Oh, Magoo, You've done It Again

Arriving on Wednesday

Equine Affaire was over for me early this year. They could not just leave me alone to do the work I was hired for. Management just had to f#$k with me for the pettiest of reasons. But I'll get back to that later...

EA required me to be in Pomona for a meeting 8PM on Wednesday, but I really enjoy the set up and I got there at about 10am. One of the paid crew was having flu symptoms and was looking green-ish. There wasn't very much to do until the afternoon because we had to let the exhibitors move in. Once they got settled we were tasked with laying down mats and taping roofing paper to the floor for the horses to walk on. A back-aching job for sure. Three of us got in a rhythm and we laid some rolls down staying busy for a couple of hours.

We finished around 6:30 in time for me to get over to the covered arena and help set up the Extreme Cowboy Race that would take place Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Finals) night. We took measurements and taped notes to the outside of the arena so we would know where to put the obstacles. The course didn't have a lot of drama but it was very complicated and, since we would have to duplicate the course for each qualifying round Thursday and Friday, our measurements had to give us a clear picture to set the course the same way both nights. (This arena is 200 x 400 I think - it's huge).

The Program Director, her assistant, and I finished just in time to get to the 8 PM meeting. We got instructions and guidance on Expo procedures (boring). After dinner we set up some of the demo rings and I got checked into my room about 9:45 PM. My roomate (everyone had to share) was part of the mgmt team, the husband of the president of the company. Why he didn't have a private room was beyond me, but again, more on that later...

A Quick Workout and to Bed

The hotel had a workout room and I went for a run on the treadmill, took a sauna and a shower and got back to the room about 11, reviewed my notes, and went to sleep. My Roomie woke at 4:20 am because he was working one of the entrance gates at 6:30. I got up at 6 and had breakfast at 7. Even though I wasn't required to start until 8:45, I wanted to insure my venue was set up correctly.

As it turned out, I was assigned the Venue Manager for the large covered arena, the largest venue on the grounds. While I was surprised at the assignment, I was excited by the challenge. My first three presenters were Ken McKnabb, Craig Cameron, and Barbara Schulte, the world class cutting horse trainer. These guys were about as nice as people could be. Right before he was ready to go on a woman walked up and asked Craig for a picture for her son. Without hesitation he posed and gave the woman a few words of encouragement to pass along to her boy. Ken was telling us stories about his Dad as he was getting ready. They all were just very warm and friendly.

Everything went exceptionally smoothly and in the afternoon I had Tommy Garland, Ken, and Barbara. At 7PM we set the ECR course and our measurements worked out well(we had set them without using the actual obstacles, so I think we did pretty good).

At 7:30 the first qualifying round started. There were 17 riders. We finished taking the course down and getting it out of the arena around 10:30 pm. It took another half an hour to get our radios checked in and I made it back to my room about 11:30. I was whipped. My Roomie was sound asleep.

Black Friday

Friday, Roomie was up at 5am and out by 6 when I got up. I was first into the breakfast room again. Another mgmt team member came in and joined me. She specifically mentioned how pleased she was to have me on the team and was quite pleased with the job I was doing before we moved the conversation to other areas. I headed out at 7:30 to get my arena ready for the day.

Rains came and made some of the tasks more difficult, but at least I was in the covered arena. We had cattle coming in at 8am and had to set up for Barbara's cutting demo. Barb threw us a small curve when she asked if we could set up a flag machine she had borrowed from Richard Wilhelm for her afternoon demo. We made the necessary adjustments and her early morning demo went great. The cows were good and it was fun to watch.

After the cutting demo we hosted the Paso Finos with their wooden ramp that's heavier than s*&t. The breed demo coordinator was a real piece of work. I let her start 10 minutes early and she still went 10 minutes long. We couldn't get her off the mike!

Then we had Ken, Craig and Barb's afternoon demo with the flag machine. The flag machine was extremely easy to set up and worked great. This was pretty cool: As I said, Craig Cameron had the demo before and he was hanging out at the gate after I took his microphone off. I was helping Barb with the headset and Craig asked her if he could ride in her demo. Of course, she said yes and he said, "Just treat me like any other student." And, she did. It was a really fun demo.

It was just before midday when the trouble started for me. The venue was running great. The announcer, a long-time employee, had complimented me on how well it was running and how I handled the presenters. Trouble started when the EA travel/hospitality coordinator drove up and asked to speak with me. She said that Roomie had just realized he needed privacy to complete his work. They were going to get me another room only it would be at a different hotel. Now, Roomie has been doing this job for years and I really couldn't understand how his need for privacy was a "new" development. I pleaded with her to not send me to another hotel (all the rooms in our hotel were full). She said she would get back to me.

