show success

I would most definitely call our first show as the Northwest Ohio Driving Circuit a success! We had a great turnout and everyone had a good time. 

And best of all. . .

I drove Shyloh in the Draft Working Cart class and she did awesome! Beth rode in the cart with me, just in case. Shy was listening great and was very calm. And she was being lazy. She was walking like she had no place to go! And when it came time to trot, she was inconsistent in keeping it up, but that is okay. For our first time in an actual cart class, I could not have been happier! And we got fifth place!

That was our first ribbon ever! 

We also did halter, showmanship, trail-in-hand, and line driven reinsmanship (where Shy refused to enter the arena and our circles looked like ameobas). And even though we did not place in any of those classes, we had so much fun.

We also got the Most Improved award for the show, because we drove in the cart class. A whole winter of hard work and tons of help from Jaime, Becky, and Beth, got us to this point. I will be forever grateful for them.

I didn't take nearly as many photos as I wanted, but here are some from our fantastic day!

Line driving Shy

She looks sleepy

Practicing in the cart!

Pleasure driving class, Becky driving Allie

Pleasure driving class, Flo with Nick

Youth cart class, Beth and Regina with Art

Youth cart class, Chelsea and Cody in his three piece suit

Kyle and Clutch

Becky and Maddie driving Allie, getting ready for youth cart class

Shady the donkey!

Pretty Gypsy pony

Another pretty Gypsy Pony

Skylar the cart dog. He had so much fun, he finally passed out from exhaustion.

Shy

On our way to the show!

Grand Reserve Champion in halter! Go Jaime and Notch!

Little Shady

Youth showmanship class. Great turnout!

Haley rode Notch and Kyle on Clutch

she knows. . .

She knows. . .

I have tried to keep it under wraps for the past two weeks or however long it has been since I have known.

But Shyloh found out somehow. . .can she read my thoughts?

I began to suspect she knew something when I gave her a bath today. Usually, Shy is pretty good for a bath. And while she does not like her face sprayed, she will tolerate it. Today, she was an absolute beast. She would not even let me finish washing the shampoo from her forelock. 

Then I tried to clean the nasty from her lady parts. I have never seen her lady parts so disgusting! Shy was not down at all with having clean lady parts. I did the best I could, but I had to keep chasing and fighting her. 

After her bath (where I am pretty sure I got more soap and water on me than she did), I took her to dry off so I could pack everything for the show tomorrow. 

Between the stank eye looks at me and this. . .

Pleading an insanity case

. . .I was truly convinced that she knows. She may have overheard me at some point. I thought I was careful in being quiet about it. 

After she had dried, I brushed her mane and tail out. So clean and pretty and wait. . .what is this?

ewwwwwww

Nasty! Die tick die! I found that bugger in her tail, at least it wasn't attached. Shy had her tail clamped down so hard (most likely to keep me away from trying to finish cleaning those lady parts) and was not cooperating at all when I was brushing her tail. 

When I went to brush her forelock, I knew she knew something for sure. Shy usually loves her forelock brushed and lowers her head for it. But today, Shy would not let me touch her forelock at all. Not with my hand, not with the brush. In fact, she got downright violent at some points, jerking her head away so hard I thought she was going to snap the cross ties. There was no reason for this behavior and I was getting frustrated. Very frustrated. 

I thought maybe her ear was bothering her, but she would not let me get close to it at all. Again with the violent head jerking but that was mixed with her laying her head into my shoulder. It was weird. She was clearly messing with my psyche. 

And she knows. I really did not want to say anything to her in case she decided to become "lame" or have some other made up Shy ailment. 

I asked some other people at the barn about her odder than usual bevahior and they said she might have bug bites from gnats in her ears and to use Vasoline or Swat. Ha, good luck to me trying to get something in her ear. I gave up on this and tortured Shy in other ways. . .

Like this!

Finally get to use the sleazy! Hope it's in one piece tomorrow. . .

Hey, after all that hard work and fighting with Shy, I was not about to have her undo it all in a night. Luckily for us, Shy was offered a stall for the night in the prestigious Thoroughbred barn. Shy got a giant stall and some hay. She seemed pretty happy. But I am afraid for what tomorrow brings when I get to the barn in the early morning. 

A stall??!!

Because what Shy seems to know is that she will be showing in a cart class! First one ever! 

Whoo hoo! Cart class! Is there something in my teeth?

pre show prep

Our first show is Saturday!! I can't wait for show season to start and I took my time with Shyloh today to start prepping her for the show. And since I won't be able to get out to the barn until Friday, I had to start today.

The first thing I discovered when I went to get Shy out of her pasture is that she is in raging heat. Raging. Like she doesn't even bother to put her tail down because in a few seconds it will be back up for her to squirt. Nasty. And she does this crazy walk with her back legs spread apart. Such a weird horse. 

The lucky horse of Shy's affection is ironically, Traveller, the horse she refused to let get past the fallen tree when he first joined the herd.  Oh yeah, she really likes him now. 

  

A new love

But, good thing for me, Shy seems to contain her moments of heat to the geldings. When she is with me, she is the same as always. I started to groom her today and I noticed this sticky tar-like substance on her tail, butt, and rear legs. Weird. I was pretty positive that it was not poop. It was black and sticky. Very odd. Since I was convinced it was not poop, I was touching it and pulling at it. Later, I discovered it might be poop and I was totally grossed out. But after I put her back with the herd (and after I sprayed her with fly spray), I went back to her and she seemed to have this substance on her again. Any ideas what it could be? I did not get any photos of it.

