Elf On A Shelf
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I took the Mountain Goat out showing again today as there will be nothing else for him to do around here until the end of August. So we headed 3/4 hour along the road to Stirling Show for the 2 exracers classes. I love ex-racer classes as they are generally on in the afternoon so no early morning starts 
We arrived at about 12pm for our class starting at 1pm and being grey, even though he loaded sparklingly clean and white he of course had made a mess of his back legs by the time we got there - cue scrubbing! I hopped on - much to the amusement of everyone around me as Gray is 17hh, I have no mounting block and I am so, SO bad at leg ups it's laughable so I have to drop the stirrup and scramble lol! As per usual Gray was wired and bouncy so that was interesting! The in-hand was up first and at least this time people had a clue about how to do a show class - Halleluja! Gray trotted his socks off to win this class.
Quick out, tack on, back in for the ridden class. That's when things got interesting! GrayMo walked round smart as you like, trotted out nice enough, canter was a bit revy, not helped by having to stop as one poor lass got decked. She should have left the ring but she got a helper in to give her a leg up to which the horse promptly went virtical and they were asked to leave. So we carry on, one horse was quite unsettled and spent most of it's time bouncing sideways and shooting off round corners but it mostly went ok from then on in. We got pulled in first so we went off to do our show which still needs to be more fluent but we are hitting the right legs when asked so I'm happy enough just now. The others went out and only one misbehaved so the classes are getting better in terms of standard but they are still a LONG way off being show horses up here. After some umming and aahing GrayMo gets to keep his top spot
I might retire him now lol! He has been out 3 times this year, has won each of his 3 in-hand classes & a reserve championship, his riddens go 3rd, 4th, 1st so I can quit happy now lol!
Anywho! A few pics for your perseverance at reading the above! Along with chocolate and Dr Pepper lol!
We arrived at about 12pm for our class starting at 1pm and being grey, even though he loaded sparklingly clean and white he of course had made a mess of his back legs by the time we got there - cue scrubbing! I hopped on - much to the amusement of everyone around me as Gray is 17hh, I have no mounting block and I am so, SO bad at leg ups it's laughable so I have to drop the stirrup and scramble lol! As per usual Gray was wired and bouncy so that was interesting! The in-hand was up first and at least this time people had a clue about how to do a show class - Halleluja! Gray trotted his socks off to win this class.
Quick out, tack on, back in for the ridden class. That's when things got interesting! GrayMo walked round smart as you like, trotted out nice enough, canter was a bit revy, not helped by having to stop as one poor lass got decked. She should have left the ring but she got a helper in to give her a leg up to which the horse promptly went virtical and they were asked to leave. So we carry on, one horse was quite unsettled and spent most of it's time bouncing sideways and shooting off round corners but it mostly went ok from then on in. We got pulled in first so we went off to do our show which still needs to be more fluent but we are hitting the right legs when asked so I'm happy enough just now. The others went out and only one misbehaved so the classes are getting better in terms of standard but they are still a LONG way off being show horses up here. After some umming and aahing GrayMo gets to keep his top spot
I might retire him now
lol! He has been out 3 times this year, has won each of his 3 in-hand classes & a reserve championship, his riddens go 3rd, 4th, 1st so I can quit happy now lol! Anywho! A few pics for your perseverance at reading the above! Along with chocolate and Dr Pepper lol!
