Thanks In Advance: Tia's First Show

Wow! Look at how far she has come! From the skinny..wait...emaciated little mare on a dry lot.....

To the beautiful, FAT little mare I see now!

She really has come such a long way, in more ways then just her weight.

The first time she had her feet done, there was no sedation, but there was a lot of rearing and kicking out and very "scared horse" behavior. Lots of following her around just to get one foot done. Over an hour to trim 4 feet. At her last appt, she stood like a real horse...confident and respectful. It only took us about 30 minutes to do all 4 feet...and most of that time was spent talking to the farrier!

Her first vet visit was a bit scary. Not because she did anything bad, she was actually exceptionally good. Never offered to kick, bite or make any move whatsoever. It was scary because of the condition she was in. I honestly wasn't sure she was going to make it. My vet and I agreed that no shots would be given, as her body was just to weak to handle the strain on her system. A coggins was pulled though. The vet came back out for Spring shots a few weeks ago. I had him pull a new coggins because I wanted the pictures on the old one GONE. My vet sent me an email about a week ago...he had gone back and looked at Tia's original coggins..What a huge difference. He was very impressed.

Tia has had a lot of firsts with me. Her first time in a real stall, that I am aware of. Her first time being handled with something called love and respect. Her first time being able to trust. Her first time having her own herd. Her first time being ridden NICELY...I truly believe whoever broke her was not very gentle and the lady I got her from really was a true beginner. She was NEVER mean to Tia, but Tia knew how to get away with everything.

Tia's latest first...Her First Show! I would love to tell you that it was completely non-eventful...I can't. She did, however, load very nicely Sunday morning! Yay!

So here is how the show day went. We loaded up and headed to the show grounds. As soon as we got there, we went up to register. Tia and I were in Class 6 - Halter - Stock Type Mares. They were on Class 1 - Showmanship. Normally Showmanship takes FOREVERRRRRRRRRRR. Apparently, not today. I had just enough time to get Tia off the trailer, get dressed, PepeDee her little butt, get her halter on and head to the ring. She was fine until we got up to the ring. There were to many people and horses she didn't know. Trucks, Trailers and Announcers - Oh My! The majority of the class was spent with her jogging in circles and me just trying to assure her she wasn't going to die. :) The judge was nice enough to let us at least walk the class just to give her experience. So, I did the best I could. I walked right to the judge...Tia jogged. The judge smiled and nodded for me to continue. Here are some of the moments in the class...

First Time In The Ring

Walking To The Judge

(Stole this from the picture below)

Screaming to Ber Ber the whole time

There was some snorting going on too!

Lots and lots of circles

More circles

(Stole this from the photo below)

Making our way to Line Up

Trying to settle down

Must Be Beside Mom!

The elbow was used alot that day

The judge was coming to judge her - She thought he

was going to eat her!

Standing nicely for the judge

The judge asked me after he was done judging how old she was and what her story was. I was very impressed that he actually let us do the class instead of just excusing us. Very nice judge, very patient.

What a good girl!

And!!! We got a ribbon! Third Place!

(Who cares that there was only three people in the class!)

Me and My Beautiful Girl

Kisses for the good girl!

After a short break, we did some lunging and then went for a walk around the show grounds. Around the back of the property she was super relaxed. It was only around the front of the property where the show rings were that she needed to be in my pocket. The horses, the people, the trucks and trailers, the announcer, the rings...it was all a bit much for her. She NEVER offered to kick or be nasty. She just needed to be in my pocket. Again, the elbow got a lot of use!

At one point, Nikki and I were joking about what would happen if the tent over Ber Ber just blew over...we shouldn't have been joking about it...cause it happened...like 2 seconds after we said it. Everyone was fine and we double pegged both tents in the ground.

Ber Shade...Until it blew over...

My Mom came over to the show and brought us Fried Chicken! Yum! We sat and had lunch and then we all went for another walk.

This time, Tia was much more relaxed. She would graze and meander and occasionally realize she wasn't close enough to me and come back over. She got lots of compliments on how pretty she was and how good she was being especially for her first show.

We had a special visitor come over as well. A wonderful family friend came over to hang out with us. We hadn't seen Marilyn in quite a while, so having her there was extremely special!

Then it was time for Nikki's speed classes! Ber Ber is such an amazing little mare. She really does do it all!

Nikki took Ber to the end of where we were parked to warm her up and I took Tia to hand graze for a little while. It was at that moment...that BOTH tents pulled the pegs from the ground and went into the air. BOTH TENTS. Both 10x10x8 Tents. In The Air. At a horse show. Needless to say, Tia LEFT. I tried to hang on, but my shoulder wouldn't let me. To hell with my hand burning to smithereens...my shoulder is what did me in. Tia locked her radar on Ber and went straight for her. Thankfully, that meant she was enclosed in the trail ring. She let me walk right over and get her. No issues. I wasn't mad. It wasn't her fault. Moral of this story...tie your tents down to fricken cinder blocks! Ugh! My hand still hurts a bit, but nothing like it did when it happened. Thank God for Neosporin!

Tia got to hang out with me for Nikki's first class, but by the second class, my hand was killing me and holding a horse and trying to take pictures one handed is a bit more complicated then it looks!