Saturday Spots --- Of Fun

Instead of the "Saturday Slight," I'll detour right on in to what I'm doing today. Most of my day will be spent in a box above the bucking chutes at the Bonner County Fairgrounds. If I'm lucky, a hornet won't sting me. Today marks the first day of the annual North Idaho Appaloosa Club's Spots of Fun Open Horse Show.

I've been announcing the show for the past several years, and the only reason I'll submit to sitting up in that box---infested with tenacious, hungry bees and located far away from a bathroom or from any human interaction beyond a walkie talkie--- is because of my respect and admiration for Moreen Leen. She's the show chairman, and she, along with her family, work really hard every year to put on a nice family friendly horse show.

Within the next few hours, I'll be back into full horse show mode. Today the general vocabulary is "walk, trot, canter, reverse and line up." Then, I have to pronounce the names right for the winners. I also spend a lot of time calling out numbers of contestants to be on deck for the next class.

Today is the English day, meaning hunt seat classes and some saddle seat, and jumps. It begins, however, with halter classes, including quality, showmanship and lunge-line. My sister Barbara is showing her Angel and Dusty in these classes.

Tomorrow the gear switches to Western tack and attire, and my line will change slightly with the "trot" turning to "jog," and the canter, to "lope."

The isolation of the announcer's box will be diminished a bit with a little personal excitement over both days. This horse show is Lily's coming-out party as a saddle horse. Laurie has been working her every day, and she reported to me yesterday that Lily kicked out "only once" during their training sessions. Last night Laurie was especially pleased with Lily's overall behavior at the fairgrounds and with her first-ever workout in the outdoor arena.

Only Lily knows how she'll do today because Lily does have a mind of her own along with all the potential in the world. It's Lily's call and Laurie's crossed-fingers on how well she does. One thing I'll say, for sure, however, is that she is mighty pretty out there. I'm proud to own her and will love watching her perform no matter what.

If all works out okay, maybe we'll have a few "spots of fun" to report when the weekend is over. In the meantime, I'd better get moving because there's a lot of ground to cover between now and when the show starts at 8 a.m. If you're a local reader, stop on by the fairgrounds and see some nice horse action.

Happy Saturday.