How To Have Fun At A Show (Horse’s Perspective)

By Terry Golson


Tonka truly enjoys going to horse shows. He asked to write a guest blogpost about how to make these excursions fun.

  1. When you arrive, announce your presence as loudly as possible. This makes the show more of a party. Then go back to eating your hay. What’s a party without good food?
     

     
  2. Train your owner that you don’t need to be drilled during your warmup. Simply loosen up.
     

     
  3. When you ride past the judges, perk up and look cute. That makes the humans happy. When the humans are happy, you’re happy. Then, when you do your dressage test, do your job. Take pride in your work!
     

     
  4. Don’t let your human eat alone. If you have to, try something new, like strawberries.
     

     
  5. Greet everyone gently, and they’ll be gentle back.
     

     
  6. Find the best clover and stay awhile.
     

     
  7. Go for a walk with your human. Look around. You’re a horse! We’re curious!
     

     
  8. Ignore your human when she wants to pose with your ribbon. She secretly likes that.
     

     

A big thank you to Michele, for helping the human on this trip, and for taking photos.


11 thoughts on “How To Have Fun At A Show (Horse’s Perspective)

  • Rebecca Stedman

    Congratulations to you both for a job well done. Love the pics and captions. Also like Tonkas “frizzy” hairdo.

    • Terry Golson Post author

      Braiding him is like trying to braid a bottle brush. I have to use a lot of “product.” After the show he looks like he’s had a bad perm!

  • Judy

    Tell Tonka we all adore him – glad to see that he resisted sticking his tongue out at the nice judges!

  • Kim

    A friend of mine who went to the UNH show last weekend would add. “Ignore hawks that fly overhead and land at the opposite end of the arena during your test!”

    • Terry Golson Post author

      I’ve seen all sorts of things at shows but never that. I have had a hawk dive down to catch some prey not too far in front of us. Something that startles even if you’re not afraid of birds!

  • Gin

    So cute, announcing his presence upon arriving at a horse show. And his curly mane is looking good. You must have some nimble fingers to get that mane of his braided.

  • Jan

    BRILLIANT blog, tell Tonka well done really made us smile. I always read your face book page but via a friends so do not usually comment, always read the blogs. 🙂

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