I should have stayed home!

Saturday was just one of those days when you know you should have just stayed home. It started off with my first show where MIL and I took Cat. Cat was great! She was calm and quiet and didn’t spook at anything. She nickered a bit but that’s to be expected the first time out.

Here she is prior to her class. Doesn’t she look excited?





Isn’t she pretty!





We headed in, passed the judge and proceeded to go into our trot where my ankle proceeded to roll and I fell flat on my face. Cat jumped sideways to get out of the way but didn’t spook. I got up, brushed off my pants, sucked it up and went and stood Cat up in line. She looked like a miniature compared to the beast in the class with her.





We placed 3rd out of 3. I’d be a bit more disappointed if I actually bred for halter horses but I don’t and I’m not too sure I’d really want a horse that looked like the one behind us. I did however like the third filly. She was very refined.



When we got back I saddled up Max and rode him for a bit. He was very stiff and wanted to run instead of lope but we worked through it and he looked like a million dollars by the time we were done! It was hot so we didn’t work very long.

Then we had Chase’s show. My niece and nephews where at the show as well so I didn’t take a horse for myself but instead we took Nikki, Abby and Sis. Chase started things off with his walk/trot class on Abby. He decided to take her because “it’s not about winning mom, it’s about having fun”. LOL can you tell my lectures are starting to sink in.

He managed to get 2nd but not by much. Abby trotted around nicely but Chase needs to learn how to pass the horse in front of him not just stick on it’s butt.

Then MIL had her walk/trot class. There were a lot of nice horses in this class (very large class compared to normal). She placed 2nd! Woo hoo! Sis looked really nice. There were a few not so happy people at the end of the class. Not sure if they were upset on how they place or how others placed.

MIL also got 2nd in western pleasure. Sis’s lope just isn’t that great right now and we need to work on it more (I always say that don’t I).

Then Chase went into the arena for open riding prior to barrels and poles. Typically we don’t let him go in unless Brandon or I ride in with him because it’s all of the barrel/pole horses going mach 10 in the arena. He was doing very well with Abby so I let him go in. I was just getting ready to pull him out when I heard someone yell my name and then yell Chase and saw him on the ground with Abby running around the arena with no rider.

I got about 20 stories on what happened but knowing Abby and knowing Chase I’ve come to my own conclusions. There was a out of control horse in the arena and I was told it came running up behind Abby. My best guess is that Abby went to kick the horse and Chase lost his balance. He’s been very forward and stiff in the knees when Abby trots so if her hind end came up it was probably enough to throw him off balance.

He did hit hard enough to crack his helmet though but we are lucky he wasn’t trampled. I had a few people tell me he was cutting people off (duh, he’s 7) but I’ve been in there for open riding before and the adults pay less attention to the other riders than the kids. That’s not excusing Chase’s behavior (if he was cutting people off) but people need to remember kids don’t know any better (the woman complaining was one of the one’s upset that she wasn’t placing so I’m taking it with a grain of salt).

He got back on and did barrels and poles so I was very proud of him. He messed up his patterns which I wasn’t very happy about but he finished them. I guess it’s time to start practicing some more.

On the way home MIL and I took the back roads because I’m not fond of the interstate at night. They’ve had construction and the old truck just doesn’t get up to speed. I was on the phone with Brandon when I saw a momma deer and her babies starting to cross the road. I slowed but I knew we were going to hit. Yep. I hit my first deer. Brandon was of course going ballistic on the other end of the phone but luckily the only damage to my truck was a small dent in the license plate.

Needless to say I was very happy to get home but when I did I pulled up to a crabby mother (my mom) because Ty had an ear ache and wasn’t a happy camper.

Yesterday the heat index was over 102 so I just hose the horses off and put them in their stalls with the fans on. I took a few pics of Max for his sales ads. How does he look?