Riley and the Spook-o-rama

Riley went to Bucks County Horse Park Sunday. It was a beautiful, beautiful day, 65 degrees, breezy, and blue skies marked by fast-moving clouds in varying shades of white and grey.

My friend Heather trailered us, and  had checked the Bucks County Horse Park web site to make sure there were no events going on (I was at a conference). When we spoke, she said, "Oh, there's some 4-H thing." No big deal.

We got off the trailer and as we walked up the path to the rings, we crossed paths with two riders. One was riding her horse in a  full billowing white wedding, veil fluttering in the wind. Her companion was a pirate in a sparkly purple vest. I gripped the lead rope like death, but Riley wasn't too concerned.

Behind them was someone I knew, jogging toward the parking lot.  She waved and smiled but said,  "Gotta run, there's a rider down and we're waiting for the ambulance."

"What's going on??? Geez!" I said. "Spook-o-rama," was Heather's reply. As we crested the small incline, we saw the rings were full of people in costume -- prisoners, fairies, bees, mice, the Incredible Hulk, several of them jumping fences at what I'd call a gallop. I was particularly impressed by the prison uniform which included, oddly, a black and white striped cape that whipped smartly as they cantered past.

This got Ri's attention, but he still didn't react. You could see he was taking it all in, not sure what to make of it.  Heather went to retrieve the tack while I led Riley around the ring.  One ring was sparsely populated, with two small kids walking white ponies, farting around, bored, and not really looking after their ponies so much as playing. I chose that ring over the spookfest jumping ring. At times the kids left the ponies were left unattended in the ring with me and Ri. This annoyed me, but what do you do?

As we tacked Riley up near the gate, an unassuming looking bay was being led by his owner -- no costume -- but suddenly Ri was on full alert. He called to the horse and started kicking out, which is his MO when he is getting excited.

I decided to lunge him, and sent him out on the line, with no side reins. He made a couple of spectacular leaps in the air. The mother of the two kids with ponies collected them pretty fast and took them out of the ring. "Good," I thought. "They're safer."  But Riley had gotten everything out of his system and he was now ready to work. He trotted beautifully, cantered without much fuss, and I got on.

He was good, and even ignored the ambulance speeding past with lights and siren. We walked/trotted/cantered for about 15 minutes. Then I walked him past the dressage arenas. Then we left.

When I got home I told Bob about "Spook-o-rama."

His comment: "A horse event should never have 'Spook' in the title."