Horse Show and A New Skill for me, Lola

We did get to the horse show last Sunday and it was a beautiful day. The post below for Wordless Wednesday was taken there, as a matter of fact. Here are some more from the day:

There's a lot of meet and greet that goes on at these things. At least there is for me. Here we are still out where the cars were parked and I got stopped a couple of times. Not that I'm complaining. I love meeting new people. Here I'm accepting petting and scratches from a very discerning gentleman who wanted to meet the Pei.

We did finally go into the grounds were events were underway.

There were horsies everywhere you looked, waiting their turn or just hanging around. Horsies and the most prodigious amount of horse poo you could imagine in every direction. You had to watch your step.

This is our friend, Lucy, riding Gala, the Arabian we met at the barn. Lucy's family owns Willow Rock, where Sarge and all his friends live. She was a horse person before she was even born!

This is Lauren, riding Tommy - AKA Seizing the Day. Sarge wasn't at this show. He doesn't do the English shows. He prefers dressage and Lauren rides him in some of those shows. I hope to be able to go to at least one or two this summer. Even though Sarge is Alpha Mom's horse, he has his own life as well. She only has time to ride him on weekends and horses really need exercise. Not just for their muscle tone or cardiac well being either. If they don't get enough exercise they can collic and that can be fatal. Horsies are big, but they are a lot more delicate creatures than most of us doggies. Anyway, Sarge gets dressage lessons, and sometimes he helps out with riding lessons for students and in general keeps busy while Alpha Mom isn't there.

Here's where we took a picture of Lucy shooting a video of someone. While on horseback no less. She's quite impressive.

I met this pretty blonde lady who really knew how to get on my good side. She was a blue ribbon petter/scratcher. I had to visit with her for quite a while. It was the least I could do.

Right here is where Alpha Mom had a moment of infatuation. She loves draft horses and what you have here is one gorgeous draft - a Belgian Brabant. Sarge is a draft-cross and suddenly he didn't seem drafty enough for a minute there. She really loves Sarge, but I guess a girl can look, can't she?

Now this is my moment of infatuation. I just love, love, love kids. I wanted to take them home, but so did their parents and, as it turns out,  parents always have dibs. I've asked if we could get our own kid, but apparently it's all too complicated or difficult or something. It's not like they're rare or anything. I see a lot more kids around than Shar Pei. I see no reason why acquiring just one would be such a problem, but I'm told it's pretty much out of the question.

Well, you can't always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you can get what you need. What I needed at that point was water, but we had a problem. My water bucket had gotten left behind at the barn. We discovered this when we first arrived, but Alpha Mom was sure there'd be someone selling buckets. There usually is, it seems. Except of course, not this time. There was someone selling food and drinks, though, so she bought some bottled water and a cup. That didn't work. I absolutely have a thing about putting my snout into narrow places. I don't want someone taking a hilarious photo of me with a cup stuck on my nose and you know someone would. Anway, there was nothing that the vendor had that would fit around my magnificent muzzle, so what to do?

Well, this is where the new skill comes in. I learned to drink right from the squirty water bottle. I wasn't too sure about it at first, but I got the idea pretty quick.  I think it's a handy thing to know if people are going to forget my bucket from time to time, although I'm sure it'll never happen again.

All in all it was loads of fun and I'm looking forward to the next one, which will be in a couple of weeks if the weather cooperates. That one will be dressage and Sarge will be in it, so that'll add some extra excitement.