Our New Addiction

This year on our great new showing adventures we have decided to give reined cow horse a try.

Well, the boyfriend decided he wanted to do the reined cow horse shows, mostly so he could do something and not compete against me. I decided that if we were going to be spending gas money to haul all the way there and for hotels and stuff anyways, I would rather just bring my horse along, pay a bit of extra money and have myself some fun with it too!

And boy howdy is it FUN!!! The boyfriend is going down the fence, having done his first fence run ever in his life exactly two weeks before the first show. I figured since he had wanted to get away from competing with me I would just stick to the boxing classes this year, see how that went.

I guess I should give a little background on what cow horse actually is. There are three parts to it:

1. Herd work - basically cutting, taking a single cow out of the herd and keeping it out of the herd.

2. Dry work - basically a reining pattern, though cow horse patterns are condensed a bit.

3. Cow work - which also has 3 parts, boxing - keeping the cow on the end of the arena to show you can control it, going down the fence - pushing the cow down the long side of the arena and turning it at least once each direction, and then circling the cow - turning the cow at least 360 degrees each direction.

In my boxing class I only do the boxing part, not the fence run or circling. The cow work can get pretty crazy. I've done lots of boxing at shows and practice, so I've got that down. The rest of the work is often done at a full on gallop, balls to the wall, down the fence, inches from the cow who is (in theory) on the fence, with a quick dive around the front of the cow into the fence to get it stopped and turned. Then you have to launch back out to the side of the cow, keep it on the wall and run past it again for another turn.

Can you imagine what an adrenaline rush that is? Sha! Just a bit of adrenaline!

And then you get to circle! It's very exciting to watch and quite the rush to ride. I have done it a few times at clinics (read about that here and here) and it is just a blast! I'm itching to go down the fence, can you tell?

Anyways, the whole weekend was pretty darn fun. The shows are amazingly laid back, every one is super duper friendly and helpful and it's just darn good times. We had our second show of the season this past weekend and my last run, late Sunday night, was just a kick in the pants. I have no clue why, Midori was being a bit of a spooky dink, but I was laughing so hard at my silly horse that by the time I did my last stop on the dry work I paused and went...huh...I sure hope that was the pattern! I hadn't even really thought about it. lol

The boyfriend was nice enough to video it, even though he got distracted a couple of times and forgot to move the camera. I just have to post it because I had so much fun on it. We nailed our flying lead changes. And we even got some pretty nice stops in! For us. Remember, Midori was pretty much a drill pony up until about 8 months ago. I think our run is pretty impressive for lessons and one month of training! We've come a long, long ways! Still have a loooooong ways to go, but we're making progress so I can't complain!

Please note the scary, horse eating monster behind the gate that she is spooking at. You can see it when we walk in, the yellow thing poking up over the tarp. It was pouring rain and the cow guys were in full rain gear and hiding by the gate trying to stay out of the weather when they could. Apparently they were scaring a lot of the horses. Midori decided she wanted nothing to do with that whole end of the arena and I had to push pretty hard to get her down there the whole pattern and we bounced around a bit, but I guess that was probably part of why I had so much fun. I do love a good challenge with her!

Also, please note the nice shot of her fabulous ass after we finish our dry work and walk over to get our cow. Midori has a great ass, I've always loved it!

Our dry work score was a 68 and our cow work was a 70, total 138. Not fabulous scores in the grand scheme of things, but I was thrilled with them.

What gets you going?

Another burning question...What motivates you to get going (and keep going) on your fitness goals?

I've tried here and there to get in better shape in the past few years, but have just never found the proper motivation/reward system. I'm not in bad shape, which is probably part of my lack of dedication to the issue, but I know I could be in better shape. I'm not over weight, but my strength and stamina are severely lacking. As is brought to my attention at every lesson I take with my horse. My trainer makes fun of me, big time. And I don't blame her one little bit. I'd make fun of me too, probably have made fun of people doing similar pathetic kicks in the past. I know I'm pathetic, I just don't have the strength in my legs to do much about it! And usually run out of breath trying.

Despite my weaknesses, Midori was still coming along in leaps and bounds. Her spins were getting more correct, we had a decently reliable flying lead change, her stops were getting better, we had switched to a bridle and were doing really well one handed. I was very pleased!

I was still considering getting a new horse though because Midori just wasn't where she needed to be so I could go play with the big kids this year. After some considering the situation and talking to my trainer about my options and Midori's potential, I decided that putting her in training for a month was my best option. She has potential and the trainer was confident that she could at least get her to a point that I could be competitive at the entry level, which is what I planned to do anyways. So off to training Midori went.

But that still left the issue of my being a weanie. I certainly didn't want to waste that money on training because I couldn't kick and I could definitely see Midori flipping me the hoof after her experiences with the trainer, who has about 10 inches and probably 60 pounds on me. Not to mention riding horses all day 6 days a week. So I decided to put myself "in training" as well. But I knew I needed to figure out some sort of reward/motivation and way of tracking my workouts so I could see what I was accomplishing.

This is what I came up with...

Gold stars. And ya know what? It's working! My goal is a minimum of 3 gold stars a week, totaling 12 for the month of February. So far I'm doing pretty darn good.

It is so satisfying and fun (in a totally pathetic, easily amused kinda way) to get done with my workout and go stick a star on the calendar. The calendar is in the kitchen so I see it often and it's a really good feeling to walk by and see lots of gold stars...

Yes, that is a Twilight calendar. Surprised? I didn't think so.

Anywho, at the end of the month if I stick to it and reach my goal I plan to reward myself with...something. I haven't quite decided what yet, but I'm leaning towards a mini shopping spree. I do love me some new clothes!

Besides the gold stars and looming shopping spree, the best reward that is surprising me at just two weeks in, is a visible improvement in the muscle tone of my legs. Definitely helps the motivation factor! And my stamina at my lessons. My trainer didn't even tease me at my last lesson! I even got my horse to grunt a time or two when I kicked her after she was naughty. Wohoo!

I think I'm liking this gold star thing! Hopefully I can stick with it for a while!

What gets you motivated? Do you post SI swimsuit models on the fridge and treadmill? Hang the bikini that you WILL get into this year where you see it all the time? Do you just have super duper self control and can stay motivated without little tricks?

In Other News...

Well, now that I've gotten those posts out of the way, on to 2010! This year is going to kick some serious booty, I just know it! 2009...well, it just kinda sucked, to be quite honest. Maybe it's just because it went out on such a sour note, I'm not really sure. It wasn't the greatest year, so I'm glad to be done with it and getting a fresh start in a new year. Decade even!

We started off the year riding our ponies. Doesn't get any better then that, does it? I was careful and used my "best judgement", but I rode. I got off regularly to check and make sure her guts weren't falling out (the exercise wasn't bothering her incision), since she had just gotten her stitches out and all, but it did just fine. We loped and she was enjoying herself, so I decided she would probably be just fine for the show over the weekend.

