Disneyworld was so much fun, but insanely tiring. We did four parks in three days, I went on my first roller coaster, and I met a bunch of people from all over the world.
Field hockey officially started as of Saturday and I go back to school in two weeks. This summer has flown by so incredibly fast, but I loved every minute of it.
Brooks has had "off" for a little while and has been getting a ride on here and there. There's not really a whole lot for us to do until September 16th when we start going to the game shows on Sundays. When I went to go ride him yesterday, it was raining pretty steady, so I just hopped on him bareback for about 20 minutes and we jumped a bit and just goofed off. He'll get another ride sometime this week [hopefully] if it ever decides to stop raining.
Our plane is leaving for Orlando in about six hours and I STILL have a ton of packing to do, not to mention get a shower, pack more stuff, etc. I'm excited to say the least, but I know I'm going to miss my bed and the comforts of home.
Brooks had a nice ride yesterday and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We worked on a lot of rollbacks and I'm hoping that will help us with that first turn for poles we always overshoot. I need to work on rating him a lot more because he comes out of that circle SO strong and I always hit the brakes way too late, resulting in a knocked barrel/pole. He gave me a good ride nonetheless and stood like an absolute angel for his bath afterward, no flyback needed! Man, was he dirrttyyyy.
I have no idea when our next show will be. I'm guessing whenever the game shows start back on Sundays, I'll be hauling him down there.
It's been the best year of my life so far and he's made me happier than I ever thought possible. We went to the game show Saturday night, got a fifth in basketweave, a fourth in ribbon, and a PR in barrels with 22 and change. I was so happy with him; he truly is an amazing little horse and he's brought me along so far.
I just pretty much hanging out for day. We got home around 1:30AM, so I went to church at 11:30AM with my dad and my family's coming over in about an hour for a party. As far as presents go, I got a Coach purse, a Tiffany's bracelet, some perfume, a bunch of shirts and stuff from friends, and a Breyer Paint from Brooks. =)
So, it's definitely been a fufilling year with my boy. When I look back now, I can see just how far I've alone come, and then I see how far I've come with him. The journey is just remarkable for me.
Our county's fair ended Sunday after four very fast days. I was dead to the world.
It went extremely well for us overall. We got a third in horse management, a sixth in barrels on Thursday night, and a fourth in barrels in Versatility on Friday night. Then we entered Egg & Spoon, Simon Says, horsemanship, WP, poles, and beginner walk/trot over cross-rails. We made fools of ourselves in probably half of those classes, but God he was SO much fun. I couldn't believe how well behaved he was throughout the whole time. He gave me so many good rides and even served as an excellent pony ride mount for a couple of friends. We bonded a lot too considering I saw him nearly all day for five days straight and I discovered he has a crazy passion for Cool Ranch Doritos. Yeah, he's definitely my kind of horse. ♥
Oh, and Shorty the little roper got sold. =/ But he went to Stew and Marion who team pen with us everywhere so we'll be seeing him a lot.
My birthday is Sunday, so I'll have had Brooks for one year. Time has flown by so fast. We're going to go to the game show on Saturday night as a celebration, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.
It's been about two weeks since I've updated, so here goes everything.
I never made it to the game show on the 14th. Dolly ended up going to Maryland to watch Jason in the PBR [He got bucked off.] and Danny disappeared from us, so I never had anyone to haul me there.
Brooks sat for the rest of the week until Thursday when I went team penning with Dolly at Bit by Bit. He pulled back again as I cinched him up and ended up flipping himself on his side while still tied to the tree. He laid there for about ten minutes we tried to get the flyback off, but it was way too tight around the chain and we had to cut it off.
It started thundering as we were loading Brooks and Jesse into the trailer and it poured like a monsoon the whole way there. We were sure it was going to get cancelled, but it cleared up nicely as soon as we arrived. On the whole, the night went fairly well for us. I had six runs and penned around five cows. It doesn't sound like much, but I was expecting worse considering we hadn't done team penning in five months and these cows were on the tougher side from what I was used to. Brooks started to shut down on me toward the beginning of our fifth run, but he was lazy in the arena from the get-go. I'm going to ride him in spurs there next time just to keep that edge on him.
I went riding yesterday and he was barely cinchy at all. He warmed up nice and we just had a good, wholesome ride. He did fabulous loping through the poles and his turns were right on point. We even had a couple of satisfying barrel runs.
I'm beginning to worry about the 4-H Fair. It's this Thursday and while we're as ready as I hope we can be on the gaming area, we need some prayers thrown our way for WP and Versatility, particularly in the English department.
