All about my horses!

Missouri Fox Trotter

Best Group Lesson Ever

Quote of the day: “I can no longer tell people watching Fancy and I ride that Fancy was ruined at her colt start.”  No one would believe me.  

Highlight words from Erin Patterson during the group lesson of November 20th, 2019:

“That fox trot is perfect!”

“Look, she isn’t arguing!”

“Hey!  Fancy looks like a Performance Horse!”  (I apologized).

While Fancy was doing a flat foot walk leg yield diagonally the long way of the arena Erin pronounced:  “That is excellent. Look, her ears are flopping!”  (That is wonderful for a Fox Trotter gait and especially amazing to me that her ears were relaxed while leg yielding.)

Next was cantering.  Fancy was doing more of a four beat pacy canter that feels unbalanced to the rider.  I put “feel on the inside rein and fixed it.  We had a bobble with back legs so I decided the answer was to go as fast as Fancy would go.  Fancy flew around that arena!  We also tried some flying lead changes (unsuccessful).

Later, I quizzed Erin on “Were we galloping?”  Erin responded, “It was a perfect hand gallop.  Fancy went fast and was under control.”  I nearly fainted at such praise.  

I’ve had a fear of galloping for nearly 20 years.  I might be able to be a barrel racer now.  Unbelievable!  Some of this fear erasing is my new rough-out Parelli saddle and my believe that Fancy will never bolt out of control.

In this group lesson I am incredibly honored to be allowed to ride with a ten year old beginning rider.  Mia often rides a different horse in the lessons to make her even more of a gifted young rider.  I was honored to demonstrate the canter while Erin was explaining a left and right lead.  I was honored to demonstrate my leg cue and Fancy’s body position in the canter “ask” phase.

Mia is a wonderful student and talented young girl.  I look forward to watching her develop her horsemanship under Erin’s skillful guidance.

Sixty year difference between two of these riders!

End of lesson day…new accomplishment the next day, 11/21/2019. Fancy and I jumped the small size barrels at a canter. We’ve been jumping these barrels at a trot during the past year, but I’ve been scared to try it at a canter. I was thinking back to when when I learned that horses can jump higher at a canter than a trot. I fell off Velvet long ago when I learned that! I have beaten that fear now!

2019 World Celebration #1 Boyfriend!

I was on the sidelines, novice live streaming the Ranch Horse classes. It was time for Ranch Horse Versatility. This is a pattern that combines a trail pattern with a reining pattern. The horse and rider have to canter over a small jump (lined with flowers), drag a fifty thousand pound tire with a roping lasso, do rollbacks and lead changes.Be still my heart!

I was videoing some of the individuals doing their pattern. They all were doing great. The Amateur class participants were done and came into the arena awaiting the placings announcements from sexy Announcer, Vic Rowden. (Vic had won a three way #1 Boyfriend tie just recently at the June Spring Show.)

The young ribbon girl had gone into the arena loaded with the ribbons. I was standing beside my car with phone camera awaiting the announcement. My name was called. SUSAN! I startled. Young handsome Harry Patterson gestured me to come into the arena. What! Again, he gestured. I looked around for the photographer. I didn’t see her. I walked over to the judge’s entry gate and slithered into the arena. I tried to shrink and become invisible. I don’t belong in the arena! Most everyone in charge of this show likes me, no one growled at me to exit. I waited.

The announcer called out the Ranch Horse Versatility Amateur World Champion horse and rider. Suddenly, I knew why I was there. This was a moment to be preserved forever and I was the lucky one to do it!

A beautiful and famous black stallion, Boss’ Midnight Cash, was named Ranch Horse Versatility World Champion! Harry Patterson of Wichita Falls was named Amateur Ranch Horse Versatility World Champion!

Enjoy these pictures!

The beautiful and famous black stallion, Cash.

Drool everyone! Beautiful black stallion with his handsome young cowboy!

This is Harry giving me a special kiss. I got a kiss from a cowboy on a black stallion.

I fainted!

