More pictures and a show

Both times we had ridden out onto the trail I'd seen so many things I wanted to take pictures of, so having put the scooter on to charge the night before I was ready for an outing.

I started off, just beyond the Roberts' house, taking pictures of a neighbour's flowers. I'd only taken a few when a big scary man came down the drive in his pick-up. I did my best tourist impression (well, not an impression really, since I am a tourist) and asked him if it was ok to take pictures of the flowers. Once he had established that I wasn't working for a company he stopped looking quite so fierce and was quite happy to let me get on with it.

I was kneeling on the ground shooting up at some agave when I noticed a lizard sat up on a rock that was in a bucket holding up the mailbox. I've been wanting to get a picture of one of these so I quickly zoomed as far as I could and hoped it would stay long enough to get a focus.

To my amazement it was completely still for at least 5 minutes, long enough to not only get a whole bunch of pictures but even to move my position and shoot from another angle. Eventually it decided to amble off but by then I had plenty of nice shots.

I carried on up the road, stopping to take pictures of various plants and cacti as I went until I reached the end of the Tarmac and start of the sandy trail.

At that point I left the scooter and set off with just the stick. I soon found the little purple flowers I'd been seeing whilst out riding and found that without the horses to scare them away there were butterflies flitting from one flower to another. I'm quite phobic of butterflies and especially so of their night time counterparts (so much so I can't even bring myself to type the word) so I'm trying to get myself over this by taking pictures of them.

I carried on snapping away, moving a step or two as I went and suddenly realised I was quite far from the scooter and it was uphill to get back to it. It wasn't really all that far in objective distance but I felt like I'd gone a few miles by the time I got back to the scooter. The other side of the road on the way back presented me with lots of different planting so I was able to get even more pictures.

When I got back to the house Anna Lena said that Pat was going to a 'show' and did I want to come. Without really knowing what kind of show or any detail other than it was in Santa Barbara I thought I may as well go and see what it was all about. I just had time to put the morning's pictures on to download, swallow my lunchtime pills and grab some water and a cereal bar.

Down at the stables Pat had two horses saddled up and ready to load and I realised that she was going to be competing. The two horses practically loaded themselves and then it was time to go. After the bus incident I was very grateful to be allowed to sit in the front of the pick-up.

Blingish

The journey was about an hour and mostly on big wide roads so I felt ok, if a little nervous a few times with the casual driving, but that seems to just be how people drive here. Once we had arrived, parked up and offloaded the two horses I had a bit of time to watch what was going on before the events that Pat was competing in.

Blingy bling

I saw a lot of women dressed up in very blingy outfits with sequins that reflected the sun in quite a dazzling way. I'm not sure if the photos will show up just how bling bling they were.

Bling O'Rama

Little terrier chasing his reflection

Lots of people had little dogs, mainly dachshunds, chiwawhuas and a few Jack Russells, including one very sweet little fellow who was busy chasing the reflection from his name tag.

I saw some rather odd riding whilst waiting for Pat's events and some of it I didn't really like very much. I watched several people lifting their reins right up in the air and doing a sawing motion, yanking first the left then the right, up and down. Anna Lena said this was to get the horse to bend its head down, but they were getting the horses' heads so far down it looked really unnatural and seemed like the horse was about to trip over itself. I suppose I've become so accustomed to people working horses in a gentle way that encourages the horse to want to do its work, that it was a shock to see people being so rough with them.

Blue Bling

The class before Pat's was another surprise as it seemed to be all about getting the horses to move in slow motion. There was about 8 competitors all spread around the arena and they were being told to change pace from walk to jog (trot), then to lope (canter) but all in slow motion. It was very strange to watch. They were all using thick rope reins that were tied in a knot underneath the horses' chins and all the horses had their heads right down and looked rather sad.

The next event was the reining competition which Pat was competing in. They have to ride a set pattern which includes sliding stops from a fast canter, spins and turns and pace changes.






Pat's first horse went well, executing the pattern flawlessly enough to place her first in the class. The second horse she rode had other ideas altogether and did some odd manoeuvres so they didn't get any points at all.

After the competitions were all over there was a barbecue laid on so we stayed over to eat though I did get some odd looks when I refused the steak, asked whether the beans had meat in them or not (she didn't know) and took just salad and garlic bread. On the way back we were treated to a very nice sunset along the pacific coast road. I was on the wrong side of the car to take pictures but sometimes it's as good to just enjoy the spectacle.

Back at Flag is Up Farms the horses were offloaded and put to bed. I was late taking my evening medication so had some time to download the pictures from the show and review them along with the others from the morning before falling into bed.