Some Coordination Required

I adore my Fiona horse...yep I do!  I do however look at her and think, there is no way on earth that  I would want to run on you right now.  She seems to have no real idea where her feet are most of the time!

Yesterday I saddled both Fiona and Tari and headed up the hill for a little work out.  Both of the girls were a little whiny about the heat.... I felt for them I was sweating just sitting in the saddle.  We walked up the hill and turned around at the culvert which at a walk is about 45 minutes.  On our way there Fiona tripped about 300 hundred times. 

She was walking with a horsey smile on her face, her head swinging from side to side looking at everything with great interest...not like it was the boogie man, but like it may be something to play with.  All of her looking made it hard for her to keep track of those long legs and big feet.

We managed to circumnavigate several trees and even a mud puddle without much problem, but then across the road there was a tree that seemed to have teeth.  I have no real idea what happened, but she ended hooking her right from boot on the tree.  Her foot came up and the tree came up too.  The thing held on.  I dropped her lead and she picked up her foot again and the tree slapped her in the belly.  She set her foot down, rocked back onto her haunches and hopped, luckily her left hind hit the tree and pulled the boot apart and freed up her leg.  It wasn't quite that simple, it was sort of ugly actually...but that's the gist of what happened.

Once her foot was free of the boot and tree she stopped, looked back at it then looked at me like, WTF?!   I hopped off Tari and grabbed her up.  I picked up the torn off boot and and removed the left front.  I checked her over and decided to ride on.  She didn't take a lame step the rest of the ride...  Unfortunately, she didn't get the idea that she needed to pay attention to her feet either.  Oh, well!

She and Tari were a little hesitant to cross that tree a second time, but they both did and we made it home without further incident.  If anyone else rides in these boots, have you had any "oopses"?  I know they were on right, and I am committed to continuing to riding in them.  The Vet suggested that she always wear support boots due to her tendon injury on the hind and I have read that your horse should have boots on all 4 because its important/helpful to their balance.

I cannot tell you how happy I am that she did not panic and go letting her eyes roll back into the back of her head...one side of the road was straight up and the other straight down.  Having her blow and roll down the hill would not have been good.  I could just imagine myself hacking her out of the saddle with my semi dull pocket knife...Chad is going to sharpen it for me tomorrow...still fat lot of good that would have done me earlier!  She may be a bitch some days and other days she just blows me away with the "smart" stuff she does.

Fiona Rocks!

These shadows do not...oh, well that's what you get for taking pictures this late in the day!  ( :

Baby On Board!!

Yes!!  You heard me right!! 

Tari and I just got home from her 14 day vet check and got the best news ever!  When she left Dr. Peters place two weeks ago, she had double ovulated so we were concerned about twins when we arrived today. 

Of course she wasn't a good patient.  She never is.  She walks gamely into the stocks and then clamps her butt cheeks together as tight as she can.  Then of course she tries to poop on Dr. Peters' shoes...

Then after his fingers are nearly pinched off he is able to get the ultra sound wand into place.

The babys place!!  ( :

And as he looked into the monitor, he said, "We've got a pregnancy!  Call your sister!"  Of course I had left my phone on the seat of the truck, because I don't think that my cell phone needs to be everywhere I am at all times.  There is a time and place for my phone, and a Dr.'s Apt. is not one of them.  So as he searched her uterus for the second possible fertile egg, I sprinted to my truck and hit speed dial 3.

By the time Mindy picked up, I was back into the barn.  I blurted out..."You have a baby on board!"  She said no shit!  I said no shit!  Then we both giggled.  It was such a great feeling to get over our first hurdle!

The whole office was happy!  They are all competitive horse people there and of course familiar with Dash Ta Fame...and since Tari has spent about three weeks all together at the office they love her and can't wait to see what she will produce!!

We have at least one more appointment with Dr. Peters and that is a 30 day check to make sure that we in fact do have a heartbeat and a viable pregnancy!!  I can't wait to see Mindy's future barrel horses heart beat!!  But first we will go to our Charmayne clinic!!

