Dublin Horse Show with Horses Inside Out
Earlier this year I received a phone call from Gillian Higgins of Horses Inside Out. Always nice to have a catch up with Gillian, we spent quite a lot of time together in 2021, as I attended many Horses Inside Out courses and was a helping hand during filming of the Autumn Webinar Series. What I wasn’t expecting during this call was for Gillian to ask if I would travel with her to Dublin to help represent Horses Inside Out at the Dublin International Horse Show! How could I possibly decline!
August soon crept up on us - this year seems to be flying by - and it was time to head to Dublin.
This was my first time flying since pre Covid lockdowns, Gillian and her partner Doug (who was also on the team with us) were travelling by ferry, bringing with them all the essentials such as paint and brushes for the demo horses, banners and signs for the stand, and of course plenty of copies of Gillian’s vast range of books.
I have never been to Dublin before, let alone the horse show. I was so shocked to arrive at the RDS venue to see that the horse show was right smack bang in the middle of the city centre, surrounded by busy roads. It just didn’t seem as if you would enter through the hall and head out into the showground to what must have been thousands of horses attending, along with their riders, handlers and grooms.
(In fact I checked and 1,600 horses attended the show)
The show had several rings and arenas with everything going on from Pony Club Games, Showing Championships to FEI 4* Show Jumping.
Lots of food & drink stands and a vast amount of shopping stalls. As well as halls and halls of temporary stabling for the horses.
Horses Inside Out was to have a stand in one of the food & shopping areas, Gillian, Doug and I would be on hand throughout each day so that people could come to the stand and ask questions, find out more about Horses Inside Out, purchase books, learn more about the online content and Horses Inside Out Academy and also enter the show competition.
We would also have live painted horses on the stand throughout the day for people to look at and ask questions about, and Gillian would be doing short, informative talks throughout the day on the stand on various different anatomical structures.
At lunchtime each day there would be a 45 minute demo in one of the main arenas.
All sounds great, and very exciting, but how were we going to do this between the 3 of us and without having brought any horses with us?
Well……luckily, Gillian had teamed us with the Equine Science department from the University of Limerick.
So we had a fab bunch of Equine Science students joining us and we were also kindly provided 3 gorgeous horses by some of the University staff for us to paint and for the students to ride/handle in the demos.
Phew, that’s great, so we now have the Horses Inside Out Team, our stand, arena demo slots, students and horses.
Time for everyone to get acquainted and make plans for the next 3 days.
Not only had Gillian and I never met the horses or students before, the students had never met the horses before, let alone handle or ride them, there was a lot of getting to know each other to do. And of course the horses had never been painted before either.
By the end of the first day we had decided which horses would be painted with which structures, who would be riding/handling which horse and what the demos would entail. It had been a busy day and we hadn’t even gotten started yet. Time for an early night ready for the show to begin.
It was a 5am start for Gillian, Doug and I. Doug would be setting up the stand and Gillian and I would start on the painting.
I have assisted Gillian in painting a few horses now over the last couple of years, so as long as she outlines the structures she is wanting to show on the horse, we now work as a pretty good team.
Gillian had chosen the grey mare ***** to be painted with the full skeleton to one side and flexor and extensor muscle chains to the other side. She was not going to be ridden in any of the demos so was to be painted with the full design on both sides.
We also painted the bay gelding Diego with this design, but leaving a space on his back for his saddle to sit as he would be ridden in the demos.
After an hour’s head start our student team arrived. They were then able to get stuck in helping us with some painting and giving them as chance to ask Gillian any questions as well as brush up on their anatomical knowledge - what a great opportunity!
Once the 2 horses were painted (this was mid morning, it takes a good few hours to paint each horse) we headed to the stand with them to start the day.
Hay nets and buckets of water waited for them at the stand, so they could munch away, oblivious to the fact that crowds were flocking over to ogle them, many of whom had not seen or heard of Horses Inside Out before and could not believe what they were seeing!
It was fabulous to interact with the crowd, answer questions both general and specific to people’s individual experiences. Many people are wowed when they see for what might be the first time the true position of the bones of the neck, the spine and often also the hip.
Before we knew it, it was time for the first lunchtime demo of the week.
**** would be lunging **** , **** would be riding Diego and **** would be riding the chestnut mare, who we had not painted yet but **** would be wearing a skeleton suit, which looks really cool as it shows the bones of the rider and how their bodies are moving as the horse moves.
Gillian’s first demo of the week included how the horse moves in walk, trot and canter. The flexor & extensor chain of muscles and how they work to propel the horse and control movement.
For this, myself and the arena team set out some walk, trot & canter poles and also raised the poles to show how simple exercises can increase range of movement in the horse’s body.
The demo was a great success, there was a great crowd watching and the girl’s were buzzing after performing in one of the main rings at the Dublin International Horse Show, a dream for them, and they did such a fab job with horses that were new to them. I think we were all on a high.
And then it was quick back to the stand as the crowds were flocking there after the demo to find out more about Horses Inside Out. While the horses and students has a well deserved break.
During the afternoon the horses joined us back on the stand. A little bit of smudged paint from sweating in the demo, but that was to be expected.
Gillian gave a couple of short talks during the afternoon, each time she did more and more people stopped at the stand to listen and learn.
It seemed like there was a never ending stream of people coming in, all so excited to see the horses, it was amazing to have very young children asking questions as well as very experienced horse people.
Before we knew it, the day came to an end, it was time for the horses to go back to their stables for their evening feeds and a well earned rest.
Same for us too - what a day, and still 2 more to go……..
Jess