I had a busy weekend. On Saturday, I helped my trainer take two horses to a schooling horse show for two of her junior riders. One horse, Indy, had never been to a horse show (or indeed trailered anywhere except to a vet) so we had no idea of what to expect. In case I had to ride him if his kid couldn’t manage him, I made sure I had all my riding apparel. He was a star. He started out with his head two feet higher than usual, but after an hour, he looked relaxed and rather interested. By the end of two hours, you would have guessed he had been at several dozen events before.
The other horse, named Danny, had been to many events before, but wasn’t nearly as settled as the green horse. He wouldn’t stand in the infield with strange horses, so we finally had to tell the rider to warm him up in a separate area, and then slip in as one of the last riders in the class, when there were no longer a lot of horses at the entrance gate. At one point, he was acting sufficiently obnoxious that I told the kid to do an emergency dismount, and then took him into a round pen so I could chase him around for a while.
Unfortunately, both horses did quite well. Danny and Indy each received one blue ribbon, one or two red ribbons, and one or two white ribbons. (This corresponds to first, second and fourth places.) The classes were large, so we were quite pleased. (Not to mention astonished, since neither kid had shown before.) The unfortunate part is now these kids think horse shows are fun, they always give you lots of ribbons, and will want to go again.
Sunday, I took my mother, who recently moved to Colorado Springs, to mass at her parish church. Afterward, we went to Noodles for lunch, and then drove through Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs. This is an area that I rarely go in tourist season (especially on the weekends) but it wasn’t as congested as I feared. Garden of the Gods is always spectacular, and you can see quite a lot from the car. Manitou Springs is touristy and quaint: I rarely go there except to eat at Adam’s Mountain Cafe, which is the place I take vegetarians when they come to visit.