[findeight]

Ok. It's a grim day and tomorrow will be worse so lets look within and share special memories of unique memories from horse shows that do not involve the show or the horse other then get us there.

Early 1980s. Houston Stock Show at the Astrodome for the APHA show. Just come off a solid year winning just about every Western Riding class I entered, except that flower pot incident at Worlds. Winning alot of HUS too on my 15.3 hand 50/50 sorrel toby.
Won the Western Riding in the Astro Arena (and that was a challenging venue) and had a perfect trip but got zippo in the HUS.

Came Saturday night at the Houston Stock Show and our lawyer got us great seats for the sold out rodeo and concert in the Astrodome itself.
I remember walking the rows of steers and hogs and sheep to get to the main ring. All the scents and sounds and smell of food...and amateur music groups.

We get into our seats and watch the Rodeo events and the then the ring darkens...and a pinpoint spot illuminates a single man in long frock coat and tattered Confederate emblem hat. You have to imagine that smell of wet sawdust, livestock and funnel cakes here as well.

This guy steps out and starts a simple song...

Amanda, light up my life
Fate should have made you a gentleman's wife
Amaaaanda, light up my life...

What a perfect night

He also had Living on Tulsa Time and many others but his name escapes me..another Don Johnson perhaps????

Provide the name of this artist and I will gift you with a prayer to the god of single oxers http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c.../icon_wink.gif

So who else would like to share great non horsey experiences from horse shows?

[findeight]

Ok. It's a grim day and tomorrow will be worse so lets look within and share special memories of unique memories from horse shows that do not involve the show or the horse other then get us there.

Early 1980s. Houston Stock Show at the Astrodome for the APHA show. Just come off a solid year winning just about every Western Riding class I entered, except that flower pot incident at Worlds. Winning alot of HUS too on my 15.3 hand 50/50 sorrel toby.
Won the Western Riding in the Astro Arena (and that was a challenging venue) and had a perfect trip but got zippo in the HUS.

Came Saturday night at the Houston Stock Show and our lawyer got us great seats for the sold out rodeo and concert in the Astrodome itself.
I remember walking the rows of steers and hogs and sheep to get to the main ring. All the scents and sounds and smell of food...and amateur music groups.

We get into our seats and watch the Rodeo events and the then the ring darkens...and a pinpoint spot illuminates a single man in long frock coat and tattered Confederate emblem hat. You have to imagine that smell of wet sawdust, livestock and funnel cakes here as well.

This guy steps out and starts a simple song...

Amanda, light up my life
Fate should have made you a gentleman's wife
Amaaaanda, light up my life...

What a perfect night

He also had Living on Tulsa Time and many others but his name escapes me..another Don Johnson perhaps????

Provide the name of this artist and I will gift you with a prayer to the god of single oxers http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c.../icon_wink.gif

So who else would like to share great non horsey experiences from horse shows?

[dogchushu]

Well, watching a Spot-O-Pot get hit by a trailer while a local trainer was in it will always be a cherished memory for me!

[llt]

Don Williams, YIPPEE I get to jump a single oxer good!!!!!

[fotie]

My sisters horse pooped on my moms head while she was picking her hind hooves at Briarwood in New Jersey!! It was hysterical to all parties not involved.

[llt]

AWWWWWW Just Magic, at least you got who sang Amanda, how about we both each just take a conservative distance, I am good with that as long as my horse lands on the right lead, our changes suck right now!

[findeight]

Waylon Jennings seems to have written Amanda (figures)and Eric Clapton Living on Tulsa Time(a surprise since he surely never has)...but it was DON WILLIAMS who left the crowds swaying to both..and got the platininum discs.

So, llt, I'll burn a Buddy Jewell cd at the alter of the god of single oxers for you.

And, dam, Don Williams really set a spell on myself and the other 40k in that arena that stuck..40k+ swaying to Amanda.

[TheOrangeOne]

Last year's washington international...I loved being able to sit there and watch the top eq riders go. The grand prix was amazing as well, but they seem more celebrity-like, with big names and amazing horses, but the 3'6" eq finals sort of gave me an inkling that maybe, one day, I could be in the big stadium, and I could have people who weren't related to me cheering for me. My dad says he saw it in my eyes that night. I was riding all of those eq. trips in my head, counting and adjusing my distance, keeping haunches and shoulders in line, and it as my first time that I decided that I wanted to be great at riding horses. Ever since then, my goals have been big, and I have had huge dissapointments. But c'est la vie. I'll be a stronger person, and when I am a multi millionaire with a stable full of hienously expensive packers and a grand prix trainer/person to ride my homebreds, I'll go to washington, and still make sure to show up in time to watch the equitation riders. It makes sense to me LOL.
\
Edit to add: I have no expectation of being a multimillionaire from the horse business. I'm studying my ass of til I get my MB and then thinking about being a really good rider. http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c...on_biggrin.gif

[CuriosoJorge]

The image of Eric Clapton at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has me rolling.

[gubbyz]

Tell you what Orangehorse, you tell us when you will be there, and I will be the first one in line to cheer you on! http://chronicleforums.com/images/cu...milies/yes.gif

[ExBIGeqGIRL]

Does SHOPPING at the horse shows count?? http://chronicleforums.com/images/cu...s/winkgrin.gif cause I definatly have some GREAT memories of that!

[Brio]

We went down to the QH World Show this last year. Turned out to be a great year to go as we watched my Uncle win a world championship in team penning on his mare. We were sitting in the section next to the mom and family of last years world champs. There were 6 of us cheering and we yelled so loud. The other guys we know were in the holding area and said it sounded like the whole area was cheering and it was just us 6. screaming our heads off. He was 2nd in the go of 15 and watching the rest of the runs was nerve racking and horrible. we counted the seconds down and waited until 30 seconds passed when we knew they were safe. At the end being able to lean over that rail and hug him and say congratulations was everything.

