Back again, did I mention I rode in a rodeo?

You know what happens when you forget your computer when you go to Canada?  You loose your newly regained blogging mojo.  But here I am again!  Canada was a blast, the hubby and I really enjoyed getting to relax.

Lots of hiking by the ocean

Before we left I spur of the moment rode in a benefit rodeo at our friend's ranch, the hubby was supposed to go with but he was busy getting ready for our trip, *sheepish grin.*  I went to announce and when I got there they put me up on a horse.  It was so much fun! Aimee and Alyssa came too and we had all had a great time!  We forgot to get a group shot though.  Thank you Alyssa for bringing your camera!

Yes I even won a trophy!

I rode in all the games, like pole bending and the potato race.  It was my first time doing anything western other than ponying the races.  The mare I rode was lovely, I've heard about her for two years so I was really excited to finally get to meet her and have the privilege of riding her.  She is primarily a rope horse, but she was totally willing to deal with my newbiness when it comes to western and by the end we seemed to be communicating pretty well.

Zooming across the finish line

This used to be one of our race horses!

 Here we have the potato race, there are two tires, one has three potatoes in it.  You have to poke each potato and carry it to the other tire, one at a time.  More difficult than it sounds.

Poke the potato

Carry it to other tire

The goat tying was fun, and a crack up.  You gallop down to where our friend (and my farrier) is holding the goat.  Jump off the horse and tie a ribbon around the goats tail.

Vroom!

Can you tell I ride english? #nofootinstirrupdismount

Hands up to stop the clock after successful tail tying!

Omg I had so much fun all day!

At one point we all ran barrels on our own two feet, thank goodness there are no pictures of that!  I won my trophy for roping the dummy!  The actual ropers didn't participate in that event to give the rest of us a chance.

Don't chuck the rope in the air and dance, doesn't work

"No this is how"

#cowgirl

Booyah, get that cow.

Smiling so big I look insane

The last event I participated in was the barrel racing.  I was definitely slow, but not embarrassingly so.  It was my very first time ever!  Misty, the most awesome horse in the world, probably could have done it better without me aboard.

First barrel

Second barrel

Third barrel

Wheee run home!

So there you have it, my first rodeo!  After I was done I got to watch Misty do her thing in the roping, woah she is awesome!  I was even more impressed with how quiet she was with me, she gets the hops waiting in the box for the cow to break.

They won!

Trail Ride

While I was down in Phoenix I went on a lovely sunny trail ride.

I rode our just turned 3 year old and AW rode Waffles (6 year old and ready for his next career after racing).  After my usual 15 minutes of overcoming needless terror I had a total blast.  Joey is too smart to race and is also looking for his next career.  Too smart to race?  Yes, I'm not kidding.  In his last racing effort he stood in the gates until the other horses were racing then came out, dumped his jockey, jumped the outside rail and went back to his stall.  This is a backside with well over 1000 stalls and he found his.  I do believe he will be a champ at anything else though.  He already goes well in western tack and rocks the trails like a champ!  I rode him in an exercise saddle and you can see in the pictures that I look way defensive, it was still the beginning of the ride and I hadn't yet decided if it was fun or if I was hastening my death.  The fact that there were no helmets available also didn't help me relax.  Joey was freaking fantastic though and by the end I had one hand on the reins and was chatting up a storm.

He did prefer to be in front

Why hello there

Down the road like no big deal

Husband getting arty with the sun

Someone need a noseband, but check out the cactus

Up and down hills with no issues

Such cute ponies

I wanted to get some cute ears shots, but it was too warm for a vest (don't hate me) so I had no pockets for my phone.  Are you wondering how we ended up with so many trail riding pictures?  Well, we rode right out the front gate of the ranch and circled around behind it and eventually made it to the trail head.  My hubby rode around on the roads on a scooter and met up with us and then walked quite a ways while taking pictures, then he headed back and we continued on with the ride.  I may need to convince him to come with on trail rides this summer!  He actually rode the ponyhorse on a trail ride a couple weeks ago and AW rode Joey instead of Waffles.  So much fun, fingers crossed I get another trip back and more sunny trail rides.

Randomness

After the last two photo heavy posts I don't have too much to share with you.  Prisoner has been doing poles and flatwork and generally been adorable.

stinkin' cute

Covering that ground

Be looking for a review of those cute white front boots that he is rocking!  I won them from Majyk Equipe.
Gigi is as good as sold these days and will be soon heading to her new home.  I will miss the beautiful red mare, but she adores her new person so it's all good.

So shiney!

I clipped Prisoner (sprinklerbandit cleaned it all up so he looks perfect)!  I left hearts all over his behind for our scary jump night costume.

No drugs!

He was very good, got a bit antsy here and there, but over all a gem.  He had more hair than most of the other horses at the barn and I could have used some bigger clippers, silly OTTB.  I will get some pictures of his clip job today!  We went as Cupid and her 'Prisoner of love' for scary jump night.  I make a bow with a stick and twine and taped a heart to the end of one of the Hubby's arrows, wore all the pink and called it good.  We had a blast or at least I did.  P-diddy was a bit unsure of the insanity and got a little light on the front end, but really if that is the worst he is gonna be I can't complain.  Yay for teddy bear fits!

Kisses down his face

Jumping with my trusty bow and arrow tied to my back!

Ok well hopefully there will be more pictures and such for tomorrow and something interesting to talk about!

Lesson time

Last Thursday I hauled Prisoner over for a lesson.  We really worked on our tendency to be over bold to the fences.

Warming up with walk halt transitions

Working on an independent canter

And not letting his head get to low at the trot

We had two jumps on diagonals and then a three stride across the middle so we could do sort of a figure 8.  The single jumps each had two trot poles in front, and the three stride ended up with three poles due to Prisoner leaving an entire stride out.

He says why be calm when you can be bold!?

She also walked in front of the jumps as we approached to help him back off without me having to get in his face.

Whee!

Um ok Prisoner

Love the colors

It ended really well, I finally had a controllable horse.  One of my biggest take aways was to fully post the trot.  He is very floaty and it is easy to just sort of hover on the approach to the jump.  If I committed to really sitting and really standing he kept the rhythm.

Things we don't want, floating seat and low head set

The three stride jumps got to be really nice as they went up a little.  He had to really jump up and use his body since the poles between kept him from getting long.

Hello knees

We talked about being sure to really teach him to use his body instead of pushing ahead on pure scope.  That way he will really understand what he is doing and not tap out at 3'6".  She said he is freakishly scopey and we need to develop it...yay!

Learning and listening

It was really a fun lesson, gave us lots of things to continue to work on.

Not scared of water

Alyssa came and took all these great pictures, #spoiledbymyfriends.

Soggy arena

Fun times

Time for a bath!