I already wrote about our BreyerWest show experience - it went well! Alex had 21 horses place, and two that won division awards.
We missed one class (didn't hear the judge call it), which was a disappointment, because it was the class for a model that likely would have done very well. Alas.

It was a fun day, if long.




Photo by C. Riley Photography. (Her picture was better than either Alex's or mine, ha.)
Alex's first reserve division champion. :) (Best of the American Saddlebred class; reserve champ of the light breeds division.)


Photo by Alex.
Alex's second reserve division champion. (Best of the mini Thoroughbred/Standardbred class; reserve champ of the mini sport breeds division.) This is the one I "restored" by getting the whiteout off of. This is the second time he's gotten a big win, so I'm glad I fixed him up!


Photo by Alex.
My little NaMoPaiMo model from last year and her fourth place ribbon. :)


On Saturday we came back and walked around for a bit, but my back was much worse. I was having a rough time, and the layout of the whole complex is never very well-marked!

But there were cute little minis!


They're adorable.


Unfortunately blurry mini donkeys. I love them dearly!

We found the arena where there were cavalry competitions, which was nice just so I could sit down, but it wasn't really what we were interested in watching. There had been a few areas we sort of wandered into last year where we got to meet some of the horses "behind the scenes" but those were blocked off this year.

We decided to head to the main arena and watch a clinic that Cody Harris was doing. He's a local(ish) trainer from up in Brighton that we sort of accidentally stumbled across during a previous expo, and really liked his methods and demeanor. He's extremely calm and patient and slow.
(He's very similar to Angela, the trainer Alex did find and start working with for a couple years here... she's the one who sadly moved to Portland. Though I'm happy for her!)

I found a way to sit that kept my back from hurting, so I didn't want to leave, so we decided to camp out for a while.

After Cody Harris' hour was up, the next person to have the arena was some guy called "The Horse Guru", from... Mississippi? I think? and just judging by the name we figured he'd be an utter tool. And he was! It was kind of awful. His whole *thing* is that too many horses are only trained to listen to the person who trained them, and they're just like kids these days, they don't respect EVERYONE, so you need to TEACH them respect.
But he seems to very much conflate "respect me" with "are intimidated by me", so he and his wife just spent their hour basically harassing the horses they were working with (which they proudly announce are not THEIR horses, these are horses that are here for other things at the expo, and they're "borrowing" for the demo.) It was frustrating, because they basically just kept punishing the horses no matter what they did, including when these (already well-trained) horses did exactly what they claimed they were trying to get the horses to do.

It was a pretty dramatic night and day difference between watching Cody's previous demo, which was very focused on being calm and focusing on asking one thing at a time, and ensuring the horses are in the mindset to learn what you're trying to teach... while the "guru" spent the whole time smacking them with lead ropes until they'd try to get away, at which point he'd smack them for trying to get away.

After that was a Western Dressage trainer from California. She was doing a clinic on "Smooth Transitions" - moving from one gait to another during a routine, and figuring out the timing on how and when to ask for something new, so that it happened at the exact time you were aiming for.


I was delighted that someone was riding a mule for the Western Dressage. <3

Hers was pretty good to watch. She has a sterner style, but still more patient. A little blunt at times, but not jerkish.

Then another woman doing a clinic on working with nervous horses and basically riding through the anxiety. (In particular, ensuring that your horse doesn't learn that "ooh, acting like an idiot and panicking about nothing means we're done for the day and I can quit!")
That was also a good one, and she had a lot of pretty good advice for some of the riders in the clinic who had questions about how to handle bad behaviors, or fearful ones.

After that "The Horse Guru" was back, and his next clinic started exactly the same as the first, with him terrorizing a halflinger instead of a Morgan, so we decided to leave and buy a pizza.

Then we turned around and headed back to the host hotel for the swap meet. Got some amazing deals on a couple things Alex had been looking for.

Another long day, but a good one.