Now, despite years of doing exactly this, struggling with a young horse isn't really something I enjoy doing in my down time - and my time with my own horses really is very precious to me. Reconciling that with my ever-present desire to produce my own horses from scratch can be somewhat tricky. As a result, I want to expose my babies to as much life experience as possible before having to do any of it actually sitting on them, and so I eventually made the choice to take Wynnie to her first show as a foal at foot.
I'd never actually done this before and I did face it with some trepidation and doubt. My thinking was that showing with her confident, experienced dam would help Wynnie's first show to be a much less stressful experience than it would be if she was shown as a weanling or yearling for the first time. She was three months old, no longer a fragile neonate, and Horse of the Year Show - our national championships for the Nooitgedachters - was being held just an hour away. We could pop over, show a class, give her some time to relax in the stable, and then drive home by lunchtime. It wouldn't be terribly long and there would be absolutely no pressure on her to do anything unfamiliar or alone. Arwen could even go into the show ring with her, although we practiced in the arena on our own with Arwen in the stable, so she would never be separated from her mom.
Hoping that all this would set Wynnie up for success as much as possible, I sent in my entries and on Saturday the 5th of March we set off for Kyalami Park with Wynnie and Arwen in tow. I had originally wanted to travel them in the big 4-berth, with the partitions opened and Arwen tied so that Wynnie could wander around and drink as she pleased. I felt that this would freak Arwen out, though, and that going an hour without suckling wouldn't damage a three-month-old foal especially when she would have a haynet to eat from. We ended up loading them together in the 2-berth with each of them in their own partition, having attached a wooden pallet to Wynnie's front bar so that she couldn't try going underneath it. They each had a haynet, and I tied them loose enough that they could touch each other all the time in case Wynnie needed a little comfort.
Arwen loads like a dream but she can be a little weird to travel to a show. She sometimes paws in the box while we're standing still, but in general she is very happy and quiet to travel. Still, every time we drive to a show, she sweats like a pig. (On the way home she unfailingly doesn't sweat at all, regardless of the temperature). I think she psyches herself up because she knows she's going somewhere to do Fun Things and maybe kick somebody in the warmup. So I was a little worried that Wynnie might feel Arwen's tension and get a little worried herself.
As it turned out, they both traveled perfectly. Arwen sweated, as always, but Wynnie was fine. I had tied her haynet too low fearing that she wouldn't be able to reach it, and she did have one mishap where she put her foot in the haynet and then kicked the side of the horsebox when she lost her balance for a second, resulting in a tiny scrape to her hock. But she was standing very peacefully when we arrived, having eaten half of her haynet (an impressive amount when you are a tiny foal). Arwen backed out snorting and plunging and ready to murder something, while Wynnie strolled down the ramp, looked around with mild curiosity, and then took a nice long drink from Arwen before settling down to nibble some grass. She was completely unphased by anything that went past - horses, trucks, cars, music, the announcements, nothing seemed to concern her. She wasn't even looking around for Arwen all that much once she'd had her milk.
The classes were running early. We'd made it into something of a family occasion, so I had plenty of help getting my horses ready. The beloved had invited his brother and sister-in-law, and suckered his friend C into handling Arwen in the show ring for me. My sister was there, too (we call her Steve, as in, "It's just me and you and you and me, it's just us - and your friend, Steve!" because she is the ultimate third wheel). She held Wynnie, who stood better than Arwen did if we're being honest, while C and I did quick job of grooming and polishing their feet. I had been sans one groom for the week before HOY so they weren't particularly clean but I was doing my best and tried not to let it bother me too much. Wynnie is so perfectly bay anyway that one can't really tell (we won't talk about Arwen's yellow tail for the sake of not traumatizing our more sensitive readers). Arwen was beautifully plaited, courtesy of K. I didn't think Wynnie's mane would stay in plaits for a horsebox ride so I made a bid to plait at the show, but it was just too short. I couldn't get it into plaits that looked nice. Nooities may be shown natural anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.
