California Dreamin': The Equine Affaire

Mario and I had a very long, horsey day yesterday! We drove down south to a place known to most as Broken Horn, and to those that are really in the know -- Broken Wallet. Not because they are overpriced, just because they are huuuge, carrying both english and western tack and apparel, feed, stable supplies, dog and cat products, etc. It's several floors and levels and there's just always something you need when you make the trip. Luckily, it is over an hour south of me and entails driving through L.A. area, so it's not appealing. Yesterday however the drive was clear sailing to be honest, which was a nice surprise since we were expecting torrential downpours and bad traffic. I was taking my saddle to Broken Horn's repair specialist to see if he could add external thigh blocks to it to make it more secure for me. While there we ended up discussing modifying the seat so it is a little deeper as well. I am really excited for the changes but it means about $500 and 5 weeks without my saddle!! I'm going to have to sort that out somehow! :(

After buying a metal tined pitchfork - which was deemed necessary after breaking 2 plastic tined pitchforks - we head over to the Equine Affair in Pomona. There is also an EA in Massachusetts and Ohio each year. The EA comes to CA once a year every February, for 4 days, and takes up a handful of convention hall buildings, arenas and outbuildings and draws thousands and thousands of people. The convention buildings are filled with displays and sales of every possible horse related thing you can think of, from tractors to supplements, saddles and bridles, horse trailers and horse insurance companies, jewelery, photography and art, stable supplies like buckets and brushes and rack after rack of equestrian themed clothing. People bring rolling carts to carry all the stuff they buy! You can also enjoy the carnival food - overpriced funnel cake, ice cream, hot dogs, pretzels, etc. Both inside and out in different arenas running all day are dozens of clinics, seminars and demos with live horses and trainers. There is a breed and youth pavilion in addition to all of the above... It's a serious extravaganza!

This year we were able to meet up with several friends and clients, and a couple of them were working in different booths, which was very cool! One was selling hoof boots for Action Rider tack in addition to promoting her trimming business , another was promoting her organization which teams up trimmers, vets, chiros, etc., and another was advertising his new breeders website Dream Breeders.com. Everyone said it was a succesful event, which was definitely good to hear considering the economy and the expensive nature of owning horses at all!

The big draw for Mario was the Extreme Cowboy Race. We had not seen it in action yet, although having heard a lot about it! It was incredible! These riders take their horses through a series of obstacles and challenges, and are timed, plus given style points for creativity. The venue blasts music and the crowd cheers, stomps, and generally goes wild. Some of the challenges last night included dragging a log through hay bales, jumping a tight series of jumps, doing reining spins, ground tying the horse while the rider crawls through hay bales, stripping off the saddle and riding bareback at a dead run, etc. It was amazing to me how the horses literally hauled ass as fast as they could and then would come back to stand quietly while the rider completed some difficult task! Mario wore his cowboy hat and whooped and hollered with the best of them. In fact, he may have been the best whooper and hollerer there! I think everyone on our side heard him pretty distinctly! ;-P We didn't get home until almost midnight, but it was a really fun day! I bought some good stuff, too... just in time for my birthday!!

In other news - Dylan ripped off a toenail. We don't even know how he did it, he just came in from the fairly innocent backyard with a bloody foot... a vet visit, pain killers and antibiotics... poor guy!! He's so stoic, it had to hurt like hell, but he came in the house just wagging his tail like nothing had happened. He's limping on it a little now, but it's all wrapped so it could be partially lack of range of motion. I will take off the bandage tomorrow to let it all breathe and finish healing. It was very cute when he came home from the vet, the pugs went and sat quietly next to him... they knew he needed puggy support.

Today's the Super Bowl. I don't even know for certain who is playing so that shows you my level of football involvement. Colts & Saints??? I think that's right. Mario went to golf this morning, and then he will watch the game at Randy's. I'll go to the barn as per tradition. :) Later tonight I have an AHA conference call. It was supposed to be raining but instead it's intensely blue skyed. Bailey asked to go outside just now, and I had to snap this quick pic of her soakin' in the rays after 3 days of rain and clouds.