I worked as much of it off as I could and I am giving her a bath Friday, so I wasn't too worried about it today. The more I checked her out, the stranger Shy got. She had these blood splatters on her under carriage and little bumps as well.

See the blood splatters and bumps? Had to censor her lady parts.

See it here? I am guessing bugs are doing this since Dancer had it too. 

I sprayed underneath her with water and washed the area off. Apparently it did not seem to hurt or bother Shy because she never swatted me with her tail or even lifted a leg. Anyone know what this is?

I also cleaned the dust out of her new harness. I put it on Shy and wiped it all down. Gotta love biothane! So easy to clean! Then I stored it in a plastic container to keep it clean and keep the dust off. Now I just have to wash the pad. 

I had Shy wear the harness while I cleaned. She needs to take an active part in  pre show prep.

The last pre show prep for today included a shave. I sadly said goodbye to all of Shy's cute whiskers and trimmed up her long beard hairs. She still would not let me clip the outside of her ears. I can hold the clippers to the side of her face, right below her ears, touching her, but the second they come within a millimeter of ear hair, Shy says NO! I also trimmed up her hairs along her coronet band. I am not touching her feathers, I like them too much. And her bridle path got a touch up. I know I will have to clean everything up on Friday, but I wanted to get a head start since I have not trimmed her since last summer. 

Smooth as a baby's bottom.

I am so excited for show season and all the crazy, fun, and busy-ness that comes with it!

monday musings by shyloh #88

Sometimes Allie talks to me and it makes me so bored. . .

So so bored. . . She wonders if I am cold because I have shed out and I have mysterious patches of hardly any hair. 

She goes on and on about things like shows and harnesses and saddles. . .

Then she starts talking about being nice to the other horses. . .

And she asks me about all of my scratches, cuts, and scrapes from hanging out in the woods. 

Even when I am tacked up, she babbles on about nothing, nothing important in the equine world.

How do I get her to talk about more exciting things?

~Shyloh

driving art

Beth was kind enough to invite me back down to Ohio to drive Art again. I am happy to say I made it all the way down there without the use of a navigational device or getting lost. It's about time. . .I am only down there pretty much all the time. 

So I made it to Beth's without a problem (and I have to remember to get gas in Ohio, much cheaper than Michigan!) and she got Art out. Art is one smart pony. . .he doesn't come up to the door like Curly, Leah, and Rambo. No. . .he seems to know that we were getting him for work and he keeps his distance. 

I got a crash course in putting on the farm harness, since it is still new to me. I love how Beth has everything so organized, makes it so simple. Then we hooked Art up, added Skylar the most lovable dog ever,  and away we went. 

Handsome Art

We were going for a drive on the Wabash Cannonball Trail, which was originally a railroad. It was very cool and very pretty. Most of the way we went had trees lining each side, which was nice at keeping the wind out since it was so pretty. Here is a map of the trails. . .we went from Section 2 to Section 7. 

I had set one small goal for myself. . .it was not to jump out of my skin when we started moving. I don't know why, but that initial jolt always startles me. I am pretty proud to stay that I did not jump! Goal met! I also did not hold on to the side of the cart for dear life, either. I really think having Skylar in the cart helped. I can honestly say that this was the most peaceful and calm I have felt in a cart. 

And Art was not making it easy. After we got in the cart, Art wanted to go. He almost ran into the trailer! I was actually really surprised at myself for keeping my composure. In fact, I wasn't even scared. Beth was driving and I was just fine. 

After a while, I got my turn to drive. I was having a ton of fun! Art is really fun to drive. He did spook at one point when we were switching the lines and dog over, but I was able to control him, even though Beth tried to grab the reins. I trotted Art through an area that had no trees so we could get back to the trees, that wind was cold! Poor Skylar had to go in Beth's jacket. Good thing he is a little guy. 

There are a couple spots in the trail that have holes that need to be filled. There was one that was right in the middle so the chances of either Art stepping the the hole (very bad) or the cart wheel going in the hole (not good either) where too great. So We got out to walk Art around the hole. 

Well. . .the lines accidentally slipped under poor Art's short tail, he clamped (he clamps worse than Shyloh), then decided he did not like the feeling of the line under his clamped tail. He worked himself into a little fit as he tried to go and tried to turn and just tried anything to get the line from under his tail. Beth was able to calm him and fix it, but that could of been a potential disaster. Whew. 

We climbed back into the cart, and I didn't even have a second of hesitation about that. Beth had him trot for a while to get his mind on something else, which worked wonderfully. 

Then it was my turn again. We were cruising along nicely, when all of a sudden Art tripped and fell on his knees. He got up and wanted to take off, but I held him back and got him under control. Again, my heart was not beating out of my chest or anything. It was nice to not be scared. I took Art all the way back to Beth's, which included taking him on the road. When we got on the road, Art started calling for his little herd and picked up his speed, but was very good for me.

Such a good pony!

That really was the best time driving I had. I think I got some confidence from today's events. Art was awesome and even though there was a few things, I handled it well without being terrified. And I can't thank Beth enough for letting me have the opportunity to drive Art again.

After that, we went to visit Becky at the first Harry Hughes Circuit show. We chatted and watched a bit of a Western class before heading back. What a fun day!!