BMPHC Pre-Mothers Day Show

Tommy and I attended the Blue Mountain Paint Horse Club's open show in Pendleton yesterday.  It was at the Flying X arena, which isn't too far down the road from our house.  This was a Pre-Mother's Day show, and there were a lot of ladies that showed up to get roses.  =:)  There was a floral shop in Hermiston that was gracious enough to donate flowers to the women that competed in the "Mother's Only" classes.

     It was a nice sunny day, with several entrants in attendance.

The mini's were cute.  They did halter, in-hand trail, and driving classes.  Tommy had never seen such small horses before, but he liked them.  I fully expected him to be a big goofy chicken liver with them near, but he kept wanting to nicker at them and follow them around everywhere. 

June Moreland and "Mr. T".  I enjoyed talking to June throughout the show, she's a really nice lady.  The photo above is of the judge evaluating her horse in showmanship.  June rode Mr. T in the western classes too.  (I forgot to ask what the judges name was...dang.)

There were a lot of nicely dressed, (or fully turned-out) entrants at this show in the english classes, so I brought "the little saddle from hell" out of the dungeon.  The huntseat tack makes Tommy look very sharp and appropriate for the show arena, but it's not very much fun for either one of us.  We both hate that damned saddle with a livid passion.  At the next tack swap I'll sell it, and start looking for a better saddle to compete with.

Western and comfy.  Training devices were allowed at this show, so I put the martingale on to work on his headset.  It made a huge difference, and he showed some great improvement.

                     He's spectacular when he gets it right. 

All throughout the day I kept hearing people in the bleachers making comments "an Akhal-what?"....  But Craig was there and was able to give them a condensed version of the breed history.  We were in good company, as there was a group of four local Peruvian Paso's and two Missouri Foxtrotter's in attendance as well.  (It's kind-of nice to not be the only different oddball out there, sometimes...)

We entered about a dozen classes and came away with 3 first place prizes.  Half dollar coins were awarded, which was really neat.  We're improving, slowly but surely.