Awesome horsey weekend!!!

My weekend started out okay. I was going to go riding Saturday, but circumstances caused me to not stray far from home. So, when Saturday morning rolled around, I decided that it was just too pretty not to do something outside. I got to the barn (my second home) at about 8:30 and got my chores done, then loaded my trail cleaning and marking stuff into the mule and headed out to do some much needed trail work. I guess I worked for about 3 hours and I was having a blast. Sometimes we just need that alone time with nature to recharge our emotional batteries. I took silly pictures of things I saw, texted 3 different friends repeatedly, and listened to my iPhones ipod. Had a great time!

Then about 12:15 James called me. (my sorting instructor) He called and asked if I was coming to my lesson. I wasn't sure if they were having one as I couldn't get a time from anyone and decided they must have canceled. So I quickly got back to the barn, unloaded and cleaned out the mule. Loaded my saddle and Summer in the trailer and off we went. (a whole 6 miles from my barn)

Let me just say, Summer was total game on this day. I was so proud of her and our lesson. James noticed one thing that Summer has always had a problem with and that is initially separating the herd when going for our first cow. He and I both noticed, she didn't hesitate once. I just felt that this was one of our better lessons and wished I hadn't missed so much time with my back issues. Oh well, God does everything for a reason.

On Sunday, Tracey and I went to the arena for sorting practice. Roy is starting up Sunday practice at $5 a run. This was Amira's second time to try this as the first time (a bit over a year ago) she decided it wasn't the right sport for her at that time. LOL She has since learned that cows are our friends and that horses and humans are the bosses of cows. And Summer has told her they taste pretty yummy too. LOL Amira has learned to move them around in open pastures, however, working cows in a little round pen is much different than working them in a pasture. But she was a good girl and decided to "cowhorse up" and show those stock horses that Arabs can do this too. Everytime she went in, she got a little more comfortable. It's just gonna take a lot of practice like Summer and I did.

Summer was very "game on" again this day so I was once again real happy with her performance. I did 7 runs with Tracey and James saved me one of his runs. James and I ran real good together until he let a trash cow by him. LOL I told Tracey that even the best can bust.

Another thing I like about how Roy is doing this now, is this. You buy tickets for your runs. You hand the gate keeper a ticket when you enter and you get your full 60 seconds. If you bust within the first 10 seconds, you still have 50 seconds for practice so you can still keep going. But, because you have to pay per practice run, you kinda have to have your partners lined up. I spent $35 to run with Tracey and Amira. I won't do that for just anyone else, just like I wouldn't expect someone to do that with me. But Toni and I both knew Amira had it in her. We all know that a horse can feed off fear and nervousness from another horse, but I have also read that they can feed off of the confidence of another horse. Maybe even Summer was "telling" Amira she could do this too.

Tracey also said yesterday that Amira would never win a jackpot. I told her I thought that exact same thing until Summer won 2 of the 5 I entered her in last year. Never say never. You can't have "can't" in your heart as Joe Dirt would say. Cause if you do, then you won't. Ever. But I have also learned in this sport, you MUST be an aggressive rider. No timidity allowed when working with cows. That's for sure. Just like the barrel racing saying, "Ride It Like You Stole It!" : )