Oh, the joy!!  I am sooooo happy, oh so happy!!  ( :

Don't Harpoon Me!

Warning!!  This is a post with 3 different colored writing.  Basically each piece is a different storey.  Start with one color or it will not make any sense...  ( :

Let me begin this post with notes...fun, fun, fun!  It was pretty hard for me to post these pictures.  I knew by the way my jeans weren't fitting that I had gained some weight.  But that is life.  Then I had Chad take these pictures for my blog, and Oh-My-God.  I had no idea how out of hand my "shape" had gotten.  Yikes...

Entering the round pen for an attempt and lunging or moving out on the lead line.  It was a complete failure.  She was pretty respectful of my space entering the pen.  Pretty happy with her up to this point!

I gave my baby Fiona a couple of days to get back into the herd before I felt out her training.  30 days isn't a lot of time for a young horse to get going in my opinion.  But its what I can afford and I really just wanted someone else to get on her for the first few times.  Call it self preservation of sorts.  BUT I was sure that Fiona, who is mild mannered yet very opinionated and a little bossy would go in like a kitten and then once Mario got the saddle on and tried to step in the stirrup; she'd break in half.  She is pretty handy out in the pasture enjoying herself and playing so I could only imagine what she would do if she decided that weight on her back was in appropriate and wanted to rid herself of it!

I am 5 foot 8 inches tall, so I am not short by any means...this sadly means that I must really be packing on the pounds, because I would say that my butt and thigh size vs weight makes me look like I am 5 foot 3...  Ugh.

Trying to get her moving away from me.  That sad little give you can see there, is all I got.  Not good, not good at all.  Rotten little nag!  I will get this fixed...I will get this fixed...I will get this fixed!!

Much to my shock, Mario reported that she walked off under saddle like she'd done it before.  I assured him that she had in fact never even had a saddle pad on her...sooo, maybe I was wrong about her.  Mindy was also kind of shocked that Fi didn't do her best impression of an NFR saddle bronc.  I am absolutely aware that she may still buck, but am optimistic that its just not something she will be doing.

It's almost unbearable for me to look at myself in the saddle.  I feel like I look like an ice cream cone melting onto it.  I am truly embarrassed of the way I look.

Tari helping us, not sure if we were going forward or backing.  This is the kind of help I really didn't expect from anyone.  She does have one ear on me, and I am happy about that!!

I made sure Chad was home when I got on my baby for the first time, just in case.  I also rolled the thought around in my head that maybe I should steel the Land Lords helmet for our first ride.  But, I decided that I would feel out the situation and if I felt like it was going south, I'd go and get it then. 

I have always been big boned and carrying muscle, so what I actually weigh, has never really mattered to me.  100lbs is something I weighed in the 6th grade and will never see again if I'm healthy.  I have never been a couch potato and love being outside....so how did I gain 25 pounds from October to June?  The truth?   I am miserable at the farm.  I hide from the Land Lord and his friends. (Not because they are mean, nasty, or rude... I am just done dealing with them...) If they are outside, I go inside and stay there until they are all gone....some days it keeps me inside the entire afternoon, once I am home from work.

I know we are backing here.  She is nice and flexed at the pole for this and seems pretty good at it and understanding it!  I love a horse that looks nice when backing up.  Don't know why...

She was calm and relaxed and it was easy to boot and saddle her up.  I took her to the round pen to do some ground work and bet her thinking before I got on her.  Little Miss Fiona looked at me like she had NO idea what I was asking her.  She kept squaring up and looking at me like huh?  I don't speak this language.  Lovely!  I messed with her some more and try to get her to give to pressure, which I did get from her.  But no round pen work to speak of.  She remained relaxed, so I got in the saddle.  Still she remained relaxed.

