Sept 19, 2013
Not all horse shows are created equal. There are different levels of competition, different challenges, and different levels of responsibility for the attending horse husband. Shows are rated by the number of A’s, but as far as I am aware, there is no official rating system for horse husbandly effort. Maybe we’ll go with H’s. You’ve got your A shows, your AH shows, and your HA HA shows. If it’s not an A-rated show with minimal horse husband responsibilities, we’ll just call it a day in the country.
Today was one of those rare A shows, no big H, maybe just a little, call it an Ahhh show, relaxing, refreshing even. The sum total of my responsibilities were bringing my mother-in-law Judy over to the arena 10 minutes from our house before our division started, and not getting the car stuck in the mud. That was actually an assigned duty. It was raining big-time, like the Gulf Coast back when I was growing up, before water restrictions was even a thing. I didn’t have bucket duty this time. There was an incident last show where I kind of lost chain of custody for the bucket, a fact that was only discovered when reviewing my blog article. Actually, where is the bucket anyway? Uh-oh.
Our ring was outside this time, which is ironic after competing so many times in the covered Tellepsen Arena on clear days. We sloshed over to the covered viewing stand to watch the division before us compete. It was officially Adult Amateur Hunters but I think it could have been christened the Tuff Mudder Division. Riders wearing formal black coats and breeches rode well manicured, braided horses through the driving rain, on a dirt track, over fences, on the same path. I was sure one of the horses was gonna get stuck in the mud and they were gonna have to bring the tractor over with a rope and pull him out. Don was not here this time, but I usually sit next to him to get feedback on the trips. “Major deduction?”, I would ask. “With the tractor? Off the charts”, I imagined he would reply.
Luckily, no horses got stuck, no riders fell off into Gilligan’s Island style quicksand traps, and the course changes happen pretty quickly when you have to do it in the rain. A photographer joined us in the stands before our division started. The ring steward apologized for the bad lighting but said they wanted him to stick around for a photo of the champion. I thought that was really nice, apologizing for the bad lighting in a rainstorm, the recognizing the photographers needs part. The weather did improve before we started. There was a big white swoosh opening in the sky where the sun streamed in through the dark clouds, like the second coming of Nike. The clouds themselves looked more energetic, like a charcoal drawing by Edvard Munch. No more rain, but still, not exactly the typical setting for a hunter round. A big scoreboard by the ring displayed the names of the horse, owner and rider in lights, like the marquee at a venue like Radio City Music Hall. Very classy.
Malloy and Dev got around without incident. I am still getting an eye for the sport. The number of strides, the smoothness of flying changes, the consistency of pace – they all play into it. Diane has an eye and she’ll say it was a “nice trip” or a “really nice trip”, but all I can report is it looked good it me, the round was completed without incident, both horse and rider are doing fine.
We did well, collecting a few ribbons and a great picture of Dev and Malloy heading toward the marquee, their names in lights behind them, almost like they were tagged in a Facebook post. Then I hopped in my car, left Judy and Malloy and all the associated cleanup duties behind, and went back to work. It was a Thursday after all, got lots to do, but the A horse show sure is a nice break in the workday.
Corgi Ranch, TX 