Casper enjoying his ringside seat watching the Puissance.
Tinker and Helen obviously not so impressed!
Last weekend we picked up a last minute show, which was an unexpected bonus! However, it was not under the best circumstances unfortunately. Jive Pony had been due to attend, but due to unforeseen circumstances Becca was unable to bring Ronan and Navvy to the event. Becca rang me on the Wednesday afternoon to see if we could do the show on Sunday, and luckily the answer was yes! So, after a mad couple of days getting everything ready and the lorry packed, Helen, Tinker, Casper and myself set off for Peover and the Cheshire Game and Angling Fair.
I attended this show back in 2009 with Jive Pony, and let's just say it was an interesting one! I was hoping things would go a bit smoother this time around, but we didn't get off to a good start when we had to get towed onto the site on arrival. However, once we'd got in position we got everything set up without any further problems. Alex (Jive Pony's Glamourous Assistant) had come up to the show, as he was entered in their shoe making competition in the morning. He'd obviously been planning to come up to the show anyway, but I'm not sure if it was more of a help or a hindrance to have him there whilst we were setting up!
During the night Casper got up to quite a bit of mischief. I'd made a sign and taped it to the front of his stable which read 'Please don't feed the horses'. Casper had not only pulled the sign off his stable but had eaten away the part that said 'Please don't', so he ended up holding a sign which just read 'Feed the horses'! He looked like he was a little beggar horse! On top of that he'd decided he wanted to see out of the back of the tent (having the whole front and side open obviously wasn't enough for him!) so had unstuck all the velcro from one side and had his head poking out. He is a ridiculous creature that one!
We decided that this show was the one where Casper was going to branch out on his own and do the show without Tinker in the arena with him. We'd been waiting all season for a show where our stables were situated ringside, so that he could see Tinker from the arena, but he wouldn't be in there with him. This was the first time we were going to try this with him so we were all a bit nervous! Casper has some difficult separation anxiety issues, but we've been working on them so were hoping for the best. We had a little practise in the arena in the morning and he was really very good - probably because Tinker was still in full view! When the time came for the show I took Casper to warm up. This was in an area away from Tinker and out of sight of him, so I was slightly concerned that this would undo all our good work from the morning. I needn't have worried though - he was very well behaved once again so I was very happy with him! We were soon into the arena and the show couldn't have gone better. Casper was lovely to vault on, he did an amazing dance and his chasing was the best he's ever done! When we were racing around the arena he was so hot on my heels I really thought he was going to stand on me at one point! I was so proud of him I really couldn't have asked for any more from him.
Next up was Tinker, although before we even got into the arena he had us all in stitches. For some reason he just would not stop yawning. He just yawned and yawned and yawned - and that was before he'd even done any work! I don't believe he was tired as he'd slept well overnight (judging by the amount of straw in his mane and tail!) and he also spent most of the morning flat out. It's obviously just very hard work being a Tinker! As per usual he did a lovely show, although he did have a bit of trouble in his dance. For some reason he got stuck in Spanish Walk gear, and went stomping off in it all on his own - I couldn't get him to stop! Other than that he was perfect so I was very pleased with him as well. We did have a bit of an incident at one point during the show. About halfway through a random chap came wandering out into the arena towards us. To start with I thought he was an official coming to tell us that we had to cut the show short for some reason, but it turned out he'd just been in the beer tent a little bit too long and wanted to come and have a closer look at what was going on! Helen was very good on the microphone asking the 'random gentleman to kindly exit the arena, as it is very distracting having invasions!' at which point an actual official came in to escort him out. Minutes later we had another arena invasion - this time from a naughty little terrier who had managed to escape the clutches of it's very embarrassed owner! It seems that weird incidents in the arena are a given at the Cheshire Game Fair!
The horses' tomfoolery continued throughout the day. Whilst we were packing everything up we left them to wander about our little enclosure as we took their stables and tent down. Next thing we know they were both climbing up the ramp into the lorry, despite the fact that it was obviously full of bits of stable, props, bases etc - definitely not ready for horses! By this time the arena activities had finished, so we chucked the boys in there - just to get rid of them! We were soon ready to put load up and go, but Tinker had other ideas. He decided that he didn't want to go home just yet and wouldn't let us catch him! However, by the time we'd ignored him for five minutes and lavished attention on Casper it was a different story, and we were soon loaded up and trucking home.
