We created a business, the business we have today. We worked very hard to make this work. When we didn't have a horse business, I road 4 or 5 times a week. Last year I only rode Sensational Sara, one of our broodmares, twice and she wasn't happy about it! She figured that after her fourth baby her riding career was over. It's like any other small business. You have to work hard to establish your business, and once established, you have to work twice as hard to keep it going. However, every now and again I remember why we started this business and why I love being around horses and the people that work in the industry.
Today I'll tell you about the most fun I ever had at a horse show. There was a point when we had two brood mares and two show horses. One show horse was mostly the responsibility of my trainer. Her name was One Sensational Diva; she was known as Bambi in our house. She has had a wonderful career, and even though she is 9 or 10, she still shows today. In fact, a young lady just won a Pinto Horse Association World Championship on her this past week. The other show horse was Charlies My Daddy. We called her Maria, and she was my horse but everyone loved her. She is a broodmare now and is owned by a friend of ours that lives in Texas, but back then I rode her whenever I went to the barn.
Everytime I would go to a show to ride Maria I would learn something new. I began at the lowest level of riding, Novice Amateur. This meant I didn't have enough points, accumulated by placings in events, to qualify as an amateur. I was happy about this because most amateurs are pretty good riders and at the beginning I was not. We had been to the Tom Powers Triple Challenge Futurity the year before, and that was pretty eventful. My trainer won the 3 year old Color Breed futurity against many very nice horses, on Bambi. I tried showing her and she ran off at a gallop and I ended up watching the class from the center of the ring. This was just a little embarrassing! Then I showed Maria in a quarter horse class and we actually did well. But, during the lineup I let Maria reach down and grab a mouthful of grass, got marked down, and we lost the class. I loved that horse but looking back maybe I did spoil her a little!
So it's now Memorial Day weekend the following year. Every Memorial Day there is a big Michigan Paint Horse Association event in Mason, Michigan. Mason is the home of the Ingam County Fairgrounds and they have a very nice show facility. There are ample stalls, there is a nice indoor show arena, and there were several very large outdoor practice arenas. Going to this sight would give me plenty of places to practice, which I liked. At this event, they also hosted a sweepstakes class for Open riders. An Open rider is anyone good enough to compete at the highest level. It could be a professional or a very good amateur. Usually these events have the best horses and we wanted to enter Bambi in this event. Mostly we wanted to know if her success the year before at the Tom Powers Futurity was a fluke or if she was really as good as we thought.
As I said, usually going to a horse show meant tagging along with four or five other amateurs, the trainer and his assistant and a half a dozen horses. For this event it was just the trainer and me and Bambi and Maria. We decided to practice as much as we could at home, drive up to Mason, about 2 hours away, on a Friday night. We let the horses settle in and came back out to practice on Saturday then began showing in the afternoon. So here we are, two guys going to a horse show, with the hope of competing and doing well.
We were not what you would call detail oriented. It became pretty clear to us that we didn't really think this through. The first night went easily enough. We got up early the next morning, met for breakfast at the hotel restaurant, then we left for the show grounds. We arrived around 7:30 am, fed the horses, cleaned their stalls, set up the tack stall and went to the office to register the horses for their classes. I showed Maria first, in the early afternoon, and my trainer showed Bambi a few classes later. So far so good. We saddled up the horses in their work gear and we went out to practice. Both horses rode well. We didn't have to lunge either horse, you could just hop on their backs and walk around for a few minutes to warm them up and let them see the sights. They were great! Not many people knew us yet, a few recognized us from some advertisements we had run the year before, but most people didn't have a clue. A couple of the other trainers came by and said hello to our trainer, who they recognized. They didn't know who I was, and that was just fine with me. Most people on the grounds were much younger than me, and were better riders than me, but I didn't mind. I was going to compete anyway and I was pretty proud of our horses because I knew they looked good.
Here is when the fun started. The practice arenas were a little dusty and it was a warm day so the horses worked up a sweat and had dust that stuck to their sweaty sides, so we had to bath them before we could show them. So we take off their saddles and blankets and go to give them their baths. We had shampoo, but for Maria, who had a very thick and long mane and just a beautiful and full tail, we needed a conditioner. I remembered that on the advice of a horse friend, I had asked my wife to purchase a particular type of women's hair dye the next time she went to the salon because in the box with the dye came a very effective hair conditioner. She told me she also purchased shampoo for Maria and put it in a tote bag that I put in the storage compartment in the truck. I assumed she had gone to Tractor Supply or the local Feed and Grain store and purchased one of the usual horse shampoos. I was wrong. Pam purchased shampoo for Maria (Pam also spoiled Maria) at her beauty salon. She also purchased a hair sheen product. These were all made by Paul Mitchell. So here I am at the horse washing area of this facility washing the mane and tail of my horse with fairly high end beauty salon products. One lady asked if I always those products on my horses, but I knew she was thinking this guy is nuts!
We got both horses cleaned up, we covered them in coolers, which is a blanket you drape over your horse when it is wet to soak up the moisture, and we put them in their stalls. After a little while we went back, took off the coolers and began to get them ready for the classes. We had to band the horses manes so we attempted to do this ourselves. We started with Bambi. The purpose of banding a mane is to make the horse's mane look neat and trim and to accentuate the line of their neck. When my trainer and I tried to do this we did the exact opposite. No two hair bands were the same. Picture the horizon of an uneven mountain range and that's kind of how our banding looked. Realizing we needed help, we tracked down a lady in our show barn that was banding manes for $35. So, we hired her to do our horses. She did Bambi in a snap. It looked great and neat and we were all set. Now for Maria.
As I mentioned earlier, Maria had a long flowing mane. We had decided to let it grow long the year before because it was beautiful. However, it required an expert groomer to band her mane correctly. Normally, my trainer's assistant did this chore. To this day, I think she is the best horse groomer I've ever worked with. The lady we hired at the horse show brushed Maria's hair. She even mentioned how soft and manageable it was. I told her what I used and she laughed! She said she didn't feel she could band her mane properly and she suggested that we just comb it out and show her as she was. That's what we did.
Not long after this, we had the horses saddled and we had to get our show outfits on. I brought along four or five neatly pressed and starched show shirts, a half a dozen ties, two hats and two pairs of boots. My trainer brought about 100 shirts - I kid you not - and at least that many ties. After we picked out what we were going to wear we went to put on our chaps. By now, my chaps, which were always a tight fit, were too tight to zip up. Putting on chaps is always a little awkward but when you can't get the zipper up it's embarrassing. My trainer pointed out that he was not about to help me with my chaps. I was on my own! Stalled next to us was a nice couple and I asked for help. The guy said he couldn't help but his wife said she would help. Thank goodness for kind souls. She didn't comment on how tight the chaps were, which I appreciated, and she got them zipped up.
I showed first and it was the best ride I ever had on Maria. We had two firsts and a fifth in a 20 horse class. A little later Bambi showed and she finished second in the Junior Western Pleasure. Man that was fun and I can't express how excited I was. Between the two horses we accumulated almost 30 points in two classes. The following day was the Michigan Sweepstakes, which was an event that had a decent jackpot but more importantly, some top trainers brought their horses to compete in the class. This time Bambi won! My trainer came out of the pen smiling and I was elated. We had a national level show horse. This was unbelievable!!! Just for good measure, I showed Maria the next day and I got a second in a class of 15. This was a great show. It was fun, I met a lot of people, and we were gone for less than 3 days. I look back on that show when I get down. I will never forget how happy I was on the ride home.
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