Early Friday morning came. Jenny got Powder tacked up and headed to the team sorting. By that time Chas and Mindy had begged Jenny to team sort with them too. How could she refuse? We discovered 104 teams had signed up. Jenny’s thought that her sorting would take ten minutes or so turned out wrong. She changed her morning lessons into evening lessons with her long-time clients.
In sorting, you can partner with different people! Each team got to run cows twice unless they lost their cows the first run. The times are combined with the lowest times winning. Teams might have had a great run the first time, but if lost their cows on the second run they were disqualified from winning. Those that lost their cows on the first run, didn’t get the second run. Still, there were a lot of people that made it to the second run. By the time team sorting was over, it was around 1:00. It was hot. The shade in the arena kept getting smaller and smaller. Horses and riders had to stand out in the sun.
Enjoy watching Jenny and Powder! It has been said not to get between Powder and a cow. I think you can see why! Tony Vaught was cutting cows once and Powder’s cow wouldn’t move. Powder picked up that cow by the neck! She is a cow horse!
I sat in the shade, but it was still hot. After sorting ended, Jenny and Chas were “in the money” winners! Powder got her bath, food and water. Jenny and I ate a late lunch while Powder dried. Then it was my turn to practice with expert coaching from Jenny. Wow. She took me up some notches of experience and knowledge to this versatility pattern classe skill level. I practiced the Western Horsemanship and Reining patterns with Jenny coaching me. I thought I was fairly good at patterns. I was humbled. The most fun was practicing the reining pattern. I love reining. See the pattern below. It takes a while when you are new to reining to figure out the pattern. It’s easier to read the instructions.
Powder got a rinse and was allowed back into her royal personal space with water, hay and feed. Every piece of manure was removed from stall.
That evening, I went to the performance horse show and sat with my barn 17 people. I started helping the photographer extraordinaire, Marty Maynard, with the winner and reserve winner pictures. Oh it is fun to be part of this life!
The Versatiliy classes start tomorrow!