A couple weeks ago the Arabian Horse Association held their Arabian and Half Arabian Championship here in Tulsa. As a bonus my sister Ellen and her daughter, niece Jillian came from Colorado to see the Championship and visit with us.
Of course you have to fly the flag before you do anything right and play the Star Spangled Banner.
And in a nice gesture the Canadian flag was paraded and their national anthem played.
Then the big guy in the red jacket sounded the bugle and we were off.
I don’t know a thing about Arabian horses but I can tell you now that they are beautiful and have lots of attitude.
They are well trained and so are the riders. It was fun to watch as the judges put them through the various paces.
I stole this picture while the horse and trainer were posing for a real photographer.
Another segment of the Championship was the horses posing. Don’t worry, I did not see any horses hit with the whip, or whatever it is. It seemed to be used to get the horse to pose correctly. The horses had lots of attitude. Kind of like teenagers when posing for family pics. You know what I mean.
The horses had a classic looking trot. The riders were almost perfectly still. It was rather elegant to watch.
There were all sorts of events and all sorts of championships. This lady was the Reserve Champion. Which I think is second place in her event. She wowed the crowd with her standing on the horse. Not as part of the competition of course but part of her celebration afterward.
The winner got a big check. Makes winning that much better right.
I like the behind the scenes in the staging area. All sorts of stuff going on.
The stable areas were luxurious. This is part of the stable area. It looks like a nice living room to me. Lots of money at these shows.
And they display their trophys.
And the expo, everybody has an expo these days. I bet you that they have expos at spelling bees. These saddles are beautiful.
Decorative clothing.
And cowboy boots. Why have boots if you nobody can see them is what I say.
Jillian brought a 4H team from Colorado who participated in the horse judging events. You can see that the students did very well. Jillian is at far right.
One of the more spectacular events involved the riders and horses wearing costumes.
I loved it. It was like Lawrence of Arabia. You know except for the violence and all that.
Again, the riders were elegant and the horses were beautiful, and full attitude. I think I might become a fan of Arabian horses.
If you want to see a post by somebody that knew what was going on check out my Sister’s post on the event. She knows about horses. So does Jillian. Me, I can tell a horse from a cow at least 80% of the time.
