Treble’s Tanqueray

Posted on November 15, 2013November 15, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Billed as “Champion of the Decade”, the Morgan Stallion known as Treble’s Tanqueray is the Celebrity Horse waiting for me in the Youth Pavilion. And yes, he’s a horse, not a drink. Gin lovers will understand that observation. 🙂

To get there I had to pass back through the demo ring where a clinic was going on about tack. They had a mule that was being saddled up. Each step of the process was being described and pros and cons of each step outlined. The audience was spellbound. I guess if I was about to ride a mule down the Grand Canyon I might be as enthralled too.

I found the Mallory Building and way in the back was a quiet corner with a small ring. The floor was rubber padding, not dirt and a small group was gathering. The ring was empty so I guess I made it in time.

Treble’s Tanqueray is still competing even though he is an active Stud with a long line of offspring that are now competing themselves. At 15 year old he is in his prime.

Horses now routinely live into their late 20’s or even 30 years old when they have the right care.

I’ve always wondered how a horse could have a tail that dragged on the ground. You always see them like that in those wonderful portrait and here was a magnificent example of the long mane and tail.

According Tanqueray’s owners any horse can have a long , ground dragging tail. When Tanqueray is not in the show ring his tail is bound up . The most common reasons for a short tail are that the horse steps on it or it has frozen and the hairs have broken off.

Horses get their tails wet in their water pails in the stalls or when they are allowed outside in the snow, rain and cold. When that happens and the tail hairs freeze, the hair snaps off. Makes sense; so if you want your horse to have a long tail it needs to be bound up. The mane is braided to protect it so when it’s unbraided you get the lovely waves.

Height: 15.1	Color: bay
Foaled: 1998	Standing at: Partridge Hill Stable

A Horse Whisperer

Posted on November 14, 2013November 14, 2013 by Dusty Roads

After I left the Arabian Stallion behind I wandered into the “Coliseum”, one of the other large buildings.

This one was like an auditorium with tiers of seats and high ceilings. The center of the big building was a dirt covered ring. This is where they would hold “Fantasia” later in the evening.

In the center of the ring was a young filly and a trainer. For a moment I thought I’d walked in on Monty Roberts, The Horse Whisperer. The movements were the same, all calm and flowing. The trainer was wearing a head set and explaining everything as he worked. Once more the feeling that I was watching Monty Roberts hit me. Clearly this trainer was a student of that training philosophy.

If you ever get a chance to watch this type of trainer in action don’t miss it. It’s a beautiful thing to see. It’s so calm and gentle and the progress is astounding.

I wish I had been familiar with these techniques back when I was a kid and had a young handful of a horse.

I wanted to watch the whole training session but the Arabian was being brought out to a small ring and it was going to be my one chance for pictures without bars.

When a horse was moved from a stall to a ring two people did it. One when ahead through the crowd calling out “Horse coming through” and the visitors got out of the way. Then the 2nd person led the animal along the open path. Made me think of the way cars clear a path on the highway for emergency vehicles.

As I was trying to photograph the Arabian, another visitor told me I had to see the “Celebrity Horse” presentation. This is a brief presentation of a horse that has earned championship status. The horses being showcased were the crème de la crème, a different horse each day.

So saying goodbye to my beautiful Arabian I headed back through two huge buildings to locate the “Youth Pavilion” and today’s Celebrity Horse.

Arabian Stallion

Posted on November 13, 2013November 13, 2013 by Dusty Roads

So What is Equine Affaire?

Posted on November 12, 2013November 12, 2013 by Dusty Roads

What is this show that’s getting all the buzz? I wasn’t really sure but I sure wasn’t prepared for it to be as huge as it was. 6000 people! There are so many different venues that it wasn’t that crowded. Sure , lots of people but the crowd moved along and I didn’t feel crushed even with a backpack and camera around my neck.

