Continued
Dressed to impress
with matching gold
accessories.
not to win. And it was our very first time. We can
be forgiven, I think, for tidying up his rosettes with
scissors and hair spray instead of re-doing them. Next
time though, I think I'll do the plaits the night before
but wait until the morning to twist the braids into
rosettes. And perhaps take his personal make-up girl
Jane along.
Murphy the Donkey was groomed, and re-groomed,
because Felix kept nibbling him and either messing
his coat up or dropping whatever he had in his mouth
on him. Hay, chaff and breadcrumbs, mostly. We had
no idea how to present Donkeys, but did the best we
could with grooming and hoof oil. I attempted to cut
the ends of his tail straight but Murphy wouldn't keep
his tail still and in the end I cut too much off. Lesson
learned: never have scissors in the proximity of a
grumpy donkey. We got some helpful tips for next
time from other donkey owners after the show though.
Felix was to be presented first, in the little taped
off arena that was furthest away from where we'd
parked. Donkeys cannot be parked too close to the
horse arenas for the obvious reason, and so I had to
walk a jumpy Felix across the show ground before
he could even perform. He shouted for Murphy the
entire walk, setting of a chorus of loud whinnies en
route, and attempted twice to break away to run back
to him. There could have been better starts.
At the time of registering (and buying a bridle) Felix
was a colt, and therefore needed to be in a bit. By
the time of competing, he was gelded, and could be
shown in a halter. But given the money I spent on that
bridle he was damn well going to wear it. The plus
side is, with all that silliness, he did teach himself
that pulling back (and rearing even a little) with a bit
in your mouth is ill-advised. It's quite uncomfortable.
His bridle I have described to you before; you recall
the gold sparkly bits? Well, I dressed to impress
with matching gold accessories. I had a blazer and
a big hat. Too big, as it turned out. A gust of wind
caught it as we were trotting and I was forced to
do the decidedly unimpressive hat-holding run. It
detracted from the grace of our paces I must say;
especially since Felix slowed down to accommodate
my ungraceful wobbling.
But, back on track: we began with the `best