texasplogzor: August 2007

New Friend

This is my new friend, Jordan. She is the grand daughter of a friend of mine, and she came to ride my old horse, Jim Bob. We had a great time. I enjoyed her company. She is a lovely, smart, level headed young lady, the kind of daughter any mama would be proud of. Hi, Jordan!

Barrel Race Weekend

Recently, I went to a barrel race at our local arena. My horse isn't a barrel horse, he is a dressage horse who does a little jumping. However, I like him to be versatile, and we do barrels in our own, classical way. I'd practiced cantering barrels and bending around cones at home. It had been a year since Khanalee and I had been anywhere. When I first got to the park, Khanalee was on edge. I tacked up, went over to an area where I could warm him up some, as the DEMON TRACTOR was dragging the arena. He's been to this park many times over the 10 years I've had him. However, he was very uptight, and although going through our normal routine of walk-trot, trot-trot, transitions, he felt ready to blow. An ADDB went off in his head--Arabian Deficit Disorder Bomb. He started backing up, ignoring my leg, fixating on some small children who he thought were DEMONS FROM HELL. Then my husband, Max, drove up. We talked a little, and I told him I'd meet him at the trailer as I needed to sign up. I made Khanalee work a little more, but there was no way I was going to ask for a canter.

Now, this young lady is my new friend, Bailey, on her horse, Junior. Their trailer was parked by mine. We became friends, and I talked to her a little about dressage. I am always ready to spread the gospel of dressage. Bailey was a good rider. I enjoyed her company very much.

Before this, Bailey and I had taken our horses into the arena to warm them up. Sounds like a bad thing in that weather. I wondered if Khanalee would be herd bound to her horse, because she and I walked around and chatted as riders do. He's very insecure. However, when I asked him to trot and canter away from her, he complied with no ear pinning or bucks. Good boy! He relaxed after he got in the arena. He knows that arena well. I was so proud of him.

Waiting our turn and trying to ignore the heat, wondering if my horse was going to blow a gasket when he had to go into the arena by himself. He didn't. He was very good.

Pole bending requires a horse to canter or lope, through the poles and do a quick change of lead around each pole. I didn't expect Khanalee to be able to do this, so I cantered down to the first end, then I trotted my way back through the poles. I used it as an opportunity to school my horse in the fine art of bending. I would bend around the pole, go straight through the middle of the poles, and then I would ask him to do a change of bend around the next pole. Not perfect, but fun.

Things are going nicely as I reach the end of the first zig-zag through the poles.

I reach the end of the first zig-zag and canter back. Wrong! I was supposed to zig-zag back through the poles. Never mind that I had practiced this at home with cones. Brain fatigue due to heat and all the etc's.

Suddenly, it dawns on me that I've done something wrong. Oops. I said outloud to cover my shame, "I blew the pattern!"

OK, I'm leaving the arena at a trot, knowing that I blew the pattern. The next time, I did it right and cantered out, but Max wasn't around to record it. I'm sure people were wondering about that "English lady."

These are my two cowpunk friends. The one in the white hat came up and asked me if I rode English. He explained that he had tried a few times but got tired of falling off. He told me why he didn't do poles or barrels anymore, and that was because he'd had a few wrecks. I asked if I could take their picture. I asked the one in the brown hat to turn his head so I could get the feather, and I told the other that I wanted to be sure and get his hat band. Imagine my delight when I got this pose. The one in the brown hat was a little in awe at all the attention.

The cowpunk in the brown hat was named Riley. As it turned out, it was Riley's birthday. His friend, whose name unfortunately I forget, had made him an R out of wood. The R was decorated with motifs related to Riley. The cowpunk was very proud of his creation for his friend, Riley, and he wanted me to take a picture of them both with it. I think Riley was still a little overwhelmed at this lady who rode English who wanted to take his picture.

This is a close up of the birthday "R." You can see it says "hoses" (gotta love it!), cowboy, Concho (Riley's dog), RP (Riley's initials), and has barb wire designs painted on it. The first cowpunk was very proud of his creation. I agree. It is great!

This picture is blurry because I wasn't able to prepare to take it. I had to do it in a hurry as they were moving away. The two cowpunks are riding double, and they are on patrol. They are looking for a fellow cowpunk on horse back. The two cowpunks are armed and dangerous with green pecans that they have pulled off of the pecan tree. whilst on the back of their horse. They are looking for their fellow cowpunk so they can bombard him with green pecans. Little boys will make a weapon out of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Soon all the cowpunks came trotting by. While the back one launched green pecans, the other steered the horse. The third cowpunk was at a disadvantage because he had to flee, launch, and steer at the same time. I wanted desperately to get a photo of all that, but the action was too quick and they got out of my range. My friend, Bailey, was watching with me, and she commented in a disgusted way as only an 11 year old girl can in response to boys, that this type of behavior went on all the time. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole show.

This cowpunk was such a ham. I really think he posed like this in hopes I would take his picture. Of course I did. He knew I took it. I liked this cowpunk.

I do like backsides. Here is pawpaw and grandson. I'm not sure what they are looking at, but paw-paw was babysitting whilst sis was riding. Good paw-paw!

This was my last photo. I had my boots off, was sitting in the door of my truck, it was hot and muggy, and I didn't feel like chasing down photos. There's Khanalee's butt on the right. I had saddled up waiting for the exhibition barrels. Khanalee did fine with that.
We would canter around one, do a simple change of lead through the trot for the next barrel, then canter the last barrel. Khanalee liked doing a fast canter towards the in gate. I had one little girl ask me if I was going to "run the barrels." I replied no, I would just canter them. I'm hoping that next time I can have Max there to take pictures. I thought about asking someone else to take photos, but once again, it was so hot and muggy, it was too much effort. However, I had a great time. My little Ay-rab horse came through. I bought some baby carrots on the way home and gave him half a bag. Thank you, Khanalee! Good horse!

My neighbor hasn't put up hay in 3 years. So we were thrilled when we saw him cutting. I called to see if he'd be making some square bales, and he asked how many I needed, and I said about 30-35, and he said he'd square some and get back with me. Come afternoon, he called, and we hauled. I am thankful for a strong and handsome husband.