The first thing that hit me was that this looked more like a trade show than a horse show. Every building had stalls filled with horse related products, from feed to grooming, saddles to traces, horse blankets and ribbons for manes and tails. Outside were horse trailers and RV’s all set up for you to tour and put down your deposit.

A midway of sorts was set up with food stands, popcorn, fried dough, onion rings, hot dogs, hamburgers, some salads and sandwiches, even a baked potato stand. I certainly wouldn’t starve!

It was as I was walking through the 2nd building that I spotted the first horse. It was a 20 year old Morgan stallion, a more docile animal you’d never find. Hard to believe he was a stallion, not a gelding. His owners had opened the stall door and let him stick his head out and he was doing just that. He loved the attention and had quite a crowd. With all the little hands trying to pet him I skipped the pictures and moved on.

Most of the horses and ponies were in stalls with bars on top. Easy to see in but prevented much of a touch and photos were hard. I know what horses smell like. I owned two growing up but these horses didn’t seem to have much of an order at all. Not even the ones with steaming piles in their stalls!

The range of breeds was amazing. I always thought I had a good basic knowledge of “horse” but I had never heard of half the horses there. Of course there were the Morgan’s, standardbreds, Percherons, quarter horses and my personal favorite, the Arabian. If there were thoroughbreds I didn’t see them but maybe they were in another building.

There were ponies and miniature horses, pintos and paints and palominos. All of those were familiar, But then I saw some that looked like they had just come from the steppes of Russia, small but hardy, they ran with a funny gait, not a canter or a trot or a gallop.

They were listed in the program as Icelandics.

One horse in particular caught my eye, Norwegian Fjord Horse. This guy wasn’t big and tall, rather compact and solid. The breed standard said his color was dun but he looked gray to me. He had a distinctive black streak down the center of his mane.

Speaking of his mane, it stood up along his neck like a Mohawk. A very unique appearance indeed.

Equine Affaire

Posted on November 10, 2013November 10, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I finally got myself out the door to DO SOMETHING. I’ve been sitting at home watching my pennies because we are in the last quarter of the year and I have a bunch of annual bills that come due. I was in pretty good shape with money in the bank to cover them but my car had other ideas.

After several pricey repairs my formerly comfortable bank balance is back to it’s normal level of no reserve. At least I got one of the 3 bills paid (2 more to go ) and my mechanic says my car should last at least until I hit 300,000 miles.

My former job had overtime during the holidays so I usually worked the extra to plug the shortfall but my new job doesn’t have that. Don’t get me wrong, I love not having to “kill myself” and my new job pays about the same as my old job…just no OT which is hitting my purse strings now.

That said I have been playing the hermit, trying not to drive too much (Gas), making a grocery list and sticking to it, cutting coupons etc.; being a good budget minded person (Not my normal way of operating). But eventually that had to give and it did in a sort of big way.

I kept seeing an add on Facebook for Equine Affaire. It was being held at the fairgrounds in Springfield where they hold the “Big E”, Eastern States Exposition . The Big E is a very Big deal out here in the east even though I still haven’t been but a Horsey event… well I might be interested in that so I counted my pennies and bought a ticket for the day and since I was going to be out there anyway…I bought a box seat to the Fantasia Show that evening. (At that point I had no idea what the show would be like but I figured in for a penny in for a pound)

I hadn’t been to a horse show in years and never to one like this. I took over 400 pictures. Not all are worth the paper it would take to print them but there are a few “keepers”. The photography part was challenging because everything was indoors and I was trying not to use the flash. (More on that later). It took me quite awhile to “sort of” figure it out. I never did get the result I wanted but I had fun and over the next few days I want to share my experience and some of the pictures (not all 400).

I was pretty amazed. When I pulled into the parking “field” (Only $5.00 for the whole day) one of the attendants said the event had sold over 6000 tickets each day. (A 4 day run!) (That’s $30,000 per day in parking fees only) There were cars from all over… New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Canada, Georgia, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and of course, Massachusetts.