My goal for the first show of the year had been to finally, finally get our flying lead changes in our pattern. I was a little skeptical though. We hadn't had any lessons since the last show because of her lameness and surgery. The day before the show was the first real ride I had been able to have on her since the previous show more then a month ago. Yikes. While warming up I asked for lead changes and she did them with just a swish of the tail. I couldn't believe it. The pattern had changed for this show, the first time in years at the series, so I was ready to have some problems with Midori thinking she knew the pattern. And I did. She just knew that after 2 large fast and one small slow circle to the right, we were supposed to change leads and do those circles to the left. Unfortunately in pattern number 4 you stop and do 4 spins to the right after the circles. She was not about to stop. We had already changed leads (simple, as we had always done before) and were heading into the next circle, battling it out before she finally stopped. Damn. There went our score. Oh well. I finished the pattern nailing both of our flying lead changes. WOHOO!!! She was all sorts of confused when we walked out of there. That was certainly not the pattern she was trying to do! I was thrilled just for the fact that we got our flying lead changes. As you may remember, they've been a pretty major battle for us the whole time we've been together. We had a little "school the naughty pony" time, but for the most part I was pretty darn satisfied with the class, even though we didn't get a score.

The boyfriend won his beginner reining class, had a fabulous run, and then two handed his bratty pony in our rookie reining class, getting him a no score as well. It was still a good day. I was just so happy to be back on my horse!

Our lessons are going well. What few I've had. I did take a couple lessons on Sugar while Midori was out of commission. That was fun and a great learning experience. She is in a bridle so I had to ride one handed, which is always a challenge for me. It was good though, helped me relax a bit. We have been talking about getting a new horse for me because we're totally diggin' the reining thing and would like to get into it a little more. Midori isn't much of a reiner, so if I want to really get into reining, I'll need a different horse. Midori will still be my dink around with everything else horse, I still plan to do some cutting and rail shows, I'd like to do sorting again, stuff like that. Don't have a whole lot of cash floating around to put into a horse right now though, so that may have to wait a while.

We've got some ambitious plans for 2010. I'm hoping this will really be the year that we get our barn situated. And our arena. I won't hold my breath though. Of course there are the requisite pay off debt, save-save-save, get on the blasted tread mill and get in better shape, get organized, etc. resolutions that are always around. And plenty of house and yard projects that we'd like to tackle as well.

So here's to 2010! I hope you kick 2009's ass!

Midori...

Don't worry, Midori is still alive and kickin'. We had a rough couple of weeks with her too though. The same vet appointment that sealed Mister's fate also brought some news I wasn't expecting for Midori. She had just recently come up lame, which is not like her at all. She also had a small bump on her belly that had just recently gotten bigger. The vet wasn't particularly worried about the bump, but offered to remove it with a simple surgery and send it in for testing, so that's what we did. We did a lameness exam and concluded it was either an abscess or bruising. I left with antibiotics because of the surgery and instructions to soak and pack her foot, in case it was an abscess. Goodie, my favorite.

She trotted out sound after just a day, so that made me happy. Must have been bruising. The vet appointment was Thursday afternoon. The vet said she would probably have results back on the bump on Monday. Saturday afternoon I received a rather panicked sounding voice mail from the vet asking me to call her back as soon as I could. I honestly don't remember much of that conversation, other then the lump was a fibrosarcoma which is a malignant tumor. After some good ol' internet research, I was pretty much freaking out thinking my horse was dying. Everything that I read said that it is a very aggressive tumor that is difficult to get rid of unless caught early and removed entirely. It spreads quickly and there is really not much to be done about it. Great. Fan-flipping-tastic.

So two weeks, Christmas, a bunch of swelling, a second round of antibiotics and a whole lot of freaking out later, we went back to the vet on New Year's Eve to get her stitches out and have "the talk" in person. I was afraid to hope for good news and trying not to think of the possible bad news. I was pretty darn nervous.

Luckily, the news was all good. Great even. The lump was dermal so it shouldn't have spread internally. The margins on the removal were good, so it was all removed and the vet was confident that we caught it early. Of course I will still need to keep an eye out, there is always a chance that it may come back, but for now, that was the best news I could have asked for.

Better yet, she said I could ride her "immediately". I just needed to use my "best judgement" on how hard I ride. Well, I'm pretty sure her "immediately" and my "immediately" were a little different. She probably had a different idea for "best judgement" as well. Oops.

As soon as Midori was awake enough after being sedated, I loaded her up and headed straight to the arena. She was still a little drunk, so we just walked with a little bit of jogging. She had been pretty wound up before the vet, so it was probably a good thing she was still a little doped up, no funny business. Even though we took it easy and she was still a little drunk, it was one of the best rides I've had on her. I was so stinking happy that she seems to be okay!

Boot Camp, Shows and Mister

Midori and I have been working hard continuing with boot camp. Since the last post I have tried a few new things, one of them being switching bits to what I affectionately call my Miracle Bit. It's a gag bit and it's fabulous! Midori is almost soft in it! I'm not playing tug-o-war with her any more! She is way better and any time she thinks about hanging on the bit I can just bump her right off of it, though it does bother me wondering what made her so hard in the first place. I've always thought I had pretty soft/light hands. Regardless, it makes the lead changes so much easier! And of course as soon as we got her head under control other issues that were hindering our progress popped right out, which made it easier to understand why we were having so much trouble. Amazing how that works! Now that I know about those issues, we have been working on them and things are really coming along. Our lead changes still aren't pretty but atleast left to right they are consistant. Right to left, they are still a challenge, but she'll atleast DO them and even in a mostly collected manner (for us anyways).


So our lead changes are getting better. Still have a loooooong ways to go, but we are getting them. YAY! Our spins are looking more like very slow motion spins instead of watching and going, WTF are you trying to do?!? lol Our stops come and go, but I'm not sure that she'll ever slide. Our rating and circles are decent, we don't work on those much. She's spent the last 5 years rating and running in circles in drill, so that's not a concern for us at this point.

It's very exciting to feel that progress is being made! Unfortunately due to illnesses and scheduling conflicts we have ended up with a couple week break in lessons and riding for the most part. The ponies have all been a bit under the weather for the last week or so, recovering from a day or two of major runs, and with 2-3 shows coming up this month, I wanted to make sure they got a break and were 100% all better before we worked them too hard. Midori especially dropped a bunch of weight in a matter of days, but never got dehydrated or ran a fever and didn't look anything more then unhappy about her circumstances. I got them on Fasttrack and electrolytes to help their guts and make sure they didn't get dehydrated, but other then that I couldn't find much else that I could do for them. Sugar and Mister seem to have gotten over it just fine, but Midori is still not 100%. She was the only one that was ridden hard as she was getting sick and I wonder how much that has to do with it. I'm hoping she gets back to 100% this week! We've got our next show this coming weekend and I need to get a couple rides on her before then! We should still be able to take it pretty easy though, it's just one reining pattern and I don't think a lack of warm up time will be what hurts us. lol

There are two of the winter series shows this month and then we skip December. There is also another show at the arena that has a schooling reining pattern that we are thinking about going to. Practice is always good! They also have a trail class, which I really like so I might have to do that one too. Also happening this coming weekend is the awards/year end banquet for our cutting club. I'm looking forward to finding out if I get a buckle for my second place finish in that series!

In other news, I've gotten a few rides on Mister. We started with a new shoer who is aggressively correcting his club foot. The previous shoer was simply maintaining it and Mister had been pretty much chronically lame with abscess after abscess for most of the past 6-8 months. He's been mostly sound with this new shoer. Very exciting! From so much time off and so many issues though his shoulder was extremely atrophied so we spent a lot of time ponying him around or hand walking and light lunging to build his muscle back up. Other then some soreness, he's been just fine and in the last month or so I decided he looked ready to carry my butt around a bit. I've gotten 3 rides on him, even getting up to loping both directions. He is still, of course, very green, but seems much more confident packing a person around then he did last time I was riding him. He has been such a good boy! Last time I was on him the arena was pretty busy so I didn't want to push him with loping. He took everything going on around him in stride and stayed focused on what I was asking him to do, but instead of loping I decided to work on moving off my legs: sidepassing and pivoting on his haunches and forehand. He's very sticky with moving his shoulders or hips, though he seems to understand moving off my legs while I'm riding. He'll try to shape away from my leg or move over the direction I ask while he's going forward. It was a completely new concept for him when standing still, but after he got those wheels turning, he seemed to pick it up pretty quickly, I was pleased. I'm hoping to get some more time on him soon, but he was sick too and does still have some issues with lameness, so I don't want to push him too hard.

