Here’s our killer photo taken in our Saturday run at the Barrel Bash a couple weeks ago.
Failure, or Success?
31 Jul posted by
I’m not going to show you video from last night’s barrel race. At least not the video of me. Kelsey made a really good run of 17.9 something in her youth run and ended up third. For me, it was just a disaster. I’m not sure why it fell apart like it did. But it did.
I guess I expect my horse to get better every week, regardless of whether or not I ride him like a fat girl or not. Regardless of what I do. And inevitably if I make a mistake, I don’t want to take responsibility for it. I want to blame him for not doing what I’ve been teaching him right when it’s not his fault. When chances are 99% that he did EXACTLY what I told him to do. I can (and did) throw out a week’s worth of good training on a run that doesn’t go like I thought it should. I can have, and do have second thoughts about doing things the way I’m doing them. I have doubts and don’t believe that I can make it work this way. When I have nights like I did last night, I get all pissy (and I was hormonal anyway, so that definitely doesn’t make it better), I think that I have no business riding/training horses. And then I wonder, really, how do you measure success? I want really badly to go to the NFR and run down the alley at the Thomas and Mack Center. But do I want that, because it will show the world that I really do know what I’m doing? Because shouldn’t I believe that I do know what I’m doing? And then I wonder, why would anyone send me a horse to ride, or want to buy a horse I’ve ridden/trained if I’ve never won anything big in my life? Why would anyone come to me for help, when I’m getting outrun by lots of other horses? I’m not getting any younger and at some point I may want to have a kiddo or two and that would crimp my goals. Maybe I’m just impatient. But I do wonder, how do you define success with your horse when you’re me? Ve? Stephie? Jilly? Zoe? Christine? Toni? Anyone?
Pardon the above rabbit trail.
You see, I LOVE, love, LOVE the way Zach’s horses ride around. They’re soft. They’re responsive. They’re happy. And I want my horses to be that way too. I want them to like me and Gump certainly does! I’ve never been a really pushy trainer, and I’ve prefered using less headgear to more. And I’ve always told people that if your horse can’t do it in a slow and correct in a snaffle, then a bigger bit isn’t going to help. Oh, it may temporarily get you around the root cause of whatever’s going on, but it’s my belief that it’s not going to work forever.
With Gump, I’m dealing with an ex-runaway/racehorse. I’ve got him very quiet. And for the most part, he’s broker than about 90% of the horses that are currently out-running him (another thing that really pisses me off- but I can blog about that later). We can walk in and out of the alley. I have beautiful vertical flexion. I have his hips free. I can do lead departures from a straight line, and choose the lead I want. I believe that in another week or two (at most) we’ll be doing reining horse lead changes. I can move his forequarters freely and he’s about 3 weeks away from being able to spin. I can stop him, from a lope, on a loose rein, by simply quitting riding. I can open gates. I can rope cattle on him. I can work colts from his back. But I can’t stop him quietly, softly and quickly from a gallop. And therein lies what I believe to be the root problem. I’ve preached that one of the things a barrel horse should be able to do is be stopped at any point in the pattern, from a run. And here I am, not doing that on my own horse. And I don’t meant stopped with his head in the air. I mean stopped, clean, smooth, soft and quietly.
I’m feeling a WHOLE LOT better about all of this now that I’ve sorted out the issues in my head and written it down. Maybe that’s a benefit to blogging? I don’t know. Either way, I have horses to ride, and a horse named Gump that needs my help to be all that he can be, so I’m gonna scat for now. I’ll post Kelsey smokin’ run later. And I’ll update you on the other good things that happened this week. Thanks for listening.
Kelsey’s Barrel Bash Weekend
21 Jul posted by
Kelsey had some great runs this weekend. She placed fourth in the youth class on Thursday night in Dupree (where she ran her fastest time so far this summer), and then Friday night at Rapid City she won 6th in the 4D which was good for a $73 check. Needless to say she was absolutely beside herself! Saturday’s run, while it was a tenth slower than Friday earned her the top spot in the youth 2D incentive, and actually she was the only youth to place in the 2D incentive, so she won more than the youth that won the 1D incentive! That check was good for $129 so she was even more excited. Her Sunday run was 2 tenths slower than her Saturday run, but over-all she was very consistent.
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Barrel Racing Videos from the Weekend!