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B009H9RDGO

2019 Celebration Live Stream

Sunday, September 1 was the first of three days of Versatility and Ranch Horse classes. Heat and Humidity (Double H) were the opponent at this show. Forget the cow, the obstacles and the gaits, Double H was the enemy. The Versatility and Ranch Horse Days were held from 9:00am until 4-5:00pm enduring the Double H. Sadly, the days were too long for me to compete. I now understand why we have few 70+ year old people riding in the long days.

On the morning of the second day, I arrived about a minute before the show was to start. Chas Young, my best friend, saw me and immediately assigned me to “live stream”. What! I don’t have that app on my phone. Oh wait, it’s Facebook. See the word Live. And that is how I ended up being the Live Streamer. What, my phone is running out of power? I plugged it I to my car. It didn’t increase the battery, it stayed the same, near dead. So, I started using the iPad. My car doesn’t charge the iPad. I started filming from inside the car. My viewers got to see my rear view mirror. Later I remembered I had a long long cord which enabled me to “live stream” outside the car. Yee Haw!

Most of Sunday, I hid in my car with air conditioner running, watching the classes. I survived on a large iced coffee from McDonalds. It was too hot to eat food. Many contestants do not eat anything until the day is over and horse bathed. They do try to keep hydrated, but it is tough.

After the long hot day competition day, there was time for a trip to McDonalds to get my large iced coffee. I drank a portion of it and then refilled the cup where it would be just watered down iced coffee for the next day.

After Monday, classes, I went into Casey’s to get cash money. I had only drank the ice coffee that day. I lost my mind and got two donuts and chocolate milk for dinner. There’s nothing better than Casey’s donuts and chocolate milk when you are starving.

I made it back to showgrounds for shopping and occasionally wondrous vendor food in time for the evening performance classes.

I was now an expert “live filmer”, except for the dang camera turning the camera sideways. Live filming takes talent!

https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Engle/e/B009H9RDGO?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1569379589&sr=8-2

Author


Fancy Announcement!

There are two sizes of barrels. There are the smaller barrels and the bigger barrels.

I have goals to pass the level 4 tests in the Parelli world. Both the Free Style (bridleless) and Finesse (bridle) tests require a barrel jump.

Fancy has been working on her jumping form since October 2018. Her jumping form has to be something that won’t fling me to the moon. Lately, she has been jumping easily over the small size barrels.

Gulp! It’s time.

I set the barrels up so they were somewhat near an arena wall. I thought about her launching herself over the barrels like Rocket Fancy. At least it wouldn’t take me the whole arena to get her stopped.

I had her jump the barrels at a trot during our warm up. I got on and we played at maintaining gaits, gait transitions, following my body language direction, stopping and backing. We were outside enjoying full sun and 80 degrees. Who stopped the clouds, Mother Nature? Cursed Goddess

Fancy was tired. It was time to head to the indoor arena where our barrels were set up.

Gulp. We trotted towards the barrels and skimmed over. Good Lordy! It was so soft. My seat never even thought about leaving the saddle. I couldn’t believe we had actually jumped. We sat for a while and rested. Fancy got a lot of rubbing. I announced to the large imaginary crowd in the imaginary bleachers that we had completed our first jump. The crowd roared! (None of the three people in the arena noticed our barrel jump. That’s how much of a huge non event it was!)

So we did it again and it was reward dismounting time for the Olympic talented jumping horse! YAY!

A good roll after the Olympic jumping!

Introducing Free Style Team Fancy and Susan

What a day.

Fancy is a strong minded filly.  She has no hesitation at all to invading your space, stepping on you or walking away to investigate something much more interesting than me.  We  have been working on eliminating these concepts beginning the our first day together, nearly a year ago.  At this time, she is to stay with me and not move a foot unless I give it permission. We walk in unison.  We stop at the same time.  Her head does not get in front of my body.  We stop in unison.  I sit or stand in front of her, facing her.  She must stay a distance away where she cannot bite or nibble any of my own personal body parts.  Her feet are not to move forward without permission.  She is to back up where she can’t nibble on me and be “ground tied”.

