12 Hours of Westernaires - LOVE IT

Okay I'm back in the land of the living! I arrived at Westerniares yesterday at about 7am to groom and saddle for Liberty. I checked out my horse, Pepper, and she was in a special pen! So happy cause it was solid ice and we were already slipping everywhere. So I carefully led her up the icy hill, letting her find her footing. It's amazing how much trust the horses put in us. So Pepper was amazing for grooming, not a fuss or a fidget. Rock was next to me and he calmed down when I touched him and put his head on my chest. It was so adorable. Since my ride wasn't until 9 I had a lot of free time so I helped my teammates and hung out with Pepper. Then we walked the horses down because it was too icy to ride. I got to lead the group down! I led Pepper and Sampson. On the steepest part down I slipped. My horses could have spooked, stepped on me, anything but they just stood there and let me regain my footing. Never have I been so grateful for my horses trust. So I tied up Pepper and Samson, and unsaddled Pepper. So I tried mounting up and I got my foot over and was wiggling up then my shoe came off! Dang it! I'm getting so close! I improve each time so I guess that's a plus. I got a leg up and off I went. Pepper was really comfortable and I decided to practice lifting a little while everyone else was mounting... I did it! I got my butt clean off the horse! I was sooooo excited! So once everyone was up the instructors called us into the middle. They told us we would not be removing bridles or working on jumps/ground poles because it wasn't safe. The arena was almost pure ice. So we mostly worked on wire work and we also built a star and a propeller which was really fun. Then we played a game where we had to use only the wire and take our fours down the arena, back up, turn our four around, and go back to the line. My group did really well! It's a lot harder than it sounds though because we aren't using the bridle It was a fun little game. Even thought the ride was kept entirely at a walk it was still good. Pepper was taken by a Precisionette. Then I had batons, which was good. We learned some new stuff like figure 8 switches and back hand rolls. Other than that I knew everything so it was kind of boring. Then we got Halos to go on our batons. (Colored tape) I finally had some free time and ate food and bought a new cinch. Then I headed to ropes at 12. Only instead of solid ice I found 5 inches of mud. I called a flat loop and we did a few more then we did 5 toe dances to leave. It wasn't worth ruining our ropes. So I got to watch Nighthorse, Crimson, and Royal. All the teams had a really rough day... It wasn't pretty. So at 3 I filmed my friends in their trick class. They did really well. I watched White Vaulting at 4 but they didn't do much. I checked in and my partner and I started unsaddling Utah Girl. So I got a leg up and pulled my partner up behind me. It was hard because Utah wouldn't stop walking. She was in a feisty mood. She also has a really short back so it was hard to do the tricks. I was almost on her butt at some points. We did some work in pairs and fours then pulled into the middle. We went through all the tricks and learned where to hold and it was really helpful. Then we switched. My partner and I tried to switch standing and we did it! It was awesome! Then I got to try the tricks. It was super fun! Some of them take a lot of core like star, flag, and one leg hang because your side ways and hanging down. So then we played the pyramid game and I got to run crossed the horses this time! It was really fun! Then we dismounted and unsaddled. Utah didn't eat yay! She also didn't roll so we took her home. We left about 6:30 I was home by about 7. So I took a long hot shower to wash off the 12 hours of dirt... never felt so good :)