Equine Affaire

I'm a bit behind on my writing. I was out of town last week at a conference. That trip alone has a monolithic post behind it, but I am not sure I want to get into it. Suffice it to say that my employer insisted that the large number of staff going to this conference must take a chartered bus on the 10 hour trip and that although this was a money-saving tactic, it turned into a nightmare when the bus broke down 3 hours from home. We were stranded in the bus for an additional 5 hours, at the side of the busy freeway with huge semis roaring past us. It was dark outside. We crawled home at 2:30 AM. Oh yes, and I got a terrible cold that night.

My second trip of the week was a planned fun one to the Equine Affaire event in Louisville, Kentucky. I unfortunately had to go with a bad head cold, stuffy nose and sore throat. I found out that you can't buy 24 hour Sudafed off the shelf anymore. You haven't to get it from the pharmacy window due to the overwhelming number of meth addicts who buy it up. Since I never got to any store during pharmacy hours, I was stuck with the huge, take-every-four-hours pills that they still sell on the store shelves. They worked, but I felt like I was constantly taking pills.

My favorite part of Equine Affaire was watching the George Williams dressage clinics. He is a really great instructor, and the horses in the clinic were just beautiful. My favorite session was on preparing the horse for piaffe and passage. George rode one of his horses, Marnix, in the demonstration and he gave instruction to a demo rode who rode beautifully and had a gorgeous mount. I can only hope to ride that well one day. We sat only a few feet from the arena. What a treat to be so close to these beautiful animals and talented riders.

The evening event "Pfizer Fantasia" was really delightful as well. The highlight for me was the musical freestyle ridden by George Williams on Marnix. However, there were many other talented riders and entertaining acts. Some incredibly well-trained horses performed tricks and stunts that were really unbelievable that a horse would do that. I also enjoyed the Kentucky Miniature Horse Club performance with their minis pulling them around in little carts choreographed to music. Now I know what I can do with my mini once I get one.

There is so much more to talk about from Equine Affaire, but I am too short on time to record all of it. It was just great being surrounded by horses of all kinds for 3 days. I had a great time.