First Ride with COLORADO STAMPEDE!!!

Holy crap is all I have to say. What a day. So it started out kind of rough with two injuries which I'm not going to describe for privacy but anyway I had to check in at 7 to groom and started to socialize with my new team. They all seem pretty nice and friendly. So I got Patches #104 yay!!! I was super happy cause she was great at show. So I had to have help taking her fly mask off but after that she was great. I was done on time but definitely slower than my normal and my team got in trouble for taking so long. We will work on it. So we rode down and checked tack and got started right away. Bandit ended up throwing a girl in my class but she got back on after my instructor worked with Bandit for a little. He was amazing after that. All the horses were super hyped up today. We mostly worked on drill work so our instructors could get a feel for where we were at. We have a lot of work to do but it wasn't terrible as far as team work. We seemed to work really well together so I am super stoked about that. As far as my personal ride that's another story so we lope A LOT! Which I loved just not with Patches, she pop - tarted me the entire ride making it super hard to keep my butt in the saddle and I almost fell twice. I lost my stirrups a ton too. I am SO SORE today from it. Especially my back. Otherwise I LOVED my first ride with Stampede and can't wait till next week. We had diagramming directly after our ride so I had to nearly run over there to make it. We just sat down and started a sequence test. I finished but barely cause I got there a little late. Then we were all given 3 packets, one was our drill notes (we are gonna have 45 total diagrams), one was a grading rubric, and the other was a timeline for the year. Then we had to grade a diagram provided to us by our instructors so that we got a feel for how they graded. Then we started sloppy copies and we got 3 done in 7 minutes. That was it for the class. The announced who passed the 1st sequence and 8 did the first try. 1 was me!!!! I'm starting the year out good! one of our teammates was nice enough to make us bracelets and we went into the fort to take photos for the monitors so they could learn our names. My classes for the day were done but I stayed anyway. I finished my diagrams, bought a new flag boot that is bejeweled from someone who makes them, and 2 liberty wires. I also watched Nighthorse for as long as I could without crying and then the New White Star team, man that was weird. I also saw WesternairesForever in Legionnaires on A.C. she looked good. My day ended with watching Glory Riders, Blue Rangers, and Mustangs. Pretty good day but I am exhausted!!!!! I can't wait till next ride when we move up to 15 - 20 diagrams. I also start Blue Vaulting, Batons, and Liberty next weekend. I don't know if White Ropes is practicing or not. Sorry it took so long to get this post out I was just soooooooo tired.