NWSA Futurity Oregon Show

             by Julia Goldman

I roll up with a warm cup of coffee, huddled in blankets because outside, the overcast sky is sending a cool breeze through the window. It sure is nice to be home after a four day stress-loaded, frantic, fast-paced horse show. Janna and I have just returned from our adventure at the Salem , Oregon Horse Show. Now, at some shows you strike it lucky, and the judge pins your horse. Other shows, you are left with disappointing results. Oregon was a combination of the above, considering Janna won ALL the blue ribbons, and I saw only red! Although I have forgotten what it feels like to be called to the winner’s circle, I can NOW say I am skilled at the art of getting horses ears’ up for the victory pass! Janna and I took three of our black boys up to Oregon . Sterling showed, (and went undefeated) in Open Western Pleasure, Ravello showed in Amateur and Open Friesian Pleasure, and Stormy competed in Open English Pleasure, and Friesian Driving. Our plate was VERY full.

        There is no “i” in team; you don’t realize how much you rely on someone until their presence is absent at times of need. Janna and I learned this the hard way. Blu decided to fix bees nests and buy new pot and pans at Costco, instead of joining us (in other words, he did not go to Oregon .). Although we suffered a little, due to his absence, the struggles that lay ahead only allowed us to enjoy our rewards that much more.

 The highlights of the show:

         Thursday: I need not say more, but for those of you that were not at the show, I will inform you about the adventure.  After resting our eyes for about 7 hours, the hotel wake up call buzzer echoed in our hotel room. We dragged ourselves out of bed, and were at the show grounds by 8:00am. Stormy and Sterling were showing, translation: two horses to bathe, two tails to pick through-----NOTE- Sterling ’s tail actually really counts for three tails in itself! It now drags the ground two feet!!! There were eight hooves and chestnuts to black, and lots of tack that needed cleaning. This was all supposed to happen in about an hour and fifteen minutes. We rushed back and forth, changing into our riding habits, oiling the horses’ ears, last minute barber appointments, and such. We were running out of time. By the time I jumped on Stormy’s back, the class before me was already in the ring, AND the class had only one rider. I trotted to the warm-up arena, and sadly, did not have enough time for a proper warm up, SO, my class served as a warm up for Janna’a driving class. We placed second, in a class of 5, in the Open English Pleasure. Stormy had his nose out a little, but other than that, our ride was not too bad. Then, it was hurry back to the barn, give Stormy a break because he was about to go out there and do it all over again in Friesian Driving. Four classes until Janna and Stormy. We are walking Stormy up and down the barn breezeway, throwing off the Barnsby saddle, and putting on the Freedman‘s Harness. Wow, two and a half classes. Ok, time to get the cart. The cart—THE CART!!!!!!!! The cart…..off came our “Black Sterling monogrammed maroon cover, and the cart is in four pieces. Ok, we were racing around like madwomen before, now we were panicked!!!! The two wheels had been taken off the cart, and the panel to keep dirt from flying into the cart, and drivers’ eyes, was detached by our hauler, who had not told us he had taken apart our cart so that it would fit better on top of his truck. And an important piece was broken off our trusty two wheeled Houghton. Luckily, with some deep breathing, and the help of Jieme, the generous and helpful groom for Michelle Macfarlane, the cart was put into functional order. We both almost had a heart attack though!  Janna kept chanting, “I think the wheels are going to fall off!”, as she put Stormy into his fabulous floaty strong trot, as she entered the indoor show pavilion. Stormy, now completely warmed up, won his driving class. The two put on a great performance, and Stormy really stepped up to the plate. After the victory pass, I jumped in, along side of Janna and we trotted back to the barn. Sterling ’s class was in about four or five classes. Janna needed time to change from her driving attire to a western cowgirl.

