Larimer County Fair -- Part 2

After Prospect reared while my daughter was grazing him, I started to re-think my role as show Mom. Being a newbie to 4-H had me on the defensive. So did coming to the show with her riding teacher, who also happened to own the horse, who I also happen to like and is a good friend.

It was time for me to step up to the Mommy-plate. We walked back to the barn together and put the horse away. I sat down on a bale of hay and started to think about this situation. I didn't want to offend my friend or hurt Keara's chances for "all-around" awards, but there was no way I'd let her do Showmanship now.

I thought, why be so competitive? It's her first show. There is no need--in fact there should never be a need. It's not about the ribbons, as the saying goes. And why should I worry about hurting my friend's feelings? I wouldn't be rude, but I'd have to do what I thought was best for Keara.

"Keara", I said, "maybe you should skip Showmanship tomorrow. I want you to have fun and Prospect just seems like he's going to be difficult." Keara looked thoughtful for a minute, then said, "yeah, he's being a dumb-butt." Great, that was settled. Now to break the news to my friend and hope she doesn't take it as a slight against her horse.

Simple and straightforward was the plan. They returned with Galahad and came into our tack stall. "We're going to skip Showmanship tomorrow morning," I said, "we know it's not Prospect's favorite. Keara can focus on the things she does well with him. Plus, we won't have to get up at the crack of dawn now!"

"Oh," said my friend, "well, you'll just have to go to the show office and scratch." She reminded me that she had told me before that Prospect doesn't do well at Showmanship, which is why Alyssa always uses Galahad for that class.

Indeed she had told me about it, before the first time we tried Showmanship earlier in the summer. Keara practiced at Prospect's home, and I thought we were set to go. But I had no idea how pushy the horse could become when separated from Galahad at a show.

So now I understood better. Under saddle, Prospect would work for Keara, even under stress. On the ground was clearly a different story. We walked down to the show office, happily scratched the class and called it a day. Tomorrow would be a bit less hectic now, since Keara's Western Horsemanship class did not start until after lunch. Hopefully Prospect would behave better in the morning.

To be continued...