Do you have a mini that LOVES to show?

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nootka

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Or so it seems.

This past week I have been getting three horses ready to go to the Schooling Show. Now since it's just me here w/the two little boys, I have to plan my time carefully and expedite. That has meant no baths, rough clips out of their winter coats and one at a time. I started with the foal, and then the yearling, and all the while, once I got those clippers out, I think Mouse thought I was forgetting about him.

He has been crabbing about and sulking until today when I took the clippers to him. He was pretty good about everything and I got him done in one and a half hours (I still need to clip his muzzle and over his eyes and boy it's raggedy, but he's out of his winter coat!).

Now he is so pleased. He pirouettes in his stall waiting for his dinner and his blanket, and I can practically hear him begging me to finish him up w/some "product" for his coat but he needs a bath, first.

*LOL* I had forgotten how much he seems to enjoy showing. He just lights up and gets more animated.

I think what he loves about it is all the extra attention and the admiration as well as the interaction. I hope his little brother Kyan loves it as much.

Does anyone else out here have a horse that just loves to go to shows?

Liz M.
 
YIP
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: MY BOY TWINKLETOES,LOVES THE SHOWS,HE STRUTTS HIS STUFF,AND POSES,HE THINKS HES LIKE A TEENAGER AT A DISCO LOL HE BOXES HIMSELF ON THE TRAILER AND STOMPS HIS FEET HE GETS SO EXCITED,ABSOLUTLEY LOVES THE SHOWS,....SO DO I :bgrin
 
[SIZE=14pt]Poor Mouse Man,,,[/SIZE]

Thinking that he is old and forgotten!

All the excitement with the NEW baby and another coming any time. He probably LOVES the makeover. Just his thing Liz! He sure does well and it is nice you have an all around gelding that likes to do it. Tell him if he starts chasing his legs,,, he will have to stay home. That should fix it!

Good luck with all the horses this weekend! Be sweet to Mr Curly Pants. He wants a blue ribbon for his wall.
 
[SIZE=14pt]GQ, Carbon and her little sister Indy love to pose and show.... Carbons nose will be out of joint when we leave her home this year to have her baby![/SIZE]

Lyn
 
I have a couple of minis who love to go to shows and I also have a large horse who loves going to shows. When I pull the trailer up in front of the barn, they all come running up to the gate and paw at the fence, its worse than feeding time. One of my little guys is really bad about wanting to go to shows and on trailer rides. If I leave the trailer doors open and he gets loose, he heads straight for the trailer and jumps in, he does care were in the trailer he goes either, one time I found him in the living quarters.

Carrie
 
Our boys are all getting a little concerned because I've been working with a new horse and not them. All our show boys are often lined up at the gate watching me when I go catch Hawk. Image and Elvez, the two I've shown for years now, have reason to be concerned.

Poor Image is going to be heartbroken when he doesn't get to go ... I'm going to make sure he's on the back pasture the days we leave and can't see the trailer going without him. The first time we left him home from a show when we got home that night he was still pacing the fence and carrying on.

Elvez isn't so concerned, but he does love his halter classes! He doesn't like driving, even though he's pretty good at it when he's not crooked, and the whole clipping and bathing stuff doesn't really appeal to him, but get him in that halter classes and he's a happy horse. It's so nice to show a halter horse that loves to do it, and has that "sparkle", instead of having to work hard to get ears once in a while!

But, after the last couple years I am far too discouraged with those two somewhat lame boys, and they are retiring! So instead I'm taking a perfectly sound three year old ... who's only problem is he doesn't know anything and is a little crazy in the head! He's actually doing well, he's surprisingly a star at ground driving, and after a couple months he trots beside me almost like a normal horse! Still need a corner to catch him though.

Good luck at the schooling show, I'm jealous, we have months before our first show!!
 
Ours was our little pony, Frosty. He was the local favorite and everyone loved Frosty.

That boy just knew a week in advance when it was showtime. He fought the clippers for years and finally he learned to love it.

