Weekend Update:

Yes this is going to be long!

Thursday night we got the ponies out and practiced barrels in the pasture. The kids for some reason couldn’t figure out the pattern so I jumped on Abby to show them and woo hoo the rodeo began.

As soon as I whacked her with the crop her back legs came up and her head went down. This happened a few times so we moved to the RP. She was not a happy camper at all! The bigger the fit the faster we went. Her behavior made me very nervous about taking her Saturday to the show.

Friday night we loaded up the ponies and hauled over to the arena to “practice” at the arena. I let Chase start out on Abby & figured I’d get on only if she was being bad. Of course she was an angel. The kids kept doing the pattern wrong (going to the outside instead of the inside of the barrels) so I figured Saturday would be a joke.

Saturday we loaded up ALL of the horses and headed over to the arena. The kids did all of the classes (it was an all games show), DH & MIL did most of the classes, my sister (who is scared to death of horses) rode in a few classes & actually enjoyed herself and I rode a few as well.

Here are just a few pics.

Chase & Shari doing the egg & spoon race. Chase dropped his egg before they even started the class but they gave him another one.





Then they did the candy bar race



They all got their patterns correct and Chase even won his division for barrels.

Tybo even joined in the fun and did a barrel pattern (I’m standing on the other side of him holding his hand/jeans and MIL is leading Sis).



I even “ran” LLL in barrels and poles. We had a 5 minute pattern time but it was fun. She spooked at a shadow on the ground in the arena though – silly horse. LOL

We had TONS of compliments on Abby. I think I could have easily sold her a few times. She was great with Chase and didn’t give him any flack until the end and I think she was just tuckered.

Needless to say we came home with a lot of happy children (and adults) and a stack of ribbons. We have to wait for them to post the results so we know who got what.


Sunday I helped out with a NBHA event at the arena and then came home and saddled up LLL. We worked on flexing, yielding the HQ, and then ORS. She kept trying to go back to the barn so we had to make that a not so nice place to be. She did get pretty upset with me a few times when I whacked her. Her “defense” it to turn sharp and fast to try to throw you off balance. I just pulled her head around and whacked her on the butt harder and then asked her to do what I originally had asked her to do.

We finally started getting some nice, smooth transitions so we moved into the RP and I just loped. I worked on me more trying to get into rhythm with her instead of riding against her (which I feel like I’m doing sometimes).

After that I hopped off and did some RP stage 2. She wasn’t thrilled. Once she was good and tired and following me around I unsaddled her and put on her halter. I then put the long line around her belly and proceeded to see if I could lay her down. She struggled a little bit and my ½ hitches weren’t hooked right (which didn’t help) but without too much of a battle she went down.

I rubbed all over her. She got VERY upset when I touched her nostrils. I mean to the point of trying to bite me while she was down. So once she got better about it (not perfect just better) I asked her to get up. I had to kick her pretty darn hard to get her to move. Once she came up to her belly she laid there for a minute or two and then went flat on the ground again. I finally got her up and then asked her to go down again.

She didn’t “struggle” as much this time but instead stayed up on 3 legs with her face crammed in the dirt. I swear her teeth have to be dirt covered. This time when she went down she fell like a ton of bricks! She hit hard but she went on the opposite side as last time so I was able to rub her other nostril. She wasn’t as bad about the right side.

When I finally got her up I rubbed her nostrils and surprise, surprise, there were no issues. She followed me around like a lost puppy dog. I think she had a very humbling experience.