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Leeana

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Joined
Jul 11, 2005
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Location
Green Springs Ohio
Hey guys ...just wanted to let you guys know i will be gone untill next monday (the 29th) at the fair w/ coco. We are doing 3 shows and is our first. Im a bit scared ..but then agian its our first show so WIN or LOOSE ..im going home happy. Still im stressed. So i wont be on to update much. I will let you guys know Thursday or Friday morning how we did w/ our 'dress your exhibited animal' contest thursday night at 5pm. I'll post pics when i get back ...were leaving around 6am in the morning. Okay well i just wanted to let you guys know im not 'dead'. lol Okay wish me luck ..and for my nerves to go away
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Hey ..so im not sleeping in my car bc i guess you have to buy a camper pass which is $138 just to sleep in my car! Or if im cought doing it w/out a pass its a $500 fine~
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So im home nightly now. Today we got there pretty early. We found coco's stall which was way to big for him (no one could see him w/out a ladder) so the barn guy told us to move to the mini horse open barn. So we did and they gave us a stall that they said a guy had planned on using to put his Tack in ...but they needed the stalls so it would be to bad for them!
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. Well i had to shovell coco's old bedding out of his first stall ..take it across the fairground to the other side and then put it down agian, Carry water buckets and a tackbox across it as well.
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. Then after i came back from walking coco w/ jessica's QH for about 1/2 an hour ...there is the guy and his wife standing there w/ there hands on there hips looking at me pretty ticked off. (i know what about to!). Well they were like "this was our stall ...we payed $2 for it, where are we supose to put our tack, saddles ext". And im like "well put it beside your stall ...you have a 10 foot gap! Ryan told me to put him here and keep him here ...im not moving". So then they go looking around trying to find a stall to convince me to move to (which wasnt happening btw) and find this one w/ about 20 bails of hay in it. I deff was not moving them. So i call my dad and he is like "no matter what ..dont move". So i tell them that and there like "okay ...well then i guess there isnt much we can do about it".

Then about 2 hours later Jeni (girl beside me) moves her horse out of his stall since she only had him tied there while she was cleaning out his actualy stall. Well then this guy is like "well why dont you move your horse over a stall so we can move out tack in here?". Im pretty mad at this point and i go "I paid $32 for a stall ...and now i have this $2 one and cant get my money back. I already moved all this stuff Once and im to tired to do it agian. I dont care if you had champion mini last year or not ..i was told to stay here and im staying here!". Im not a person to be like that and mean but they had me SO angry!.

I was told though that they had the mini Halter and Driving champ from lasy ear and the 2 years before that in a row! I dont know how ..he doesnt look like a 'champ' to me. I now have even more motive to kick there (beep)'s!!!!!!
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Did check out the compitition ..wow. There are about 3 or 4 that i am sort of worried about ..the rest im not really worried about. Jessica is giving me some tips on movement and all that. Helping me practice and im helping her w/ some of her Barrel stuff (even though she is about 3times better then me!). I think we have a pretty good chance. Thursday is out first show and its pretty easy.

PS: my worse dream came true today ...i was standing trying to crack my back during our little walk today ..and all of a sudden i feel a tug on the rope, coco roled! HE WAS SO CLEAN TO! ...now he looks like a bay!
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Fun first day at the fair i see, lol
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at my show, we took 4 stalls that were someone elses & they were fine with it
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our other stalls were too low & a stallion
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not so good
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anyway, good luck
 
Good Luck!!!

Suzy Hooper

Show Horses by Suzy

Fresno, CA
 
Please stay out of trouble!

Don't stress.

Enjoy yourself.

Don't over work Coco.

Good luck.
 
Dont worry Marty ...you know me how could 'I' ever get in trouble!
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Today was a bit stressfull. Watched a few mini showmanship and draft pony showmanship classes. Didnt see any Halter classes though. I got home early due to everyone leaving to go to the Terry Clark Concert tonight and i wasnt going so i just fed him and came home. Today was horriable ......
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. I now understand why so many of my friends complaine about the fair!
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Started off with me giving Coco a bath since he was dirty as heck!. Bathed him, gave him a little morning walk to wake him up. Watched some showmanship classes, trained coco for about 20 minutes around 2pm, then i mostly just sat around and watched him ...took about 2 short little walks. Which both were a disaster.

