Horsekeeping by Roxanne Bok

Author:Roxanne Bok
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Easton Studio Press, LLC
Published: 2011-11-10T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

When in Doubt, Show

RIGA MEADOW SCHEDULED A SHOW at the end of September to fundraise for their pony club. A Herculean effort undertaken in the dog days of summer, jumps and fencing were dismantled and re-painted, fields were cordoned off to nurse the over-heated, done-with-growing grass, white picket fence-potted plants clumped together awaiting their places, and tractors roared around grooming riding rings. Making the place pretty seemed of paramount concern as if the equally fussed-over horses, always buffed to their toniest for shows, would notice. But for riders and spectators a classy setting inspires even more horse devotion. Everyone asked if I would enter. “No way,” I’d immediately answer, incredulous. I pegged showing for the experienced and talented. I remembered the humiliation I had witnessed at a clinic, let alone a show.

In June, Riga Meadow hosted a former Olympic rider and a well-known instructor, here designated as “Trainer,” to teach a one-day riding clinic. Barn locals and others further afield paid for an hour lesson, in groups of two or three, with the expert. I came to watch Bobbi with her younger horse Toby and also to meet Karen, an applicant for our farm’s position of live-in stable hand. Bobbi warned me this trainer was a yeller. I have generally considered workshops supportive rather than abusive, so I was curious. Karen and I settled in some lawn chairs under our sun hats to observe; it was a perfect riding day, lukewarm and overcast.

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