Awards, Finale, and a Long Trip Home!
It was around noon and all horses were to be in their bridles by the indoor. There were so many horses standing outside the indoor waiting to go in and receive their awards and take a picture. Nobody really knew what time they were supposed to be ready, all we knew was that it was going in numerical order. Arrow and I headed over to the mob of horses when the upper 50’s were being called. We were number 108 and stood around for about 45 minutes waiting to be called. During the wait, I met the winner of the polo division and heard about her horse’s story. After a while I ran into Anne and chatted for a while. Since Anne and her horse, Street Art (Artie), won 4th place in the jumper division the Chronicle of the Horse team came over and wanted a photo of her and Artie. Being the nice person that Anne is, she wanted them to include me in the photo with her, so another one was taken with both of us.
After slowly making my way down to the indoor warm up area, it was finally my turn. My number was called and I entered the ring leading Arrow with me. The plan was to walk calmly in and out, but since Arrow was standing in the large group of horses for a while he was kind of fed up. Instead, he took advantage of all the free space around him and as soon as we set foot into the ring, he pranced the whole time. I mean, I don’t blame him, if I was three and had to stand around for 45 minutes doing absolutely nothing but walking around a little, I would be upset too. The announcer talked all about Arrow’s background as I was handed a saddle pad and certificate, and Arrow was given a blue neck medal. When we exited the main ring there was a photographer (http://www.meganstapleyphotography.com/Rider-Photos-2015-RRP-Makeover/i-qZJLf2x ). She asked if I would like a photo taken and I said sure, but Arrow wanted no part of it. I wanted to be quick, so it wasn’t the best photo we have ever taken, but at least I got one to help me remember the good times. Right after the photo, we headed back to the stall so he could relax and calm down.
I'm standing in front of his pretty blue medal :(
It was now time for the finale! The top three horses out of every discipline rode for their horse to have a chance to obtain the America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred title. Even though my mom, grandma, and I already saw most of them, it was fun to watch them again and to see the disciplines that we missed such as the competitive trail and farm horse disciplines. Out of every discipline, one horse and rider were picked and had to wait until the end to perform against the other disciplines. My favorite freestyle competitor, Tik Maynard, and his mount, Mr. Pleasentree, won that discipline by performing a very entertaining bridleless and horsemanship routine. My stall neighbor on the right, Nicole Valeri, won the barrel racing discipline on one of her mounts, Quantitativeeasing. My stall neighbor to my left, Olivia Dixon, won the Thoroughbred Ambassador Award with 3,817 votes. The winner of the dressage discipline was Carleigh Fedorka and her thoroughbred, Called to Serve. Michelle Warro and Best Things Inlife took the first prize in eventing. Emily Daignault-Salvaggio and her horse Gin Joint took first in the Field Hunter group. Juliette and Mark Powers on Miss Graduate won the polo discipline. For Show hunters, Kasey Evans took first riding Slambo. Isabela de Sousa and Dewey Square won the show jumper division. Clovis Crane on Yo Koffy won the working ranch group. Lastly, Lindsey Partridge on Soar won the competitive trail division and ultimately the America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred title!
Finale videos from my phone may be uploaded later!!!
Right after the awards ended, we headed back to the barn and started packing everything into the trailer. I grazed Arrow while everything was being loaded so he could stretch before the haul to our first stop, MT. Vernon. It was freezing and dark by the time that we pulled out around 7:00 PM. After making it to our first destination, the cute kitten we saw before wasn’t there to greet us this time, but the next morning we saw the other cute identical kittens. The owner of the barn had a couple of OTTBs that he wanted to sell for the back board that was owed. He had shown them to us on our way to the Makeover and hoped that we would take them with us on our way home. We told my dad about the opportunity and he said, “sure, that is what we need, more horses.” That was pretty much the whole conversation and we never revisited again about the opportunity. The owner convinced us to take both of the horses as project horses. One was eight and had been raced through 2014. He was a beautiful black horse about 16 hands. The other was four and had only been raced two or three times. He was a bay with no markings and about 15.2 hands. I posted on FaceBook a picture of all three of the boys in the trailer and my dad commented right away wondering why we had the extra horses. We then reminded him about the earlier conversation since he has chronic manesia (my term for male amnesia). He immediately called and told us that he was being sarcastic. He knows not to make that mistake again. On the way back to Kansas City, it was the name game all over again.
The boys on the way home: (Front to back) Brownie, Johnny, and Arrow
Brownie (Show name: Charlie Brownie)
Johnny