicles hitting the low branches.