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Well the NBHA Dixie Nationals were this past weekend with 400+ entries, and I was pretty happy with how well Trouble and Hyper Kat did. In the 1st Go-Round, Hyper Kat was 8th in the 1D and qualified back to the finals. In the 2nd Go-Round Trouble was 10th in the 1D which qualified him back to finals also. (Thank goodness NBHA changed the rule this year and lets you take 2 horses per division to the finals!) It was kind of funny because in the 1st Go-Round Hyper Kat ran a 14.4 and I hit a barrel on Trouble (my mistake). In the 2nd Go-Round, I ran a 14.4 on Trouble and hit a barrel on Hyper Kat (my mistake...again!). In the finals, Hyper Kat finished 5th in the 1D and Trouble was 20th. My finals runs were not very great. Trouble drew up 11 which is usually great for him, but the ground was a little too wet at the beginning of the finals. He slipped at every barrel but the 3rd was the worst. He almost trotted out, but what can ya do. That's how barrel racing goes. I think some of it may be that he is past due for his yearly hock injections, so we are having that done this Friday. Hyper Kat's finals run was hilarious. He flattened out on me going to the first barrel, so I just stayed foward on him to try to get by it...which we did. He makes a very hard, physical move behind the barrels which is difficult to ride anyway, but especially so when you are out of position! So he turned back as I scrambled to just stay on. Lost my left stirrup. Never touched my reins to help him finish the turn so he was headed straight at the 2nd barrel...with me still a few strides behind. At the last minute he jumped over and turned the second barrel...jerking me around like a rag doll again. By the time we got to the 3rd barrel I was only about a stride behind him. He turned it nicely and ran out with a 14.3!! I could not believe it. I was so proud of him because all I probably did was get in his way. Bless his heart, just imagine what he could do with someone that could actually ride!! ha! ha!