Well, its been a bit since I last blogged.
All is still going good. Well, at least for my little world.
Shelby and I are becoming more of a team and starting to "get" each other. She is in my hip pocket and a very loving mare. She reminds me of Fawtal in that sense. Summer is stoic and aloof and Shelby is all in your business. LOL
Shelby and I went to our clinic at James' on Sunday. Along with Vicki, Mike, Connie, Robin and Courtney. It was a good one. We all made mistakes, but we made more good moves than bad ones.
Oh, and I wanted to log that I was real proud of Shelby and her trailing training too. I knew she would get right in by herself, with no Summer, to go to James's Sunday morning, but would she get in at James' to come home. I had faith in her as she has been at the barn going on 2 months now and is very attached to Summer. And if for some reason she didn't want to get in, James would be there to help. Well, after out lesson and it was time to go, James, Anthony and Robin were standing in the shade next to my trailer talking, I pointed Shelby at the trailer and said, "load up", and she hopped right in with no questions asked! I was so proud of her. I told them, "trailer training complete". LOL
I took her home, unloaded and put her up then went and took a 2 hour break. I decided to take her to Roy's for a couple of sorting runs with Tracey and Amira. I had asked James if he thought taking Shelby to Roy's would be too much since we had had the lesson. He said no, she was in the prime of her life and a few runs at Roy's would be fine. So here was a major trailer training question, would she get back in on the same day she had already gotten in twice for a trip? Well, when it was time to go to Roy's, she answered my question by hopping right in! So proud of my little paint girl!
Tracey took her own rig, so we met up there. I ran with DK, Tracey and Dennis Brooks. All pretty good runs. I got my first 2 sets of doubles while running with Dennis. It was awesome! Twice when it was my time in the pen to get my number, they lined up for me. I pushed them semi-quick and would holler "double, double, let'em go!" Very cool.
Letha was walking around asking folks if they wanted to jackpot. I told her no as I was so tired. I had gotten up at 5am to get ready to be at James' by 6:30 to saddle and warm up cause the lesson started at 7am. I didn't go to sleep until about 12:30am, so I was just exhausted. Well, when it was time to start jackpot, Letha told Roy they needed 1 more novice to round out the class. So I raised my hand and told them I would do it. Well, my draw was a girl named Krista. She is good, but we had never run together before. Well, we went in and got all ten head in 58 seconds! It was awesome!
A few team busted but about 3 other teams also got 10 head. In the end, we finished with 14 head and second place. The first place team also finished with 14 head but a 6 second faster time. But I can now officially say, Shelby and I have won money.
Well, when it was time to go, I had faith that Shelby would agree that it was time to go home and get in the trailer. And she agreed, she loaded right up.
Money and Tuesday night was Summer's turn. We did a conditioning ride on both nights. Monday we rode 1.60 miles at 8mph, then another mile and a half at a walk. On Tuesday we did 2.30 miles at 8mph then another 2 miles or so at a walk for cool down. On both nights though, she acted like she still had more fuel to give me, but I want to do this slow as she has fat to burn and muscle to build. Last night and tonight, she has off, but will do another one on Friday night and Sunday morning. Then I need to start doing some long slow distance with her. If I have to hit every trail we have 3 times, I will. I may get bored with it, but it is for her own good.
Chompers is still being Chompers. I think I have found him a girlfriend though. My friend Courtney has a 29" mini paint mare she wants to breed. She wants a baby for herself. It probably won't be this year as it is too late and you don't want them giving birth in the heat of summer. But starting early next year, we will probably put them together and just let him "pasture breed" her.
