Barrel Racing is Harder than it Looks!

You would think "How hard can it be? You turn the horse around 3 barrels as fast as you can go. Piece of Cake.", right? We have been working this summer on turning one English-trained prim and prissy horse and one beginner-baby into barrel racing machines. We took the Mother-Daughter clinic from Judy Myllymaki (barrel racing goddess) and came home ready to get to work. I brought my beautiful new Nikon camera to the barrel race yesterday, and set out to get some really great pictures of us "chasing cans". Ack! Iris took wonderful pictures of some random people, to try out the method, and the most awesome picture of her BFF winning the whole thing, and the picture of me is horrible! Just because it shows the naked truth. I am doing it all wrong. Then I took over the camera, and tried to stand where she wanted me (apparently I can't even do that right-) and both watch my girl's run, and focus and shoot at the same time. . Here is what was happening at Hayshed Arena yesterday:






Here is random person #1 - I don't know her name, but she is awesome. Look at that horse lean around the barrel. Look at her hand- nice and low. Nice turn.

Here she is running back. I like her bit. I like her reins.

Here is the rotten kid that got a 15.9. If she weren't there, I might have won some $$ in the 4D (I'll explain that some other day) But since she is one of my students, and my daughters bestest friend, I was very very happy that she did that.

Here is random person #2 - I actually know who this is. She is one of the gals that run the barrel racing club. Obviously, she knows what she is doing. See how she is NOT looking at the barrel, but up and out and off to where she is going next. See how her hand is nice and low? Nice run, Sheri.



Ack! This is NOT good. See how she is looking AT THE BARREL? See how her hand is WAY UP IN THE AIR- keeping her poor horse from getting nice and low to turn. And what is that expression on her face? Shame. The camera doesn't lie. We actually got our best time ever (18.522) looking like this. My husband had the positive criticism "you would have been in the 17's if you didn't trot to the first barrel" Of course we didn't trot, but last time we blasted to first, and went about 20 feet past it, so I guess I am a little over cautious.
Here is the pro- getting the new world record time of 15.984 (Not sure what is the actual world record time at the Hayshed Arena, but its got to be close) See how awesome is her form? Is she looking at the barrel? NO - is her hand up in the air? NO - She is an awesome rider. She is my hero.

Here is my girl getting advice from the pro. It must've helped, because she too got a new personal best time.

Then I took over the camera. Iris' horse is a lefty, so she takes the other barrel first, so I was going to set up on the other side of the arena, but she insisted she had the best spot, and told me where to go. She did have a great spot, but apparently I misunderstood directions, and my photos aren't anywhere as good as hers (not because of the subject, but because of the photographer) Here is her run:

First barrel - oops, I am a little slow. Nice butt.

Second barrel- wow- hand is low, looking good. Is she looking at the barrel, or off to third?

Hustling off to third barrel- horse came out a little wide on second, but Iris' form looks great.


And around third- looking good.
The run back- Nice run, Iris. Posted a time of 21.836 The horse is coming along, but we have some more work to do. Help Catie!

My terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

Yesterday started off badly. I woke up late, so my husband was already in our bathroom, and I had to pee. I am usually the first one up every morning, but this morning I slept in. No problem, I will just use Iris' bathroom in the hall, before I feed the dog. Except Iris' toilet was plugged up, where when you flush, the water comes up, instead of going down. The plunger was not where it is supposed to be, and now I really had to pee, so I started back toward my bathroom to wait my turn, and nearly stepped in several small piles of cat puke on the kitchen floor. Nice start to the day. The rest of the morning was ok, just tried to get errands done, etc. Iris had a riding lesson at 4:30, so we planned on getting to the stables at around 4:00 so she could saddle, etc. But the horse decided she did not want to get in the trailer, so I needed Iris to walk behind her with the buggy whip (just for encouragement, relax) but the wind was blowing about 90 knots, so first I had to tie the trailer door open with a piece of twine. The horse jumped in the trailer, and Iris, having to untie the (badly) tied twine, dropped the whip in the grass, got the trailer shut, and we were off. - only about 20 mins later than we had planned.
Of course, after the lesson, the horse once again refused to get in the trailer. Guess where the buggy whip is? Yep. back at home in the grass. The only other reliable adult around was Sally, the riding instructor, and she was riding a horse in the middle of a lesson with someone, so we tried the best we could, but the horse was very determined she was having none of it. About 30 mins later, Sally finally was available, and we got the horse loaded up. Now we were about an hour late, and missed the first of Blaine's two Laker baseball games- I had thought we would only miss half of the first one, but now we had to take the horse home, so we missed the whole game. The last few days Iris and I have spent shoveling truckloads of poop in and out of the truck, and I was (am) sore all over, and exhausted at bedtime. I changed into my pajamas, and was heading towards bed, when I saw the 4 12-packs of pop we had bought earlier in the day, in the pantry. I am fairly sure I asked SOMEONE to put some in the fridge, so there would be COLD pop to drink instead of warm, but here they were unopened. So I opened them all, and was putting 2 of each in the fridge, when a root beer slipped off of the shelf, and hit the ground right between my ankles, and blew up. I mean exploded. Most of it went straight up, so I was covered in root beer, but it also sprayed up the wall, and splattered over much of the groceries in the pantry. Lovely.