We had a wonderful day outside yesterday enjoying the sunshine and possibly the last of the nice weather. I only had one long sleeve thermal shirt on with my puffy vest! The ponies enjoyed some attention and a little TLC. I'm sure they appreciated having clean butts and tails, even though the water was cold. :) We got another paddock up for the boyfriends sister's horse that we are boarding and that freed up the arena-to-be area and got us motivated to have more sand brought in so we can atleast get the round pen up with some good footing. It would be really nice to have that available for turn out this winter and so that we have some where to atleast get the ponies some exercise on nice days, even if it's not great for getting any real work done with them.

Lots of work to be done, as always. And of course not enough hours in the day, but we'll get there! Atleast there is progress being made on many different fronts!

Hope you all are enjoying fall!

Winter Series and Boot Camp

Well, we started the Winter Series this past weekend. We did the Winter Series last year which is where I won my buckle. I won the Beginner Reining class which meant that I also got kicked up to the next class this year which has a real reining pattern and requires flying lead changes. I'm not really ready for the next class, but oh well. I've started lessons and I'm determined to be competitive in it by the end of the series. We are making progress on our flying lead changes, but they are still rough and very inconsistent. We still do not spin. Midori's head is still up in the air, she is not soft or light right now. We have a LOT of work to do, but we are making progress. I just have to keep reminding myself of that since I am having a hard time not getting discouraged and frustrated.


The boyfriend and Sugar are coming along fabulously with their lessons. Sug was a futurity flunkie and came to us as a 3 year old fairly broke reiner, though slightly neurotic. Sug knew way more then we did and we have since done a fantastic job of totally screwing her up. It isn't taking much for Sug's training to come back to her though. She is already back to doing beautiful flying lead changes, trying to slide when she stops, even though she doesn't have sliders on right now, and loping very nice circles framed up. They are improving in leaps and bounds, while I'm still struggling with flying lead changes and playing tug-o-war with my horse while she goes mach 5 around the arena refusing to change leads. It's hard not to get frustrated. I want a broke horse. I haven't had a broke horse since I was 12 or so and was riding my mom's QH Jingles. I'm pretty sure she was broke, even by my standards today. Every horse that I've had since then I've had to train to do what I wanted. Usually I enjoy it, I think I'd get bored just hopping on a finished horse all the time, but sometimes it just gets frustrating having to be patient and appreciate the baby steps.


After a particularly gruelling and unproductive lead changing attempt last week I was seriously writing up a sale ad for my horse, wondering how much I could get out of her and if it would be enough to buy a more broke reiner. One that at least did flying lead changes. Yes, I do have quite the hang up on flying lead changes. I have struggled with them ever since I've had Midori, they have always been an issue for us and they are the only goal I have repeatedly failed to accomplish with her.


We had another lesson together on Friday (me/Midori and the boyfriend/Sug) and once again I sneered at the boyfriend and Sug the whole time. They are such showoffs! Since it was the night before the show Midori and I didn't even attempt flying lead changes. We didn't want to start that battle and blow our mojo for the show. We still managed to get in a pretty good brawl over sidepassing. Sidepassing!!! She has always been good at that, it's practically second nature to her. She was being pissy and ended up throwing a major tantrum, which I just had to laugh at. Really it was pretty darn comical. When she finally got over it, we went back to work and the rest of the lesson went just fine. She was still a little bent out of shape when I was untacking her though. Mares! lol


The reining was Saturday morning and all I wanted was to complete the pattern correctly and as respectably as I could. I knew I was going into it with 4 penalty points already since we were going to do simple lead changes, but I figured we could at least do the pattern clean. And we did. I had a moment of panic wondering if I did 4 spins or had stopped early at 3, but I had counted right. Yay! They weren't pretty at all, actually they felt absolutely horrific, but we did them. I felt pretty good about the rest of our pattern, it was a respectable pattern for where we are at. That was all I asked of the day so mission accomplished.


There were 8 people in our class and when they announced the placings, usually from 3rd up, they only announced 2nd and a tie for 1st. I was 2nd. The boyfriend tied for 1st. What the heck?!? I couldn't believe I had 2nd place! We ran over to look at the score sheet and found that out of 8 people in the class 5 had gone off pattern and gotten zero's. Oops! My score was not good, I got a 62 1/2, but I was only 1 point behind the first place tie. They both did flying lead changes, so considering I had 4 penalty points for that and was still only 1 point behind them I was very pleased with our pattern!


I made sure our pattern was video'd so that I can (in theory) look back on it down the road and see how much progress I've made. I've decided to post it here, for your viewing displeasure. Feel free to skip the first minute or so, in fact, I highly recommend it. Seriously, our "spins" are worse then watching paint dry. They are baaaaad. And try to ignore the jibberjabbering. I couldn't think of a good song to put over it.






Overall it was a fun day, Midori behaved herself and didn't get pissy. We did turn back for a little bit while the boyfriend was cutting in the afternoon. That was fun! I've never done turn back before and Midori seemed to be totally diggin it. We have our next lesson tonight and a month to the next show so plenty of time for some major schooling without blowing our mojo. I'm still planning to be doing simple lead changes at the shows for probably the rest of this year. Yes, that is how bad we are. I'm going to shoot for having consistent, solid lead changes by the first of the year for the rest of the shows. Wish us luck!

So Close!

Well, we had our last cutting show of the year last weekend. It was a series of 6 shows that started back in April. I competed in the Green/Green class which is basically the easiest of all beginner cutting classes that there is. You don't even have to come out of a herd, they kick one cow out for you and you get to work for 2 minutes. You have the option of calling time for a second cow, but you only get two.

We've made it to all 6 shows of the series and I was leading the G/G class by a half a point heading into this last show. Half a point!!! You just don't get any tighter then that unless you're tied! I've been having some really consistently good work on the buffalo and the flag since the last show so I was pretty hopeful going into this last show. I was also really trying not to think about it too much. Certainly doesn't do anyone any good to be nervous!

Your run and score are also heavily dependent on the "cow gods", as we call them. Since you don't come out of the herd, you don't get to pick and choose which cow you get and you are stuck with whatever comes out that gate. It can be good and bad. I've had pretty decent luck all year and figured even if I got a runner, our work has been pretty solid lately so I didn't think I'd have too much of a problem.

I was wrong.

I entered the arena and they kicked a cow out for me. It just stood there, watching me come around to the back wall to push it up and start working. It was calm and seemed pretty laid back so I breathed a sigh of relief. We got behind it and started pushing it up and *poof* it was gone. I was able to keep her under control and never did loose my working advantage, but we did a lot of running. I called time with just under a minute to go. I was thankful they took some time to get the second cow out because Midori needed to air up a bit. Then the second devil...er...cow came out. Head and tail up, wildly looking around. I thought it was going to turn around and jump right over that gate before I could even get to it! Crap!!! I got behind it and didn't even get a chance to push it up before it took off. We kept it under control for a little while but then I lost it. We stumbled thru one turn and it was outta there. Ran around, hit the corner and pushed right thru us on the wall. Damn. Loss of working advantage. I brought it up again and worked for a little while longer, then it did the same thing again. I did get it stopped on the wall but that little bastard literally pushed us out of the way, which meant I had another loss of working advantage, right at the buzzer. Blast!!!

