Just to be different, I decided Shawn should go to a show. This gave me something interesting to work towards and also supported the Arabian club to which I belong (DAHA). So I packed Shawn and Kiri up with more gear than I knew I owned and hauled them up to Napa. Now, the show was in Vallejo—20 minutes south—but I had ‘plans’. I took the week following the show off to ‘horse around’. I decided the good staging area was Napa where I could visit my family, etc.

Shawn resisted the idea of going into the trailer at first, but I had the assistance of a broom and a woman to hold the broom and poke him in the butt until he went in. Then, during the ride, he rode fine. It was his mother who scrambled occasionally and generally fussed at every stop or turn. (She doesn’t like sharing the trailer.)

We arrived at Napa just fine. Kiri had hurt herself a little bit, but nothing to keep her from doing things. It was HOT out. I put them in their paddocks then went to pick up my other horse, Scamp, from the trainer in Sonoma. He, at least, trailers like a champ. He’d better after all the hauling the trainer did with him, taking him to trails to ride. When I settled Scamp in next to the others, I went to my family’s house to rest and cool off.

That evening, I convinced my sister Debra to come out and help me clip Shawn. I hadn’t been able to get his ears done since the twitch kept falling off his nose and he moved his neck around too much for me to reach things with my stiff arms. Debra was all business. She ended up putting a lip chain (rope really) on him which worked better than the twitch. She got the ears done. She also got Shawn to pay attention—something that had been lacking since he got out of the trailer in Napa. (He was just showing off to Debra. He wants her to think the worst of him.)

The next morning, I loaded the pair of chestnuts again (with Deb’s help) and hauled them to the show at Vallejo. Kiri fussed—which goes without saying—but Shawn seemed okay in the trailer. Once out of the trailer, though he was amazed by all that was going on around him. He didn’t want to be separated from his mother for anything. He called like a baby when I took Kiri over to bathe her. (She had the first class.) When I took her to show, I brought Shawn along and begged a friend to hold him.

You’d think they were just weaned. Kiri, bless her, didn’t care, but my friend got her ears blasted out by Shawn calling a lot. We got through that class and I took the noisy beast back to the trailer.

I bathed Shawn. He didn’t seem to mind this time as long as he was getting attention. He didn’t like it much when I took him away to the hose to spray him off, but he survived. I even rinsed his face, which he didn’t think was at all necessary.

My next class was with Shawn followed immediately by one with Kiri—both halter. This was Shawn’s first chance to see the inside of a show ring. He wasn’t at all sure about what he was doing there, but he really was fairly good—not running over me or anything. He trotted out quite well. He also yelled for his mama several times. He didn’t place well in the class, but I didn’t expect it. He’s still not in any kind of halter show shape and probably couldn’t have won anything at his age anyway since he’s a bit gangly yet.

Debra held Shawn when I took Kiri in. This meant she got her ears blasted by Shawn.

After that was lunch. I saddled Kiri for the class directly after the break. I got her all ready, climbed aboard, then had someone hand me Shawn’s lead rope. He behaved the best while being ponied next to his mother. I guess he’s really gotten used to that. I met Deb up by the arena and rode Kiri in the class. Directly following, I had to change from western to English tack for the subsequent class. Shawn had settled down a bit and wasn’t calling quite as often. Kiri did well enough in the two riding classes. Then we were done for the day. I took Shawn and Kiri home and put them into their paddocks. Shawn had survived his first day of show.

The next day, Shawn had the class that was my real reason to bring him out at this point. This was the day for Sport Horse in Hand, a class where the judge (usually a dressage judge) evaluates the horse for potential for dressage or other athletic disciplines. There, his condition and stage of growth might affect things, but it wasn’t a beauty contest so we had a chance. Also, you get a nice sheet with comments on it to see what the judge did and did not like about your horse. I wanted that.

I loaded Shawn and Scamp into the trailer. Scamp because he is for sale and to keep Shawn company. They both loaded fine (Shawn had learned a few things in the last few days about going into the trailer). They hauled fine. It was almost like there were no horses back there. We got to the show and I left them in the trailer for a while while I checked things out. They were quiet.

One of the trainers agreed to look at my two geldings—at Scamp for possible help with sale and at Shawn for later training prospect. Todd dismissed Scamp as something he couldn’t market. (Scamp is in trail weight, not show weight, and wasn’t the type of horse he sells.) Shawn, though, he agreed could probably make a nice show horse. I may take him to Todd next year for training for show—after having him broke to the trail by Sandy Martindale who’s been working on Scamp.

I dragged the pair of boys around some more and ran into some friends. Carol DiMaggio and I fell into talking and we ended up sitting in the shade at her barn while Shawn and Scamp munched hay in front of us. (The class wasn’t going to start until after 1pm and it was only about 10:30.)

Both boys were good. Carol said that she was always running out of well-trained trail geldings. She suggested a few places to market Scamp. We discussed other things and generally ‘hung out’ while waiting for the class. Her assistant even braided Shawn’s mane for me—which is good because I’m bad at that at the best of times and am sure my arms would not have approved.

Finally, it was time to take them to the class. Carol had three horses to show so she and her assistant took a pair while I took Shawn. Scamp got shoved into one of Carol’s stalls (now emptied by the horse going out for the class). We got to the sport horse in hand area and waited in line.

And waited.

And waited in the heat and full sun and… Whew. Eventually, it was my turn with Shawn. I led him over to the judge, had him evaluated, then walked the triangle. This is a large area delineated by poles on the ground. It was an especially large triangle. The sun was still hot. I could feel sweat running down my back.

Then it was time to trot the triangle. This means going around the same large area while running next to Shawn in the full sun. I didn’t pass out or anything, but I’m sure I didn’t show him as well as I might have. I’m going to have to run faster if I want him to show off.

We survived. I took him back to Carol’s barn and put him into an empty stall that used to be her hay room (when she had hay in it for the show). Then it was time to wait again. All the horses had to be judged before anything could be known about score or we could see the test results. I went back to watch some of the other horses, including Carol’s and some of Earl’s. I chatted with various folks and generally killed time.

I thought it best to go check the boys’ water…it being hot and all. So I walked back to the barn. Scamp was out. I took a small bucket, filled it, and took it to his stall. While setting it down on the floor, something went ‘twang’ in my back down by my hips. I couldn’t straighten up. I hobbled over to the chair and sat for a while, hoping the pain would go away.

It didn’t. I’d pulled something and it was going to let me know about it. I was able to hobble back to the sport horse area and watch the last few horses. Then I hobbled around again, going back to the stalls and such, and returned for the placing of the classes.

I looked over the shoulder of the person marking the class and thought I saw Shawn in 2^nd place. Then I looked again and saw I had missed the line. Shawn only had a 44.5% score. This is out of 100 where 70+ is considered quite good. I was surprised and disappointed. I had thought Shawn was much better than that.

It turns out I was right. When I got my test, I realized that nearly half of the categories were blank. Now, the judge does not leave things blank. The scribe must have missed something. I had it rechecked. After the last three fields were filled in, Shawn’s score went from 44.5 to 72.5! That put him in a tie for second place.

There were other irregularities in the scoring. The show secretary gathered up what she could and straightened things out. Shawn ended up in 3^rd by the tie breaker. If he had moved better (or I had run better on the triangle), we would have had 2^nd. The 1^st place horse had a 75% and was the champion.

All in all, I was quite pleased.

Shawn’s scores: