nootka
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Well, it was set up to be a long show for us, started Thursday, we arrived Wed. night about a half hour before measuring. I'd been to this show a few times before, so I thought I knew what to expect, but was surprised when we arrived and the stalls I had hoped to have were not ours. We were, instead, placed in temporary pipe stalls in a small tent type thing w/no sides!
I have two small children and I was counting on the solid side structures placed on the concrete to create a little room out of the sun and also capable of containing them!!! The floors on the temps were deep sand/dust, and far away from the arena in an area none of the others were located.
Our stalls were not even bedded nor had any lights, etc., and a couple of them would not close. Wah. After driving for 8 hours to arrive and not expecting it, it was too much, and I considered backing out as I knew we could not watch the kids in that situation (they could crawl out the tube stalls and they would have, plus they would have been playing in three inch deep dust and grit! Also, the sun shines in during a.m. and p.m. as it gets low in the sky, my little boys are very light skinned...youch.)
So the reason this happened to us is that there was an auction (not affiliated w/the show) being held and they had reserved a lot of stalls, leaving less than usual on top of the fact that they also held an AMHR also show for the first time ever.
BUT, the show management went out of their way to accomodate us, even taking on the grumpy auction people to make sure we had the stalls we needed, though we did have to stall our horses in different areas from our tack and 'getaway/baby" room. I felt bad for them, but I felt that they valued my presence enough to deal w/the headache, so am grateful.
On Thursday, the weather was cool in the a.m. and we were mostly done showing by the time it heated up.
Mouse was reserve champ jr. Gelding twice and Grand Champ Jr. Gelding.
Another sad thing was they gave blue ribbons (first place) for Grand Champ in the Champ classes for AMHR and red second places for the Reserves!
Kinda took the fun out of winning, but we got the points, I would imagine.
Lark took three firsts out of four in her weanie class, but was out of the running in the mares class against the big girls.
Friday was a "day off" for us, so we tried to visit and stay out of the heat w/the little ones. Also watched the auction horses arrive and then we watched that. (I have the auction sale prices, etc. if anyone wants me to post them).
I am sad to say we missed seeing Rob's horse win, but we heard about it!
I got to visit w/lots of Forum members and was happy to do so! Jo is sweet and her daughter is very pretty. My middle son saw her and apparently went to tell his older brother and Hilary that "that was his girlfriend!" *LOL* I saw Michelle again, also got to meet sedeh and wcr. Annette was there w/her gorgeous horses, too.
On Saturday, the AMHA portion of the show, Lark and I did ok, but the judges apparently did not favor her. I still think she is a little beauty and I did get a lot of compliments on her.
She was SUCH a good girl even though she is not yet weaned.
On Sunday (haha my birthday, thanks, Hilary, for giving that one away!!), Mouse and I were to show in the Gelding classes. We did "ok" in the Amateur, but he really did well in the Open Jr. Gelding classes (he does love to show, even though it was hot, he stood very well for me and gave me ears, his eyes light up, etc.) and eventually took two Grand Champ Jr. Geldings, and one Reserve (yay, neck ribbons this time!). It was something like 100 degrees Friday and Saturday, also Sunday, so I appreciated Mouse's attitude.
We even earned a place in the Supreme Halter Horse arena (all the Grand Champs from each gender/age division). Was fun to be in there w/the judge's faves, and that winning Gelding (!) was wonderful as was the mare handled by Vicky Smothermon!!!
All in all, it was a really great show and I truly want to thank the show staff for their time and effort.
Exhibitors brought some gorgeous entries, in both registries.
I hope to be able to attend this show next year!
We made it home in about 6 hours, and the horses were GLAD!
OR State Fair next!!!
Liz M.

I have two small children and I was counting on the solid side structures placed on the concrete to create a little room out of the sun and also capable of containing them!!! The floors on the temps were deep sand/dust, and far away from the arena in an area none of the others were located.

So the reason this happened to us is that there was an auction (not affiliated w/the show) being held and they had reserved a lot of stalls, leaving less than usual on top of the fact that they also held an AMHR also show for the first time ever.
BUT, the show management went out of their way to accomodate us, even taking on the grumpy auction people to make sure we had the stalls we needed, though we did have to stall our horses in different areas from our tack and 'getaway/baby" room. I felt bad for them, but I felt that they valued my presence enough to deal w/the headache, so am grateful.
On Thursday, the weather was cool in the a.m. and we were mostly done showing by the time it heated up.
Mouse was reserve champ jr. Gelding twice and Grand Champ Jr. Gelding.


Lark took three firsts out of four in her weanie class, but was out of the running in the mares class against the big girls.

Friday was a "day off" for us, so we tried to visit and stay out of the heat w/the little ones. Also watched the auction horses arrive and then we watched that. (I have the auction sale prices, etc. if anyone wants me to post them).
I am sad to say we missed seeing Rob's horse win, but we heard about it!
I got to visit w/lots of Forum members and was happy to do so! Jo is sweet and her daughter is very pretty. My middle son saw her and apparently went to tell his older brother and Hilary that "that was his girlfriend!" *LOL* I saw Michelle again, also got to meet sedeh and wcr. Annette was there w/her gorgeous horses, too.
On Saturday, the AMHA portion of the show, Lark and I did ok, but the judges apparently did not favor her. I still think she is a little beauty and I did get a lot of compliments on her.

On Sunday (haha my birthday, thanks, Hilary, for giving that one away!!), Mouse and I were to show in the Gelding classes. We did "ok" in the Amateur, but he really did well in the Open Jr. Gelding classes (he does love to show, even though it was hot, he stood very well for me and gave me ears, his eyes light up, etc.) and eventually took two Grand Champ Jr. Geldings, and one Reserve (yay, neck ribbons this time!). It was something like 100 degrees Friday and Saturday, also Sunday, so I appreciated Mouse's attitude.
We even earned a place in the Supreme Halter Horse arena (all the Grand Champs from each gender/age division). Was fun to be in there w/the judge's faves, and that winning Gelding (!) was wonderful as was the mare handled by Vicky Smothermon!!!
All in all, it was a really great show and I truly want to thank the show staff for their time and effort.
Exhibitors brought some gorgeous entries, in both registries.
I hope to be able to attend this show next year!
We made it home in about 6 hours, and the horses were GLAD!
OR State Fair next!!!
Liz M.