Holiday Horse Show...

Ah, Fourth of July, BBQ's, Fireworks, Picnics, and Horse Show? Not necessarily what you think of - but, Bree rode in one on the 5th... It was the Grundy County Fair -

The GCF Grounds are small so they do not combine the county fair with the 4H fair (not enough room) and we usually do not get to go to this fair/show because in the past we have always been in Oklahoma City at the Appaloosa Youth World Show. This year since Bree has been working diligently on transitioning Tess to "running" we didn't want to confuse the mare by making her trot at the Worlds.

So, we instead went to the County Fair and she got the chance to "debut" Tess running. Bree likes to run - she has that need for speed. Tess LOVES to run. I am amazed how much this mare who you would NOT think has gas - has the gas! The thing I like best is that she is NOT one of those horses that when it goes in the gate gets all "antsy-dancey" or hyper or uncontrollable - calmly walks in, calmly walks out and when out and Bree stops her, promptly goes to sleep and stands nice and still.

The entry fees for the classes were steep ($20 per) and payouts were 1st place 50 and then decrease by $5 out to 8th place. They only had ONE Youth class (18 and under) and that was barrels. I didn't have high hopes being that on this first show 'venture' running against adults, that placing was going to occur.

What can I say. I was wrong. Bree participated in 3 "team" events (Pony Express 2x - 2 different partners) and the Toilet Paper race (not the typical tp race - a timed event doing a lap around a barrel as fast as you can without breaking the tp)

Drumroll please.... The results:

Not the most perfect of form on barrel no 2 but a cool picture!

I love the look and focus and concentration on her face in this picture coming home and giving Tess the "gas" signal!

She placed 4th in Barrels in the 18 and under!

The next event is the Pony Express which is a team ride - the first rider holds the 'baton' - in this case a rolled up towel with tape around it and runs a lap around the arena as fast as they can and then they have to hand off (within a designated stretch) the 'baton' to the next rider who does the same thing. Bree rode in this class twice - Once with Skeeter (barn owner) and the other with Madison another gal from the barn. Bree and Skeeter placed FIRST and Bree and Madison placed third - ALMOST 2nd. Their time was 29.65 - second place was 29.6


4 Again against all riders!

There was also the typical "Bribe Your Horse" class - which we knew Bree had better run as fast she could as her mare is a chow hound... No issues with her chasing food! The "sad" part was that they had just for this show put 5 loads of SAND in the arena and it was over your ankle deep - the kids could hardly get thru it - but it was funny to watch... The Chow Hound and the kid took 2nd....

Can you all read Tess' mind? It goes something like this, "Give me the food, food I say, I'll run you over to get the food, give me the "dang" food!!!" hahaha

Ok - Now I just LOVE this picture... It's like one of those where you have to play - "find the 'x' in the picture" - In this one, it is "find the KID" in the picture..



Poles we had a touch of an issue - Tess has decided that when going down the lane toward the end pole on the opening stretch that to save time she is going to try to dart between the LAST 2 end poles instead of turning around the actual end pole - silly mare - but she's trying to get a better time - so who can fault her? Yea, right. Anyway - so they took 8th with Bree having to correct her on that - but, still in the money..

The other team event was the speed toilet paper race - in the past this was more like a pleasure class whereby 2 people hold opposite ends of a strip of tp and walk, jog, pleasure horse lope, etc.. until some break their strip and the one team left wins - but this time you had to race down and around the barrel and back with your team member without breaking the strip of tp! Bree and Skeeter competed in this race together and took 3rd.

Somehow I missed getting a photo of Bree in the Keyhole event - and she took 5th. It was good to see that even running Tess can put the breaks on to make a turn like that!

It was a great first outing for the two of them.. They brought home a $232 paycheck and after entry fees - Bree netted $125 - That was REALLY cool! I think they are going to make a great running team with some fine tuning and time!