Fun Show

The first annual Carefree Farms Fun Show on October 4th had kids who were excited, proud, and a little anxious.

Michell Combs, a local dressage trainer, co-managed the show with her cousin Heike Barrett.  They approached Carefree Farms manager Laura Borghesani a few months back pitching the idea of a show for kids and young-at-heart “kids.”  Michell and Heike wanted to relive fond memories of similar shows they experienced as kids. The goal was to promote comradery, challenge the kids a bit and, of course, provide lots of laughter.  Laura supported the idea and together with the support of Alice Sarno of Desert Sport Horse, who teaches most of the Carefree Farm kids and owns several lesson horses, the idea blossomed into a show date.

The day started with an obstacle course. There were four obstacles, including leading horses and ponies forward and then backwards in an L pattern created by ground poles and also walking over a tarp. The kids had to encourage and coax their horses because most of the horses were not fond of backing up in the L, nor of walking on the tarp. The kids had to do a lot of work to make it all happen.

Then everyone mounted up for a class where they had to ride bareback and keep a dollar bill under their thigh while riding at the walk and trot. Most of the kids had never ridden bareback before, but Alice Sarno was on hand to coach and help them navigate.

The kids were very curious about the egg and spoon class. Under saddle, they had to ride with a raw egg balancing on a plastic spoon in one hand and steer at the walk and trot with the other hand. Most of the kids had not ridden one-handed before so that was a new adventure!

Then the kids had to trot their horses to a blue barrel which had magazines stacked on it, tear out three specific type of photos while still mounted and then trot back to the finish line.

Another adventure was trotting their horses to the barrel which had a raw egg on the ground near it and get their horses to step on the egg.  Needless to say, many of the horses spent more time avoiding stepping on the egg.

The final contest was horseless. The kids had to team up to pretend to be a wheel barrow and race to the blue barrel marker, then tie a horse’s leg wrap around their inside legs and race back to the finish line “three-legged.”  There was a lot of leaping, falling and hollering during this class!

In the costume class, some of the kids dressed up themselves and a lesson horse named Stella. The kids had various forms of wings on, and Stella was not too sure about her tutu. But someone sure got a great photo!

The classes were so popular that many kids participated in each class two or three times!  Then younger children who were watching the show asked to run to the blue barrels and back several times.  The fun show was over just before noon, and some of the parents stayed to help clean up the refreshment stand and arena. The day could not have gone better, and the joy and happiness shown by everyone made us proud. We were all so happy to see the Carefree Farms owners and family supporting us and even participating. The show would never have been possible without a great facility like Carefree Farms and the blessings and help from Laura Borghesani and Alice Sarno. Thanks to our volunteer Susan Poulos and also to the parents who helped! And thanks to my co-conspirator, I mean co-manager, Heike Barrett and her daughter Veleska Fleuchaus. And thanks to Irene Murphy, who also took amazing photos!