        As if we could not get ourselves into any more challenging situations, while I was zipping Janna’s chaps up, the zipper caught in her black pants. I pulled up, I pulled down, as hard as I could. The zipper would not budge. I looked up at Janna who was glancing at me, with a look on her face connotating, what’s taking so long???…after about six or seven minutes of struggle, Dawn, a helping hand at  Monarch Stables, provided a resolution by simply cutting the pants out of the chaps. GREAT. Now, all we needed was the saddle to be too lose and fall off during the class, then we could have said our day was truly complete. Well, needless to say, Janna and Sterling made a great show and were called to the winner’s circle. What was the best news? WE HAD THE NIGHT OFF- no classes, we could take a shower and watch the show!

        Friday: The next morning, Sterling had his Championship Open Western class, and again Sterling was called into the winner’s circle. I- on the other hand- raced to the winners circle to get more horse ears up! The boy controlling the in-gate laughed as I passed him; it would seem as though running into the ring to get our Friesians’ ears up had become my new profession. That evening, Janna won with Ravello in the Friesian Amateur/Junior Pleasure Grand Championship. Can you guess what I did? If you thought: ran into the winner’s circle to get more horse ears up, lets just say you are RIGHT!!

        I think the judge got more tired of me running into the ring after our horses’ numbers were called then she did watching our beautiful boys prancing around the ring. I know I was!!

        Another new encounter was Stevo. From the moment we received his number on our Silver Neon Dollar rental car, everything that went wrong was Stevo’s fault. Let me explain: Oregon always throws extravagant parties; this is a show to gain weight at! Between the awesome potato soup, the nachos, the rosemary potatoes, barbeque chicken, endless coffee, pastries, personal pizzas, hamburgers, fruit, shrimp cocktail, cheesecake, éclairs, brownies, strawberry shortcake, Sees candy, cream puffs (the real ones, not the Costco ones), the ham sandwiches, the pie and ice cream social, and such (the list goes far longer then that!), we only had to eat one meal out. We ordered take out at the restaurant next to our hotel, the Shilo Inn. We ordered,  and Carla, our VERY DEDICATED groom, stayed behind to bring the food to our room, while Janna and I took showers. One of the waiters, Stevo, sent us his phone number, utilizing Carla as the messenger. He decided to leave us his number AGAIN, on our rental car. This was disturbing to me to say the least, and amusing to Janna and Carla; he did not get a call back from any of us.

        I rode Stormy in the Open English Pleasure Grand Championship, where we placed second again. I was happy with my ride, aside from Stormy inching his nose out a little on the reverse, he felt great during the whole ride! Although I personally had not been called to the winner’s circle, it was not my last time out to center ring. Janna and Ravello won the Open Friesian Pleasure Stake to complete our show. I jogged in again, now officially reaching the rank expert at getting horses ears up. Our Friesians’ Awards/Titles go as follows:

Sterling :

Open Western Pleasure Champion

Open Western Pleasure Grand Champion

Ravello:

Reserve Amateur Champion

Junior/Amateur Pleasure Grand Champion

Open Friesian Pleasure Grand Champion

Stormy:

Reserve Open English Pleasure Champion

Reserve Open English Pleasure Grand Champion

Friesian Driving Champion

Reserve Friesian Driving Grand Champion

Our Prizes consisted of three BRAND NEW Fennell’s leather show halters with champion name plates, and two lead shanks with engraved brass name plates. This show was a good reminder of exactly what we need to accomplish to get ready for NATIONALS!!! Come and CHEER LOUDLY for our boys!!! Hope to see you in LAS VEGAS !!

2006 Keuring

 While  Julia  and I were competing with three of our geldings at the Salem, Oregon, Horse Show, Blu and our wonderful dressage trainer from Holland, Barend, loaded up our 6 yr old Jasper X Oege stallion, and took him to the keuring in Santa Rosa.

 There were 4 stallions at the keuring, being presented for STER, and 3 of them were owned or sold by BSF’s. All 3 of the BSF Stallions became STER STALLIONS, earning the coveted title that is only bestowed on the BEST of the BEST!!!  Way to go BSF stallions, and congrats to stallion owners Andi and Karen, and good job—Blu and Barend!!!

 And it doesn’t stop there…the Champion Filly of the keuring was out of a  BSF 1^st premie STER mare we sold [while pregnant] to Linda Young.

Congratulations Linda, we KNOW how excited you are.

pictures are by Melissa Fischbach