The naughty corner

Not everyone can be a superstar. Just ask Olive.

There was a lot of scary stuff in the arena, and most of the horses who attended last Sunday's Desensitizing Party took issue with at least one of the obstacles.

Reece's little rescue horse, Judge, aced the windsock...

and the bubblewrap...

but came unglued when confronted with the pool noodles.

Yee haw.

Reece was patient with him, and eventually they got through it, but things were pretty exciting for a little while.

Judge was not alone in this.

A lot of the horses objected to the noodles to one degree...

or another.

Much to my surprise, Linda's solid trail mare, Muscatella, really struggled with this obstacle.

Instead of refusing to walk through the noodles like most of the horses, she charged through with a rush.

Yee haw.

Get out of the way, Taylor!

She had a similar approach to the tarp.

So cute,

but also, so wrong!

With a lot of work she did eventually negotiate both obstacles quietly.

Still, it's safe to say that she's a lot better at dealing with challenges out on the trails than she is in the arena.

She's not alone in that. 

Diana's steady Guaranteed can handle almost anything the real live trails throw at him, but he struggled in the arena on Sunday.

Everything was just a little more dramatic than it needed to be.

They worked through it, but poor Diana was so tired by the end of the day.

This is probably my last post about the party. Tomorrow - maybe - we'll circle back to BreyerFest.

Superstars

A few body contorting antics aside, I thought Olive was really behaved at last Sunday's Desensitizing Party. 

Or perhaps I should say she was really well behaved for her.

In truth, there were a lot of other horses who behaved a lot better.

No surprise, one of the real superstars was Taylor's wonderful mare, Kourvy.

She was one of the only horses who completed the course with a rider on her back. 

She even rang the bell herself!

Taylor's younger horse, Letty, did almost as well. She played with the ball,

wore the bubblewrap...

and walked through the noodles without any fuss.

Reece's Saphira is another youngster that exceeded expectations.

Although she definitely looked nervous at times,

she did everything that was asked of her.

Such a good girl.

Such a brave girl.

Another horse who did all the things was JoAnna's big boy, Ernie.

Of course, this was no surprise. Ernie works as a carriage horse downtown and is the epitome of a been there, done that horse.

In addition to wearing the bubblewrap,

Ernie walked on it, too!

Some of the day's other superstars included Karen's Roy...

and both of Linda's two good boys.

Like Kourvy, Gambler did most of the course with a rider on top.

As for Dango... He's just pretty much perfect.

Congratulations to Taylor, Reece, JoAnna, Karen and Linda for having such brave and well-adjusted horses. I hope one day Olive will find her place amongst the Desensitizing Party superstars!

Desensitizing party

There's always a little bit of community drama in the days and weeks leading up to BreyerFest, but the last twenty four hours have been exceptional, even by model horse hobby standards. Although I am not attending this year's event, some of the kerfuffle has hit close to home. It's been stressful, so instead of featuring more BreyerFest Contest entries today, I'm going to share some photos that make me really happy.

This past Sunday, we had a Summer Potluck and Desensitizing Party at our barn.

The outdoor arena was transformed into a spooky horse's worst nightmare.

Maggie and Cheri, Fortunataa and Laura

There were balls,

Saphira and Reece

bells,

Kourvy and Taylor

buckets...

Roy and Karen

and bubblewrap.

Letty and Taylor

The horses were asked to walk over tarps 

Gambler and Linda

and through multiple obstacles, including a tent,

Guaranteed and Diana

a maze of flags and pinwheels,

Kia and Greg

an aisle of tinsel and more pinwheels...

Gandalf and Pam

and everyone's favorite, the pool noodles.

Psyclone and Reece

Lol. These were not actually everyone's favorite.

Judge and Reece with Olaf looking on

Other's challenges included two photo backdrops,

Dango

a variety of blow up toys,

Olive and Jennifer

a pair of very small jumps,

Ernie and JoAnna

a windsock...

Greg and Mister

and a large umbrella.

The party mailer read: This will be a fun day to let your horse explore new things that they might not normally see. Your horse might walk right up to some toys and not to others. That is okay. Work with the horse your have and please don't compare your horse to others (sometimes that is easier said than done).

I laughed when I read that. I was fully expecting Olive to be the worst horse there.

She wasn't.

Muscatella and Taylor

Not even close.

Judge

In fact, she was completely unbothered by the jumps and the bells. She wasn't thrilled with the balls, but she did let me touch her with them.

Ditto the shark.

She walked through the flags, the tinsel walk through and the noodles.

She went in the tent.

I tried to convince her that she would really like the bucket if she just gave it a chance.

She remained unconvinced.

Similarly, we settled for close to but not touching with the tarp, the bubblewrap...

and the windsock.

Since we do actually see people with umbrellas on the trail, we spent a lot of time on that obstacle.

Olive was suspicious, but she didn't run backwards and her feet stayed on the ground.

That's a win in my book!

This was such a fun party.

I am so proud of my brave, little pony.