After the event was over they of course had to be drug tested. Now, his mare is not one for crowds and excitement. she wanted to go to her stall and sleep. Holding the mare while he gave interviews with his team, holding everyone elses horses, etc. When they did the drug test there is an armed guard who holds the horses while the owner goes to seal the tubes up and sign off. The stud who was on the team calmly stands with him. This mare, well, the vet knew we were with them and she calls me over. i ask what and she points out the guard and Hickory and just said, she's free to go and doesn't want to stay here. I think she'd be happier with someone she knows. Afterward putting the horses up we all went out to party. Being at the bar with everyone until way too late and reliving his ride over and over again was wonderful. definately a night to remember.

[MistyBlue]

Most definitely years and years ago at Children's Services show in Farmington CT.
Watching a truck and trailer back into a port-o-potty and knock it ever-so-slowly onto it's side. And then seeing one of the well known worst-sport riders come flailing out with britches stuck at boot height and covered in both that lovely blue scented water and the remians of the food booth goop. http://chronicleforums.com/images/cu...milies/lol.gif http://chronicleforums.com/images/cu...milies/lol.gif http://chronicleforums.com/images/cu...milies/lol.gif
I *swear* I lost a little bladder control on that one...she was unharmed but was one quite well known at the time for beating the living snot outta her horses everytime she showed. She sure could shriek...which only escalated in both pitch and volume when someone hollered out:
"Hey _____, you're looking a little sh*tty!" http://chronicleforums.com/images/cu...milies/lol.gif
Lord that was funny...I'm snorking as I type this in memory.

[VivaDusty]

Great topic. Im sure we all could go on and on about it.

This past weekend at Culpeper, my uncle the jokester dragged me through the dirt because I couldnt spell "University". It was really funny. Sorta. http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c...on_biggrin.gif

Every year at Capital Challenge sitting in the stands watching hunters while I wait for my jumper classic to go later in the afternoon. I try to pin the hacks, and realize how wrong I am and why Im not a hunter. Leisurely browsing through the different tack shops. Spending more money than I should in them. Sipping a latte and enjoying the horse show vibe while my classmate stare at a chalkboard in my high school 30 minutes away. I realize how fortunate I am and how I wouldnt chose a different world to be in than ours.

[justjilli]

does kissing boys count? id better not tell http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c...s/icon_eek.gif

[Sing Mia Song]

Shallowbrook 1984. The first two days were beautiful, just perfect, and then it started to RAIN and it didn't stop. The whole horse show moved indoors. I remember losing my Bean boots in the mud walking down from the stabling area. But even though it was wet, the temperature was good, and there was a great sense of camaraderie between barns, helping each other get their horses clean before they went in the ring. I still remember the smell of the indoor, which I was used to only experiencing in the freezing cold. The rain on the roof, the horses munching hay while they waited, even the smell of the footing. A really special memory for me.

[Giddy-up]

1990 Detroit Horse Shows

Being at the hotel pool swimming with a bunch of pony kids & our siblings. We were horsing around when GM himself comes strolling thru the pool area. All of us riders are silent & gawking. My brother (so non-horsey) runs up to GM & tells him to "push them in, push them in!!". I was so horrified I jumped in hoping I would drown. http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c...on_redface.gif Aahhh...to be 11 again & find that mortifying. Little did I know there were many more mortifying moments to come in life with horses. http://chronicleforums.com/images/cu...milies/lol.gif

[2 tbs]

I have two big memories that have to do with the same person on two different ocassions!!

First memory was when we sent her and her lactating mare home because she was jumping oxers backwards in the schooling ring and the baby was jumping on spectators because mom was too far away! She got mad, came back that night, stole all our jump cups, spray painted the ugliest obscenities you can imagine on our jumps, egged our jumps and burned picnic tables that belong to the facility! We were unable to pin it on her but gee, I wonder who else it coula been?!!? http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c...n_rolleyes.gif

Second memory, fast fwd 4 years, mare died of colic but it's time to start showing the baby!! She's in the schooling ring, trotting and cantering around with a couple dozen other people in her half buttoned shirt, jumped a fence and flop...out it came-yup, the entire left breast which she obviously didn't feel needed to be kept in a bra http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c...s/icon_eek.gif. Needless to say the announcer was pleased but the rest of us were not http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c...n_rolleyes.gif

Why are these my memories? Well, I've been stuck in schooling land lately while I transitioned from my retired horse to my new guy who has decided to be hurt more than rideable! Some day I'll have better memories than that...but for now I'm stuck with nighmares!

[eclipse]

3 weeks ago, our barn travelled for 13.5 hours to go to the Heart of the Continent show in Winnipeg. I ended up taking an ambulance ride, from the hotel to the hospital, totally NOT horse related......kidney stones (yowch). It made the show very memorable (especially when the bill for the ambulance came in!) http://chronicleforums.com/groupee_c...n_rolleyes.gif

[FrenchFrytheEqHorse]

A few years ago I did the WIHS local finals at MCI, which was a memorable experience in itself...anyway I remember my trip being done and handing my horse off to go up in the stands and watch for a bit. I was walking through the vendor area, past the antares set-up and, of course, I was gawking at the lovely lovely representatives they had working that day. As I walk past, my right heel slips a bit too far in front of me and I go flying into my most legendary involuntary split, EVER. In front of these beautiful pieces of manflesh. It was MORTIFYING to say the least.