This message is from: " Dave McWethy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Now I've had a chance to recover, here's some story on Equine Affaire. I believe we had 13 horses there, a whole aisle full, which I started to think of as Little Norway. Participants: Dick, Sue and Anthony Giargiari (Sue worked diligently as organizer - Hooray, Sue), Bill and Norma Coli, Ceacy Henderson, Nancy Rich (I hope I have your last name right), Anne Sullivan and daughter Christie, Karen Deroucher, Curt, Barbara and Krystal Howard, Jen Tibo, Jen and Betty Richards, and another young woman whose name I don't know.
We did our drill on Thurs in a ring which was tiny. On Friday and Saturday nights we were in the Fantasia program in the huge arena, before a multitude. Sunday we did a breed demo in the huge ring. On every occasion, the Fjords got special applause. As with Equitana, the booth was non-stop busy. Barbara, Nancy, Sue and Dick put in espcially great efforts there. We were always beseiged with folks wanting to know more about these horses, and with children of all ages wanting to pet Viktor, the 5 month gelding we had there much of the time. I'm going to copy here stuff I wrote on the CD-L: Speaking of exposure, I came away from Equine Affaire wondering if I might have gotten a case of Lyme lite disease. It was a terrific charge to drive our four in hand of Fjords in front of so many people, and actually feel the applause. As we had done at Equitana, we would charge to the exit at a canter, which probably looked like a stage coach runaway, and got a great response. Since I was dressed informally and driving a marathon vehicle, I figured we could be as rowdy as we wanted. We shared the ring with the Gypsy van and a pair of Friesians hitched to an ECC phaeton. The gypsy gang are great folks, and tolerant of our foolery, and the fellow with the Friesians (whose name I have lost), couldn't resist it, and joined in with our racing around. We all had a great time. My leaders were my pair, Signe and Mari, who are pictured on the CD-L Trot-online site, and the wheelers, Stella and Dina, belong to Dick and Sue Giargiari. Dick kindly groomed for me, and then we rehitched his horses in a three abreast to a farm wagon, and I groomed while he drove. Even without a crowd, driving the four is so much fun, and down there I got to do it a couple of times a day. Never expected to die and go to heaven in Massachusetts. Joanna Crell's account is a very good picture of what happened in driving down there. And I agree with her about the team of vaulting girls - they were so good! They come from all over the country, join briefly, put an amazing program together, practice, perform and go home. I talked with their coach, who gave me the impression they are all in high school. I also always love to watch the trick riders. One of them had a horse that was unbelievably fast - a quarterhorse rocket. I heard a criticism that he didn't stand well, but responded whaddaya expect, Ferrari's don't idle well either. More tomorrow.