Fancy will back up but it’s been difficult for her to give up her power.  I flick my eyes to something in the arena and her foot moves forward.  Or her neck swings to the side and she steps forward and to the side.  I return her feet back to where she was “fastened to the ground”. This could take a few seconds or minutes of arguing. This partnership concept must always be adhered to or she will be able to nibble/bite my body or walk away from me.  She made it out of the arena today while she was standing at liberty close to the door to the stalls. Fancy went into the first empty stall expecting food to be in the bucket.  We argued about her coming to me in the stall.  She gave up and came to me.  We went back in the arena.

My goal is to make Fancy a partner.  Fancy’s goal might be the same.  Horses want a leader.  Fancy needs a very powerful leader at the present time. She has to give up much of her power and authority.  She has to give up being my boss.

Fancy is a strong-minded left-brained extrovert.  She is a filly. She was not raised in a herd situation. She had no boss mare or gelding to boss her around.  She got to make her own decisions.  She has heat cycles that can warm up the arctic and water the arena. The combination makes  a formidable equine.

I need your pity. Just kidding,  Fancy is a glorious horse with athletic talent, beauty and smart brain!  I am so lucky to have her.

Humans should not keep treats in a pocket with a horse like Fancy.  She will smell the treats and eat your body trying to get at the treats.   However, for a willful horse,  treats are a great motivator.  I have a stash of hidden treats in the arena. (She knows where the treats are.  It’s tough to keep it a secret.)  Today, I took my eyes off her for exactly one millionth second.  Her mouth made it to the hidden hanging treasure and grabbed the plastic bag.  She pulled.  The plastic bag containing the treat bag exploded.  Many treats are awaiting finders in the arena right now.  I took the treat bag away from her.  It still had treats in it!  I hid it on a ledge on the arena rail.  heh  heh  heh

This week is the start of free style which means little or nothing on her head.  Two days ago, I rode on the rail without anything on her head.  She was head-naked.  That is was the prior story two days ago.  Yesterday was a ground game day as it was 26 degrees again. I start thinking it’s just too cold to ride.

Today we started the Question Box Pattern.  It is a small marked rectangle between two marked (by cone or barrels) figure eight circles.  The Question Box is where the rider decides which direction, which gait, stop or transition.  Fancy and I started this today with her wearing a halter with the 12′ lead rope.  I had the neck string on.  She is not aware of the meaning of the word neck rein.  The string should be a signal to turn, stop or back.  Sadly, my string kept getting untied while Fancy and I were arguing about going around the circle.  I switched to the horsemanship stick to help guide her.  What the finished Fancy horse product will do is go anywhere my shoulders and belly button point at what ever speed or stop my body language asks.  Fancy has a faint glimmer of understanding about this.  However, her understanding doesn’t mean that she will follow my directions.  Heck No!

Yes, there was much arguing, resistance to my cues.  The temperature had gone up to a giddy 36 degrees and I was only wearing three layers on top and two mild winter layers on the bottom.  I was so excited about the Question Box Pattern plan for the day, I forgot to put on my 4th layer, the coat.  Our ground play warms every part of my body, but when I mounted Fancy and rode a few steps, the cold seeped into my body fat.  After five minutes of arguing about which direction to go, all my body parts warmed up.  I never felt the cold until I got off.

Whenever Fancy made it around one circle in a somewhat decent manner, we stopped in the Question Box with a verbal, “Good Girl Fancy”.  We then walked to the hidden treat bag where she got the reward.  Of course then she had a reason to ignore my circle request because she  wanted to go find the hidden treat bag.

What fun we had today.  I asked for a speed faster than a walk on our Question Box Pattern.  She argued about that request briefly and went at a fox trot.  My ability to slow her down to a flat foot walk is non existent at this point.  We have a few seconds of relaxed speed before the next argument about direction occurs.  I can get her to stop when I want.  Stopping is a wonderful act of safety for me.  My riding skills became much better as I became a more confident rider.  When Fancy followed my non verbal directions, my body relaxed and had much fun.

We stopped and dismounted. I rubbed on her for a while. We went to disrobe.  We have just started to disrobe without Fancy being tied up.  A partner would stand still while her saddle was being made ready to exit from her back.  A partner would not try to stick her head in the tack room to root in a feed sack while the human is encumbered with a nearly 40 lb saddle and saddle pad.  There are many lessons during the time Fancy and I spend together!

I had a lot of fun today.  This is a journey!  I’ve been thinking of a suitable nickname for Fancy.  I have come up with FANCY FIERCE!

Fancy Bridleless

It was twenty six degrees today.  Yesterday was a sunny nearly fifty degree day.  I had four layers on top and two layers on the legs.  I had my Muckboots on to keep my toes warm.  I was very warm as first bridle less fear kept my internal heat engine fired up.  I was worried about the stopping part.  When Fancy gets going, she likes to go.  She goes and loves to speed up.  She hasn’t been rode much with the neck rope, maybe less than five times.  The stick can drive her head into the wall, maybe, if she decides to rev up her engine.  Pray.  We walked around the arena for about 15 minutes, getting the idea that directions and stopping matter.  Finally it was time to speed up.  We made it the length of the arena and stopped.  We did that several times.  I was getting more and more comfortable.  I was able to let go of the neck rope and ask for speed.  Holy Moly, we zipped a lap around the arena at a fox trot.  After much praising and rubbing, we did it again.  Chas and Bravo were riding.  Erin was riding too.  I did not run into them.  They witness the first bridle less ride!

whoopee

My Days are Special – Emma, Cisco and Fancy

I just got pictures from Florida showing Cisco’s arrival!

Cisco just traveled 1300 miles in a trailer. Tony Vaught made a special trip to get him. Cisco had gone into laminitis danger with his weight gain on the high sugar grass in Missouri. Horses get a version of sugar diabetes by eating too much sugar which is rampart in Central Missouri grass. This is called insulin resistance in horses.  Horrible pain called laminitis can result which heats up the bones in their foot to the temperature of a 400 degree oven and causes the hoof bones to rotate.  It can be very painful at the worst of it.  Many horses have died or caused their human to put them out of their misery. Our location got the rain that others in the midwest didn’t.  The rain causes grass to fill with sugar. Laminitis plus EPM nervous system disorder is too much.

Cisco will live on Bermuda hay in Florida.  Bermuda is very very low in sugar.  There are people who grow Bermuda hay in central Missouri, but they are hard to find.  Cisco will eat zero grass. There are no grassy pastures at the stable. Tony and Jenny will check his condition and figure out getting him healed as the weight loss happens. Cisco arrived in Florida with his midwest fall/winter coat .He will be itchy until the 90 degree heat makes him shed his winter hair.

Thank you to Tony and Jenny for taking him. They are gifted healers, horse developers with a big heart. Friends and trainer since mid 90’s when I started my journey with Sage and Velvet. (Cisco is related to Velvet also).

Since Fall has started in Missouri, I can exercise outside.  I’ve started walking.  I took Emma and Sulley over to the lake on the turf farm.  I thought maybe I could walk around the lake.  This is the farthest I’ve ever taken Emma outside the home property.  Oh no, she ran far away from me and disappeared.  Both her and Sulley were gone.  I yelled and yelled.  EMMA  EMMA EMMA sixteen to twenty times.  By the time I walk back home and get the car, she will be on highway 7 headed for Harrisonville.  Yes, that happened two weeks ago.

