‘April showers bring May flowers’, everyone knows the famous saying, but I think we tend to forget that we have to deal with all the rain before the flowers can bloom. I feel like all this rain is really on point for my life right now, literally and figuratively. We need the rain, but the mud is messy. Learning to ride a new horse and get my confidence back is challenging. I have knocked a barrel at all the shows we have been to so far. Reno and I are in our mud season, but our flowers will bloom soon.
I ended the last blog the night before for our first show together, so we will start there. I pre-entered for two exhibition runs and the open barrels. The weather was pretty nice for the end of March. When we got there, we got saddled right away and went to warm up. Reno was really good and didn’t care about the other horses in the arena or pop-up tents flapping in the wind. I trotted my first exhibition and Reno was kinda mad, he was ready to run. The second one we just loped through, he came a little wide off the first barrel, but the rest of the run wasn’t too bad. We went back to the trailer after that to wait for the show to start. When it was our turn to run, I was pretty nervous. I tried to keep myself calm and I listened to music on my headphones while I was waiting. Our first barrel was much better than our exhibition. I came in too close around the second and knocked it. Then we went super wide to the third and knocked it on the backside. I did let Reno run home, which seems to be his favorite part. It has been so long since I had a completed pattern, that I didn’t even care about the knocked barrels. Plus, we cut three seconds off out time from the exhibition run, even with going wide to the third.
After that show, we had so much rain that we didn’t get to ride as much as we wanted. We were constantly checking the weather and trying to ride between storms when our ring dried up. I had to deal with a little bit more flooding in Stinger’s stall even though we cleared the ditch behind the barn. April also brought Reno and Stinger’s birthdays. They were born exactly a week apart and each got new treats for a present. Reno is now 16 and Stinger 10 years old.
Stinger was also getting pretty sore after every time he would get turned out in the pasture. We decided to take the new corral panels and stick them in the corner of the arena for now to make a temporary round pen. Stinger gets to have some play time in there while we ride the other horses. Along with his controlled turnout and his daily Equioxx pill, he seems to be doing a lot better.
Stinger and Reno had a dentist visit in April too. Reno had been shaking his head every time we would lope and was hesitant to pick up the left lead. After getting his teeth checked, he had some pretty bad sharp points on that side and seemed to feel a lot better after that. So far, the head tossing has stopped, and we have no more problems loping.
The end of April brought our very first rodeo together, in the rain. We signed up for an open rodeo just to see how he handled it and for Diesel to have his first run back since his accident. Diesel did great and placed third. We don’t know if Reno had been to any rodeos before, but he acted like a seasoned pro. He stood perfect at the trailer, wamred up great, didn’t mind all the rodeo commotion, the peacock sitting in the rafters of the warmup pen, or any of the sheep or bulls around. He did get a little prancy when it started downpouring before we moved to the covered warm up. I think he just didn’t like the water splashing on his ears. Once we went to the dry spot he stood still. For our run, we entered in slack after the rodeo was over. It stopped raining by then and he went right up the alley with no problems. The run was a little bit messy, so we really have room to improve. Reno tripped at the first barrel when he went to switch leads and got a small cut above his hoof. We knocked the second barrel because I had too big of a pocket and then turned right into the barrel. I actually kicked to the third, but again we had a big pocket. I tipped the third too but it stood itself back up. When I came out of the arena my chinstrap was unhooked on one side, so it came unhooked at some point during the run. It was a wild ride, but we did it.
The rodeo was on Friday and then we went to our local show the same weekend on Sunday. It wasn’t supposed to be great weather, but it turned out to be so nice (I even got a little sunburned). I actually decided to sign up for season points for this series, which I haven’t done since I was in high school. I entered the Adult and Open barrel classes. The Adult class was first, and it was my best run on Reno yet. I still knocked the second barrel (apparently that is going to be the barrel I struggle with the most) and went wide to the first. I was able to go back to two-handed between the barrels and I kicked most of the way. If you know me, you know I really struggle with both of those things, so I was super happy about that. The Open class wasn’t as good, I plowed the second barrel completely over and took a detour to the third I was so wide. Only the Adult counts for points so we will just pretend the other run didn’t happen (hahaha).
Summer is approaching quickly, and we are going to keep working on growing our flowers. I think the mud is finally drying. I’m feeling more confident each run, and we have so much room for improvement.
The Barrel Racer's Journal 