Nothing cures a blah day at school like a good ride at night.

And I figured out why the mudball is so fat!  First, he eats his dinner like a little old man.  He eats it bit by bit and then, licks his entire pan clean, including every corner and cranny.  After he's done that whole process which took him a good half hour,  he'll proceed to eat any bit of feed he finds on the ground.  What a gentleman.  And I had nothing else better to do than watch him eat for thirty minutes.

 After attempting to de-shed him and get covered in a nice mess of horsehair in the meantime, the beastie gets to touch his hooves in the round pen for the first time in four days and decides to do a rendition of the chicken dance, crowhopping all over the place before I even pick up the longe whip.  But he quieted down pretty fast and I even got him to trot with a decent headset for a bit with no tie down, bridle, reins, nothing.

 I loped him fast on barrels a couple of times and he did better than before.  I'm thinking the reason why we hit that third barrel last Sunday was because I looked down at it.  I noticed myself doing it last night with even trying to and that's probably why we knocked it.  He knows the pattern well enough, it's just a matter of perfecting it now.

 Brooks was supposed to get a trim and new shoes today, too, but it rained pretty steady and I doubt Mike made it out.

I'm sunburnt, dead tired, and happy as a lark. 

 After spending what felt like an eterinity waiting for Jasper's owner to come pick him up, Dolly, Danny, and I arrived at the game show an hour late.  I was ready to have a cow after waiting so long, but we arrived in just enough time....for the junior division of stakes to end.  But Dolly was a blessing as always and let me ride in place of hers and Clay's spot.  Brooks did good enough for his first run.

We had bleeding heart next, and somehow we wound up sixth.  I didn't even push him or ask him to run; I just concentrated on getting a clean run and he did so well. It took me about twenty minutes to figure out why they call it bleeding heart.

Baton race was next; I was bringing the baton Michelle, but she never turned her mare around. She just kind of stood there and then took off too late. I pulled Brooks up before the second barrel, handed the baton over, and somehow, we got sixth in that too.

Poles.  POLES!!  I thought he was doing to do so good after going through the tires well at home, but he weaved really wide through them and we lost a lot of time.  He turns were pretty decent on both ends, so I can't complain too much.

Our barrel time would have been amazing.  He went into the first and second so nice, and I thought we had a wide enough pocket going into the third, but he clipped it with his butt on the way out and knocked it.  Oh, well.  He gave me a nearly perfect run otherwise.

 Our next show is either Piney Hollow again in two weeks or the 4-H qualifying show.  I still have to make up my mind on which one.

Today was supposed to be our first gaming show of the season.  But of course, we're due for about 3+ inches of rain.  Brooks was all ready to go too.  Well, as ready as he's going to be for now.  I'm itching to run him SO badly.  It's been six long months since he's last been shown if you don't count the couple of times we did team penning over the winnter.   

I need patience. 

 Patience.

I lack such patience.

Spring break ends tomorrow and I head back to lovely school.  I have to read two more chapters in Catch-22, outline four chapters in APUSH, and get a crack on a giant religion project due in a week.  I'm such a good procrastinator.  Oy vey.  But instead, here I sit uploading pictures of my goofball of a horse and trying to decide which ones I want actual copies of. 

See what a seemingly innocent rainy day can do to you?