I am not necessarily eating while I'm hiding inside...I am just not doing anything...and I have hit the 35 year old metabolism slump.  Each year after 30 our metabolism slows down X% per year and we have to work harder to keep it moving.  I am failing at keeping it moving.  I have tried to evaluate my "mental" status...and I don't think I'm depressed overall...I just need my own home....which we are still working on...definitely for another blog...

Now the Hee Haws are helping us.  Pretty much everyone did...  I know that I have my Macate knot wrong in these pictures.  I had taken it apart to use the bit on something else and when I had to put it back together again for Fi, I had a brain fart.  So I just made it work.  I have since got on line and made sure that I have it tied correctly.  Gotta love the net!!  ( :

We walked in the small round pen both directions.  Stopped, backed up, flexed both directions and even with the peanut gallery staring at us and acting like they had never seen another horse being ridden.  She did stop to look at the other horses, but she was able to focus on me most of the time.  I tried to trot her in the same manner I had walked her, but she would jog three or four steps and then stop.  Its such a nice little jog she has and I really would have liked to ride it longer, maybe later.  After reflecting on this, I realized that she was fine until I started posting.  If I sat the trot, she would continue...but as soon as I started posting she would break down to a walk.  We will work on this!  ( :  Posting is very necessary!!

So here I am in none of my glory, and ready to join The Housewife and start running.  I have run at different times in my life, and have a love hate relationship with it.  It works and you don't need to spend lots of money on memberships and equipment.  All I need to do is make time to get it done...I will work on that next.  The first step is admitting I have a problem, right?

Look we are out in the big pen!  Well sort of the big pen...in front of the barn anyways!!  My hands may be a little high and wide.  Its been a while since I really saw myself ride and the position of my aides...  Sure am glad I am going to a clinic in July!!  I can brush up on some things...and learn some new things!!

After we worked easily around the small round pen, we walked around the barn yard.  It all went well.  I was happy.  I think she was happy.  Chad was happy.  The other horses enjoyed the baby of the group doing a little work...it was a good day!!  ( :  I did notice she did a little bit of pussy footing on the larger rocks, so I called Jim the Farrier and made an appointment for the following Saturday.  (That would be the Saturday we just had...and she was perfect as long as Jim would let her sniff his head.  She kept her lips closed and just sniffed...and didn't pull away or act like a dink!!  I was sooo proud, and I am sure that Jim was thankful! )

So I am grateful that I have fairly large boned horses to go with my large butt...  At the very least no one can criticize me for being too heavy for my horses.  ( :

Sooo, tell me.  How do you like my Aunt Jamima Hat?  ( :  That's what my friend Julie calls it!  My Grandmother is from Arkansas and every time we were over at their house and she was "setting" her hair or doing any kind of house/garden work she always had a "snot rag" (says my dad) tied like this on her head...  I like it personally...  ( :

I will take some more pictures of Fi this next week so I can show you all the amount of room she has left to grow in her knees.  Its amazing!  Seems like its an awful lot for a three year old, but I am no expert!  I think she really will be 16hh.  I need to buy myself a stick and get the real storey I guess!  Yet anther reason for me loose weight...I don't want to carry any extra pounds up that far when mounting up!

I just think this filly is so smart looking!  I have to admit though, she has way too much mane!  I may have to start braiding it before I ride to keep it from getting in my way.  Its so thick that its almost a double mane.  Funny though her tail isn't thick at all.

I don't think my extra pounds are prohibiting me from being able to ride, but its sure stopping me from looking OK in the saddle!!

Looking at the peanut gallery looking at her!  She was pretty proud of herself I think!

My barrel saddle has a smaller seat on it than this one, so you will definitely not be seeing me in it on this...oh shit.  Guess you may as I am attending the Charmayne James clinic in about two weeks...Yikes!  Well if I can find someone to take pictures.  Mindy and I will be riding, and I am not sure if anyone we know will be there to audit...  That could save us all a lot of misery....  But I am still pretty excited about the clinic, no matter how I fill up or out my saddle!!

Using my pants as her snot rag.  I know its not ideal to let your horse rub on you...actually its terrible, but here I am caught doing it!  She really was slobbering up a storm and needing a place to wipe it!  She is my baby you know!