I'm not sure if he was just trying to comfort me or not, but one of my herd help told me that it was just bad cows, that last one I got was absolutely unstoppable, nothing I could have done about it. I know the cows I got were a lot more challenging then most of the other cows that came out for my class (seriously, I watched them all, I'm not just feeling sorry for myself here!), but looking over the video (again and again and again and again) we made a slow turn both times and should have been able to catch the cow before he ever got to the corner. Oh well. I got a 63, came in 2nd or 3rd to last in the class of 10. Ouch.

The bright spot in all of this is that I still got a 63! In cutting, you start out with a score of 70 and the judges adds or takes away points as your run goes, marking different columns on the score sheet with +/check/-. The lowest score you can get is a 60. Loss of working advantage is a 5 point deduction. I had two. Meaning, if I wouldn't have lost that cow twice, I would have gotten a 73, which would have won the class. Bummer. When I looked at the score sheet I had +'s all the way across, which is really good! I think that's the first time this year I've had all +'s! I was pretty darn excited about that so I'm trying to focus on that fact. I had a good, solid ride, I just got rowdy cows.

Also on the positive side, I was far enough ahead of everyone else in the class that I still ended up in second place for the series. WOHOO!!! Rumor has it that there are buckles to second place. I won't know for sure until the year end banquet, which won't be for another month or so.

So overall, I'm happy with the day. Our practice run went well too, Midori does really well going into the herd and I really think she likes playing with cows. Next weekend we start the winter series. I'll just be doing reining again for that since I want to really focus on getting Midori broke and more finished for a while. Should be another fun series!

Macro Monday

My Macro Monday post this week is "The Lip". I believe I'm mentioned before that my horse has rather large lips. It's pretty comical to watch how far she can stretch them when there is grass just outside of her paddock fence. And when she snoozes they get really droopy and it cracks me up to play with them.

Her lower lip always hangs down further and gapes open and you can stick your finger in there and the skin is all dry and she'll usually just sleep right thru me flapping it around and making her "talk" and all sorts of silly stuff. She puts up with a lot from me! lol

In these pics the girls were taking their afternoon siesta at our last cutting show of the year. We'd already had our runs and were just waiting to watch some friends go before we took off. Even Sugar looks a little tuckered out in this pic.


Midori was just totally zonked out though. I was almost surprised she didn't try laying down. You can see how wild they are. The boyfriend has to keep a watchful eye on them so they don't run off.

Or not. Sug perked up when she realized I had the camera. She's a total camera whore. Looooves posing for me! :)

Boot Camp!

Boot camp has commenced. I decided last spring that as soon as drill was over this season I was going to begin intensively working on getting my horse really darn broke. I want her light, responsive, soft, supple as well as doing flying lead changes, spins and stops. I'm sure our backing and roll backs can be improved upon as well, among other things. I want her to be able to do all of that framed up and on a loose rein. I want to feel like I deserve to wear my "Reining Champion" buckle, not laugh at myself when I put it on because I still cannot do a flying lead change, which, to me, is part of being a reiner, like needing oxygen is part of being human.

So as soon as drill was over mid-July I got to work. At first it was just working on my own, when I could manage to get on my horse. It was a busy few weeks so I didn't get as many oppurtunities to ride as I would have liked, but when I did I thought about where I wanted my horse to be and what I needed to do to get there and worked on it. I made progress and I was happy with it.

While I do love drill and it was very instrumental in getting Midori to where she is today, it has seemed lately that it is a little counter-productive to getting where I wanted to go with her. I had always drilled with Midori. With the exception of our end of the season break from mid-July to Labor day and holiday break from Thanksgiving to New Years and a hand full of skipped practices here and there, I've drilled Midori pretty darn faithfully every single Sunday for the whole 4 years that I've had her. I don't regret it. Not one bit. I think drill horses are amazing athletes and some of the most rock solid horses out there. But I am to a point where I want to really fine tune Midori and it needs consistent, dedicated work. I can't just forget it for practice every Sunday. I don't think that's fair. So I made a deal with myself that as soon as drill was over this season I would begin boot camp. And I did. I even enlisted some help and I'm pretty darn excited about it.

There is a trainer at the arena that we ride at. I finally got up the nerve to see if she could fit me in to her seemingly very hectic schedule. She found room for me and I had my first lesson in years last week. It was great! While I was a little disappointed that we ended up working on spinning and flying lead changes, I was still very pleased with the difference I could already see in Midori's responsiveness. I was amazed. It didn't seem like we had really done a whole lot, but I could definately feel progress was being made.

I feel like there are a lot of holes in our training, steps that we skipped, building blocks that we missed. I'm also aware that most of the "issues" we are having with progressing like I want to are just my lack of knowledge and experience. I've already gotten Midori further in her training then I thought I knew how to. I have to admit, I'm pretty darn proud of the little horse that I've made. Of course she's just a rock star in her own right, so I've had good help in the matter. But back to the holes....I wanted to kind of go back to the beginning and fill in those holes and gaps and work up from there, which is why I was disappointed that we ended up getting to work on flying lead changes on the first lesson. I did mention to the trainer that I'm doing the winter reining series, which starts in one month, so I'm sure she registered that and realized it's crunch time. Or maybe, and this is my reaching for the stars here, she just figured we are more ready for the big stuff then I feel like we are. I guess time will tell. Ultimately my goal is for my horse to be as close to a finished reiner as we can get with our limited resources, both financial and available local trainers (good trainers are hard to come by around here) and I'm just happy to have someone helping me learn how to reach that goal.

So for now I'm pleased with my new trainer. She is nice and seems to know what she's doing well enough. I'm happy to pick her brain for a while and it's way better then continuing to flail around on my own. I'm excited to see how we progress this winter! My next lesson is tomorrow and now that I've had over a week to digest the last one I've got all sorts of questions I want to ask and things I need to understand better. I'm excited. Progress is being made!

SAFE Benefit Horse Show

Well, I did it. I went to the SAFE Benefit Horse Show yesterday and I survived! It was a whirl wind day, but I have to say that it was such a wonderful show! Everyone was super nice, the whole thing was very laid back and it was just a great day! Very fun!

I decided to do a bit of everything at the show and ended up in ten classes. I started off the morning with Showmanship. I have done Showmanship before, back in my 4-H days, so I had an idea of what I was getting myself into. Unfortunately patterns have gotten a little tricky since my day and I only read the written description, didn't study the diagram, which did not describe the pattern entirely. Or I just managed to skip about half of it. lol I did the pattern totally wrong, but still walked out of the rather large class with a 5th place. Bummer I did the pattern wrong! Halter was next, which I've never done before. It was pretty simple though and we did well.

Wanna see something funny?

Check this out....

That's me and my little cutting/reining/drill horse riding english! I was laughing at myself pretty much the whole time. I felt like I was going to go flying right over her head! I rode english for the first time in 3-4 years the day before the show just to make sure the saddle and everything fit and I could really do it! I'm pretty sure it's the first time Midori has ever been ridden english. We only did two equitation classes because I don't really have a pleasure horse. The funniest part of the whole thing was the second equitation class that I went in I won. I couldn't believe it when they called my number for 1st place. I was cracking up!

