DKD Costume Parade: Saigon

Edit: She got first! [link]

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Alternatively titled, "Queen of the Night," and painted while listening to my favorite song (ever!), "Skin of the Night" by M83.

This is The Queen of Saigon's entry into the DKD "A Long Time Ago" Show, which is a parade of historically-based costumes. Anna had the bright idea to go with Saigon's name -- why not wear a traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai (well, a modernized traditional Ao Dai, that is!) and make Saigon look like the little princess she is?

In this picture, Saigon's about two years old. She's the lightest kind of Georgian Grande there is (75% American Saddlebred blood), so she's built very much like a heavy, fuzzy Saddlebred. This is her first show ever! She just completed her basic groundwork training (leading, yielding fore and hind, and lunging) so we thought we'd take her with us on our cross-country trip out west! We'll be entering a few more horses in this event, probably. (To justify using the gas we had to take more than one filly, even if she is our star!)

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To finally start putting some useful groundwork knowledge on Saigon was a big decision. Anna was always in favor of handling the foals from their date of birth to teach them good manners, like being haltered and handled without a fuss, standing still when tied, dealing with Dr. Nodrey (the veterinarian) and Kyle Novak (the farrier) with a cool head, etc. She was less keen to actually start teaching them things that might make them useful as horses at those young ages -- Anna was of the mind that a horse should be left a horse for as long as possible, and only taught to pose for the camera and carry a saddle and rider when the horse was growing wider than it was growing tall.

Teaching a two-year-old to yield to her handler's pressure cues and to move out on a lunge line may not seem like a big deal, but to Anna it was almost a breach of some unspoken trust pact she'd made with every young horse she'd ever handled. She felt like she was robbing Saigon of some critical piece of horsey adolescence, making her go to work before her time, but her father made a good case. They'd named Saigon as a queen, and she certainly might look like one if only they took the care to show her off. They didn't need to back and ride her for another few years, after all -- so what's the harm, as long as they don't lunge her too often or too hard?

With plenty of apologies and a vision in her head, Anna spent a day with Saigon establishing the basics, and then another six days perfecting everything. Dr. Nodrey received several tearful, torn phone-calls from Anna asking for reassurance that the filly would forgive her, and he dealt with them all with his customary patience and a gentility that was exceptionally difficult for him to master. (After each of these brief bouts of ridiculous, unfounded hysteria, Anna also had the presence of mind to call him back and demand secrecy -- if her father ever heard her going on about Saigon's mental health as a result of groundwork training... Eesh.)

As a part of their summer vacation program geared towards letting the horses unwind a little from the busy spring show season, the Richardsons trailered up and took a cross-country drive all the way out to the west coast. Saigon was one of the horses they took, with the plan in mind to make her debut as beautifully and gracefully as possible -- and what better way to do that than with a costume class?

The day of the parade, Anna took special care with her princess. She spent her leisure time braiding Saigon's mane in a special running Dutch braid down the crest of her neck, doing the forelock (past the bridle path) in the same way, but in reverse, so that she could make a little braided bun to peep out over her forehead. Saigon's tail was left unbraided, but they trimmed up the shaggy ends and sprayed silicone over all of her. By the time the final flower-and-bead clips and faux-gold chains were in place, Saigon looked like a glittering vision in regal black. Anna donned her half of their costume with full confidence that even if they didn't win, they sure would put on a show.