presented' class. We lost that one. The good news
was that as soon as we began walking in a circle,
something familiar, Felix settled down. He walked
beautifully and he stood up straight. Felix never
stands up straight. He prefers the `teenage girl' hip-
out, weight on one foot stand. Or, the `ballerina' feet
together one foot resting on one fetlock stand. Don't
ask me why. I actually had to train him, with bread, to
stand A) still and B) straight. I had success with only
one of those things prior to the show.
He was also entered in the `Two Year Old' class. I
want to brag a bit about this one. Firstly, this was
going on at the same time as the ponies in harness.
My competition found the carts and harness alarming,
Felix on the other hand did nothing more than hold
his head up and walk briskly. Of course, the walking
briskly could also be because I was walking fast and
he was trying to stay behind me. As soon as I asked
him to trot, he trotted, though my own inexperience
showed when the triangle we were supposed to be
performing was right-angled and not isosceles. On
the other hand my geometry is apparently still on par.
The presence of new, strange things and other horses
meant that Felix postured. His tail was up and his neck
arched, he picked his feet up and trotted gorgeously.
Slowly, but gorgeously. He certainly didn't break into
a canter half way around or throw a fit over the horses
in harness. That horse got first though.
Still, Felix got a well-deserved second. Let's ignore
for the moment that there was only the one other
horse in the `Two Year Old' class.
Murphy was on at ten, shown by Dad. Getting a
donkey to trot at the best of times requires patient
training, a donkey in a good mood on the day, and no
Murphy wasn't in
a good mood.
small degree of luck. Certainly this is the case with
our donkey. Unfortunately, an abscess in Murphy's
foot got in the way of the first requirement; he didn't
come right until about ten days before the show. And
waking Murphy up at the crack of sparrow-fart got in
the way of the second.
He was willing to walk, but when it came to trotting
only one of them gained any speed, and it wasn't
Murphy. We did have a little luck though; there was
only two other donkeys in his class.
Two last places and we still came away with ribbons
- not bad for a first attempt!
Even so, I got my moment of glory in the grand
parade. Severely under dressed in the faded jeans
I'd changed into and my gold singlet which by then
was hairy with shedding-a-la-Felix, the ladies of the