After english we took a little break, changed saddles and headed over to the trail course. It was a pretty easy course, except for the little buggers tied to the fence to the right of me in this pic.

Yep, there were GOATS! Not just any goats, but Horse Eating Monster Goats! Midori was eye ballin' them as soon as we hit the log you see in the picture. She wouldn't hardly stand still to do the gate that I'm working on in that pic. Luckily she does trust me and will usually do what I ask so we made it past the goaties just fine and the rest of the course was a snap.

Some where in the course of the afternoon my camera got a smudge on the lens so most of the rest of the pictures have a big smudge across them, but there were still some cute ones!

This is us in a western class, probably one of my equitation classes. I did both pleasure and equitation classes in western. I went to the show with jrosey and we would give each other a super cheesy smile when we came around the arena and saw the camera pointed at us.

Here is my super cheesy pose with my first place ribbon in Western Equitation.

I also did bareback and survived! Oh my goodness that was a long class though! My legs were burning before we had even reversed! Guess I don't ride bareback enough!

I loved this picture, even with the smudge. The goaties' trailer was parked right by us and they were hanging out in the shade for a bit until it was time to go home so I took Midori over to visit with them for a bit.

WARNING: This is where I get a tad bit self-indulgent...I had fun at the show...

I've never walked away from a show with a wad of ribbons like that! It was fun! :-) In my 4-H days I wasn't bad, but I never won a class. I did get a 2nd place. Once. I would get in the ribbons here and there and was usually just good enough to make it to state or championship classes, but then I was bottom of the pack there, so this was new and very exciting for me!


The best part.....

I won the western high point! Well, technically I tied for the western high point, but they broke the tie with our overall scores, which means it was a darn good thing I did english! I couldn't believe I won though!!! I was so excited! On top of the super cool big fat ribbon I got a cool little western package that included a pretty purple saddle blanket and a pretty nice headstall. Wohoo! That was a VERY fun way to end the day!

It was a great day and I'd highly recommend the SAFE Benefit Horse show to anyone wanting to dip their toes in the show world, looking for an excuse to get their horse out, former 4-Her's wanting a rail class fix (like me) or anyone that shows regularly! It's just a really fun show! And the Bribe Your Horse class at the end of the day was just hilarious to watch!

Updates ~ I Am Alive!

Yes, I am alive! Even though I've only managed to get some of the Sunday Stills posts up for the last umm...4 weeks. Yikes! Man, time funs when you're having flies! Or something like that.

So lets go back and start at my state meet for drill. Midori looooves going to shows because she gets a nice clean stall and shavings to roll around in. Seriously, not 5 minutes after I stick her in the stall this is what she looks like. Isn't she the cutest pony ever?!

The state meet went well. Of course it wasn't without drama, but it was all resolved fairly early on and the rest of the weekend went well. I remembered all the drills, loped a couple of them for the first time that weekend. It was really fun! We came in 6th over all out of 13 teams. Not fabulous, but considering all the shaking up and filling spots and switching around we did, not too shabby!

This is me in Freestyle. I was the only flag. I liked my spot though, other the Midori running off with me a bit. She liked being on the outside of the sweep for a lap and a quarter and didn't want to check back to make he 90 degree turn into the center to be on the outside of the crack.

Also, notice we are on the wrong lead in this pic? We're not going to talk about that.

We are also not going to talk about this...

I will say that our quad placed 6th (I think) out of like 20 something teams, so that was fun! It was a fun ride, but the first time I had loped that drill this year and to say we hauled ass in an understatement.

About 2 hours before I rode the flag in Freestyle I was at a cutting show. The timing ended up working out perfectly, I was so happy! We had a fabulous ride, Midori really cowed up and I think enjoyed the break from the drill team boot camp she had suddenly found herself in. We didn't score well, but I was thrilled with our ride considering we hadn't worked buffalo in a couple weeks. The boyfriend called me as I was pulling in back at the drill meet and informed me that my score had held for 2nd place! Yahoo!!!

That was a very fun weekend. It was nice to hang out with my drill team again and I've always loved state.

Next update: Chey has kitties for lunch!

Just kidding! She got to meet them for the first time without bars between them! She was SOOO excited, she could hardly contain herself. Just imagine her little nubbin tail going a mile a minute here.

The kitties were just as curious about her. Chunk was a little more timid about walking right up to her and tended to keep her distance, but Legs would walk right up to her, rub up against her, roll over in front of her and swat at her.

Chey did really well with them, though did get a little excited a few times. She is definately intense and we keep an eye on her to make sure she's not mauling them to death on accident. Do you see the kitty tail sticking out from under her paw in this picture?

She loves to nibble them, like sort of cleaning, like I imagine a momma would do to her puppies. She also stands over them protectively. She really is gentle and good with them, just really intense. Go figure, since she's an Aussie. Since she didn't eat them for lunch that time we let them out in the house to play now. For the most part it is just fine, though there have been some epic chases. The kittens run from Chey playfully, she tears after them, the cats go oh sh**! and run, Chey continues to chase them...etc. And then there is the comedic relief that is Chey trying to herd kittens. Oh my goodness, funniest thing ever! She just does not understand why it doesn't work! She tries to push them up and they lay down in front of her. If she does happen to herd them together for a second, they'll take off in opposite directions. You can just see the smoke coming out of her ears as she tries to decide which one to chase!

The kittens haven't gone outside yet, but I guess it's getting to be that time. I just have to let go of my overprotective tendencies and kick their butts outside. They are also officially June Bug and May Belle now. Legs is June Bug and Chunk is May Belle. I still call them Legs and Chunk most of the time though. They are getting huge! And rambunctious! Holy cow, they are tearing my house apart! Part of why they need to go outside!

We had another cutting show a couple weeks ago. That one didn't go so well. It had been really hot, record highs around here, and we hadn't been riding at all. The cows I got were just awful and my turn back riders were no help at all. Sugar was full of piss and vinegar and Justin was having no luck with her either. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be having an off day, so my 65 held for a tie for 4th and 5th out of 8 riders. I'm still hanging on to 1st place in the series by a half point. No pressure for the next show, huh? Ugh!

The week leading up to that show we learned that the boyfriends mom had been admitted to the hospital and was scheduled to have open heart surgery. That made for a very hectic week, going up to the hospital every evening. We were also trying to get our house and yard presentable because we were hosting my small family reunion a couple weeks later. I had just started a painting project when we found out she was in the hospital, and what should have taken me 2 evenings to finish up ended up taking me a full week. We were busy and it just wasn't a fun time. But the surgery went well and she is doing good. It's amazing how staining the deck and planting flowers in the front flower bed are suddenly not a priority when stuff like that happens. :-) We did manage to get the house and yard somewhat presentable and the reunion was fun. We had tons of leftovers so I haven't had to cook all week and I was really happy to have a clean, clean house for the first time in a while!

This week and weekend has been really nice to catch up, relax and just not have any big obligations. I really love summer and the sun and warm temps, but fall is by far my favorite season just because it's not as crazy busy as summer. Next weekend I will be attending the SAFE horse show. That should be interesting! It's been a while since I've done pleasure, equitation and showmanship classes! And I'm doing a halter class, which I've never done. No clue what I'm doing there! :-) I'm looking forward to it though! I do miss rail classes every once in a while.

So that's my story. Nothing terribly interesting, but it's been a busy, busy summer!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summers!

Progress!!!

Whoa! Check me out! I quit reading and y'all get 3 posts in 3 days! hehe

Anywho, on to my very exciting story of progress...