He still wont trot ..he trotted like crazy the first day. He is getting Bossy and Pushy and trying to pull me everywhere. My arm is killing me from holding him back all the time. And then about every 3 or 4 feet he stops and i have to either wait for him, or pull him. Pulling him scares me though bc im afriad his halter will break. I think i probaly wont use the show halter bc i put that on him today and i thought it was ging to break and he about lost his mind bc of the chaine when he stopped and i had to pull it gently. I love him to death but i think this will be his last fair unless he does good thursday. Im hoping he does what he needs in the ring saturday. Tommarow im leaving him in his stall all day like the rest of the horses and maybe he will feel like trotting them. Im out of idea's.

So that got me upset ...him not trotting and not being able to walk w/out pulling him or him stopping. Took about 5 minutes to go about 20 feet. Not exhadurating!. So here i am ...he's fed and watered and im here!
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ls there anyone at the fair that could clue you into a few things that might help you out. l always found people are fairly good at helping out if you ask for their help.
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Please don't take any offense here as this is constructive critizism, but the spirit this has been given in. Everyone has to start somewhere and you are already frustrated and unhappy.

I feel you are unprepared and don't really know exactly what you are doing, thus causing Coco to not have a clue and just be confused. I get the feeling that you are simply at a loss. I question your ability to be able to "train" Coco by yourself without some good help, and that's no crime. We've all needed help. I think that you are unsure and therefore sending Coco mixed signals.

You are off to a good start because you are in the right place.

You are in fact doing the right thing by watching. Just sit and stare, concentrate and watch and examine those classes carefully. Don't take your eyes off of them and watch every move everyone makes out there. Watch who wins! But the key here is to find out why they are winning. What is making them win? This you have to find out.

But with all the watching, sometimes, many times, people have to be "shown" one on one with a trainer. That would be me. I've been cursed with ADD, I am someone that has to be "shown"....not just told or explained to. When Sheryl was here from Irish Springs of Michigan, she showed me more in 5 minutes that I could have ever learned on my own in 2 weeks.

This is no time to figure out that your horse is untrained for this stuff. But it is a good time to seek out a trainer maybe right there at the fair, someone that can get you past your hurdles, and give you some good tips. Then go home and go to Breeders Connect and locate a farm nearby that can help you guys. Many of them may even trade some good old stall cleaning in trade for some very valuable lessons.

You said you were going to leave him in his stall all day long. Please remember that Coco is in a strange place and to keep him locked up in his stall all day long because you are "out of ideas" is wrong. I think would be cruel. Take him out of there and pay attention and play with him and console him. He's done nothing wrong. He simply doesn't understand.

Don't be discouraged. We've all been there.
 
We were doing fine ...Monday we did our runthrough and we were great. I've had Jessica helping us by making up patterns and making us do them plus giving advice. She said that leaving coco in his stall for most of the day would give him that little extra 'humpf' were looking for. He will be ready to go trot and get down to work after about 3 or 4 hours in his stall.

But today is just all fell apart ..its like the more i learn the worse we get. I know he can do all this stuff because i seen him do a BILLION time and it just got me so discouraged for be 3 days away from the show and have it all fall apart. Jess is working with me about 10 minutes in the morning and about a 1/2 hour at night. I decided after the day i had today (which was pretty bad w/out coco acting up) i would much rather give coco a break and come home to a nice comfy bed and go to sleep!. I just need a break and some time to get my head on straight agian.

I already know what i am going to do ..they posted the patern today.

Walk to cone A

Trot to Cone B

Sqaure up feet (do the 'split horse into 4 boxes and move left to right' thing) *have that down ..my way looks pretty fancy, i practiced it on my other mini at home some*

Turn 90degree's

5 steps backward

Go to Line to wait for judges to decided and finish

(thank god they posted it early)
 
We were doing fine ...Monday we did our runthrough and we were great. I've had Jessica helping us by making up patterns and making us do them plus giving advice. She said that leaving coco in his stall for most of the day would give him that little extra 'humpf' were looking for. He will be ready to go trot and get down to work after about 3 or 4 hours in his stall.

But today is just all fell apart ..its like the more i learn the worse we get. I know he can do all this stuff because i seen him do a BILLION time and it just got me so discouraged for be 3 days away from the show and have it all fall apart. Jess is working with me about 10 minutes in the morning and about a 1/2 hour at night. I decided after the day i had today (which was pretty bad w/out coco acting up) i would much rather give coco a break and come home to a nice comfy bed and go to sleep!. I just need a break and some time to get my head on straight agian.

I already know what i am going to do ..they posted the patern today.

