Sick Horses Update

I am not going to post too many details because I do not want to spread false information. But our herd is suffering from strangles which has banned owners from the fairgrounds :( We have been riding healthy rental horses and some teams are riding during the week. It's tough and challenging but we are all banding together to make this work. Last week I got to ride Amigo and rode 1-5 for both drills. This week owners were going to ride in the Rodeo but all Westernaires got cancelled due to snow. We will likely be under quarantine for awhile, who knows how the summer will look. I'm very nervous as it's senior year and estes keeps getting closer. But with our horses health in mind we will see how it goes. Fingers crossed this dissipates soon!

Disappointment :(

Well sadly I don't have a very happy post this week. One of the ponies has a very contagious disease called strangles. We think it was brought in by one of our newly purchased horses but we aren't sure. We also aren't sure of which horses have been exposed which means westernaires and my last chance to do easter parade were cancelled. I couldn't believe that it was cancelled two years in a row :( at least now that I'm an owner I can do one of the red division parades in August. Saturday I still had classroom and turned in my trainer dreamcatcher drill, and Royal had our meeting where we reviewed the videos from the ride last week. I did get to go see Bo today and I helped bath him and the other horses. It was a lot of fun and I was glad I got to at least see him. Who knows when Westernaires will be out from quarantine.

The countdown is beginning!

We have moved out of the March move up season and I couldn't be more glad. After yesterday there are only 11 weeks until Estes Park and there is a lot of work to be done. My day started out with my last day of Nighthorse Grading. We got our Trainer Pins and it was very bittersweet but I'm excited to have my mornings to myself again. Then I had a walkthrough at 12. I walked 1-8 and 1-4. I went and watched a little bit of Crimson and went and got Bo ready :) he was pretty clean since he had roman earlier that day. Royal was a mess but not our worst ride. We were video taped and we will be analyzing the ride in a classroom next week. This was very helpful last year so I hope it has the same effect this year. I called warm ups for the ride and rode the two spots from walkthrough in addition to 1-1. So I got to call the drill too! Bo did fantastic as usual. He and Trinidad really don't get along well. Bo is terrified of him. But he was extra suborn with his lead changes, I sure hope we get those worked out. Red Ropes was at three so that was kinda weird. I am getting super close with step through and I practiced Texas a little. It needs show thing but it's still there. I had a break and headed to Vaulting with Jack. We basically just ran our new riders through the drill and practiced. I rode base for the whole ride but thats okay, I'm stronger as a base rider anyway. I helped load the trailer and headed home. It was a very long day :)

Typical Colorado! Brrrrr

Yesterday was typical weather, my liberty was scheduled to be in the volunteer arena. FINALLY! But we were cancelled because we moved to an indoor schedule. I really need to stay consistent with Bo in liberty so this was extra bad. Then I graded my trainee's diagrams and took on an extra drill too I finished by 11 and didn't have anything until Royal. I watched Nighthorse ride their drill for the first time and they looked pretty good! Then I got food and watched some of Crimson. Royal was a disaster as usual. I don't understand what our problem is but our rides have just been terrible. Our drills are almost a minute and a half slow and it's messy and unorganized. I rode 2-1, and 3-5. Bo was amazing as usual but I just hope my team can pull it together or we won't be going to Estes this year. And this is my last summer as a rider... I stayed and filmed white and blue trick and then loaded up the trailer and headed home :)

Bo staying warm! Look at his precious face!!!