Little Bitty Jessops

Shaylee rode Jack in English, Jumping & Western and did SUPERB! When I get the pics I'll post them later. (I had to buy them and waiting for them to send them to me). However I did get some pics of my cute little cowboy who won a SILVER MEDAL in his class against 6 kids! This time we practiced keeping his hand AWAY from the horn, resting on his leg, sitting up TALL, smiling (painted on sometimes) and holding the reins the correct way with his index finger in between the reins. He did so good! Halfway through it all he was telling me that it was hard work keeping his hands up and away from the horn. (They are heavy heavy reins for a kid). WHen he was out competing he was gabbing away at the other kids telling them, "Hey, look at my cool pants (chaps)". He talked straight back to the judge when he was asked his age, breed of horse, etc. It was the best part of the day watching him!

Last night, Dave and Corbin went off to go camping at the "Father & sons" campout with the 4th ward. So, it was Shalyce and me. The boys decided to stay up on the mountain, go up to the cabin and help put fence up and other stuff. So the only thing I had to do today was head over with the club checkbook and go pay the judge and other folks at the Color Country Equestrian Club reining show. They were also having Working Cow Horse classes in the morning. A working cow horse class is where you do an assigned pattern on your horse, after the pattern they send a cow out of the chute and you're supposed to "work" the cow, not just drive/herd it around, but show you have total control over it. While I was watching a guy compete, he made it look easy. Later on, someone told me that he just won the World competition in Vegas recently. He made it look easy and AWESOMELY FUN!! I just kept telling everyone around me, "Look how fun that is!" Then one of the ladies said, "Lacee, just go out and try it!" Then Arla insisted that I use her mare and give it a go! And there were some guys there telling me I was gonna "chicken out" so that pushed me over the edge :)! I first loped the horse around to get a feel of how she moved and her cues...then we went down to the chute...waiting for them to let that cow out...and WOW she spun and CHASED that cow down and ADRENALINE was pumping through my veins! It was SOOOOOOO fun! I learned a TON of things I did wrong afterwards, but I'm excited to try it again someday! That mare was pretty "cowy"....she watched and tried to mirror the cow without a lot of my help. SHe is actually "Jack's" half-sister, out of the same stud.

So I packed up our stuff, went home to give Shalyce some lunch, and then decided to head back to watch some more. Arla had mentioned that I should ride a Reining pattern on her mare, too. I kinda went back and forth about it, but after I came home for lunch and realized I had nothing else to do with my day, I should go try it out...what the heck! So I packed up my long sleeve green western shirt, straw hat and my camera (had to get some bragging proof;) ) and Shalyce. When I arrived Arla told me that they said the rules stated that no 2 riders can use the same horse...and she was about to LET me use her ride! I said, NO WAY! I'm not going to just "show up" and make her hand over her horse to me! She was so sweet, she was very serious in letting me use her mare. Then Boyd showed up, walking towards us with him handing the reins to me. I handed SHalyce off to other friends standing around, she was NOT enjoying that part. Shalyce was very tired and very picky who held her. So during these rushed 5 minutes before I had to show, I was learning the cues on a horse I'd never met before, learning how to SPIN ( I had never done a spin before) and Shalyce was SCREAMING in the background! Somehow, when you're finally doing something you've been wanting to experience for a long time, the screaming sound MUTES out:) ....Then Shalyce wanted this older guy, with glasses and a cowboy hat. He was more than happy to take her, and she fell asleep on his shoulder:)! YAY! I felt like the whole world was revolving around me! ha ha! Everyone was catering to my WANTS! I was getting a free lesson from Boyd Roundy and he was LETTING me use his nice 4 year old reining horse for my first Reining pattern EVER, and a nice gentle old cowboy was holding my munchkin. I just got a phone call from JeffriAnn telling me that I got 4th place out of 8 riders! YAY! Anyway, here's some video of me learning how to spin this nice athletic animal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU8HS4qlZ8I

pictures too...

Here's a love NIP on your shoulder, Corb!