My Final Estes!!!!!

Well the weekend had finally arrived!!!!! MY LAST ESTES!!!! As sad as this was I was more excited for my first big show with Bo! One perk of leasing is I didn't have to wake up until like 6:30am instead of 3. I left at about 7 to arrive in Estes at 8am. My leaser wasn't going to be there until 9am so I had plenty of time to unpack his tack, find his stall, lay out shavings, fill up his water buckets, and make sure I didn't forget anything. Once Bo arrived I got him settled into his stall and checked in with my monitor. Then we had our practice show and it was really nice to get a full run-through of the show before hand. ROYALS PRACTICE PROPELLER WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!!!! THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE ADRENALINE RUSH YOU GET FROM A PERFECT HIGH SPEED PROPELLER LIKE HOLY COW IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! Ropes went well besides none of us being able to find the right sized rope so we brought our own in for the real show. After the practice we had our meeting and caravanned to camp but we couldn't set up yet so we just stashed our stuff. It was weird not being in the gym this year. Then we headed to dinner and got ready for the show! We always get lined up like half an hour early so by the time we get into serpentine my ankles are all cramped hahahaha. Serpentine went well and Bo was well behaved. We wore our clown costumes because it was kind of chilly. I was pretty happy about that. Our show wasn't as good as our practice but it was still a solid performance that I was proud of. Man does Bo know it's show time. He turns into a totally different horse! I had so much fun with him! Then for ropes I completed all my tricks. Not my best but enough to sell it to the crowd! And just like that night one was over! Once the first act starts the show goes sooooo fast because you're busy costuming and changing. I wrapped Bo's legs and stretched him out. I needed him to stay clean so I didn't let him roll. Then we headed up to camp. Got settled into our bunks and I was asleep before lights out. Saturday started at 6am. We got dressed and headed down to breakfast. We then got to go warm up our horses and get them stretched out. I did a lot of trotting on Bo and a lap or two of loping just to make sure he was moving ok. Then we changed into dress reds and headed into town. I'm not much of a shopper but it's still fun to look around the stores and promote the show. We headed back to the fairgrounds around 12 and had lunch. Then we went back to camp for quite time. We could play volleyball or hike, i think there was a lake too but I slept the whole time so I wasn't sure hahahaha. After my nap we went to dinner and listened to senior speeches. We only had one person graduating but I still cried. I'll miss her a lot. After that it was time to get ready for the show! I was 4-1 this show and Bo really wanted to charge in! Hahaha. We didn't have our usual music both shows so I think that threw off our timing a lot. I hope we get it back for heritage. Our drill went really well again and I'm so proud of Royal and how we pulled out great shows even with the complications we had this year with strangles. You wouldn't have been able to tell. I smiled the whole way through until graduation lines, then I realized that would be the last time I would watch someone graduate and the next time we lined up in a show I would be the one getting ready to leave. I cheered loud and exited the arena with a smile. My rope tricks went much better and then my last estes show was over... Royal had a rough end to the show but it's not something I can share publicly but we came together as a team and we will get through it. I fell asleep pretty quickly after we got back to the bunks. Sunday we woke up at 5 and got ready to pack up and leave. Lot's of cleaning the camp, then cleaning the stalls, and loading up the trailer with tack. I will say, no saddle bags as an owner is FANTASTIC! Lol. I was home by 10:30am compared to almost 2/3 last year when the stock trailer broke down. I had so much fun but being hime sure was a great feeling!

OWNERS ARE BACK!!!!!!!!

STRANGLES IS OVER EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!! WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!! Three long months later and things can finally get back to normal! So Royal's first ride with owners back had strong wind, flags, guns, and energetic horses, and yet we had an amazing last practice before Estes Park this weekend! I was so proud of the team and Bo too!!!!! Entering the arena on his back just felt so normal and safe. It was a very nice feeling. My spots for estes are 4-6 for Friday night and 4-1 for Saturday so I am VERY happy with those. Getting super excited!