He loved his baths and being fussed with.

He knew when it was showtime when a few days before, all the kids would be cleaning tack, loading up stuff in the trailer, all the chaos, and all you'd see from the wash racks was suds and bubbles everywhere.

When that trailer door would open, Frosty would be standing in it and I'd say "no Frosty, it's not today" but he'd stay in there till I would go shoo him back out.

On show day, he'd take a flying leap in that trailer and go exactly to his space.

He's get in the ring and set up automatically for the kids.

For riding classes, he'd shine and work so very hard. Big horses blazing right past him made no difference. He'd hold on the rail and just do his thing.

He loved getting ribbons and usually the gate people knew that he wanted to take them in his mouth and ride the kids back to the trailer by himself with the ribbon hanging out of his mouth. He loved the praise and attention.
 
Our show gelding loves liberty most of all. When he is standing in line waiting for his turn in the arena everytime the music comes on he dances in place. We get a big kick out of watching him. He and another one of ours from last year just finished their first full week of exercise and they both acted like they enjoyed the walker. Trotting around with tails in the air with a float and going in circles on the walk. All you can do is watch and smile. :bgrin Ringo, was shown last year, but is out with some ladies right now and will stay home for the summer, acted a little put out he was not one of them on the walker. He ran all around the outside of the pen and irritated everyone with all of his posturing and screaming. I know he was doing some bad talk.
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: I do think, at least most of ours, enjoy the routine of show season. They know what is going on after a week or two and we try to keep a pattern with workouts and feeding schedules. They know when you are proud of them, and when they look good. Animals want to please, and revel in it when you are happy with them.
 
My gelding...........oh my when he is between the shafts he is HAPPY and there are days where he likes halter, but you figure like 6 years is enough for him.
 
Hmmm. do I have a horse who loves to show?

Mingus thinks that the human race was created to admire him and give him an audience... he's a born showoff. This is a horse whose vocabulary includes "You're beautiful!" Once he hears this magic phrase, his head goes high in the air and he strikes a most glorious pose.

He's also very competitive, and when all three boys line up at the fence for scritches and treats, he is determined to be the most beautiful...he parks himself out and stretches his neck over the fence -- I now use this as a training tool, it works so well. All I need to say is "feet" and he adjusts front and hind feet to a perfect set-up. He's almost comical in his eagerness.

I've head and neck clipped him for the schooling show (it's clipping optional), and the preening has increased. He loves all the attention involved in show prep, other than baths, and he seems to think that just walking through the barn and showgrounds is a Mingus parade.

The challenge with Mingus is to keep him from getting too excited, as he did at last year's shows, and getting him to stand still. We've been working on the non-negotiable whoa and setting up and staying set up, even as I move away and around him, creating various distractions...unfortunately, my schedule has been disrupted due to my hospital stay, so we'll see how it goes.

It is, after all, a schooling show, and we're taking full advantage of that. Needless to say, we're all looking forward to our first outing of the season!
 
Hi,

Yea, my friend owns a mare that will throw herself on the ground and squeal if she doesn't go to shows. Of course, shes retired now, being a hall of fame horse, but she doesn't see it that way. We also have a mare that kicks the walls because she isn't being shown, and isn't pregant right now. Quite a few of our horses like to go to the shows, I think we only have one or two that don't like it, and everyones favorite class is liberty.

Amanda
 
Fascination loves to show! She hates the stalls, but get her driving and she just perks right up! When I saw her for Spring break, her whole attitude was "DRIVE ME"....and when I clipped her and started bringing out the harness, she stood with her ears up and happy the whole time, just eager as can be. She really loves showing off for people when she's driving...and she loves doing hazards, which we only do at shows.
 
