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Notes From Around the Arena

September 10th - 16th, 2013
How I see it.

The beginner show at Sebastopol Wrangles was so much fun!

Apparently it's dark out at 5:30 in the morning.

Jan and Clair, Jamila and Hadi, Luna and Danielle, Nancy and myself were all there.

We set about loading hay bags and double checking that all the gear we would need was loaded.

My plan was to turn Tikkun out into one of the pastures for the day. Unfortunately he was very excited by all the

pre-dawn activity and couldn't't contain himself and Clair had quite a time just getting him to the gate and then every

she attempted to unbuckle the halter he started off with a big hoof strike and a head shake. But Clair recognized his

plan and kept a hold of him. He made several attempts to no avail. Finally he lowered his head and stood for the

count of "just long enough" and Clair released him. To which he galloped wildly into the blackness.

Unacceptable pony behavior!

As we stood in the dark and Clair relayed her experience with Tikkun I could see two lights trying to corral Sierra

I realized that I had forgotten to remind everyone that horses are often afraid of flashlights. The lights went out but it

took a few minutes more to convince Sierra to get her halter on. Frenchie waited quietly in the dark for Jamila.

And she had no issue catching Frenchie, who is usually the one carrying on the way Tikkun was.

After a few minutes had passed I became aware of the thundering of hoofs and it occurred to me Luna had not yet

returned with Zen. So I started into the dark, within just a few steps ran into Luna. As we walked back up the stall

line she told me her tale. She was in the stall with the lead rope over Zen's neck getting the halter adjusted when

Tikkun made his way to the fence. Gypsy May meet him at the fence and they began to squeal and bolt away. Not

sure what Zen had in mind Luna headed for the gate without her. Ocho however was attentively on her heels and

when she stopped to shew him away he pushed his nose into the halter and effectively pulled it out of her hands.

She gathered it up and again he rooted around and got himself into the tangle of halter and rope. Finally Luna was

able to get the halter away from Ocho and make her way out of the pen. All the while Tikkun and Gypsy May and

now Zen ran amuck. When we got to the gate there was Ocho waiting impatiently and annoyed by Gypsy May kept

chasing her away from the gate area. I walked in and called for Zen, who appeared out of the dark and stood about

two horse lengths away, as if deciding. After a minute she came over to me and I got her halter on and had to beat

Ocho out of the way so we could get out the gate. It suddenly occurred to me that we had forgotten to tell Ocho that

he had been cut from the team the day before. As we walked down the stall rows there was Baby patiently waiting at

the gate, for someone to come back for him. I said to him what a good boy he is, but he was staying home also cut

from the team.

Back story: I had assigned Jamila to Baby and Luna to Ocho for the beginner show. They had their work cut out for

them as Ocho and Baby have not been on the show team since last year and longer respectively. The girls worked

dutifully. If not doubtfully. And, not without much debate and reassurance. But this week 3 days before the show

these two girls had these two out of shape rouge horses behaving beautifully. They DID it. These horses where

pretty much ready. I however was not able to get enough trailer space to haul so many horses and as a result I was

not even able to bring Maddy's horse Cowboy. It is possible that Ocho and Baby may have been a little crazy at the

show. Maybe next time we will be able to have that hosrsemanship experience too. Adding to the ever lengthening

list of things these girls CAN do.

We arrived at the Sebastopol Wranglers arena about 8:30 or so and set about getting signed in. Natalie and her mom

and dad were there to greet us as we arrived. Somewhere in the flurry of paperwork, Uma and her mom and dad

arrived as well.

Our group was highly functional as Maddy set out as our wrangler warming up the student horses. First she checked

in with Sierra. Who was very good, and Nancy mounted up and began her own warm up.

Meanwhile, Clair got her two undersaddle and ridden out.

Danielle set about lunging Zen on a line as she was throwing a mini fit being the only horse left at the trailer.

Maddy moved on to Frenchie and about that time Clair claimed Zen.

Luna took over on Zen, and Jamila took over on Frenchie.


The line up for our group went like this:

Clair/Pharaoh

Clair/Rocky

Nancy/Sierra

Luna/Zen

Jamila/Frenchie

Natalie/Frenchie

Uma/Zen.

There was so much to experience at this show. I have so much to share about each rider so I think this will be a

multi part story.

I will end this section with a big thank you to everyone of you who put in the time in the heat. It was so much fun.

Pictures should be up on the web site in a day or two.

Thank you!