This totally threw me. Almost every quarter hour was full of things to do. I was halfway through my clothes. Packing and moving was not going to be easy. My clothes for each day were all laid out and carefully organized in MY room. What was I going to do? Get back at 11 pm, throw all my clothes in a suitcase and drive to another hotel? What was the reason again? The site crew guys could see I was stunned and asked what had happened. When I explained about the sudden need for privacy and that I was asked to move they said, "Oh, you probably snore. Roomie does that to people if they snore." Are you f%^cking kidding me?!?

I guess word got around to other team members and another person told me the same thing. Now, just for the record, I do snore, but not loudly (according to my wife) and not the entire time I sleep. We are only in the room together 6 hours a night. How bad could it be?

Anyway, the hospitality gal came back and asked if I would agree moving in with the two other site crew guys and sleep on their sofa bed. I agreed, but almost immediately regretted the decision. I said "okay" BUT that I would need a room key and 30 minutes "off" time BEFORE the ECR to move my stuff. I really didn't want to change rooms at 11pm. I WASN'T going to change rooms at 11pm. I was upset and my presenter was just ending their demo when I gave my instructions. Maybe I wasn't crystal clear that I wanted her to make arrangements for the extra time and deliver me the key, but she's the hospitality gal, she knows how to accommodate people.

I went back to work. Tommy Garland, then Ken McKnabb presented. We ran and had a quick dinner. I only ate an apple and used my 20 minutes to add clothing as it was cool in the outdoor arena during the race.

At 7pm we set the course. No key, no 30 minutes. We had 16 riders running that evening. I had been the event timer both nights. The race went as expected. The stands were full. After the race we tore down the course and went to turn in our radios. It was raining and we had to wait for security to let us in the building. A couple of people gave us their radios and we agreed to meet in the lounge. Security couldn't be reached and we stood out there for 20 minutes. Finally, I decided to head out and find a security officer. I worked my way back to the hotel. I found the guy from the night before and he go on the radio for us. He arranged for security to go help the folks with the radios.

I walked in the lounge at 11pm and there was the hosp gal and a couple of the site crew guys. We chatted a bit and one site crew guy said to me, "Did you pick up the hotel key?"

"No", I said, "I agreed it had to come to me with 30 minutes relief time before the EC race." By now the "snoring" thing had really started to chap my ass. Hospitality gal said she was sorry, she must have misunderstood, but I couldn't stay in that room tonight. I told her if I packed to move, it was to move home. She asked me not to. This was the second time EA had altered an agreement with me at the last minute. I felt a dangerous precedent was being set. And, I know I am prideful to a fault, but I considered this a matter of honor.

Again she reiterated I couldn't stay in the room and I told her I would go talk to Roomie. I won't detail what we talked about, except that I tried to appeal to his reasonable side. He clung to his fabrication and remained steadfast in his need for privacy.

The drive home was through pouring rain. Traffic stopped for a time because of an accident, and I finally pulled into my driveway around 2 am. Ranae was set to head down for her Matt Sheridan demo and is there now as I write this. She didn't feel it was fair to the friend going down with her or Matt to cancel at the last minute and I agree with that decision.

The three days I worked were very cool. A complete departure from the work I normally do. Meeting the presenters and being in charge of the Covered Arena was very exciting. Other than Roomie, everyone at Equine Affaire could not have been nicer to me. And even then, had it not been the second time Equine Affaire jerked me around, I would have sucked it up and moved to the sofa bed.

I talked to some of the Fairplex people. The Fairplex sits adjacent to a horse race track. Because they are extending the racetrack next year the covered arena and some other areas will be demolished and it's quite likely Equine Affaire won't be held there next year.

Equine Affaire 2010

After 4 years volunteering, Equine Affaire hired me for this year's California event. I'm on the schedule as the Venue Manager in Building 9. Stop by and say hi. We'll have some great seminars at the Demo Ring. Building 9 is also where they have all the horse trailers. Come by and check it out.

I'll also be handling the course reset for the Extreme Cowboy Race Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. I'll have one of the best seats in the house right inside the areana.

Ranae is participating in the Matt Sheridan Trail Course Seminar in the Outside Arena on Sunday. We spent Saturday doing some groundwork with an emphasis on de-sensitizing. Matt has a great rapport with the audience. He'll have a great clinic. Check that one out too.

We did get a ride in on Sunday. After the groundwork on Saturday, both horses did very well. We did some loping and had a good time.

Lots of stuff to do before I leave...

A Few Weekend Pictures Un-Horse Related

This bird dropped by over the weekend. We're still trying to figure out what it is. We think it might be a European Starling.


Sunset on Sunday Evening




My dog, Max




Sparky learning how to use the cat door



A foggy morning last weekend.

It's Raining

The rains came. My little rain gauge had well over 1" of water in it. The pens are flooded. Poor horses. We usually get less than 6" of rain a year. Getting 20% of that in 48 hours is quite unusual. The horses pack down their pens all year long then, when the rain comes, it just forms one big lake. And because the pens are a few inches lower than the surrounding ground, there's no place for the water to drain. More rain is predicted...