Not So Dirty Deeds...

It seems that most horses in a competitive sport need some kind of maintenance.  I have always thought that if you are injecting your horse that its sort of a dirty deed.  Hiding a flaw or cheating some one.  Worse yet, hiding pain so that your animal can compete and in the mean time destroying itself.
So when Mindy divulged to me on the way home that the Chiro Vet who saw Breeze said she should look into having her hocks injected, I felt sick for my sister.  Ugh, we weren't raise to cheat and we certainly weren't raised to disrespect our animals health.
Luckily for us, I had my lap top with us in the front seat AND we have a Verizon Air Card, so as long as there was cellular reception, we had Internet access!!  Yippee!  We simply Google searched "hock injections".  This is the article that we found.  We found a couple more, but this one was far and away the best.
After that we called my vets office.  Dr. Peters is a competitive Mounted Shooter (Men's Champion in his division) and his wife was a barrel racer that converted to Mounted Shooting.  I feel that his take on things like this is more than an MD, its also as a competitor.  After talking with his office, we made an appointment for Breeze, and also crossed our fingers that Tari would be ready to go home as well.  She had been dropped off by my wonderful husband the previous Wednesday.

Our appointment was for 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.  So Mindy and her gang stayed for a few extra days!  Chad and I really enjoyed our extra Wyatt time!  ( :
Dr. Peters did a soundness exam and explained in detail what he saw and what the treatment would entail.  Mindy decided to pull the trigger.  In order to see the hocks thoroughly he did the films and showed us them on his computer, what we saw was amazing.  ( He sent the films home with her on a disc, but I didn't get them downloaded before she left...too bad too.  Maybe someday I will get a hold of it and add them to this blog.)  He flat out told her that these were some of the worst films he had seen on a horse that was still willingly and effectively competing.  Each hock was sporting a floating chip and definitely showed some OCD.  He also said that she is one tough and gritty mare and must really love her job.  He said that if she were his and was going as well as she was like this, he would definitely inject her and see how she felt after the injection.  It couldn't hurt to try and she may be blown away by the difference in her runs.  He also said that he could keep in the clinic and remove the chips if my sister wanted to take that route, but felt the less invasive procedure was the best place to start.

There was a lot of cussing, some pacing, and more cussing before she said that she was still willing to go ahead with the injection.  Dr. Peters did his job and then filled us in on Tari.
His news on Tari was less than good for us as well.  He injected her with the "girl drugs" and got NOTHING!  Miss Tari didn't even start her heat cycle.  So he was re-injecting her that evening to try to get her jump started back into cycling. 
We were both bummed.  Tari being ready to go home would have been nice to hear.  But NOOOOOO!  The good news was that Dr. Peters had been having his clinic assistants lung her for 20 minutes twice a day.  Thank God!  The thought of her being stall bound for all this time gave me anxiety for her!  ( : 
Dr. Peters said it would probably be Saturday or Sunday before I could bring her home, IF she cooperated.  Lovely.  I walked over to her stall and informed her that she'd better get her stuff together!

Because My Last Post Were Pictureless

Is pictureless a word?  Uh, spell check says no...should be picture less.  I like my spelling better!  ( :

Vegas To My House...

