Pink Ribbon Classic 2012

Saturday and Sunday we attended the Pink Ribbon Classic open horse show in Walla Walla, Wa.  It was a nice 2 day show with the proceeds from the entries benefitting the cancer patients assistance fund at St. Marys hospital in Walla Walla.  Such a great cause to enter a horse show!  It was also kind-of a higher rated type of show as well, so we finally got a chance to use our good tack and clothes that had been sitting in the closet collecting dust for several months.

In my effort to raise money for the cause, I got a bit carried away with entering about a zillion classes on both days.  It looked really simple when I filled the entry form out in my air-conditioned home..... but I neglected to factor in the heat of the day outside at the show itself.  By the time the afternoon on day two rolled around, I was totally exhausted.... it was sooooooo blasted hot!  But still fun, even with buckets of sweat pouring out.

Tommy sported his lime green lycra "jammie-jam" again.  The first thing that he did when we got to the barn was immediately lay down and roll in his stall.  Good thing the jammie-jam was on, or else I would've spent the next morning picking tons of dirt and shavings out of his mane and tail...

I put one of Monica's nicely made brochures next to the door of the stall.  Most people at the shows think that he's some sort of saddlebred or NSH crossbred of some sort, so I was hoping that it might help a little bit if there was literature pinned for people to read.

The show barns at the Walla Walla fairgrounds are very nice and well maintained.  I still dream of having a barn someday in the future, but it'll have to be one that's on a much, much, smaller scale...

This horse had a really cool zebra print jammie-jam. 

The nice outdoor warm-up arena at the fairgrounds.  It was lighted so that you could go out and ride at night if you wanted to.  I took this photo at 8:00 p.m. on Friday evening.

And on Saturday at the show, Tommy made a new friend.  There was a very nice lady from Milton-Freewater that is going to be the future OWNER of an Akhal Teke someday.  (Yes, she made it very clear that she was definitely going to purchase a Teke in the future - no doubts about it.)  She recognized Tommy from across the parking lot, and made a bee-line straight for us while we waited under the shade for our next class.  After answering several questions, she gave me a run down of her specifics on what she's looking for in a future prospect.  I pointed her to several good breeders in the ATAA, and was very happy to meet someone at the show that had such a great interest and is serious about acquiring one of these horses in the future.

Our judge for the show was Mark Shaffer of Pilot Point, Texas.  (I was going to get a picture of him at the show.....but unfortunately forgot to do so.)  He is a very well respected stock horse judge and trainer worldwide, and it was great to have him in our little neck of the woods.  I was thrilled to compete under such a knowledgeable fellow!  http://www.markshaffershowhorses.com/2011_season.php

There was also a professional photographer at the event, so hopefully we'll have some pictures to post in the next few weeks.  Tommy looked really spiffy!  Although....we still have to work on going a bit slower in the pleasure classes.  Since he has such a long-strided gait, his version of "slow" is much more ground covering than most of the other horses we compete against.  In order to slow down even more, we're going to have to work on some dressage piaffe and passage types of exercises.  I am really not the biggest fan of dressage, but if it will help to make my horse better....we'll do it.

We have some videos of a couple of the classes at the show - (I apologize for the quality of the videos, as they are a bit shakey and blurry to watch.  Craig took them on his phone, so they aren't as good of quality as they probably should be):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VNM-QFnWLM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAtm6jLrCj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhNX9_Cv1GM

The Big One

That didn't get away...

We've been fishing a lot lately, (almost every weekend) and Craig caught this beautiful 14" rainbow trout today out of the Grande Ronde river near LaGrande.  The nice hole in which he caught his trophy is in the background.  It's the biggest trout that he's caught yet this year - with a second runner up that he got last weekend (12"), out of the same river.  Both of us love to fish, and Craig has been on a roll lately catching the bigger ones.  These guys are pretty tastey pan fried with lots of butter..... =:)