But, Emma appeared.  She heard me.  She started coming to me.  sigh  sigh sigh.  Her GSD trot covers a lot of ground in a short time and there she was beside me.  I was on the opposite side of the lake headed towards home.  Emma stopped every 2 minutes to smell the delicious grass.  Ahead I spotted a large goose “herd”.  They are migrating.  I’d say there were about 50 geese.  Oh Joy!  Won’t Emma have fun chasing the geese.  I walked toward them.  Emma kept stopping.  I yelled at her, “Emma come on!  You have an adventure ahead.”  Emma non verbally told me that the grass smell was way more fun. The grass contained a lot of goose droppings.  She had never smelled so much goose stuff before in her life! We got closer.  I decided to use my scarf as a leash.  Emma and I fought over the scarf.  I won, but the geese were getting leery now and walking away from us.  I let the scarf loose and started whispering to Emma.  I didn’t want the geese to hear.  Emma ignored me.  We got closer to the geese.  Surely she would see the geese now.  Nope.  The geese finally decided we were a threat and flew up and away.  Emma paid absolutely no attention to the flapping geese wings.  Oh wait, there are more geese over to our left.  I crept towards them.  Emma ignored them.  The geese flew away.  Thus ended our adventure walk for the day.  I did so want to see her chase the geese.  sigh…

Now it is time to head for the stable to play with Fancy.  She is forlorn without Cisco.  I feed her while grooming her.  We load up the saddle and head for the arena.  We played the “Touch It” game.  I point to something and focus on it as I “send” Fancy to it.  It is a cone.  She goes to the cone and chews it.  Good Girl!  I point to the mirror and send her to it.  She admires herself.  We do that with more cones.  She’s getting the idea.  The “Touch It” game is fun and builds confidence in the horse along with having fun.

Our new game is a matching slow walk.  Our front legs must match.  My right leg and her right leg must in unison.  I set the very slow speed.  Occasionally I stop with one leg in front and so must she.  I pick up the front leg and walk it backward. Her front leg must match.  I have a lot of fun with this game.  She’s getting the idea.  This makes us a pair.  We are building a relationship where I am 51% and she is 49%.

Our next game is the circle around me at the speed I want.  We are having trouble with the walk to the first fast gait and maintaining the gait.  She gets it and I ask for the canter.  I canter and she canters.  Mostly I canter in place while she canters around me.  She loves to canter.  She will pick up this game fast.  We then practice on transitions down, up and stop.  It’s difficult.  This is the first time I’ve played this concise of a circle game with the precise transition gaits.  It’s fun for me.  She has to pay 100% attention to me or the game changes suddenly.

Fancy is ready to ride. I missed the Dave Ellis clinic as Fancy had a sore back, possible sore stifle and possible sore mouth.  We will find out what is going on with her physically on Monday.

The first group lesson, Dave had the riders use their halter and lead rope to ride.  I thought, OH boy!  If I had been there, Fancy and I would have done that.  Today I rode Fancy in her halter with the lead rope.  I did use the carrot stick too for guidance. I ask for direction changes with my body, then the lead rope.  If those are ignored, the stick comes to her nose and persuades her to go where I’m focused on.

Well, that was about as much fun as it could get!  I would have lived through that part of the Dave Ellis group lesson.  We did the four barrel clover leaf pattern. We tried to speed up, but had the same negative reaction when I asked her to move faster.  Ears pinned, head up with a non verbal NO.   Erin came in to ride a training horse, so we followed, did a 360 and caught up with the horse…or tried to catch up.

Finally, I thought we had done enough.  We side passed to a “bridge”.  I swung off and did an amazing dismount.  Usually, I free both legs and drop off the horse, but for some reason today,  one leg stayed in the stirrup and my other leg swung down to the bridge.  I have never successfully dismounted like that.  I never thought my legs would be that flexible.

What a great time I had today.  Fancy came home with me and is with her herd at home.  The lead mare lets Fancy stay with the herd, but limits the distance to about two horse lengths.  She is close to being a member of the herd, but not quite accepted yet.  Fancy will get to enjoy a lot of grass and being with a herd.  Monday is her vet appointment to find out what her body and mouth are doing.

Playing with Fancy brought drops of joy into my life.  I thought about how much fun I had without being depressed at Cisco’s EPM lameness.  My joy turned into teardrops of joy. There was mist behind the the joy drops.  I miss Cisco.

Now I’m wondering if I can FACETIME Cisco.  Should I request Jenny to hold a computer up to his head so I can chat with him.  Uh, I don’t think he would communicate with me.  never mind.  Horse women are crazy and we love it that way!

