From the Sulphur Corner

By Duane White

I was lucky enough this past weekend to go to a speed show at a local park.  The turnout was good and a cold rainy morning soon turned into a warm sunny afternoon and as I sat through class after class of different speed events I couldn’t help but compare our horses to the one’s competing.  Granted there were plenty of horses there that took great care of their riders, young or old and didn’t go too fast for the talents of their riders or spook at unseen ghosts along the way, they took in all the commotion with a grain of salt and took care of their precious cargo. 

 Such horses are worth their weight in gold no matter what breed they are.  Most of the riders were there for fun and not for trophies or ribbons but just for fun or training their new horses the in’s and out’s of the show. We cheered on the local neighbor girls who work at the local diner and happen to be some pretty amazing riders in their own right and did quite well.  All in all, although nice horses I would say less then a handful of the 50+ horses were anything to write home about although we did happen to see 2 horses that stood out from the crowd and when we went over to investigate they happened to be Paso Fino’s belonging to 2 girls under 12, one just bought 10 days prior and at his first show.  They stood out as Spanish but also as one of the few calm, level headed bunch that didn’t bat an eye at anything or balk at any of the games!  We talked Spanish horses and they also own a Spanish Mustang who is in training and it was nice to talk to folks who valued the same traits in these horses we all do.  Follow this link for the full story: From the Sulphur Corner

Later on that afternoon back at my own farm as I was watching our horses play in the sun I remembered a different kind of show I went to about 8 years ago.  This was at a county fair and it was the mailbox, crossing over wood type of show and what I took from this kind of show was that our horses, no matter how good or competent they are will never win in this type of a show.  In this 4-H sponsored show there was a classy 13.3hh looked to be a Morgan X Welsh pony.  This pony did everything her rider wanted her to do, never spooked and stood at attention waiting for the next thing to do.  This pony stood still as the judge walked all around and next to horses that fidgeted back and forth and pawed the ground.  I could see this girl had taken great pride in cleaning and oiling her older tack and had worn the best clothes she had for the event.  Later on in the event in came this hot 16.2hh QH all decked out with sparkled hoof polish, what someone said in the crowd was a $4,000 brand new saddle, and a fortune in glittery clothes and make-up.  This horse did not complete half of the obstacles, refused to even look at the mailbox and while lined up jigged all over prompting several horses to steer clear of this horse… yet when the awards were presented and a trip to the state fair on the line guess which horse was awarded first place?  Yep the underachieving 16.2hh QH who I wouldn’t have even considered green broke.  But what was more amazing was that the Morgan X Welsh pony didn’t even place.  Out of 15+ horses this horse placed 13^th.  I walked up to the girl on her horse after the show and big tears were in her eye’s as her parents were consoling her and told her I thought by far her horse was the best one out there and she should be proud of the good job that she had done.  But sadly what lesson did this girl learn?  That to compete she needed to get a big clod QH and spend money on tack and to not revel in how much of a partnership she had with her horse!  I do not know what became of her or her horse but I do hope she stuck by her partner!

 So what I am getting at here is not bashing any other breed of horse but in seeing this speed event I believe there is no way that our horses can’t get a fair shake in these.  It’s all timed events and in watching the more then wide turns and the spooking I believe for what our horses may lack in flat out speed they more then make up for it in turn on a dime quickness and brains!  And that is the way you are going to turn heads and have people wanting to know more about our horses! 

 Have a great summer with your horses.  I hope to see many of you at the AIHR/HOA show in Texas in September and the HOA Annual Meeting in October… til then give your horse s scritch from me.

Duane

 Ponyman1964@hotmail.com                                              www.whitepinesspanishmustangs.com