I had borrowed a pretty show halter from work that, once I put it on Wynnie, I realized abruptly was definitely Friesian foal sized and not itty-bitty-Nooitie foal sized. (Yes, I should have fit it before). Of course, the lovely Nooitie people would later offer to lend me a Nooitie-sized showing foal slip, but we were late for our class since they were running almost half an hour early so we just ran on inside and made it work.
Arwen, to her eternal credit, was an absolute angel. I feared she might get a bit overexcited and drag C around, but she pretended not to be a dragon at all and played the part of serene broodmare to a T. Wynnie was excited and forward as we headed into the arena. I tried to keep her behind Arwen, hoping that seeing her mom walk on ahead would help her to move freely forward. As it turned out, Wynnie needed zero incentive to move freely forward. She was quite happy to do that all by herself, thank you very much. She spooked a little bit the first time walking around the cones marking out the arena, but was fine with them the second time we went around. They were the only things that startled her all day long.
Nervousness definitely was not a problem. It became evident, however, that excitement was certainly rising. When the foal in front of us in the class started trotting, the excitement became overwhelming, and I found myself flying a little bay kite for a few seconds there. She didn't lash out at anyone - just jumped up in excitement - and then came down and realized that it was not her turn to trot and stood patiently waiting her turn. It was a very minor bouncy moment but it did make for some dramatic photos.
When we did get to trot, she was a bit overenthusiastic about this also, adding some canter strides before settling in for a gorgeous soft relaxed trot with Arwen following patiently behind. This seemed to settle her quite a bit; she stood patiently until it was her turn to be inspected, and then, like an absolute angel, stood perfectly square and perfectly still for the judge to inspect her. He did notice the nick on her hock but I explained it was a slip in the horsebox.
Walking away and trotting back went mostly well, right up until C and Arwen began to pass us after we'd passed the judge, and Wynnie thought this was WILDLY exciting and leaped up with an extravagant buck, accidentally catching C on the wrist in the process. She did get a bit of a scolding for that. As soon as I'd corrected her, she went back to being a total angel.
I was very happy with her and already totally content with her performance as we waited for the results. Sure, she was a bit excited at times, but life is very exciting when you are 3 months old and those little moments can easily be forgiven. The thing that impressed me was that she understood her job and did it, and that she was excited instead of nervous or scared. That was all that I wanted for her: a happy experience. It was exactly what we got. She smashed through her goals in that way.
A few minutes later, she smashed another goal by winning champion youngstock in her breed. The judge said she was extremely nice and gave her two enormous ribbons. Wynnie licked his hands while he put them on (the judge may have melted a little at this point). She was only too happy to have them hung on her halter and posed for a few photos. And didn't kick anyone on the lap of honor, either.
Afterwards, I wanted to give Wynnie's little legs a nice break before heading home. We would have gone straight home if she'd been nervous, but with her being so happy, I thought a break would be good for her and we could watch the rest of the Nooitie classes in the meantime. We tucked her and Arwen into a stable, and Arwen, for once, behaved herself. Wynnie was quite happy to drink some water and start nibbling on hay. We watched some classes, enjoying the beautiful horses. The PRE/Nooitie crosses -- part of the Iberian project, a bid to expand this rare breed's limited gene pool by reintroducing some of the Spanish blood that originally formed it -- particularly caught my eye. Arwen has some tough competition when we return to the show ring in 2023, God willing.
After an hour or so, I checked up on Wynnie and Arwen. Arwen was eating (as usual) and Wynnie was stretched out in the shavings, blissfully asleep and happy as a clam. Once the Nooitie classes were done, we watched the start of the draft classes to enjoy the sight of the thundering Percheron mares lumbering around, and then loaded up to go home. Wynnie was very happy to load up and traveled like an absolute professional all the way home.
Overall, it was such a cool experience. I feel like it was good for little Wynnie and also a nice refresher for Arwen. We'll give Wynnie a break while she goes through weaning and being a yearling -- never an easy time -- but she'll show again at HOY in 2023 as a one-year-old, and then maybe in her two-year-old year she can do some in-hand utility classes with the kids. I'm bent on making her as happy and relaxed in a show atmosphere as possible -- and so far, we're progressing well!
God is so good.
