It’s been a busy week around here. It started out on Monday evening when I worked at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds (EXPO-NM) for the 20th Annual Arabian & Half Arabian Youth National Championship Horse Show as The Gate Keeper.
Such beautiful and talented youth and horses!
Yes, that’s right, I was the person in charge of letting horses and rider teams in and out of the arena so they could do their performance for the judges and audience.
For volunteering I received a couple of nice t-shirts with the Youth Nationals Arabian logo on the back and “Event Staff” printed on the front (one I was wearing in the photo above), a collectible show pin, and a parking pass.
It was fun to watch the riders warming up in the outdoor arena, behind the main indoor arena. Such focus and intensity!
But best of all I enjoyed the special privilege of having an up-close view of all of the beautiful and talented 18 horses and rider teams that were competing in the Reining Class on Monday night.
Check out this horse’s gorgeous mane!
That mane was really eye catching during their performance.
The reining class had some beautiful costumes and exciting performances.
And tomorrow, I’m heading back to volunteer for a few hours in the morning as a Gate Keeper again, and then I have some free time to watch some of the other classes after I volunteer.
It’s so easy to forget that these are just kids riding these wonderful horses. They all ride so well and are so talented!
But the highlight will be the Freestyle Reining and Native Costume classes tomorrow night. (Note: I created a post on this class, with tons of photos, when I attended Youth Nationals 4 years ago…and it has received over 4,700 views! Here’s the link: Youth Nationals Freestyle Reining)
So, even though working as a Gate Keeper is a fun opportunity, I am very excited I will be able to just sit and watch those two amazing classes!
Note: If you’re interested in watching live streaming video of many of these competition classes, visit Arabian Horse Global and just enter your name and e-mail addie. You can choose to watch live video from Tingley Coliseum (where the Native Costume and Freestyle Reining will take place at 7pm), the Dairy Barn, and the Horse Arena. (If you watch the Horse Arena live streaming video in the morning tomorrow, you might even see me doing my Gate Keeper thing!)
7 comments:
how fun! Volunteering at an event like that must be pretty neat.
Wow!!! fun!!! Can't wait to see the pictures =)
Oh, wow! That looks like so much fun!
I've been a gate keeper at a tiny show - there wasn't nearly as much fun horse flesh to watch!
I'm so envious! I'd love to hang out at one of the big Arabian shows just once! I've been watching the live stream all week and it's just amazing what these kids do. I always find myself getting all emotional. I just love it!
Beautiful horses! Looks like a lot of fun
I'm trying to make the rounds and catch up on blog reading. I've been up to my eyeballs in work and lots of stress from work!!
Gee, I think I will hire you to come be the gate keeper at our 4-H horse show next year! I've had such a hard time finding volunteers to help out with our show this year, which begins on Tuesday.
I love watching youth and their horses ride and compete! So fun!
I'm hopelessly behind in reading blogs after spending 8 days at 4H Fair with my daughter and then a motocross race with my son but...I wanted to give you a pat on the back for volunteering like this! VERY cool of you to do and I'm sure it was much appreciated. We beg for volunteers at our shows. Wanna come up to Michigan?
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