Sarah Tongstun

I am an avid horse lover and a very competitive person. Naturally, I love horse shows! Spring means horse shows, and I attended my first show of the season 2 weekends ago. My horse Johara has been in training for the last 4 months to learn to drive a cart, so I haven't had access to her on a daily basis. (The trainer is 1.5 hours away from home and my "real life" prevents me from driving 3 hours a day to see her!) It was nice to see her for the entire weekend :)

I showed her at the Connecticut River Arabian Association's Spring Derby in Northampton, Massachusetts. The weather was very cooperative for my two classes on Saturday morning. I showed her in Purebred Arabian Sport Horse In-Hand Open and Purebred Arabian Sport Horse In-Hand Ammy to Handle. These classes are based on the horse's conformation and "form to function" - are they going to be able to do the job they are supposed to do and stay sound and sane for the duration? Johara is a fantastic sport horse prospect - she is only 3 so she can't really be declared a sport horse yet!

We won our Open class out of 4 horses. She was VERY fresh and didn't really want to trot. This is one energizer-bunny of a horse! In the second class we had a bit of a mishap (she spooked) and I ended up losing my reins! She trotted off away from me like, "Okay, what do I do now???" and "If I am REALLY bad then my Mom will kill me later, so I'm just going to trot away and then stop...and when she gets close, I'll trot away again...." Little stinker! The whole time I am thinking, "Please don't step on the $100 reins....Please don't step on the $100 reins...Please don't step on the $100 reins!!!" Anyways, I caught her and went about the rest of the class, but that little jaunt without me got her all upset and she really didn't trot properly. Not to mention that "manners" count, and she was docked 2 points for her "misbehavior"! We lost that class, taking 3rd out of 3.

My next show is Memorial Day weekend at the Arabian Horse Club of Connecticut's Annual "A" show. The trainer and I are hoping to debut her lovely driving skills, and I'll be back showing her in-hand as well!

Happy horse show season :)