So if the video had loaded, you would have seen Breeze and Mindy run hard into the first barrel. It wasn't their worst first barrel, but it wasn't their best either, followed by a great second barrel. Possibly the best second barrel I have seen them run all year! Unfortunately the reins went over Breezes head while turning that second barrel and they ran to the third with them both on one side. Breeze shouldered into third barrel and knocked it down. She ran really hard home. Their time would have been another low 15, but barrel down of course means no time. Bummer! Fred, Wyatt, and I headed out to the truck and trailer and then to the Barn A alley way. Mindy and Breeze met us in the alley way. We unsaddled the horse and loaded the whole sha-bang into the trailer and drove out of the barn way. (Several minutes elapsed and the horse was cooled before we stuck her into the trailer.) Outside the barn we said good bye to Fred who was headed to the airport for a flight home, and hit the highway on our way home. It was 11:45 a.m. and 104 outside. We drove for eight and a half hours to Lava Hot Springs and camped out there for the second time. It was a whopping 65 when we arrived. This was strategically planned as the stop was only 40 minutes from where we were to pick up our horses at the trainers. The people we stayed with are some of the nicest people that you can accidental bump into and we found ourselves visiting with them until way past our bed time! We were up and on the road by 7:30 a.m. Which is 6:30 "our" time. We had our coffee, Wyatt had his bottle, and Breeze had her breakfast all before we rolled out. We stopped at the local Chevron and got MORE coffee and diesel and then finished heading to Mario's. When we got to Mario's he was riding Chix. He went through what he had done with her from start to finish. He explained to us that this mare lacked self confidence and needed to have a strong leader in her rider...but you also had to convince her that you WERE that strong leader. She was more than willing to ignore you and or flee. So patience and forgiving some silliness was necessary. He explained how he had used the round pen to get this done and that Mindy may have to revisit these lessons several times before Chix decided Mindy was her strong leader and friend. He also said if she really starts acting dumb while tied up, walk away and let her work it out. But make sure you've got a good halter and lead...and if she digs a hole, fill it in when shes done...don't try and restrain her as it just seems to give her more fuel for her fire...he did say hobbles were OK for short periods of time, but in general pretend like shes someone elses horse when she paws. Mindy made sure several times that this mare wasn't mentally handicapped or just plain stupid. Mario just smiled and assured her that Chix could learn and was actually willing to after she got around her flight reaction. His wife later assured us that if he thought she were me tally handicapped, he would have told us so. ( : Sally and Fiona were pretty cut and dry as they had no baggage and were just starting out on the saddle training. He complimented each horse in different areas and seemed to truly like each of them. I really like that of all three horses he rode for us, Sally was the one who really walked out under saddle without any real encouragement. She had her head down and swinging side to side with so much purpose. It was awesome! She is definitely the smallest of the three, but really didn't look small under saddle...I think it was her self confidence and enjoyment of having a job. She is just the best little free horse ever!! ( : Fiona was really soft in the bridle...softer than Chix or Sally. Odd I thought, she is such a bulled headed brat. Of course being green as grass, her softness came and went...but it was there and she was understanding giving to the bit. She also moved sooo nicely under saddle. Really comfortable and at ease with decent collection for a greenie. We chatted with Mario and his wife for about a half hour after the horses were loaded. We looked at his Mustang that he'd won the Wyoming Challenge with. He was a nice gelding who was caught not too far from where they lived. ( The area escapes me right now. Shocking I know! ) He was also gaited, which I thought was pretty cool and Mario said he really likes to gait. Too bad we didn't get a chance to see him ridden! I find gaited horses so interesting. And someday when I'm an old lady who needs a mounting block to get on my horse, I plan on riding a gaited animal. Not sure which breed I'll go for, but that's my plan for the geezer years. A nice gaited horse to ride. Something else that I found interesting was that Mario still had the first horse he ever really trained. A big red gelding who was in his mid 20's, he was pastured with the Mustang. We left St. George at 9:45 a.m. We had over 9 hours of drive time ahead of us...yippee!! Not. Luckily we had a lot to talk about as far as what we had seen with Mario and the recap of our weekend in Vegas too! The trip to my house was uneventful and Chad had pizza ready for us when we got home. Of course we had to wait to eat until the girls were settled. They were all pretty happy to get out of the trailer and do their own thing. Breeze loves to drink from the creek and drank like she hadn't had water in days...its soo funny to watch her. She truly enjoys her water her. Crazy horse! Poor little Wyatt was ready to be out of the truck too. He got naked and had some naked baby time while we ate. He also showed us that he was all but ready to roll over from his back to belly. He was sooo close to getting it handled, so we sat and stared at him for at least a half hour as he tried and tried to get over. Funny part is, he really doesn't like being on his belly, so once he gets it down one way...he'd better not waste any time figuring out how to get back onto his back. ( : We all turned in completely exhausted...but then I heard the outside cats making a fuss and had to hop out of bed and open the back door to see what was up. And there staring at me was a 100lb raccoon. Well ok, probably not a 100lb raccoon, but it was at least 30. The thing was a monster! I started hollering at Chad to get the .22 while it just sat there and ate the cats food. (Our outside cats get fed once a day and its in the evenings because my dogs and the neighbors dogs will eat it...but every ones dogs are in at night. I also try to feed them only what they can eat in one setting, so the raccoon really had to be on top of its game and aware of when everything happened...jerk!) Chad finally got the .22 and loaded it, it seemed to take forever! Robby and Julian were sitting by the door waiting for someone to do something...but I don't think that they were really ready for what our solution was... Chad opened fire on the munching raccoon with the .22. It was close range, so he was more or less shooting form his hip. The gigantic raccoon hopped up in the air a few times then high tailed it for the trees. We grabbed the flashlights and went looking for it. Spent 20 minutes looking in the trees and brush but didn't find so much as a speck of blood or matt of hair. Once we were satisfied that we couldn't find the damn thing to verify a hit, I went to explain to my sister who was sleeping in her trailer what she had just heard. She of course was all for finding the thing and skinning it and making Wyatt a 'coon skin cap. I assured her that we couldn't find it, but if we got a "fresh" kill on one, I would see if mom's friend Fred would skin it for us. After our little talk it was then really time to go to bed! Lights out at 10:30!! ( :

