One Last Day at the Arabian Show

Today was the last day of the National Arabian Show at WestWorld in Scottsdale. I had gotten reserved tickets for the bleachers today so that we would have seats for the finals. Seeing how it worked out, what other people had to say, and how sparse the crowds were, we probably should have gotten them for Saturday night instead. There was a nice variety of  finals this afternoon however and we did enjoy watching them. These park horses are half Arabian and usually half Standardbred. I love their action as they stretch out those front legs at the trot.

There was a large group of competitors in the costume class. It's a fun class as the horses are either shown at a walk or a cantor/gallop. Supposedly, they were traditionally at rest -- the walk -- or on the attack -- the gallop.

 

 

There are several thousand dollars in these costumes -- to say nothing of the cost of the horse.

This lady's horse is wearing the roses for having won a Western Junior class. This class is for full Arabian horses less than five years of age. They are being ridden with a hackamore (no bit) and reined from either side.

If you like bling, these Western classes are the thing. The fellows are fairly sedate, but the ladies shirts -- and often pants -- are loaded with sequins and braid. I heard one lady say her shirt cost $750!

The "in thing" is to bring your dog to the horse show. There were lots of them there! This Great Dane puppy and its owners entertained passers-by for quite a while this afternoon.

This is one of the beautiful animals in an English Pleasure class. I do not know the difference between this class and the English Country Pleasure class which immediately followed it. There are so many nuances of riding styles at these shows that a country girl like me just does not understand.

We spent a brief amount of time talking with our friends Dennis and Colleen who would be packing up their booth and heading back to their winter home in Tucson yet this evening. We stopped by the folks with the barbed wire booth and picked up the purchase we had ordered when we were here earlier this week. Then we headed home in time to watch PBR bull-riding and eat the leftover spare ribs from last night.