Southern Show.

Our first day out to a 'proper' show was a hoooooge success. Merlin had been practicing loading and popped up into the trailer with no problems at all. He wasn't so keen on having the doors shut and must have picked up on my tension, as he was pretty keyed up. I stayed in the box as we crossed the field, but realised this was a very bad move, as he wanted to be on my side of the partition and I jumped out as soon as we reached the gate.

I could see his face through the little window of the trailer and he was looking right back at me. Every time I turned back to him, his ears pinged forwards and he looked very happy and relaxed. The journey was fine and the roads good and empty.

The weather was atrocious on Saturday, so I hadn't had the chance to bath Merlin and he was the most filthy that I'd ever seen him, when we arrived on Sunday morning. We tried to give him a quick scrub down at the show, but once the mares arrived, it became apparent that this was completely pointless, and therefore he remained 'antique white' for the rest of the day.

If you've ever seen Shrek 2, when Donkey turns into a stallion, you'll have some idea of what I had to deal with :) He posed and postured and announced loudly that 'Merlin is in the house' for the best part of the day. Thankfully the reaction of the mares was 'seen it all before sunshine' and his poor ego deflated more and more as the day wore on. When a rather lovely mare aimed a whiplash kick at him, he decided to back right off, but not after he'd shown everyone why he considered himself worthy, with a lovely display on two legs! I was a little embarrassed and that's all I'll say on that subject!

We didn't get as many pictures as we wanted, although I do have a couple taken by a friend to scan and I'll post those as soon as I can.

So here we are ready to go up to our class,


and about to enter, ponies in hand,


After the class, and happy with 3rd place.



The other pictures are of us doing Handy Pony, which was immense fun and gave Merlin a chance to show off his really useful skills, like bending round poles and going over a carpet between cones. He does all this at home and so it was a great way to finish the day. We came a very respectable second. We also won a rossette for show special, as the judges seemed to find Merlin very amusing ;)


When we got home he was very pleased to see Toffee, ran up to him and screamed right in his face. Toffee groaned 'oh, you're back then' in his best Eeyore voice.


This is just a little 'Arty' picture, for a painting I'm going to do. I just love Merlin's gorgeous black eyes :)



How do I sum up our day. Well, I think we've become a good deal closer and seem to be a little in love with each other at the moment. I know it's mutual, as Merlin has taken to 'chatting' to me in quite a surprising range of noises, like he's conspiring with me. Bless him :) Will we do it again, well we'll see :)