We had a lovely day at the show. As well as Alex, Becca came up for the afternoon and bought Gemma with her too. Everyone was very helpful - Becca was taking photos and collecting music sheets for us, Gemma was helping groom the horses and washing them down after each show, and Alex helped set up the arena with Helen and mended a dangly bit on the lorry - it's nice to have a good big team! We'll be back to normal for our next show, Ibstock Country Fair, with Helen, Jess and myself. I'll let you know how we get on but in the meantime click here to see some photos from Cheshire Game Fair.
Love Rosie xx
During the night Casper got up to quite a bit of mischief. I'd made a sign and taped it to the front of his stable which read 'Please don't feed the horses'. Casper had not only pulled the sign off his stable but had eaten away the part that said 'Please don't', so he ended up holding a sign which just read 'Feed the horses'! He looked like he was a little beggar horse! On top of that he'd decided he wanted to see out of the back of the tent (having the whole front and side open obviously wasn't enough for him!) so had unstuck all the velcro from one side and had his head poking out. He is a ridiculous creature that one!
We decided that this show was the one where Casper was going to branch out on his own and do the show without Tinker in the arena with him. We'd been waiting all season for a show where our stables were situated ringside, so that he could see Tinker from the arena, but he wouldn't be in there with him. This was the first time we were going to try this with him so we were all a bit nervous! Casper has some difficult separation anxiety issues, but we've been working on them so were hoping for the best. We had a little practise in the arena in the morning and he was really very good - probably because Tinker was still in full view! When the time came for the show I took Casper to warm up. This was in an area away from Tinker and out of sight of him, so I was slightly concerned that this would undo all our good work from the morning. I needn't have worried though - he was very well behaved once again so I was very happy with him! We were soon into the arena and the show couldn't have gone better. Casper was lovely to vault on, he did an amazing dance and his chasing was the best he's ever done! When we were racing around the arena he was so hot on my heels I really thought he was going to stand on me at one point! I was so proud of him I really couldn't have asked for any more from him.
Next up was Tinker, although before we even got into the arena he had us all in stitches. For some reason he just would not stop yawning. He just yawned and yawned and yawned - and that was before he'd even done any work! I don't believe he was tired as he'd slept well overnight (judging by the amount of straw in his mane and tail!) and he also spent most of the morning flat out. It's obviously just very hard work being a Tinker! As per usual he did a lovely show, although he did have a bit of trouble in his dance. For some reason he got stuck in Spanish Walk gear, and went stomping off in it all on his own - I couldn't get him to stop! Other than that he was perfect so I was very pleased with him as well. We did have a bit of an incident at one point during the show. About halfway through a random chap came wandering out into the arena towards us. To start with I thought he was an official coming to tell us that we had to cut the show short for some reason, but it turned out he'd just been in the beer tent a little bit too long and wanted to come and have a closer look at what was going on! Helen was very good on the microphone asking the 'random gentleman to kindly exit the arena, as it is very distracting having invasions!' at which point an actual official came in to escort him out. Minutes later we had another arena invasion - this time from a naughty little terrier who had managed to escape the clutches of it's very embarrassed owner! It seems that weird incidents in the arena are a given at the Cheshire Game Fair!
The horses' tomfoolery continued throughout the day. Whilst we were packing everything up we left them to wander about our little enclosure as we took their stables and tent down. Next thing we know they were both climbing up the ramp into the lorry, despite the fact that it was obviously full of bits of stable, props, bases etc - definitely not ready for horses! By this time the arena activities had finished, so we chucked the boys in there - just to get rid of them! We were soon ready to put load up and go, but Tinker had other ideas. He decided that he didn't want to go home just yet and wouldn't let us catch him! However, by the time we'd ignored him for five minutes and lavished attention on Casper it was a different story, and we were soon loaded up and trucking home.
We had a lovely day at the show. As well as Alex, Becca came up for the afternoon and bought Gemma with her too. Everyone was very helpful - Becca was taking photos and collecting music sheets for us, Gemma was helping groom the horses and washing them down after each show, and Alex helped set up the arena with Helen and mended a dangly bit on the lorry - it's nice to have a good big team! We'll be back to normal for our next show, Ibstock Country Fair, with Helen, Jess and myself. I'll let you know how we get on but in the meantime click here to see some photos from Cheshire Game Fair.
Love Rosie xx
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