Photos

Recent rains soggy up the horses' pens. Here are some photos:

Dusty Reflections


Jessie Loves Standing on her Water Pad


Dusty at the Feeder


Panama, Our Huntress



Jessie Peeking Through the Panels

A Typical Trail Ride

Not to bore you to death, but here are some of the things we'll do on a typical weekend trail ride from our house.


A Typical Trail Ride

First Rides of the Year

We had some exciting rides to start the year. New Year's day the girls were busy so Jessie and I went out to the alfalfa field alone to putz around. I had in mind a few exercises I wanted to work on, mainly improving our stop, and, as it was a gray kind of day, just go for a quiet little ride.

When we got out to the field there was another horse and rider working on the far end of the field. His horse was quite spirited and Jessie picked up on the energy. As we were doing the "whoa" exercises it was easy to see I wasn't her first priority. She kept looking across the field at the other horse. When I intensified our exercises she kicked up. When I responded with more energy she "felt" like she was going to buck. She dropped her head and tried to straighten her body but I was able to quickly pull on one rein and yield her hindquarters. I really made her hustle her feet in both directions then stopped her.

We started our exercise again and she felt like a bundle of knots underneath me. I decide to get off and do some groundwork. When I started the LFR stage II she kicked up, reared, farted, and took off. I made her go back and forth several times always trying to do it as quietly as I could in the hopes she would slow down. After about 10 minutes she was in a lather. I was looking for a good place to stop, but I hadn't found one yet. I did some yielding of the hindquarters and some desensitizing, I even did some back up exercises. Each time I went back to LFR II she got all jacked up.

During a desensitizing session the girls called and said they were going to come out to meet me. Great. Maybe the company would calm her down. We worked for another ten minutes and I thought she was starting to calm down. Either that or she was running out of air - she had been working hard! I got back on her and she seemed a bit more relaxed. We walked around the alfalfa field trying to cool off. The other horse had left and her focus was back on me. The girls met up with us and we rode out for another hour or so. Our ride looped back around to the field, so before we headed home I wanted to get one quiet, little lope just to help my confidence. Jessie nicely obliged.

Saturday's ride was a bit more fun. Three of us rode out to the development and we loped around the big square doing a couple of different patterns. Jessie is much more comfortable riding in a group.

Sunday's ride was "planned" as a short, little quiet ride around the alfalfa field, down the canal and back. More to just get out for awhile. Our washer broke down early in the morning. We had to get another, install it, and it was a bit of a frustrating morning.

The canal that borders the field has a farm on the other side loaded with old equipment (looks like a parts warehouse for tractors and stuff). The house is far from the bank and we don't really know if anyone actually resides there. There are always a group of dogs on guard with the equipment. They will bark at us but won't cross the canal.

The last leg of our ride took us through this part of the canal. We heard the dogs barking as they came running from quite a distance. Much to our surprise the current group consisted of four pit bulls. It looked to us like a mother and three 6-8 month old adolescents. Now, we encounter dogs all the time. We usually just turn and face them, maybe yell in a deep voice and move toward them and they leave us alone. I used my deep voice with these dogs and they got MORE agitated. We tried to "shush" them away and they got MORE aggressive. Once I saw we were losing this battle of intimidation I directed Ranae to move off the bank and into the field. One of the little adolescents jumped into the canal, crossed it, and took up the chase (although were weren't running, just walking quietly away). The other three weren't about to miss out on the fun and they followed. For the next few minutes it was a standoff. We turned and faced the barking dogs and they stayed away, but in range. When we turned to leave, they gave chase. We turned back around and backed away for the dogs and this worked for about 25 or 30 feet, then they came back. On one attempt I turned to leave and could see one little tough coming up behind us and thought I would let Jessie take a swing at him. She did, but didn't connect, although it did create a bigger buffer zone between us and them. We staggered our retreat - one of going back at a time and were finally able to put enough distance between us and them that we could get away. The farther they got from home the less brave they were. The horses had both done great. They stayed calm and responsive. Looking back, I'm not sure I would let Jessie try to kick the dog again, but at the time I didn't see another solution. He was the most aggressive pup and the others were following him. We were having a hard time putting distance between us and the situation was escalating. We talked about strategies for handling the situation differently should it happen again and didn't really come up with anything worthwhile. The fact they were pit bulls seemed to change the equation. We did decide that one of us should have called 911 and at least had the sheriff on the way to help us out. Neither one of us thought about that at the time...

On a couple of other notes:

Ranae got accepted to the Ride With Best program and will be riding with Matt Sheridan at Equine Affaire, Pomona, on Sunday in the outdoor arena.

I received my contract from Equine Affaire and I'm scheduled to be Venue Manager in Building 9 Wednesday - Sunday. It is my first paying gig in the equine industry. WooHoo!