National Appaloosa Horse Show 2009

On the way home from work yesterday I saw a sign on High Street for the National Appaloosa Horse Show going on right now.  So this morning we went to the Coliseum to watch some horses.  In particular what we were there for was a competition called “cutting”.  In case you’ve never been to one (like me before this morning), “cutting” is a competition where you start with a herd of cows, separate one from the rest, and maneuver your horse to stay between it and the herd.  [Or as Denise explained it to Sofia: the horse chooses a cow to be his friend and play together, although some cows take a lot of convincing.]  Rider and horse both have to have quick response times and the horse has to be really agile.  I didn’t do the best job of capturing it in photos, but these horses can really crouch down and dig in to change directions on a dime to stay between the chosen cow and the herd.

This gentleman and his horse won. They were really good.

I took these with my Canon 5D.  By the way in case not enough people have complained about this on the Internet: the outer focus points of the 5D are horrible.  If I had any idea what to expect photographically speaking, I would’ve brought my Canon 40D instead.  Oh well, I’ll know better next year.

Random thought: I was the only Asian that I knew of at the event this morning.  Sofia might’ve been the only half-and-half mixed race person.  I spotted a black family, and I think I heard somebody talking on the phone in Spanish behind me at one point, and that’s about it.  We were doing our best to increase the racial diversity at the event, and I was doing my best to reinforce the Asian-with-a-camera stereotype.

The National Appaloosa Horse Show is on from June 22 through July 4, 2009.  Either part of it or separately is the World Championship Appaloosa Youth Show underway simultaneously.  Mississippi doesn’t host very many national and world championship anything, so why not take advantage of the opportunities that we have?  Almost all events are free to the public as well.  Free entertainment is always good.  There were a disappointingly low number of spectators this morning.  Maybe nobody’s interested in cutting?  In any case, free is free, and in this kind of slumping economy you would think people would be flocking to go enjoy free entertainment.

We missed some events we would’ve liked to have seen during the week like various races and jumping competitions, although we wouldn’t have been able to go see them even if we knew about them since they were during work days.  Coming up next week are roping, steer daubing (don’t ask me), more races, etc., so make your way on out there if you get the chance.  There’s also boring stuff like show horses.  Sorry, I don’t watch beauty pageants, so why would I want to sit through an animal beauty pageant?  Anyway, www.appaloosa.com has all the info you’ll need about the events.  And if you see this post too late, mark it down for next year because chances are that Jackson will be hosting the event again next year around the same time.

Did I mention it was free?

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