American Royal Barrel Race

Well, we're back... With a really banged up knee, saddle sores, a chunk out of a finger, and a few bruises, but we're here!! We basically did horrible this year... My best time on either horse was an 18.188 on Velvet on Friday. And that one was over 10 out of the money, anyway...

Rudy
Well, Sunday was the best day for us... And that's pretty bad, since on Sunday we only got an 18.193... But on Friday we knocked over the second barrel. On Saturday we knocked over both the second and third barrels. And then on Sunday, I did meet my goal, which was to not knock anything over. ;-)

Velvet
Friday was the best for me and Velvet, with an 18.188. Saturday, she went way too wide on her barrels, and only got a 19.329, and a 19.901 on Sunday... It seems to me that normally it's best to get better with each day, but I guess Velvet's backwards in that as well as her barrel pattern... ;-)

UHH
On Saturday, I also ran Velvet in 2 events in something called "Unbelieveable Horse Happenings". We did poles first, in between barrel runs at the barrel race, ad got a 25.??? and 7th place- our best run of the whole weekend, and she hasn't even done poles in over a year, if not longer than that!! We then did barrels a little bit later, and disqualified in that one, as she couldn't seem to figure out where the third barrel was, and turned before she got to it, after attempting to turn it the wrong direction.

Trail Class Disaster
Just for fun, on Thursday after we got unloaded and everything, Velvet and I had signed up to do an open ranch trail class. What a way to start the weekend!! We did absolutely horrible, but had fun anyway... You're only supposed to use one hand on the reins, so I was attempting to not ride two-handed, which is normal for me, and what Velvet incredibly prefers. We also had split reins, which we hardly ever use.
Well, first off, she decided that she had forgotten how to back up in an L shape, and couldn't figure out how to work a gate, which we had done numerous times back at the barn. We finally made it through the gate, and she decided that she could no longer weave through cones, a feat that she has been amazing at many times before.
Once we went back and got the cones we had missed, she decided that she was deathly afraid of mums, and would not go even as close 4 feet to them! They were on either side of a bridge that we were supposed to get on, then open a mailbox that was by it, take out the paper that was in it, show it to the judge, and go on. We ended up completely skipping that obstacle, as we were taking too long, so the judge said to go on.
She then did the best thing of the entire class- she stood there semi-calmly while I took a lariat and swung it at a stationary steer. She was a little hyper, so she didn't do as well as she normally would have.
We then started loping to get to the next spot, and Velvet decided to go visit the judges- up close and personal! She ran straight for the judges chairs, and I couldn't get her stopped until she was probably only about 6 inches from them!! The poor judges were both flying away from their chairs... The looks on their faces were priceless, though. ;-)
Once we had apoligized to the judges, we turned and went toward the haybales that we were supposed to jump (side note- neither of us had ever jumped anything before, unless you count a little stream on a trail, that neither of us was prepared to jump, and she landed in anyway). She declared that she was not going to jump over those things- when we were less than a foot from them, and she shied to the left, almost leaving me to jump them on my own!
We then went around, skipping the jump, to the sidepass obstacle. You were supposed to line your horse up over this pole that was on the ground, sidepass across it, with front feet on one side of the pole, back feet on the other, then turn at the end of that pole and do it across a pole that was perpendicular to that one. Velvet decided that she had completely forgotten how to sidepass, although she'd done it perfectly on our way down there. So, we ended up with me giving Velvet a little training session on how to sidepass, and exited the arena as gracefully as we could.
So, overall, it was horrible. :-) We did have fun watching another girl and her horse, though.
They had cornstalks on the gate for decoration, and while the other girl was trying to get her horse to cooperate so she could open the gate, he suceeded in pulling about 3 or 4 complete cornstalks out of the decoration, and completely tearing it all up- it looked like a tornado had come through when he was done with it!! Then at the jump, he decided that the straw looked yummy, picked up the middle bale as they were loping, and carried the whole bale with him for several feet before dropping it!! It was so funny to watch...

Well, I think the most disastrous thing, the trail class, ended up with the longest description, by far!! :-) I'd better go for now, though, and I'll post pictures later- I didn't get very many, but Allison came and got a few on Saturday and Sunday, so I'll see if any of them turned out okay. ;-)

P.S.- I love comments!! ;-)