10 Annual Edition "The Blarney" (PDF) - Irish Draught Horse Society ...

Top 20 Moments from WEG - Demonstrations . . .
pleaser and exciting part of the demo. The ponies and horses
were neck in neck! But, my favorite moment came when our farthest
traveling volunteer, Wouter van Voorthuysen from Holland,
grabbed the microphone and told the crowd, “I am Wouter. I
am from Holland. We cannot lose! Go horses!”
7. Grand Prix Jumping:
We were so fortunate
to be able to
showcase Grand Prix
jumping horses during
several of our demos.
Ashley Bailey-Classen
brought three of her
Irish Sport Horses
from Texas, two of
which showed their
stuff, soaring over
the top of the standards.
If we’d have
had bigger wings,
they could’ve done 5
feet+! In the last block, Amy Hunter and Cradilo put on an extremely
impressive jumping demonstration, showing what a purebred
Irish Draught stallion can do! The crowd was floored and
interest abounded over this great duo who are currently competing
on the Grand Prix circuit. What a special treat to watch
these horses fly.
8. Picnic Table: One of
the Connemara ponies
brought a plastic picnic
table to jump during
their demonstrations.
Not to be outdone,
the Irish Draught/Sport
Horse demo team decided
to take it on as
well. Several of our
brave demo team horse
and rider combinations
took on the picnic table
jump, to the delight of
the crowd!
9. Limerick Harriers: Bless
Jim McGinty for loaning
us his Limerick Harriers
foxhunting video to run
in the booth on our big
flat screen TV. If you
haven’t seen it, you are
missing out. Call Jim, he
will probably send you
a copy. This video literally
stopped people in their
tracks, and they couldn’t
believe what real Irish foxhunting,
as seen from a
helmet cam, looked like.
Horses were jumping giant
ditches, riders were falling
in the water, children to
Page 20
Cradilo and Amy Hunter.
Photos courtesy, Sarah Hooper.
Conor (above), and Ziggy (below) jumping the
pcnic table. Photos courtesy, Sharon Gaudet.
Limerick Harrier Viseo playing in booth.
Photos courtesy, Sarah McMullen.
grandpas alike were out there. This video made so many people
stop to ask and talk to the folks in our booth, and you could hear
people around the park saying, “you need to go by that Irish
booth and see that video.” So, and big thank you to Jim for that
contribution, and for all those who made the booth a resounding
success.
10. Pat Parelli: Everyone who
is anyone in the horse
world was at WEG. We,
as demonstrators, were
in the same barn at the
clinicians. So, on a daily
basis we rubbed elbows
with the likes of Clinton
Anderson and Pat
Parelli and John Lyons,
amongst a crazy variety
of other demonstrators
like the Icelandic horse
and the Indian tent peggers.
It wasn’t unusual to
see a man come around
the corner standing on
two horses who were
dressed in metallic armor,
or a train of miniature
horses. We saw it all! Pat
Parelli took a particular interest in our demo horses, stopping
Connie Arthur to talk to her about Bridon Beale Street, and John
Lyons hilariously tried to do dressage moves with Tom Dvorak
and Steeped in Luck in the demo warmup arena. Pat also was
nice enough to invite us to his evening BBQ on several occasions.
Fun times.
11. Bridon Beale Street’s Grand Exit: During one of our demonstrations,
I’m in the middle of the arena, Fleur is commentating, and
all of the sudden Connie Arthur and Bridon Beale Street go stand
in the corner. Fleur tries to beckon them out to keep jumping
and showing off for the crowd. Connie’s shaking her head “no,”
meanwhile; I’m panicking trying to figure out what’s wrong. Then,
she proceeds to turn Liam around, take off at a canter, and jump
OUT of the demo arena and head for the barns. I’m standing
there with my jaw on the ground; Fleur is begging Connie to
come back. She does turn around, and jump back into the arena,
to the cheers and laughter of the crowd. After the demo,
Fleur tells me they had secretly planned the whole thing, they just
forgot to let me in on it …. Cause why would the coordinator
need to know?? Ha!
12. Irish Ambassador
to the USA:
We were thrilled
to have the Irish
A m b a s s a d o r
to the United
States, Mr. Michael
Collins,
and his lovely
wife visit our
booth and attend
one of our
demonstrations.
Tom Dvorak and John Lyons performing an
inpromptu “Anything You Can Do...”
Photo courtesy A. Wolff Photography
[allison@awolffphotography.com]
Photo credit Elizabeth Bellevance
2010 Yearbook - T he Blarney