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!!