The Last Day

****I have tried and tried to get this post to have video, but to no avail. I have used up the miniscule amount of patients I have trying to figure out my mess...so here is the post with NO video and NO pictures. My sweet husband won't be bitten by the blogger bug and try and help...he usually asists me in the computer problems I have, but not when its a blogger issue. Men! ( : I also some how lost my spell check...ugh!! ****



Mindy and I were up and down stairs with our luggage by 7 a.m. to in act our "expedited exit plan" from Barn A and Las Vegas.  Our first step was to feed and water Breeze as well as clean her stall.  Mindy and Breeze wouldn't be running until 10:30 or 11:00, so Breeze still had some time left in there. After feeding the horse we started looking around for one of the carts that we used to unload the trailer on arrival.  We finally found one in a far corner of the barn, that was clearly marked "For Use In Barn Only".  Lucky for us the barn was nearly empty and neither one of us was afraid of bending the rules...of course we intended on returning the cart...sooo all in all we would rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. We had the cart loaded and out the door in about 5 minutes.  It was hike from the back of the barn to where the truck was parked ( I am guesstimating it was 1/3 mile if not a wee bit more).  Our plan was to hot foot it to the end of the pavement and I would stand by the cart while Mindy pulled the truck and trailer as close as she could to where I was.  We lucked out big time.  Right there just off the pavement was a front row spot for the truck and trailer.  The rig was re parked, loaded with all of our non essentials, and we were back into the barn with our cart by 8:10.  Which gave Mindy just enough time to grab something to drink, get Breeze and head over to Tonya's stall in Barn B for the horses adjustment and start her warm up. During the adjustment Tonya suggested to Mindy Breezes hocks may be bothering her.  But with the concrete floors, long trip there, and the heat it could just be a passing thing.  She did suggest that Mindy have her normal vet look at her when they got home.   But for the time being she gave her a cream/salve to rub on that would basically numb the area and help her run pain free for the time being.  She also gave Mindy some exercises on how/what to do to help Breeze naturally develop muscles that were being neglected by way of her regular training.  The Vet/Chiro said these are muscles that regularly need this kind of attention in horses that are western performance animals.  So its nothing that Mindy is doing any differently than any other barrel racer out there. After the adjustment Mindy warmed up and Fred and I got the room clear cutted and Wyatt ready to roll.  It took several laps for us to get the last little bit out of the room AND Fred still forgot the camera!  ( :  Luckily we held on to a key and he was able to retrieve it easily.  He did however miss Mindy's last run. But I didn't!  ( :  Please for give the horrible video, I REALLY need practice!   ( :

The Second Open Day

Sorry for the delay in this little tale, but OMG I am too old for this shit!  ( :  The heat, the baby, the extra horse care, and the friends....man oh, man I just lost my head of steam!  So now if I can get back on track...