So I've had Midori for going on 4 years now I believe. When I got her she was really, really green. She had been a trail pony and could go down a trail quiet as can be but didn't have much steering, no back, no brakes, not much of anything other then go forward, follow the leader. So I've been working hard to install things like power steering, brakes, bending, giving, etc. etc. The one thing that I've been wanting to do on her and have made my personal goal and mission in life for the past 3 years is flying lead changes. I believe I've mentioned the elusive flying lead changes here before. We have not been able to get them. I watch her in the pasture and she doesn't generally do them naturally either. So this year I've been trying really hard to work on the basics behind the flying lead change so I can maybe, just maybe, get this goal accomplished.

For a little background I'll tell you how I've been taught to do flying lead changes. I know there are all sorts of different ways to do it, but this is the way I've been shown and the way I try to do it. You basically make a big figure 8 in the arena, going straight across the diagonal, around the short end, down the diagonal, around the short end. Say you start out on the right lead. You come around the short end and head straight down the diagonal lifting the right shoulder and kicking the hip in to the right. To ask for the lead change you then push their hip the other direction and lift up their other shoulder. With that, they should change leads, back to front, and continue on their straight line down the diagonal, around the short end, up the diagonal, repeat.

Those are the basic mechanics of the flying lead change I'm going for. I've never actually taken a "real" (aka paid for) lesson on flying lead changes, but it is what I've picked up from the short little free Tuesday night clinics I've had the opportunity to attend and wherever else I can glean information from. Funny story: as much as I'm a total book whore, for some reason I am not great at transferring techniques from book to horseback. I don't know why, but it's never helped me much to read about how to do things with my horse.

Anyways, I've been working really hard on getting her hips to move and her shoulders up the last few months. We've always had a hard time with her hips so I've been paying extra special attention to that. Every time I ride I make her move her hips in and out, in and out. I've been doing lots of forehand pivots and backing in circles too. All trying to get her moving better off my legs.

Apparently it's paid off! I still have a very looong ways to go, but in the past week I've gotten a few flies out of her. The first time I was at a friends house riding and decided, eh, what the heck, I'll give it a try. First time, NAILED it! Unfortunately I was not able to replicate it that night, but it certainly gave me some food for thought! Then tonight our drill practice was cancelled, but I had already hauled to the arena so I decided to get a good ride in anyways. After watching the boyfriend show off for a while on Sugar (she does effortless flies) I decided to take another stab at the flying lead change thing. The first one she changed the front right away and then the back a few strides later. Try number two, she nailed. Try number three, got the front, back a few strides later. Four, nailed. You noticing a pattern here? She can change from right to left pretty easy, left to right - not so easy. She is also much better moving her hip right to left, not so much left to right, so I'm not terribly surprised.

So WAY exciting that I'm getting some flying lead changes in! I'm absolutely ecstatic that I'm getting there! Unfortunately, I do still have quite a ways to go. What I didn't mention is that by the time we get the fly in we are doing mach 5 around the arena and as soon as she changes she dives into it. After the first one she takes off as soon as I put my leg back and pick up the reins. Then when I ask for the change, she changes, then drops the shoulder I'm trying to lift and totally throws herself into a turn, even though we are in the middle of the arena. The taking off part isn't a huge deal like it used to be. I know she is still under control and all I have to do is pull her into a small circle at the end of the arena and she slows right back down. Or if I wanted to I could sit down and ask her to stop and she would, on a dime. It's been a while since I've been comfortable going mach 5 on her though so it's kinda fun. Plus, I'm getting flies out of her so I'm beyond excited!

I know I've still got a loooong ways to go, but I know I'm getting closer! And any progress on this very frustrating and slow to come goal is very exciting for me! At least now I know we can. I just have to work on getting her to slow down and move her hips without racing and stay on a straight line. I think now that I'm at least getting the fly in it should be easy enough for me to break it down piece by piece and get it going better.

That's all for now. I just had to record this momentous day for posterity. :)

Another Fun Day

This is my favorite way to spend a day...

And that is how I spent a good chunk of my day today. I was a happy girl! We had a horse show, but even after sitting on my horse for a solid 4 hours I wasn't ready to be done with her when I got home. I jumped on bareback with the halter and let her graze while I sprawled on her back, trying to figure out how the heck I used to be able to do that and not fall off! Sometimes I really miss being a flexible, bouncy little kid! It was a nice way to wind down from the show for both of us.

The show was fun, but the cow gods were not smiling on me today and Midori and I just weren't on the same page. I was sore from battling thistles the night before and she felt stiff and I could tell her head wasn't in the game. She was hanging on the bit and not bending and I just had a feeling it was not going to be our day.

It wasn't. The cows we got were little pistols. They shot out of the gate and stood there, tail and head in the air, just daring me to try to push them around. I've been trying to let Midori work more on her own lately since she's really been cowing up, but that didn't work out so well for me today. By the time I would realize she wasn't going to stop and turn on her own with the cow and got to telling her what to do myself the cow had already turned and we were behind. It just wasn't our day. We lost our working advantage twice. That's the first time this year that's happened to me and to have it happen twice in one run was very frustrating. I may have cursed the second time it happened. Loudly. I still made it out of there with a 65, the lowest score I've received in my lengthy cutting career (4 shows), which landed me in 5th place out of 10. Not horrible, but I was a little disappointed with our run.

The boyfriend, on the other hand, was a total rock star on his run! Sugar was amazing! She was all over those cows like white on rice! She totally cowed up and he got a couple really good cows and they had a really great run, scoring a 70, which put them in first place. It also marked the first time the boyfriend has beat me at cutting. I'm sure I'll be hearing about it for a while.

Even though my run wasn't the greatest it was still a fun day. I love spending time with my horse and the boyfriend so I can't hardly complain.

In other news: Day 2 of no reading just sucks. I'm trying to not think about it, but I did catch myself in the office looking at the "books to be read" shelf. I made myself go outside and feed the critters and finish weeding around the raspberries instead. When I was finished with that I came back in the house and layed on the couch staring at the ceiling for a while, wishing I had a book to read. Then I made a pound cake and strawberry soup. While the pound cake was baking I was wishing I had a book to read. So I loaded pics from the day and got to blogging. I'm sure as soon as I'm done with this I'll wish I had a book to read. Maybe I'll just watch a little tv. Or maybe I'll go grab a book. I did do a bunch of laundry, baked a cake, did the dishes, finished weeding the raspberries...all very productive, so I deserve a reward, right? A reward like, say, getting to pick a book to read, right?! *sigh*

Off to watch a little tv and try to be good atleast a little bit longer.

Mission Accomplished!

Warning: gloating, self-promoting and bragging may follow and for that I'm truly sorry, but I'm pretty darn proud of myself! I got my back bone back a heck of a lot quicker this time then I have before. I totally Cowgirled Up today!

Ok, so after all of that I probably don't have to actually point it out, but I accomplished my goal of not hitting the dirt today. Wohoo! Go me!

I was still pretty darn sore this morning when I woke up, but quite a bit better then Friday (aka: the day after I learned that I don't bounce). I couldn't lift a stapler with my right arm at work on Friday because I was so sore but I was feeling much better today and even managed to tack my horse up all by myself! Wohoo! Go me! (2)

We got to the arena with plenty of time to get warmed up and hang out before we went in, which was the idea.

