My road to stallion approval... Part 3

In October, I decided to write up my path to stallion testing.
In my blog series I am going to take you into a world that is strange to me, the NWPCS stallion approval! Because as an athlete and hobby breeder you don't belong there was always my thought. But I hope I can convince you to give it a try! Because it will cost you some years of your life but what a cool experience! Of course, I also share the tips I received! I think everyone knows the outcome of our adventure. And if not, that will come up naturally, maybe even more fun!

Doubt and tension

And then it's already the last week, especially the week of doubt. Doubt if Jaimy will be good enough and if I have done enough about it. I scrolled through the stud shop of the NWPCS at least 100x, because what exactly is approved in terms of types and pedigree. Then taking pictures of Jaimy and assessing and looking at each part individually.

Will his neck be nice enough? Does he move well enough? Is he in good enough condition? Every part I looked at and judged at least 10x in this last week. The doubt was growing and the sleep was getting less and less!

Wash!

Thursday was the day, washing and scrubbing! Nynke Leen came to help with the washing, Nynke persuaded me to go to the stallion show after all and she wanted to come and wash. Well no problem! Dragging buckets of warm water and scrubbing away. Jaimy is fortunately a very clean pony but you are amazed at how much sand there can be between the manes.

The two of us spent at least 30 minutes washing him. Then we wrapped Jaimy up nice and warm and rubbed his legs with white paste and bandages. I always do this to let the paste soak in, after 2 hours I take off the bandages and then his legs are completely white. I always spray the mane and tail and the heels with anti-itch after washing, and if they still shit on their heels I brush it off.

A few hours later Jaimy is completely dried up, hoody on and a clean thick blanket on top so that he also gets through the night clean. Of course he should not be left with a wet blanket all night. His tail and mane are well combed out and I immediately braided his tail. I also fix the little braid behind his ears so it lies nice and flat. And then you go into the last night before the stallion inspection and there is nothing more you can do except hope Jaimy stays clean.

Inspection bag check

Friday morning, fortunately we did not have to leave so early so still time to check everything. We always have a competition and judging bag here is in it: Make up matte black and highlighter, a lime block, a rattle tray, lots of bottles of bodyshine, oil, brushes, a polishing glove, scissors and baby wipes.
After this check Jaimy to make sure everything is still clean and then put on his transport blankets. I do not use transport blankets on ponies that are not used to it yet.

Part of the family

On the way in the car there is plenty of time to chat and get even more nervous. My mom starts talking about the fact that there might be interest in Jaimy and what we do then. I don't want to think about it but do say if someone is going to mention a really crazy amount I can't keep Jaimy for myself anyway. Jaimy really belongs to our family so actually we both don't want to think about it but to have a pony just for the sake of having it is nothing for me either. Maybe my mother started it because we both thought that we have nothing to do here.

Once we arrived there was no place on the paved parking lot so we had to park in the grass nice and quiet. On to the secretariat to get numbers and a catalog. We looked around to see if Davy Wormgoor was there and then we also met Richard Dekkers and immediately asked Richard for some help because when should I get Jaimy ready and some help with the Make up was also very welcome! The nerves were getting worse! Off to the trailer to do the finishing touch..... Read more next week!