First off, there are no pictures and no video for this day!  Shame on me!  Mindy's husband Fred took video with Mindy's camera as I was riding one of my friend Julies horses in the warm up area.  So Fred shot the video and it looked good on the camera, but my computer gave me the big bite me when I tried to down load it.  LOVELY!  It said that it didn't recognise the format.  Really???  I really don't love Windows Vista.  Ugh! 

This is my attempt to download the video...nice isn't it?

Julie ran before Mindy again, and she and her Captain horse ran almost a full second faster than the first day!  We were soo excited for them and hoping for the same for my sister!  I went down with Mindy to help her get Breeze ready while the baby napped and Fred got ready for the day.  On our way to Breeze's stall we bumped into Julie who was of course over the moon about her run!  This was the "big money" day and a good run was important if you wanted to see a check!  709 runs on the first day and 650 this day, before the late entries!  That's a lot of horses...

Wyatt meeting that kid in the window.

Julie talked me into going over to Barn B where her horses were and see her Calvin and Emma horses.  They are her babies in training and were there for the exposure.  It didn't take her long to convince me that we should saddle up and follow Mindy and Breeze into the warm up arena.  How can I say no?  ( :

There are several of these...enjoy!  ( :

Julie rode Emma, who is a Toll Tac bred mare and I rode Calvin who is a Beduino bred gelding.  (Mindy's Breeze mare is Beduino/Streaking Six bred.)  Julie describes Emma as having a basket full of snakes in her head, but she did great.  Poor Calvin just didn't "get" what I was asking him to do...but he is young and things were busy and I had never set eyes on him before that day...  So I am pretty sure that he just didn't trust me much and I couldn't figure out how to give him the support he needed for such an afternoon.  But I still had a great time riding him!  He is forward moving and really fancy.  I can't wait to see him in the next couple of years taking Julie to the pay window! 

Julie and I cheered Mindy on from the holding area next to the arena.  Breeze was pretty good going into the first barrel, then shouldered into the second and sent it spinning, wrapped the third scooted home.  Her time was pretty close to the day before, but of course a no time due to the barrel being down. 

Julie and I me Mindy, Fred, and Wyatt at Breeze's stall after we put our mounts away.  Julie was on her way to the stands to video tape a few friends who were running in the mid 300's and we were going to eat some lunch after the horse was cared for. 

We walked Breeze cool, cleaned her stall, watered her and headed off for some food.  After eating we did a little bit of shopping and learned some good stuff from the Circle Y guy.  They have some pretty nice new saddles and are working with Kelly Keminski I believe...but I could be wrong.  It was 4 days ago you know!  ( :  At any rate he talked about the changes they had made in the tree and the bottom of the saddle.  They are using leather and gel padding rather than fleece.  I really like it.  I have to save my pennies and maybe after a year or so I can have one!  ( :  LoL!  I must admit that i was expecting more shopping than I got, but what do you do? 

We found out that the neurotic horse was a futuritied by LG.  Hmmm, and he runs like...well like his screw is down to its last thread.  I have to tell you though that one in three horses seemed to hit a barrel or run off pattern on Saturday.  Mindy saw someone flat bucked off on Friday in the outside warm up pen, we all saw someone take a header off her horse on the second barrel on Saturday, then we saw a saddle go under a horse and pitch the rider on the first barrel (should have checked her cinch I guess ) two different horses took the first barrel and went home without even looking at the other two...  We also saw some fantastic runs...