We some how managed to get totally front row parking. Wohoo! Go us! (2-1/2)

While we were getting tacked up one of the cows somehow managed to sneak out of the cutting pen, make it thru a half arena full of "cowhorses", squeeze thru the bungeed shut gate and get out into the parking lot. It always cracks me up when cows get out and it's such a huge deal to get them rounded up when we are all there to, ya know, work cows. We blocked it from heading in the direction of the street and it ran off down the lane of turnout paddocks. Eventually someone got it rounded up and back to the holding pens. Our girls were watching the whole thing intently, eyes bugged, nostrils flared so I had to grab my camera. Plus I love any excuse to take a picture of my horse's ass and post it. Doesn't she have a great ass?!?

Anyways, where was I...oh yes...we got tacked up and the half of the indoor arena allotted to warming up seemed a little crowded so we opted to hit the outdoor one for a bit. While I was long trotting a lap to make sure she wasn't going to find anything that would give her an excuse to take off bucking, I was putting a little contact on the reins and thinking something didn't feel right. I looked down at her head and saw that I had apparently lost the chicago screw holding the headstall to my bit. Yikes! I totally had a panic moment of the "oh my god, it's an omen. I shouldn't be riding today. It's a bad sign. I should just stick her back in the trailer, wish the boyfriend luck and call it a day!" Then I laughed at myself, hopped off, unclipped my rein, put it around Midori's neck, walked back to the trailer and found myself another chicago screw. I always keep extras in the trailer cuz you just never know when you will loose one. So, wohoo! Go me! (3-1/2) For not giving in to the panic and just getting back on!

Midori was still a little jumpy and snorty getting warmed up, but nothing uncontrollable. I was having fun on her and while I still had the little nagging voice in the back of my head saying, she could buck! I knew she wouldn't and I trusted her. I do love my horse and I trust her to take care of me. I just have to think ahead and be sure to do what I need to do to keep us in good situations.

Eventually the rain caught up to us, Sugar left us and Midori was starting to get antsy to see her friend. I got a couple good laps out of her, made sure she knew who was in control and that she didn't need her girlfriend by her side in order to survive and then we headed to the indoor arena where it was a little drier. We loped for a good long time in there too and then went over to the rail to watch some of the action.

My practice run was just before my class and I was first in the draw for both. I hate going first! While I was sitting there watching the crazy cows running every where, plowing horses over, scrambling to the wall and getting away from the horse over and over again, I started going to bad places in my head. I started picturing me getting cows like that and Midori freaking out and dumping me. The panic started rising and I was getting nervous. I felt my whole back tense up and my breathing turn a bit quivery. My hands weren't so steady on the reins so I crossed my arms and buried them. I closed my eyes and just sat there, taking deep breaths and trying to be calm for my horse. She knows when I'm nervous.

I decided we needed to ride some more. That seemed to be the only thing that kept my mind out of bad places. There were so many people riding around in the small space that I had to keep my mind in the game otherwise we'd have a wreck on our hands. So we walked some and loped some and I just concentrated on my breathing and not running into anyone. It helped. It cleared my head and made me realize that today Midori was totally solid so I had nothing to worry about. And that was that. My demons were beat. That was the last of my panic for the day. Wohoo! Go me! (4-1/2)

Finally, we are on the last couple riders in the class before my practice run. I loped around a little bit and then I was up. I picked one of the more vocal and helpful herd holders to help me and explained to him that it was my first time coming out of the herd and I just wanted to basically practice going into and coming out of the herd, not so much working. I just wanted to calmly and quietly walk thru the cows. He understood and helped me get the rest of my crew (4 riders out there with you, two herd holders and two turnback riders) and we were off! The herd of cows that I had were pretty jumpy and scattered before I even got into them. I made a couple deep cuts, picked a cow, cut it out, split it off and then turned around to go make another cut. I had 3 minutes to practice and a couple times I brought a cow out that just begged to be worked. So I did! I did get a runner, but it never even crossed my mind to be scared. We were solid. Midori did awesome and though I probably looked like a total newbie out there just screwing around, I wasn't doing that practice run for the working practice. I wanted the time in the herd, to be one with the cows. lol So the practice run was a total success and I walked out grinning ear to ear and hugging Midori's neck. Wohoo! Go me! (5-1/2)

Then it was time for my class. I wasn't worried about it at all. I had just come out of the herd for the first time and I survived! One little cow wasn't anything to worry about! And they weren't! The first cow I got was slow. The turn back riders had to move in a bit to keep her moving, but we got some really nice work with her! I called time with a minute left and they got me another cow. This one came into the arena with tail and head high. Hmmm....My time started again before I had a second to think about the implications. This one was a runner. But we worked it. And we worked it pretty darn well if I do say so myself. Even a couple times when he challenged our space and tried to chargy by on the wall Midori held her ground and we were all over that cow like white on rice! Wohoo! Go me! (6-1/2)

I did get a couple nice reminders of my fall while working that cow though. I have a really nice bruise on the inside of my thigh from (I believe) hitting the horn on my way off. Well, we had a couple hard stops while working that second cow and I slid into the pommel of the saddle. It hurt. A lot. But that didn't stop me! Wohoo! Go me! (7-1/2)

Finally the buzzer sounded, signalling the end of my run. Once again, I walked out of the pen grinning ear to ear. It was great! We scored a 72! Wohoo! Go me! (8-1/2)

I ended up getting second in the class, which also came with a nice little jackpot. Wohoo! Go me! (9-1/2) I don't remember exactly how many people were in the class but I'm pretty sure it was some where in the neighborhood of 6-8.

So it was a great day. Not only did I not hit the dirt, but I had a great practice run and won 2nd place in my class! I'd call that a success!

The boyfriend did pretty well in his classes also. Sugar had only been ridden once since before his surgery and was more then a little high spirited. Luckily she's "well behaved" when she's a spaz so not so much bucking or rearing, just whinnying, squirming, dancing, prancing, wiggle-worming, energizer bunny type stuff. She was still going strong when we walked out of the arena after probably 3-4 hours of loping. I'm totally not kidding. She's the freakin' energizer bunny, just keeps going and going and going and going.

I grabbed my camera after my run and took pictures of the boyfriend's runs and tons of random pictures. 99.9% of them didn't turn out well enough to make it here, but below are some of the ones I liked.

Midori watching the action.

The boyfriend warming up for his first class. That was the calmest Sug looked the whole entire day and I'm sure they only time she walked on a loose rein. I'm glad I caught it on "film" for posterity.

Peekabo! I see you!

After their second class. Don't they look happy? They had a pretty good run!

My pretty pony at the end of the day.



Mom, seriously! Enough with the camera! Will you put the thing down and come get this saddle off me already?!

So that's my loooong story and I'm stickin' to it! I got second place today and I definately did not hit the dirt! Wohoo! Go me! (10-1/2)

Did you ever think you'd read a blog that said "Wohoo! Go me!" 10-1/2 times?!? lol

I Don't Bounce!

I know I don't bounce any more. I've known for quite a while that I don't bounce.

I miss being able to bounce. When you bounce, you can be fearless. Since I've realized that I don't bounce so well any more, I've gotten quite a bit more cautious and, well, to be perfectly honest, a little chicken shit.

I guess I need to be reminded every once in a while that I don't bounce. Seems to be the nature of the "biz" (horses). And it always seems to happen just as I'm getting my back bone back after the last "I don't bounce" experience.

I really have no one to blame but myself. It was avoidable. I should have been smart and spoken up and just said "NO", but I didn't. And I got a refresher course on just how much I really don't bounce.

I hit the dirt last night.

I hit the dirt hard.

