Sunday morning, I volunteered with J to sit at the Michigan Justin Morgan Horse Association's booth at the Michigan Stallion Expo in East Lansing. From 9:00 until 11:00 we sat, and though it was somewhat slow, I had a good time.
Almost immediately, J saw some people she knew and spent the entire 2 hours jabbering away. I just kind of sat and stared, making it a mental mission to hand out some newsletters or to help anyone who had questions. Because of the time change, the traffic was very slow, until about the time we were relieved, but I did manage to speak to one couple. The couple stopped in front of the Morgan booth and began to discuss Morgans. The husband proclaimed out loud that there is nothing like a good Morgan to which his wife disagreed. It seemed that her ideal horse is the Freisian Horse. After discussing this for a moment, the woman turned to me and apologized. I just told her not to, horses are horses and we all have one thing in common in our love for them, right?!? She seemed happy with that answer, so without hesitating I began handing them flyers and newsletters filled with beautiful Morgans. Hey, the husband can have Morgans and the wife can have her Friesians! They both thanked me and went on their merry way! They were very nice and it was fun discussing Morgans with them.
After J and I were done sitting at the Morgan booth, we were able to walk around and check out some of the booths and Stallions that were there on display. There were some very nice Stallions, and there were some not so nice Stallions. One horse, a rangy looking Paso Fino stallion, was at least 200 lbs underweight. I couldn't believe that his owners paid the $399++ fees to exhibit their stallion, and he looked awful! Very ribby and kind of scraggly, I felt sorry for him.
There were many breeds on exhibition, but I noticed that the breeds being showcased were not anywhere near as common as some other breeds. For instance, I did not see an Arabian or a Morgan. There were 2 Saddlebreds, 2 Paso Finos, a Tennessee Walking Horse, 1 Missouri Fox Trotter, 1 Percheron, several Freisians, miniature horses, 1 Andalusian, 1 Haflinger (a 15.3 hander!!), a few Paints, a Clydesdale, some Pintos and a few AQH's and even a Burro. Strange! Maybe I missed some, who knows? I also saw Julie Goodnight. I don't really know what she does, other than that she's a well known clinician. She looked nice enough, but I was too lazy to go chat it up with her.
Annnnd, that about closes out my continuing progress into horselessness. Ugh, this wintery weather will be the death of us all if it doesn't clear up soon. It's supposed to get up into the 40's and 50's this week, so there's hope that my round rump will hit leather sooner rather than later!
7 comments:
I believe my mom went up there to volunteer her time as well for the rescue she works with. I remember back in the day how there were A LOT of stallions, and it seems to sadly dwindle more each year. :(
Seems like I have missed more than one post. I can't recall about horse details of horselessness for you, JJ, what's the story??
So good of you to work in your breed both. Promotion is so important and done best by those who just live the horse and don't have a vested interest in getting something sold. I always hated my time working such booths with self promoting breeders fighting over possible clients but it's not always easy to get others interested in volunteering. Good for you.
My experience with stallion expos has been there are usually stallions there that are of poor quality and unfortunately usually horses that don't look very well cared for. Also some horses with very obnoxious manners. I quit doint thing after a while because of that.
Aw I'm sad that the Paso was underweight =[ We just got 3 stallions up from Florida at our barn and they're super skinny and I feel even worse for them because they have no winter coat!! Poor babies. We'll have em fattened up in no time!
Hey, don't feel bad, this has been the Winter from hell for a lot of people. Glad you got to the expo...I keep saying one of these days! I totally would have said hi:)
A Stallion Expo sounds like fun! It's sad about the underweight one.
That's interesting that there weren't more breeds represented at the stallion expo. Or I should say, a wider range of breeds.
Sounds like you had a good time. I hear you on the weather, I have had about enough of the wind, rain, snow and cold to last me a life time! Hurry up spring!
That sounds like a very interesting event. I've never attended a stallion expo. I wonder if the Morgan/Friesian couple stopped at the Friesian booth too. It's nice that they both have a love for horses and are passionate about their breed of choice.
Post a Comment