Saturday wound down and Mindy decided to see if Julies horse Chiropractor/Vet was still there, because Mindy felt that Breeze's atlas may out.  Julie told us she would track down Tonya and see if she would see Mindy's mare.  We  hit the hay with an idea of how we were going to get out of Vegas as quickly and efficiently as possible the following day. (Sunday)  As we still had to pick up Fiona, Sally, and Chix from the trainers on the way home.

The First Open Day

We all woke up feeling  much better, not on top of the world.  But better.  Mindy's husband had come in late the night before.  He is here to attend the auto auction here and watch Mindy run.  I am sure that his son being gone for 12 days also had something to do with it...but that's just my opinion!  ( :

One cool baby!!

We left Fred with the baby and headed out to feed and water Breeze as well as clean her stall, take her out for a walk/roll and get a few last minute things from the truck and trailer before the day really began to get going.  We hit the parking lot no later than 7:30 a.m. and it was already nearing 90 degrees.  We were sweating in no time.  It was great, but no complaints about the air conditioning when we hit the casino either.  It ended up hitting 103 yesterday and is supposed to be 105-108 this weekend.  Yikes!  We shouldn't be in the parking lot today and tomorrow we will hustle our hinneys to and from as we will be rolling out after Mindy and Breezes run.

In the hole.  They were the first to go after raking.

After getting the horse taken care of for the morning we hung out waiting for Julies run time.  With the baby we definitely don't cruise around like we did before Mindy had him! 

And they are off!

The seating at the arena is great.  Julie was number 214 in the pen of 700 plus riders, Mindy 346.  At 60 runs an hour they ran about 2.5 hours apart.  So Mindy, Wyatt, and I watched Julie run.  She ran a 16.56 (I think...the 16 part is definitely correct!)  then Wyatt and I went back to the room for a nap and Mindy went down to get Breeze ready.

First barrel.  It seemed that horses running to the left actually had on average better first barrels than the horses that took the first barrel to the right.  The horse leading the 1D did run to the right though.

Fred showed up 45 minutes before Mindy ran. So we scooped up Wyatt and beat feet for the arena.  We made it in 5 riders...so more or less with 5 minutes to spare.  Considering I'm not used to wrangling a baby or a Freddy I call it a success!  ( :

 Second barrel.  A wee bit of an argument on this one!

Mindy said Breeze warmed up well.  Breeze wasn't really big on the alley way.  Luckily there were horses coming and going and Mindy was able to buddy up to one and enter without too much drama.  She has run small patterns in Silverdale, but was definitely looking for more room when she hit the arena.  The run wasn't bad, but wasn't great either. When they exited the arena all of the barrels were still standing, which is always a goal reached in barrel racing, and the time stopped at a 15.381. The leading time at the time was 14.47. So they were a full second off the lead. When all the horses finished running, the time washed Mindy and Breeze out in the the middle of the 3D. They were actually 153 in the 3d. So today Breeze will either need to run faster or slower! ( : Faster is always better! Long as the barrels stay up!

Leaving the second, heading to the third.

I had every intention of video taping it...but go figure, I didn't get it done.  I am so dumb some days...I took pictures though!  ( :  Then after I got back to the room, my brain started working and I remembered how, so today....good, bad, or indifferent I will have video today. 

Wrapping the third.

Mindy did buy the arena's copies of her runs, but I am not privy to such things! ( :

Finishing up and heading heading home.

We watched a good 400 horses go today, but weren't able to identify the neurotic horse.  We will try again.  We have also walked around the barn looking for his stall, to no avail.  There are over 700 horses here with 1100 or 1200 stalls, so that's no real surprise I suppose!  But today is another day, another chance to snoop!  ( :

The spring home.  Breezes favorite part!

Crossing the finish line!  Mindy's friend Marty watch her on line and sent her a text saying that she pulled up too soon and cost herself some time.  So today her plan is to push a bit longer.  The only problem is there isn't much room for stopping in this arena, and Mindy doesn't want to be the one who busts through the gate after the run!

Good job mom!!