MiniHGal said:
Fascination loves to show! She hates the stalls, but get her driving and she just perks right up! When I saw her for Spring break, her whole attitude was "DRIVE ME"....and when I clipped her and started bringing out the harness, she stood with her ears up and happy the whole time, just eager as can be. She really loves showing off for people when she's driving...and she loves doing hazards, which we only do at shows.
:stupid: Yeah, that! Kody isn't so fond of shows in general (he hates being stalled and bathed) but he loves the fact that it means three or four days of him being the center of my world and me being with him 24/7. He is miserable in the winter when I'm not working him at all due to weather and darkness. He absolutely lit up this spring when I started conditioning and now he's dropped the attitude and is pathetically eager to please in hopes I will spend more time with him. I brought out the harness for the first time last weekend and the perpetual wiggle-wort planted his feet and stood up tall and said "I'm good! I'm being good! See how I'm being good? Please, please, please put the harness on. Come on, hurry up, I'm begging you. I'm standing still. Come on...." :lol:

I'm not sure he's figured out about showing off for an audience, but he sure wants to please his mama so he does his best once he's hitched.

Leia
 
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Angel Baby is a local favorite. Our intention was to retire her this year. I mean, good grief, she is like 18 years old. After the Hurricane, Angel got really sick, and lost oodles of weight. I told my daughter Savannah a month ago, that Angel was definalty not going to any more shows. Well, let me just say, I think she heard, because she is back to her fat self. So, guess what? She went to the first show of the season last weekend. She showed her heart out.

So, it looks like retirement is not in the cards for Angel baby, not yet anyway. And Savannah is thrilled to be able to take her horse.

Oh, Angel shows heavy in foal one show, and foal at her side the next, LOL. This is her first year to be open, yea, she needs a break!! You would think she would want a break from showing, also. She was grand champion mare in about 1990. She thrives on attention, spoiled brat.
 
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My Sundance absolutely LOVES to show off!! The minute he is in the ring he does "his stuff" and is so beautiful....and I would show him even if he didnt keep winning!!
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Well, I have not personally shown any of the horses on my little show string! Give me about 5 more weeks and I can confirm what I suspect
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I think they all do or will love to show.

Sunny (Tibb's Sundowner) is just such an amazing individual. Erica has done an amazing job working with him and training him when he was her horse. It blows me away how all I do is hold his lead right and he sets up, stretches, gives his ears, everything. He's a show machine!!! Also, he does a 360 flawlessly and so smooth and fast. He's even better at a 360 than Derby, and (not to be too obnoxious, but...) Derby does it better than any other horse I've seen at the shows.

Then DunIT (Erica's Gone and DunIT) if ever there was a horse that wants to show off, it is him! He was slightly injured over the New Years holiday and has totally recovered. He had a puncture and it caused him to be lame on the front left awhile. But, when he was better it was like BOOM totally fine. I was trying to have Harvey WALK him so I could see if he was lame, then go on and trot, but DunIT would not walk. He PRANCES everywhere with his gorgeous head so high on that long neck. I do think he will love being looked at at the shows.

And my (Smarty) Bacardi (Little Kings BT Bacardi Gold)!!! He is another natural show off (probably both he and DunIT get lots of this from all their Buckeroo blood!). He's very high headed and flashy. I've been working with him a lot and when I hold his lead and *I* act like there's a 6-figure horse on the other end of the line, he just totally picks that up from me and acts the part. He and I, so far anyway, click just so right and he seems to know what I'm thinking and he's a complete hambone to boot!

Then, judging from the videos and pictures, I think Destiny (Erica's Echos of My Destiny) also loves to show, but maybe Erica will see and can confirm or dispute (hope not!). It just honestly made me giggle out loud the first time I saw a video of Erica and Destiny at a show. As she was taking him into the ring, I swear, it was pretty clear to me that Destiny felt like he was going in there to win (and low and behold, he did!). It will be fun when I get a chance to show him myself, although, Erica's set the bar on that one pretty darn high (ditto on Sunny & DunIT... feel pressure on me because these guys did so well with her, but I'm looking forward to trying myself / them!)
 
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