A Couple Pictures from LMU Horse Show- Behind the the Scenes

After the horse show at LMU for the riders, I was walking around taking pictures- after stealing my dad's camera from him- and took some pictures. They aren't all that great but I still like them.

My dad took this one. I'm in the background and Dakota finally settled down after the hose was away. He always thinks that it's going to kill him.

Saddle blankets drying on the fence.

These aren't all of them. But they are the easiest to explain. The others are of horse being hosed and thing like that.

Finn and his EPIC FAIL!

For those of you who don't know me, I volunteer at a therapeutic riding center that for the purpose of this blog will be referred to as LMU. Anyway, every summer they have two weeks of camp. One week at the end of June and the other in the middle of August. The rider camp is in the morning and then there's a camp for volunteers in the afternoon.

So today was the first day of camp and during the volunteer camp the instructors will teach you how to braid, vault, they have the vet and farrier come out and you'll also go over the conformation of horses. Today happened to be braiding. One of the instructors went over the basics of different kinds of way to braid a mane depending on what discipline. We had Mo, a thoroughbred clysadale cross who happens to be a mare, in the cross ties and were button braiding- which is the type of braid used by dressage riders- when the thunderstorm started. It wasn't too bad at first. Just light thunder and lightening, nothing too extreme.

About ten minutes later, then downpour started. And by downpour, I mean the kind of downpour where if you go outside for two second you end up looking like a drown cat. It was bad. At that point the thunder and lightening was getting increasingly worse and Finn, a Norwegian Fjord gelding, was getting a bit upset.

Finn trying to get everyone to forget how evil he is.

You have to understand a bit about Finn. He is the biggest pain in the butt and he works to make your life difficult. After he eats, he bangs his feed bucket because  he wants more. If you lead him in a lesson, trotting is a nightmare. He tries to bit you and sometimes tries to step on your feet. He kicks his door to get attention and constantly fights with Winnie his... neighbor in a way. Their stalls are right next to each other. Some basically Finn is a pain in the ass but at the same time he is the biggest wimp on the planet!

So let me paint you a picture. Mo in the isle in crossties, which happen to be right outside Finn's stall. Bright lightening and really loud thunder. The volunteers- myself included- were jumping more than some of the horses. Until you see Finn. By this point Finn is just pacing along the edges of his stall. Cue bright lightening and loud boom of thunder. Finn rears a little bit and starts trotting around in his stall. Mind you it's not a big stall. Cue thunder again and Finn starts cantering. By this point its a full blown flip out on Finn's part. He's cantering in his stall, which puts him a a fairly small circle. Let me also remind you that these horses are not the loosest on the planet. So, Finn's cantering around his stall flipping out, throwing his head around. One minutes we're watching his flipping out then next, we're not. He tripped over a little pile of hay. EPIC FAIL!!! He just layed there. Didn't even bother to get up.

He will fight you tooth and... hoof(?) for food of any kind.

Finn the Norwegian Fjord. Biggest wimp that wants to be the biggest tough guy. I'm no longer fooled by his facade.

"Easy"? "Not a Sport"? What planet are you from?

One thing that really bugs me... people think that being an equestrian is easy and not a sport.

Question! Can we throw them up into a saddle. Or should we make them ride bare-back? Are we mean enough? Don't answer that! I already know the answer. Yes. Yes, we are mean enough because THEY INSULTED OUR SPORT!

For any true horse lover/equestrian that would be like Americans insulting Football or Canadians insulting Hockey. Get the picture? Just don't bash on our sport. An for those of you who have issues with the whole 'sport' concept, get a dictionary and look it up the definition of 'sport'. NOW!

Still don't think it's a sport? If that's the case I may just have to hunt you down. Let's see you control a 1500 pound(give or take a few hundred pounds) animal with leather, a piece of medal, and your legs. At times your arms too but they are usually pretty soft and quiet.

I admit, I've only been riding for a few weeks(my mother was terrified at the thought for a few years). I have, however, been volunteering at a therapeutic horseback riding barn for about fourteen months. So, yes I do know what I'm talking about. Most of the time. The rest of the time it's called GOOGLE(and my horsey friends)!! My best friend.(No, I don't count Wikipedia as a source... at least not right now. :) Tehe.)