Powder and I Epic Spring Show Adventure -9

Yes, the shower stories are finally at hand! For waiting all this time, you get two shower stories!

The Saturday night performance championship horse show started. I have a job. At the end of every class, I help Marty Maynard get the best picture of each champion and reserve champion horse. My job is to get the horse to put their ears forward. A horse looks fabulous when the ears are perked forward. I am the “Ear Perker”. I failed only once, a new record. The evening weather was fabulous. It was something seventy. Perfect.

The 2018 Spring Show and Three Year Old Futurity ended around midnight. My body is worn out. My body made its way to the truck. The truck went to check on Powder. Her water was refreshed and another hayfield given to her. I thanked her and told her she would be going home to her beloved Caitlyn soon. Powder was gracious.

The truck then took me to the non air-conditioned shower facility.

On Friday night after a full day of sorting and partial horse show evening, I came to this shower house to get clean for horse show Saturday. I disrobed the bountiful body and leaped into the shower. A paltry drizzle of cold water came out. It was barely enough water to wet the body and rinse off soap. As I exited the shower house, I noticed that the water guys were filling the water truck. Note to self. Check the shower water before disrobing.

Saturday night had turned into 1:00 am Sunday. My skin was dirty, but dry. I was getting up in 5 hours to get Powder fed and watered to prepare her for her long trailer ride. Then I was driving home. I didn’t smell. I decided to skip the shower. I took my night time essentials into the restroom/shower facility. I walked in and experienced the hot sticky air. What the heck. I’m taking the shower. I leaned into the shower and experimented. Lordy, full stream of cold and hot water happiness. I took off the stinky dirty clothes. I watered, soaped and rinsed. Ahhhhhh, that feels great. I turned the water off and looked for my towel.

Towel? You weren’t going to take a shower. There is no towel. I’m in a campground filled with people. There is no way I can sneak out to my truck and get the towel. I stood in the shower dripping wet. My brain had long ago been fried and now I have no towel. I was the only one in the shower facility. No help. Scream!

I put my night time sleeping clothes on my wet body! Can you imagine pulling clothes onto a dripping wet body? I had no idea that was even possible. Ick. Imagine putting a wet pillow case on a bountiful dry pillow. That is the only comparison I can think of.

Powder’s departure came too soon some hours later . I cleaned her stall. I don’t remember dumping the manure. Oh Lordy, I left the manure in the tub.

I loaded everything into my truck and trailer except for Powder’s hay and water bucket. It became time for Powder to load into her royal transport. She had hay, her own water bucket and two male companions. Her transport also had a camera so she could be watched the entire trip to Florida. Thank you Craig and Jayme Conklin and Ross Harper for taking Powder to Florida! Fox Trotter barn 17 friends are the best! They also supplied us with cold bottled water and pop during the show. They are a treasure!

I hopped in my truck and left the sacred grounds. My truck is blowing semi cool air if I run it on defrost. Somewhere near Springfield, the temperature climbed into the upper 90’s and my defrost air was not cool. I lost the cool. I was tired. I noticed some unsteady driving. I pulled into the PFI parking lot in Springfield, lowered the windows, put the seat back and took a nap in the nearly 100 degree weather. It was noonish and no shade existed. Good gracious!

When I awoke, I staggered into the store. To avoid having the greeter call an ambulance, I apologized for looking dead and explained I had been to a horse show. The greeter said, “You don’t look dead. you look great”. I looked around to see who she was talking too. Good grief, it was me. I tried to walk straight and be attentive to Western clothing and boots! Soon, the air conditioning revived me. I perked up, started walking straight and shopped. I was able to find some bargain Western shirts for the home people. My checkout helper lives in Ava. We told everyone how amazing fox trotter are! Big PR there.

On the way home I stopped at Smith’s to eat that fabled good food and chatted with the Wilson and Stangl family. I revived myself at several gas station air conditioning on the home. I made it home! I had a great adventure! Powder is a most amazing horse. Thank you to to the Vaught family for developing such an amazing horse.