Walk to cone A

Trot to Cone B

Sqaure up feet (do the 'split horse into 4 boxes and move left to right' thing) *have that down ..my way looks pretty fancy, i practiced it on my other mini at home some*

Turn 90degree's

5 steps backward

Go to Line to wait for judges to decided and finish

(thank god they posted it early)
 
[SIZE=14pt]Kiddo.... I agree with Marty. You admit that you are scared of this boy and he knows it and he is using this situation to jerk your chain. You are not secure enough to do this yet. Another question is why is he there already if he doesnt show till thursday??? I would have left him home till wed at least. He would be happier and you wouldnt be as nerveous. If you cant get him to walk and trot on comand for you then neither of you is ready. You should be spending all your time as marty said watching the classes to learn. Be careful. I would hate to see him drag you across the fairgrounds! If you have a well made show halter then it is strong enough to hold. If he has never worn the show halter with chain at home then that is a bad thing again. He will react badly to it.[/SIZE]

Wish you had gotten some more help and experience before hand. I dont think I would have left my daughter alone to fend for herself but that is just me. Im sure there were days that Katie WISHED I had dropped her off and left...lol Anyway. Please be careful and dont let Coco get too much Umpf or you may not be able to control him.

Lyn
 
Now, the first thing you need to do is take a couple of deep breaths and calm down. You both know what to do and to him this is just another practice. What he does not understand is the nervousness you are transmitting through the lead rope. I was told by a lady that has been training and showing for 70 or more years that you just need to remember that it is just another practice. The only real difference is that you are both dressed in your sunday best. Remember that you and coco are there to have fun. Nothing that happens in the ring to you or anyone else will be something that has not happened before to someone somewhere. If you get a chance, just take a walk in the ring sometime--by yourself or with coco--doesn't matter. You will get the feel and see where you will be walking and that will take a little of the unknown out of the situation. Coco will work in the show halter if you think he can and treat him so. The chain will not break, but if you will feel better, use the one you are comfortable with.

good luck--you can do this--I know you can--just believe.

Angie
 
lyn_j Posted Today, 07:06 PM   Kiddo.... I agree with Marty. You admit that you are scared of this boy and he knows it and he is using this situation to jerk your chain. You are not secure enough to do this yet. Another question is why is he there already if he doesnt show till thursday??? I would have left him home till wed at least. He would be happier and you wouldnt be as nerveous. If you cant get him to walk and trot on comand for you then neither of you is ready. You should be spending all your time as marty said watching the classes to learn. Be careful. I would hate to see him drag you across the fairgrounds! If you have a well made show halter then it is strong enough to hold. If he has never worn the show halter with chain at home then that is a bad thing again. He will react badly to it.

Wish you had gotten some more help and experience before hand. I dont think I would have left my daughter alone to fend for herself but that is just me. Im sure there were days that Katie WISHED I had dropped her off and left...lol Anyway. Please be careful and dont let Coco get too much Umpf or you may not be able to control him.

Lyn
Bc all animals must be in there stall by the 22'ed. You cant exactly back a horse trailer up during the fair. He has practiced in the show halter ...thats all we do practice in. I know he knows all this stuff ..backup ...trot ..whoa, All that stuff. He did it perfect this morning and then when i got him out after his bath ...BLAH. Im sorry but i am in a very tramatic mood right now ..i would finish but i just cant. I just lost a horse.
 
[SIZE=14pt]Sorry I didnt realize he had to be there. At our fair each division comes and goes at different times. [/SIZE]

our mini show is the first two days of the fair and we have to be out by the evening of the third day for the next group to come. Horse trailers are always coming and going.

Also in your post it sounded like the chain was new to him because of how he was reacting to it. Sorry again.

I'll just keep my nose out of the thread then.

Sorry.

Lyn
 
no lyn ..its fine, you didnt know. He's had a chaine before, yes but he's never been in one w/ over 100 people around. Dad thinks he was just acting up bc he had a bath that morning and he is crazy after bath time. Usually the rest of that day it is almost completely impossiable to do anything serious with him. I must have forgot about that 'small' detail. So hopefully that is what it was ...which im thinking it is bc he usually loves the work. But add a Bath + allot of ppl = one heck of a time.
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Prob wont post anymore tonight ..im somewhat busy and i might go back to the fair and sleep by coco's stall ...i need him at the moment.
 
no lyn ..its fine, you didnt know. He's had a chaine before, yes but he's never been in one w/ over 100 people around. Dad thinks he was just acting up bc he had a bath that morning and he is crazy after bath time. Usually the rest of that day it is almost completely impossiable to do anything serious with him. I must have forgot about that 'small' detail. So hopefully that is what it was ...which im thinking it is bc he usually loves the work. But add a Bath + allot of ppl = one heck of a time.
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Prob wont post anymore tonight ..im somewhat busy and i might go back to the fair and sleep by coco's stall ...i need him at the moment.
 

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