20 Jul posted by
Here is video from the weekend starting with Thursday night’s run. I won’t show you Friday’s run because Gump fell going around the first, and the rest of the run went down the toilet. The ground in Rapid was really deep, and he really struggled with it. And as much as I hate to admit it, I feel like, subconsciously I was really freaked out about it too. He gets better every run. We just need to clean up our turns on the backside of the barrels and we’ll be even faster. I got to talk to Hallie Melvin while I was in Rapid and I’ll be getting to go ride with her soon. I’m very excited about that. Her horses run in very little headgear, and she’s like me, in that she believes less is more. If you can keep them in a snaffle, why put them in anything else?
Thursday in Dupree where he ran faster than he has so far this summer:
Saturday:
Sunday:
I’m going to dedicate an entire post to Kelsey’s runs this weekend. That girl did really good and brought home $200! Needless to say, she was stoked!
DX Jurassic Classic
16 Jul posted by
Meet my newest project (ok, so there’s a lot of projects here but this one is special), Dx Jurassic Classic, or Dino as we call him. He is a half brother (by a different daddy) to my barrel horse, and favorite gelding of all time, Gump. Can you see the resemblance?
Yesterday he had his first ride, with me aboard! It was my first time to make a first ride on a horse with only a halter. I have it on film, but it’s not off the camera yet, so when I get it off I’ll share it. You can hear Zach coaching me through it. I may have Zach ride him today though, as I want to make sure that I did everything right and that I’m not feeling any tension in him (I felt none). He’d really rather stand around than move out! My kinda horse. If I had to guess I’d say he’s gonna be able to run a hole in the wind and he’ll be a stopping machine. I have priced him, so I guess if I can get what I want for him I’ll sell him. Otherwise, I would like to keep him and futurity him as a 5 year old, and make him a rodeo horse like Gump is becoming!
Tonight we will go to Dupree and run. From there we will head to Rapid City for the Barrel Bash. Four runs will definitely help my horse, and to make it even more helpful- they’ll all be on a standard pattern! Running in Rapid will be just like running in Dupree where we have run all summer! I cannot express to y’all how excited I am about getting to make four runs in four days!
I probably won’t have internet access for the weekend, but rest assured, that I will post Dino’s first ride video, and the video from the barrel races. Also, yesterday, Ty had his first outside ride on his pony Lil’ Banjo, so I plan to make him a movie of it for posterity’s sake!
Happy trails!
Update
14 Jul posted by
Nora is doing really well. Thanks to all of you who are concerned about her. I haven’t got the photos on my computer yet- but it poured last night, so there’s a good chance I’ll get to do that today, along with updating my Etsy store, editing some more video of our ranch’s stud horses, and maybe I’ll get to clean this house up too!
I have decided that if my mare isn’t ready to breed back on her foal heat, that I’ll leave her open this year (which depresses me) and bring her up to the house so I can ride her and start entering her again.
Have a video of her from last summer:
I’m off for the day. Have a good one everybody!
He Just Keeps Getting Better!
10 Jul posted by
Last night at the barrel race, Gump ran an 18.183. Now I know, to some of you that seems slow. But at this particular pen, they run a WPRA standard pattern. In Alvarado, TX the record is a 16.665. But an average rodeo placing time on a standard pattern is between a 17.2 and a 17.7. At the big barrel races, where the ground is immaculate and you get the chance to run over and over again in those pens, the times get faster. So Gump, running where he did, and me being in his way on barrel number two, is, to me at least, super exciting! And I didn’t ride him at all this week, save for Monday when we moved bulls.
Here is his run where we placed 4th:
He Just Keeps Getting Better!
10 Jul posted by
Last night at the barrel race, Gump ran an 18.183. Now I know, to some of you that seems slow. But at this particular pen, they run a WPRA standard pattern. In Alvarado, TX the record is a 16.665. But an average rodeo placing time on a standard pattern is between a 17.2 and a 17.7. At the big barrel races, where the ground is immaculate and you get the chance to run over and over again in those pens, the times get faster. So Gump, running where he did, and me being in his way on barrel number two, is, to me at least, super exciting! And I didn’t ride him at all this week, save for Monday when we moved bulls.
Here is his run where we placed 4th:
29 Jun posted by
Here is video from the barrel race we attended yesterday in Aberdeen:
Gump’s First Run:
Gump’s Second Run (we were half a second off!):
Kels and Pommel on their second run (they were 7 tenths off!):
Barrel Racing
19 Jun posted by
Here is the video from last night’s barrel race in Dupree, SD.
Gump and myself:
Kelsey and Pommel:
