Yesterday we headed out to a firm favourite in our equine calendar and that show is South Suffolk Agricultural Association / South Suffolk Show. While not as large as a county show it is pretty big, with Royal International qualifiers, BSPS and various other society shows and is always extremely well attended and well organised. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous about going as when I got Fred in to plait he was rather on his toes but luckily he calmed down enough to plait and give a little leg wash before we loaded up him and Millie and made our way to the show.
Upon arrival Fred was pretty sure he was racing again (not far off as it's held at Ampton Point to Point race track) and with the tannoys was like a loaded spring ready to explode. Luckily I had G there to quickly pop in some ear plugs and lung him for me!
Upon arrival Fred was pretty sure he was racing again (not far off as it's held at Ampton Point to Point race track) and with the tannoys was like a loaded spring ready to explode. Luckily I had G there to quickly pop in some ear plugs and lung him for me!
Really pleasingly he lunged well and calmed down enough to eat but was still pretty adamant about walking around eating a mouthful of grass before walking off somewhere else!
So to continue our work on standing and patience we made 'walking around dragging our owner' annoying and instead whenever he went to do that he lunged him for a few circles. He soon realised that it was far easier to stand and eat than keep continually walking.
So to continue our work on standing and patience we made 'walking around dragging our owner' annoying and instead whenever he went to do that he lunged him for a few circles. He soon realised that it was far easier to stand and eat than keep continually walking.
It seems the message is and was going in!
After a couple of hour wait the ridden ex-racehorse class went into the ring. Fred is absolutely not there in his retraining yet so we took him over to get used to the atmosphere of the rings and get used to the kind of buzzy vibe of being near lot's of other horses
He went into the ring, albeit kind of reluctantly, he much preferred to follow another horse in so we tucked in behind someone experienced and walked round and to my delight he didn't tense up, he walked nicely and even waltzed passed a very loud generator; I was really pleased with him. He trotted beautifully round and was originally pulled in in second place. However he wasn't all that keen on standing and when he did he pored the ground in impatience. So with all that said Fred came last in his class (6th) but do you know what? I don’t care!
The lovely judge came and saw me to give my rosette and we got some really encouraging feedback and comments about his future once he is fully retrained and has learned the ropes.
I am so pleased with how he coped yesterday on only his second time out and he was soooo much better than his first outing at Worlington, as when he arrived there we had definite legs leaving the floor and a temper! Plus he’s only been out of training 3 months today.
He’s learning so much from each time out and understanding he’s not racing anymore, so we’re making strides. Plus he looks beautiful as we used the new plaiting wax from Smart Grooming to plait his mane and tail and with the new Haas brushes that I treated myself to from Smart Grooming he looked incredibly beautiful!
Thank you so much to super groom Georgina for all her help with him today and everyday! Thank you also to everyone who said encouraging words or compliments, they mean so much!
Now to spend the summer going to Retraining of Racehorses RoR East Region clinics and having fun with his retraining!
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