Tuesday… Powder arrived in Florida and has been united with her true love, Caitlyn. All is well! See the love Powder and Caitlyn show. Powder is a much loved horse. She told me about being loved quite a bit during our month long time.

Boy Howdy! All the riders in the show were top notch. Our youth riders are amazing and we adults always dread when they turn 18. How can we compete against perfect! The friendships gained in the Versatility Show is very tight and lasts a lifetime. We compete against the obstacles and the patterns. We share and help each other out.

The Spring Show Versatility and Performance classes were filled with entries. The Missouri Fox Trotter Breed future is looking great! In September the Ranch Horses classes will return with Open, Amateur and Youth classes in Versatility.

Thank you Jennifer Vaught for taking care of Powder and I. I told Jenny during the later parts of the long day that I wouldn’t be able to do this had it not been for her. She said, “You could do it.” I might have been able to do it, but my suffering would have been epic. Next year I will have a strategy where I get off the horse a lot more. I’ll carry a portable mister or fan into the Showmanship class with me too!

Get your Missouri Fox Trotter and join me in the Versatility and ranch horse classes. I’ll be watching my new horse, Fancy, and Tony Vaught at the 2018 Celebration! Then I take her home! There will be many more stories when that happens!

Powder and I Epic Spring Horse Show Adventure -8

The Stake Race was next. I knew the pattern. It is easy-peasy. I was just too darn smart to look at the posted pattern or chat with anyone about it. I know that easy “piffle” pattern…half of a figure eight is all it is. It is so simple that it is difficult. Yep, I turned my nose up a little. I felt “snooty” inside. snort

You might feel a little confused when you look at the pattern. It is confusing because you can enter the pattern either to left or right of the barrel.
Stake Race

I was called first again!. Well heck! Let me show them the way! I floated through the pattern and was on my way to the gate when the crowd yelled at me! The crowd yelled at me! Huh? The “crowd” told me Powder and I were not done. They yelled more and I heard the words! We were to circle back through the pattern. Oh! It was a full figure eight, not a half figure eight. Scream! My “snooty” crashed. I was back to being humble again. Unsnort in shame

Thank you crowd! We got a ribbon. We were not disqualified for breaking the pattern. Like I said at the beginning, the enemies in Versatility are the obstacles and the pattern. Versatility people help each other out against our common enemy. We are family in that arena!

“Thank you Lord,” said my body as riding was done! I dismounted on my bleacher unmounting block. Jenny led Powder away. I was standing on top of the bleachers and my lower legs started quivering. My brain screamed, “My legs are quivering. I’m going to die up here!” I was able to yell out loud. “Jenny! My legs are quivering! HELP!” Jenny immediately got back to and helped walk my quivering-leg body down the bleacher steps to the sacred ground. My lower legs immediately stopped quivering! I have never before experienced lower-leg quivering!

I walked on the sacred ground to get my Stake Race ribbon and then my Versatility overall ribbon. My body refused to get back on a horse. Powder was grateful.

Eight classes with a ribbon in each class. Powder and I won two reserve championships! A ribbon for the overall placing in Versatility. Nine ribbons came home and are still decorating the truck! The truck loves ribbons!

Powder and I posed for our final ribbon picture. Jenny had braided Powder’s mane. She put all the ribbons in Powder’s braided mane. Some of them are hiding, but all nine are there. Yes, Powder has a lot of hair!


Hold on! We are within spitting distance of the shower story now. Hang in there!

Powder Perfect was escorted back to her living quarters and given a bath to rid her body of all sweat and sand. She received a full scoop of wonderful feed. She was given a hayfield of hay. She was worshiped and thanked. Jenny and I went up to food vendor row. I had eaten a biscuit and gravy way early am. We met friends, one of whom had an ice cream chocolate cake sundae. I forgot about my friends and took off to get my deprived body something cool and slippery. The Taco vender is where heaven after horse show is to be found. I got an ice cream Sundae. It cooled my 1000 degree temperature down and made my tummy very happy. The tired versatility obstacle team arrived and got food and ice cream. We chatted about their work in the arena that day. We owe these two women an immense amount of gratitude. Thank you Hope and Angie!