It's been quite a while since I actually hit the dirt. I've been bucked off a few times, but have managed to not actually hit the dirt one way or another. One time I landed on a rather springy bush that just sort of floated me over the ground. One time I ended up on Midori's neck, though the saddle horn and my tailbone are not friends after that one. I've been trying to think of when the last time I really actually hit the dirt was. It's been a while. There was the time that she took off bucking when I was half way on, but I don't really count that since I wasn't technically "mounted". Plus that was gravel. I think the last time I really hit the dirt was when I was starting Fancy. I think. I could be wrong, seems like I've been dumped since then, but it could be that I've just avoided actually "hitting the dirt" every time since then.

Anyways, back to last night...it was a dark and stormy night...oh wait, no it wasn't. It was partly cloudy, but a little windy and cold. That should have been my first hint. I know weather affects horse's attitudes. I hadn't been on Midori since Sunday. She was an angel that night and we worked pretty hard. It was also sunny and upper 70's.

We were headed to the arena to work the new buffalo. I was anxious to work because we have our first cutting show of the season on Saturday and we haven't done much cutting work since the end of last season, which was September.

I was really cranky headed there and all business with my horse, just focusing on getting on, getting work done, getting home. I was looking forward to riding and being on my horse, I needed the therapy for sure, but I was more focused on getting ready for the show and not really paying attention to my attitude or Midori's. Strike 1.

I got tacked up and walked in the arena and over to the buffalo pen to say hi to everyone and see what the new buff's were looking like. The one in was sort of being a pill, not wanting to work along the wall, but was relatively quiet. As I was sitting there chatting about the upcoming show, my name was called. I was up for a turn. I wanted to argue, I hadn't warmed up, I needed to go lope a bit, but then I thought about the show on Saturday and wanted that turn! I wanted to work that buff because I needed the practice! So I went in without warming up. Strike 2.

Midori was hesitant, jittery, spooky and snorty. She walked into the pen alright, but about jumped out of her skin the first time the buff turned to look at us. I was still cranky and thinking, cowgirl up, let's get'r done! We're going to work this buff whether you like it or not! We got one turn in with the buff on the wall. It turned back towards the corner and then charged, trying to get by us on the wall. I dug my spurs in, telling Midori to get her ass over to the wall and stop that buff! Strike 3. I was out.

I don't even know what happened. I blinked and the next thing I remember, we were facing the opposite direction and I was looking at the ground with the rest of my body following. I remember seeing Midori's front SMB boots and her nose between them and then my hands headed for the sand right next to them and thinking please don't step on me! But that's it. I have no idea how we got turned around facing that direction. I don't remember thinking, oh, she's going to bucking, I didn't have time to register anything. I hardly had time to register that I was falling off before I hit the ground. I just plain got bucked the fuck off. Excuse my french, but that's what happened.

I landed pretty much face first, then my shoulder and chest took most of the impact. I got the wind knocked out of me. I thought I had sand papered the whole side of my face off. By the time I got my eyes open, Midori had bucked to the other side of the pen, hit the panels turning around, taking a chunk out of my saddle and was on her way back my direction, still a bronc. Part of me went oh sh**, I need to get up so I don't get run over! Then my lungs said, oh no you don't! I made it to a sitting position before I realized that I really couldn't breathe. I'm not really sure what happened after that because all I could think about was that I couldn't breathe. And I had a mouth FULL of sand. Ugh. I heard someone say grab her (Midori), then I heard someone yell for the boyfriend (he was off being smart and warming his horse up!) and he came over and asked if I was ok. I said ya, I think so, just trying to get my wind back. Then I asked if my face was bleeding. He said no, nothing yet. Then he told me to get up.

Me: 'Scuse me?

The boyfriend: Get up! You need to get up.

Me: Ummm...no. No I really don't need to get up.

The boyfriend: You really need to get up. Get up! You need to stand up!

Me: Ummm...NO. This sand is damn comfy. I really need to lay here. A nap right here would be fabulous actually. You sure my face isn't bleeding? Oh, and I got my dinner. Though I don't recommend sand. It's not all that tasty.

The boyfriend: Ya, you're funny. Now get up. If you still can't catch your breath, stand up and put your arms straight up over your head.

Me: Say wha?!? Um, no. I am catching my breath just fine laying here on the comfy-cozy soft sand thank you very much.

I'm not sure if the arms over your head thing is for reals or not, I know my old boss used to tell me to do that when I had the hiccups or something, but it was just to yank my chain and make us both laugh. I did eventually sit up though. It took me a good long time sitting there to pick enough sand out of my eyes, nose and mouth that I felt like I could actually breathe and see. The boyfriend nagging me to get up the whole time. While I was sitting there I looked over to see where the animals were. One of the other riders was holding Midori outside of the pen and the buffalo was standing about half way across the pen staring at me. I swear it looked like she felt bad about the whole situation. I think I like buffalo.

So I got my reminder that I don't bounce. All things considered, I was pretty darn lucky. Other then a few pretty good bumps and bruises on my legs, some scrapes on my hand, half of my face looking rather nicely exfoliated (though no bleeding or scabs, I think my baseball cap bill folding over my face saved me) and some seriously sore muscles, I'm fine. Oh, and I broke a nail. I know...tragic.

The most frustrating part of all of this is now I'm feeling timid on Midori with cows. I'll always have that fear in the back of my head when cow charges and instead of beating feet to get where I need to be, I'm afraid I'll hesitate out of fear for just that split second that will make the difference between a good run and a lost cow.

I got back on her after I had brushed myself off. I was definately stiff and sore already and my guts were pretty shook up and still trying to get settled again, but we loped. A lot. I'm sure some of my soreness today is from all the loping we did. After a while I was out of breath so we stopped to air up and watch the buff's for a bit. The boyfriend was trying in vain to work one that absolutely would not move. She was slow and just refused. I asked to have a turn with her before they swapped her out because I thought she would be a good confidence builder for us. We went in and just quietly walked around for a bit and inched closer and closer. At first I just drove the buff around a bit, making her move away from us. After she got moving we tried to do a little boxing, but as soon as I moved away from her hip (driving) to her head she would stop and turn and just stand there. So we'd drive some more. A couple times she turned around and looked at us and I made Midori just stand there quietly. Not sure if that is bad for cutting or not, but I felt that Midori needed it for her confidence. After she stood quietly for a bit, I would put Midori back on the hip or shoulder and make her push that buff around some more. A couple times the buff tried running around the side of us, in that same corner, which was a total heart stopping moment for me, but Midori only skittered a little bit and this buff was a lot more timid then the other one and would just stop.

That buff did her job. I think she was good for us after what had happened. I felt better and a little more confident with Midori, but I'm still interested to see how the show goes this weekend. We loped a whole bunch more, until I was exhausted from having to push her so hard to keep going because she was totally dragging and then went back over to the buff pen to watch some more. Midori was still jumpy when the buff would come running to the side we were standing on, but I made her work the buff a bit thru the fence, with the other rider in the pen and she did alright.

I'm entered in the Green/Green class on Saturday, which is not out of the herd. They kick one cow out for you to box. They are also rerun cows, so a bit calmer in theory. I am also signed up for a practice run which is out of the herd. That will be the first time we've ever come out of the herd, so it should be interesting. I'm just sort of dreading the whole thing now. I'm picturing me getting a runner and Midori freaking out and taking off bucking and leaving me in the dirt, again, in front of all those people. And the judge. Ugh.

My goal for the show tomorrow is to not hit the dirt. How sad is that?!? I'm going to a horse show with the goal of not hitting the dirt. Wow.

Wish me luck!