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!