I am off again this weekend. I know, I am such a jet setter 
I am headed down to North Carolina to visit a friend. I thought I would leave you all with my “equine affair wrap up” while I am away. Instead of posting chronologically how the day went I thought I would break it up into the three main parts of the affair…Education, Shopping, and the Fantasia (sponsored by Pfizer who I love!). For those of you who have NO CLUE what I am talking about the Equine Affair is a huge event put on 3 times a year in three different locations in America. I went to the one closest to me which was in Massachusetts and is held every year midway through November. I don’t really know how to describe it except to say that it is full of fun, horses, horse people and horse shopping. Think of a clinic times 1,000 with a trade show added on and even that doesn’t give you a good clue as to how big an event the equine affair is.
Courtney King-Dye Teaching
One of the very first things that my friends and I did was to go hurry to go and watch the Courtney King-Dye clinic on Saturday morning. It was pouring and there was even the occasional thunder clap so the people riding didn’t get to warm up their horses that much before entering the ring. The first rider to go looked young and was on a sweet looking mare. The rider seemed very calm and taking everything in stride but the horse not so much. So Courtney came up with a very cool exercise to calm the horse down. Now the problem is that X and I cannot execute the exercise, but he doesn’t get that tense anyway. The exercises is on a 20 meter circle and you have to do shoulder in and then haunches in and keep doing that with some changes of direction. It is a good way to get your horse focused on you and not everything around you because that a hard exercises and it takes concentration from both the horse and rider. Now, the horse was having some minor obedience issues, which was good to watch because Courtney told the rider to just slow down and try it in the slower gait (walk). We should not accept sloppy shoulders or haunches because then when it comes time to show we have trained them to do it half assed. I like that mentality. Expect the best and if it is not delivered politely insist until it is.
The second rider in this clinic was not the best, but she clearly has money or knows someone that does because she bought a Grand Prix horse to get her through the levels. Now I am not saying she was a bad rider, in fact she breaks and trains baby horses and watching her ride I can see why she would be good with that. She was just not ready to be riding at the upper levels…it is hard to go from defencive riding with a baby to being a subtle upper level rider. Oh and I liked her for another reason…she wasn’t a stick! She was no where near as big as me, but it was nice to see someone above a size 4 Long riding. Her horse was fantastic. A super star of all super stars. Her horses problem was one that X has and that is straightness. Her haunches were always in or out, but never on the line so the exercises Courtney gave her was one that is not for us low level people, but it can be modified. It was a medium trot (for those of you who don’t ride dressage a medium is not the mid level trot. It is the huge big trot that you see at the Olympics with the horses kicking their toes out as they fly down a long side or diagonal) to a 180 degree haunches in right back to a medium trot. It really worked because the horse got straighter as the exercises went on.
So I am sorry to be all “dressagey” in my clinic summary but the truth is I only made it to one and a half clinics! Sorry! I tried to go to Julie Goodnights, but she wasn’t doing it when the sheet said she was. We also went to half of a jumping clinic that was very cool to watch, but the presenter was so quiet it was hard to hear what she was saying even with the microphone on so I didn’t learn a lot from it. Well, except that I am a total weenie now because 3′6″ looks really high to me now. How did I ever used to jump so high! Anyway we did hear clinics around us as we shopped and one of the great things about the clinics was the audience involvement. The clinics would always stop and ask for questions which I love.
Taking Questions from the crowd
Besides clinics from famous horse people there is also another HUGE part of the education component to the equine affair and that is breed education. Breed organizations have helped to make the equine affair what it is today. In between clinics there are breed demos in just about every ring. There is also even two whole buildings set aside for breed organizations. One is what is called “Barn C” in Mass. and it one of the stabling areas so you are guaranteed to see plenty of horses in that building. It is very cool to see row after row of horses each dedicated to a specific breed and in some cases breeding farm. The owners are often standing by to talk about why they love that particular breed so much. I really want a Haflinger now after seeing the sweet mares and geldings who were all politely interested in the crowds coming by and the breeder saw my interest and talked me up…to bad I cannot afford 2 ponies!
They also give out educational materials (from magazines to pamphlets) to anyone who shows interest. I got a Morgan Magazine that was like 5lbs that I had to delicately dispose of without the Morgan people seeing (I passed it off to some kid who hadn’t been down that aisle yet). It is a great place to see how each breed handles the stress of having hundreds of people walking by them. You can also tell which breeders to buy from (some people were screening owners and would only sell if they could visit you at the farm while others were more then happy to give you the horse on the spot and for you to figure out how to get it home).
One Breeds Aisle Display
There is also a lot of breed competition such as one group saying that while the other breed is nice what they are missing is X, Y and Z which is why you should buy from their breed instead. If you are looking for less sales pitch and more education you can head on over to the breed building. Here there is a small fenced in area where each breed gets a turn to go and hang out while a breed representative answers questions. You can also buy lots of breed related merchandise and see some horses that the breed has out in the display as well as videos and memberships forms. It is a great way for someone who has not been exposed to a lot of different breeds either because they are new to horses or because they ride at a single breed barn to get a good sense of what they are like. I know I was not alone in ogling the Shires since so many of us don’t get to see really big drafts everyday.
Another Breed Choose To Show Ribbons
