Showing with lots of hair!

[holeymoley]

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done any showing and even at that it was with my now, older boy who was shown plaited up and with trimmed legs so fairly easy to wash and bandage up the night before. I have had a moment of madness and decided to get the youngster out this weekend to a fairly quiet show. He’ll be doing in hand youngstock and depending how we go we might do one other. Anyway, he is a traditional coloured. Lots of mane and feather. What do I do with this at the prep stage? Wash then long loose plaits until we go in the ring? Or are waves frowned upon? Feather- leave or put wraps on overnight? I don’t want them getting crushed. I know the pros use chalk and wood powder but I don’t have any powder, I may have some supreme chalk left from years ago.

Clothing wise I have my show shirt, tie and tweed, velvet show hat, brown gloves and cane and black casual trousers with jodh boots. He will be wearing plain flat bridle with plaited browband and snaffle bit with in hand lead chain. Does this sound okay?

 

[dorsetladette]

I'm sure others will say different but IMHO when your getting youngsters out to local shows it's all about the experience so don't stress to much over everything being perfect.

I think your turn out is fine. I'm guessing he has white/light legs? If you think he might be a little tricky to hold and strong you would suggest maybe swapping your jodh boots for plain trainers or something with a bit more grip on the soles, save any skiing incidents.

I use purple shampoo from the £1 shop on white socks to help get white white legs. You may need to wash legs again the morning of the show if there are any stains from over night. Gaiters might be a good idea but if showing isn't your thing then it might not be cost effective. If stabled an ultra clean bed and skipped out as late as possible to avoid stable stains. Waves aren't frowned upon, I have a pony with natural waves. Although I have seen people straightening manes with waves at HOYS

Good luck I hope you and baby pony have a fab time. I'm taking my youngster out to his first show this weekend too.

 

[dottylottie]

provoke “touch of silver” and cowboy magic! lots of it! unless you want to go out and buy something i’d leave the feathers uncovered, a lot of people use a&j cob boots as it doesn’t squish them as much. when i was younger i had some special lycra socks to put on (the horse!), they were a bloody faff to get over his hooves but they did keep his feathers fluffy

loads of people plait manes and have them wavey but if you can keep him clean without then leave it down, looks much better! or get the hair straighteners out?!

enjoy and good luck!!

 

[holeymoley]

Thank you very much both! I have a cheaper version of the A&J boots, they're basically fleece wraps with velcro. They very much done the job without crushing the hair.

I'm sure others will say different but IMHO when your getting youngsters out to local shows it's all about the experience so don't stress to much over everything being perfect.

I think your turn out is fine. I'm guessing he has white/light legs? If you think he might be a little tricky to hold and strong you would suggest maybe swapping your jodh boots for plain trainers or something with a bit more grip on the soles, save any skiing incidents.

I use purple shampoo from the £1 shop on white socks to help get white white legs. You may need to wash legs again the morning of the show if there are any stains from over night. Gaiters might be a good idea but if showing isn't your thing then it might not be cost effective. If stabled an ultra clean bed and skipped out as late as possible to avoid stable stains. Waves aren't frowned upon, I have a pony with natural waves. Although I have seen people straightening manes with waves at HOYS

Good luck I hope you and baby pony have a fab time. I'm taking my youngster out to his first show this weekend too.

How did you get on? Mine was very well behaved in some very large classes but judge in youngstock class said he was bum high and going through a growth spurt so placed him down the line. He seemed to do better in the cob class but judge again said he had to grow in to himself. He was very well behaved, I plaited his tail and his mane the night before and it gave a very nice subtle wave. I got some really good white paste from Gold Label products, it was a life saver on travel poop stains!

 

[dorsetladette]

Well done HM glad it went well.

My baby is a 4 year old now but he will always be the baby of the family.

I didn't bandage or boot on the lorry as I was worried he would be to excited to let me get them off at the showground. Instead I gave him a deep straw bed in the lorry which worked a treat. I bandaged his tail to avoid bog brush hair do's. And he wore a cotton sheet as the tail flap helped avoid the mark the ali kick boards leave on his bottom.

The grass was long and it poured down while we were getting ready so I gave up on nice clean legs. He was very well behaved and got some nice comments from the judges.