Journal for June 2008

2008 has given us the coldest March, April and May that I can remember in North Central Idaho with freezing night time temps and snow flurries in May. Despite the cold I decided to celebrate spring by accepting an invitation to a Horse Show on the banks of the mighty Salmon River, the River of No Return. Hosted by the Hold Your Horses, Salmon River 4-Hers it was designed to teach area youths and their leaders the fine art of judging. Needless to say we were the token long ears out of a very nice group of Quarter Horses.

Our judge is a retired brand inspector, who knew our donkeys and has a good quarter horse judging eye. When he saw me showing horses in the "Quality" classes he had to come over and ask if I knew what breed I was handling! He about flipped his drawers when I walked into the showmanship class with Luc! He He, He He!!!!

The day was all about teaching the kids what to look for in their 4-H judging events. When it came to judging Luc and I our judge seemed to have a lot of over exaggerations but the kids could see past the prejudges and didn't always agree. He did place Luc 3rd in showmanship and that was just too kewell for me even when Luc took the lead rope in his mouth right in front of the judge and I had to ask him to spit it out. I told Luc, "this is the class where I get to lead, now drop it!" and he did! Everyone had a good chuckle.

The arena had just been filled with a foot of sand and was way too deep except around the edges. All four of us in the riding classes demonstrated different rein holds and one of the gals had ox-bow style stirrups so the kids were able to judge an assortment of riding styles. The trotting and loping portions of the riding classes were very long and Luc was magnificent. He truly put his heart into doing his very best.

Our final class of the day was trail. It was the first time Luc has willingly gone thru a gate obstacle... proving that he actually can! The riders started in the arena and had to exit out the gate, since we were last to go it really helped Luc to watch the others calmly depart. I did not bother to try to close the gate behind us as I figured getting him out a gate was as much as I needed to ask. We are working on "the gate" at home as well as a fully set up trail course. We crossed ground logs which was the true high point of Luc's day, demonstrating to the group the proper method of crossing logs. He decided we did not need to get the mail that day, most of that was where it was positioned into a tight corner and the kids were crowded in behind it. We backed thru barrels and moved a water bottle from post to post. The final challenge was to go down a steep hill. Luc's thought we should just bail off the edge like we normally do but the call was to dismount and lead him down the hill. As we were traversing the hillside one of the horses decided it was time to depart the scene so we waited for his rider to get him under control before proceeding to the bottom.

What a great day. It was overcast with a cold wind blowing through the canyon; a storm was definitely on its way. Luc was full of go which really helped. For the most part the horses took the little donk in stride; it was their riders who thought it was going to be a big deal and asked that Luc and I stay back away from them. It was also the riders who were surprised that their horses preceded the donkey as a none threatening animal, they really could have cared less.

One little 4-H guy asked if he could take Luc’s picture and then he come over and gave me a huge hug and strutted off. The next time I saw the little fella he was astride about a 16+ hand mule and grinnin' from ear to ear! Now that really made my day!

Beautiful spring day and how can you miss out on a chance to ride where the background is this magnificent?

Kristi