Jenny and friends left. They went to Springfield where they got to ride in a lesson with Jenny. I visited the sacred air conditioned restroom and went to my seat area on the north side of the performance horse arena. There I watched one of my my best friends, Chasity Young, get the 2018 Sportsmanship Award. It was awesome!

Here is a list of all the overall winners in versatility day. Everyone is a winner, no matter where they placed!

Open Versatility Champion

1. 78 Cashs Sweet Michaela, Mindy Jo Hoy, for Mindy Jo Hoy, Bois D’Arc MO
2. 127 Spits Coal Train, Ross Harper, for Jayme Conklin, Ocala FL
3. 77 Lous Priceless Pride, Chastity Young, for Chastity Young, East Lynne MO
4. 265 Country Boy’s Vanilla Wafer, Jeff Peck, for Harry Patterson, Wichita Falls TX
5. 220 Jedidiah, Paul Roten, for Louie Keener, Harrison AR
6. 67 JJ’s Platinum Champagne Doll, Susan Engle, for Susan Engle, Pleasant Hill MO
7. 65 MSG Tinker’s Southern Belle, Margaret St. Germain, for Margaret St. Germain, Kansas City MO
8. 266 Rowdy’s Cowboy Shoes LC, Mia Walker, for Larry Coffman, Hartville MO

Youth Versatility Champions

1. 259 Rush River Sterling Watergait, Jessica Stafford, for Jessica Stafford, Ava MO
2. 82 Magic’s Crown Jewel, Ericka Robertson, for Judy Mathes, Ava MO, Kendra Brittain-Plumb, Ava MO
3. 260 Pig Pens Brother, Hannah Stafford, for Hannah Stafford, Ava MO
4. 90 Miss Late May V., Dallee Porter, for Lloyd Dehner, Hockley TX

Powder and I Spring Show Epic Adventure -6

Are you ready for the shower story yet! Sorry, it is still a far place away. There is a lot that happens in these few days at a horse show, including heat, humidity, exhaustion and sweat

It is now time for our volunteers to set up the reining pattern! My favorite event! I live for reining.  If I were 16 years old, I might turn into a full-on reining competitor. Thank goodness I never heard of reining until my second childhood!

Powder is an experienced show horse. She has competed in many a reining class during her seven to eight years of showing. Once she recognizes that she is in a reining pattern, she loves to speed up. Thankfully this pattern started differently than most of the other reining patterns. The pattern Stars with the rollbacks! I’ve never ride this pattern before. By the time we got to the second rollback, Powder was in it! She knows to speed up and the do the slide stop. Sadly, I hadn’t yet worked out the cue for instant stop, so our slide stops were without the slide part. We sparked up a notch or two of life for the reining circles. Two fast and one small slow circle. ZOOM! We made the two big fast and the small circle, but we failed to show slow!

Our pattern was perfect. We nailed it! Thanks to Jenny who stood at a critical spot outside the arena and said “go left”. In many years past, few people entered the reining class and I was always assured of a ribbon. I’ll be double darned that a ton of people entered this class. My class. I own this class. Stay away! Sigh. Who invited all these people?

Powder and I won Reserve Reining Champion and got that beautiful red ribbon! We were a slice of heaven in that arena! At least I felt like I was riding in heaven….

Those other competitors are going to practice reining and make my life holy hell next year. If they don’t practice, the versatility bench crowd will help them. Drat!

We had one young handsome rider on a beautiful dun palomino. Jeff got confused on the first spin. The horse is to do 360 turn, four times. It is really tough to keep track of the number of spins you are doing. During my first spin, I didn’t know if I had completed 3 or 4 spins so I went another 360. Thank goodness it was needed. Back to Jeff. Jeff had a tough time on the first set. So the marvelous crowd counted his spins the second set of 4 360 spins. The crowd counted loudly 1, 2, 3, 4! The crowd is a great group of people!

I had to get off and move my body around on the ground again after my turn. Groan

You must see the pattern again!

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