White Division Show 2017

Liberty practice was interesting to say the least hahaha. Vaulting didn't practice and ropes we just practiced for Estes. I am performing Tandem Spoke Hop, Lay Down, Step Through, and Texas Skip, so I a quite pleased with my tricks! Anyway so Liberty I couldn't ride Bo because he was performing with Evergreen Drill Team! So I rode a friends horse named Juno. Well she is very very very bouncy and was extremely buddy sour. She dodged the jumps twice and she has nothing to hold onto so I fell. Twice. It hurt a little but I got back on. I sat out the second drill because my asthma was acting up and I didn't want to push it. My instructors told me I could still call the drill for the show tonight so I was fine with that! After Liberty was over I got food and waited for show check in. I got my quick change area situated and got all the tack out of the trailer once it arrived. The show went really smoothly! Bo mostly behaved for Vaulting. A few baby bucks but he did really well! I was apprehensive about Liberty and I really wanted to hit as many jumps as I could so for the first time ever I kept my bridle on. I was kinda ashamed but I want to enforce the jumps. Well Bo really made me proud. We missed our hopscotch jump but we did the mariners cross and pass through! AHHHHHH so proud of him!!!!!! And calling went great too! The whole drill was amazing considering half the team was owners from WL3. It was definitely weird having an owner only show but the whole organization handled it very well! I came out crying because I was so proud of Bo! We only had one halt ho in our drill too! It was a very successful show night and it was nice and short too because of the modified teams.

Last ride on Rentals!!!!

Well tonight was a lot of fun! I was a little late due to traffic but I still had plenty of time! I checked out my horse and I had Betty #2. She was really good for grooming and didn't cause very many issues. Her stirrups are just long enough that they are annoying. I brought down a pair of shorties just in case. Warm ups were interesting as she was very excited. A teammate of mine seemed to be struggling with Molly. She had been riding Betty for the previous couple weeks so I suggested a trade. She was ecstatic so we switched after warm ups. I had soooooo much fun on Molly. She is so sensitive to her cues and a little choppy but still pretty smooth. I really enjoyed outside of propeller with her! It was a little sad knowing my time as a renter was over again but I am so ready for Bo to be back. I really miss him for team. I unsaddled Betty and she cooled down really fast and that was that!

One week closer to normalcy!

Friday night was Royal and I got to ride Snookie! I was excited to have a calmer horse for once lol :) She was great for grooming. She has a really small Mustang brand. Her stirrups just barely fit me though so that was a bit of a challenge. Warm ups went well and we got our first drill lined up. I was 4-6. One of my teammates did get bucked off of TazToo. She was able to walk out of the arena so I think she will be ok. I am riding outside of propeller for the Friday Show and 4-1 for the Saturday show for estes :) I am really pleased with my positions for sure. Our drills were all under 6 minutes except for one so we are in a good spot! We have one more friday night ride on rental horses before we go to wednesday nights and owners can come back! I am so ready! On saturday all I had was ropes and it was super hot. We practiced our drill and did some specialties and called it good. Then I watched Crimson ride and left. I felt weird being there for such a short period of time.

Interclub, and Exciting Rides!

Friday night was Royal. I rode Squirt! He did great for grooming and he really has calmed down since the last time I rode him. We rode 4-6 twice and 1-1 twice. He did great and our drills are finally starting to make our time limit. our precision is falling a part a little though, but we are definitely getting closer to being estes ready! Squirt never really tried to take off he just got really excited! But he was very responsive and a lot of fun. Then on Saturday I was pretty busy. I had a team meeting for estes and we got awesome team t shirts and our stall cards. Estes is happening but it's going to be different as we are staying in cabins and not the gym which is good and bad. Then I had liberty so I had to change and sanitize. Bo was in a really bad mood. He did dump me over one jump and wasn't listening so we put his bridle back on. I still called most of the drills but I don't know if I'll ride there for show because Bo doesn't lead very well. Then back into renter clothing to go to ropes! I finally started to get texas skip back and my tricks were all starting to come together. And then I had to change and sterilize yet again to go to vaulting at 5pm. We brought in as many owner horses as we could and had the renters switch out half way through the drill. It's hard to believe we have been under this quarantine since easter! Overall it was a good day but I was super tired. But that didn't stop me lol I went to Bo's place and rode for another few hours to make sure he is staying in shape for when he get's to come back to team. Then on Sunday was my last Interclub! I got to announce Class #4 and I participated in several skits (Tug of war, pony jousting, water gun car, horse princess rider game, and stick horse liberty) I rode Alice for the pony jousting and she was really stubborn. It didn't help that we couldn't get into the tack room so we had to ride them with halters and lead ropes. But I still give hoedowners a whole new respect. I also presented ribbons for several classes as well. It was a long hot day but it's a senior tradition I'm glad I took part in.