30 Days of Memories: Day 23

I'm leading, Ashinator is in the pink, and Digger is behind her.

One of the best benefits of working for the livery was that I could do cool things for the kids. For Digger's birthday one year, we had a riding party. If I wasn't working there, it would have been cost-prohibitive, but many summers I worked in trade for free rides and tips.

Digger was allowed to invite a few friends up to ride, and we went out for a one-hour ride. After our ride, we were treated to a trick roping show. One of the wranglers had a friend who was a competitive trick roper (did you know there was even such a thing?), and he spent some time showing off and teaching the kids a few rope tricks.

Pick Up Day

I tried to do this in pictures, but Blogger was pissin' me off, so you get a slideshow instead.

These Boots Ain't Made For Walking,

But that's just what I did.

Remember my favoritest boots on the planet?  These obnoxious babies...

Yeah, I love those boots.  I've been known to pair them with a bathsheet to change propane, or with running pants to start the car, and on occasion, I even wear them with jeans like I'm supposed to.  They've got some good gription on the bottom so if I ever have to hike in the mountains, I don't slip and slide all over the place like I did when I had slick leather soles on my boots.  They are fabulous boots.  Unless you have to hike very far in them.  Then they suck.

Last Monday, I took the day off to go see my baby girl.  She's been out to winter pasture since October last year, and with the weather warming up, I'm getting the horse itch something fierce.  I met my parents and we drove out to the pasture that Estes had recently been moved to with a couple of other horses.

The horses were visible when we parked, so we thought it'd be an easy catch day.

We were wrong.  So Bill tried his patented natural horseman approach to catching horses, pretend to graze.

Mom swears that he's caught many a strange (I mean unfamiliar, not crazy) horse this way.

I think they're both looney.

It didn't work.

The horses went away.

Away-away, not just a few steps.

I'm not sure how big this pasture is but the horses are a good half mile from us at this point,

they kept going.

So we hiked.

And hiked.

And hiked some more.

Bill managed to turn them, and we ran them back to where we started.

Those little snots just had to make sure we earned the right to be in their presence.

Once we got them turned and back to where we started,

Mom was able to walk right up to Paint and catch him, the got an arm around Estes.

Audubon (the trouble maker who took the herd away at the beginning) even deigned to let me touch her.

They'd overrun the grooming supplies, so we hauled their butts back to the supplies.

Estes was a fuzzy mess.  That girl has got hair and then some.

It took forever, because every swipe of Mom's magic rubber curry thingie filled up with hair.

But Estes appreciated it...

She even thanked me.

Trust me, this is as affectionate as she gets.

Mom worked on her mane and tail,

because I. Don't. Do. Hair.

Tell me, is she in horsey heaven or what?

She's got me wrapped around her cute little double ott hooves and she knows it!

One last cuddle before she heads back to the herd.

Today's Work-out

So not many people would consider working at a B&B as exercise, but those are the people who romanticize B&Bs.  The reality is that it's a lot of work.  Especially if the B&B has thirteen bedrooms and sleeps twenty-eight. 

Mom needed some help, while Bill's off with his family, so I went up last night to help with dinner, which meant cooking for only twelve guests - not too much exercise, but constant movement.  Luckily, last night, the lodge was only half-full.  After dinner, the table needed to be bussed and the dishes washed.  Again, not a lot of strenuous exercise, but constant movement.

I slept like a rock last night - always do at the lodge.  I joke that it's because I'm hypoxic at that altitude, but really, I think it's because the mountains are just part of me and I sleep like a baby in them.

This morning, cook breakfast, set the table, buss the table, wash dishes.  Just steady constant movement.  After breakfast, time to tear down the bedrooms on the second floor; strip the sheets off the bed and haul them down the stairs to the laundry room.  Three *large* laundry baskets full of sheets and towels down the stairs - beginning to feel like work - or at least weight-bearing exercise.

And were we done?  Oh no.  It's still winter at the lodge, so it was on to haul in firewood.  Six loads apiece, through the hot tub room, dining room and living room.

That slave driver even got me to help make up the beds in one room (I left before all of the laundry was done, or I'd've been remaking all of the beds with her).

The bonus?  I mean, besides the exercise.  I got an amazing nap after hauling in the wood.  I love naps - how many calories does that burn?  Certainly I burned a few calories climbing to my room on the third floor and carrying my dirty linens down.

Okay, so my mom can work circles around me at the lodge, but she's not forty pounds overweight.  Oh, and she does this every day, so she's in shape for it.  Tomorrow, I know that I'll feel muscles I forgot I had. 

On the way home from the lodge, I was mentally writing this post (which was nothing like what just came out of my fingers) and I passed the area where Mom's horses are wintering.  Then I did a double take and slammed on the brakes.  The herd was at the river, just a few feet from the road.  Of course I had to stop to see the babies.  I haven't seen Mom's herd since they went down in November (Estes went down in October and is being kept on the "fat" pasture to keep weight on her).

I climbed through the fence and called them over.

Ranger was the first to come over for cuddles,

but when he found out I didn't have treats he went back to grazing.

Doc isn't part of Mom's herd, but is part of the winter herd.

Dutch is the horse that Digger first fell in love with,

he's also not part of Mom's herd, but is part of the winter herd.

Washoe could maybe use some time on the fat pasture with Estes.

He's looking a bit ribby, but was happy, happy to see me :)

Jesse looks great.

She tends to run heavy, but has wintered beautifully.

I'm missing a picture of one of the horses - Peanut - who wouldn't get far enough away from me for me to take a picture.  You may remember Peanut from Digger's wild ride, he's gotten much cuddlier than he was when we used him at the livery.

Tired of Winter

Since I'm tired of winter, I took a little pictoral travel back in time to one of my favorite summertime activities, horse camping.  My parents live across the street from Roosevelt National Forest, so when the mood strikes, we can just load up the horses and gear and we're off!  We typically leave after dinner so we don't have to worry about hauling food around that might tempt bears, but that means that we're often setting up camp in the dark.

This is all the gear I need.  Tack, horn bag, tent and sleeping bag.  Horn bag has all the necessities: contact case, saline, book, light and camera.  Horse camping will definitely teach you to pack light.  It helps that for this trip, we were only planning one night.

Meeker loaded up and ready to go.

...Jesse...

...Ranger...

Riderless Washoe gets to haul the hay.  One of the rules of the forest is that livestock must haul in their own feed - no grazing.  Poor Washoe practically turned himself inside out trying to reach back to sneak bites from the saddlebags.

All unpacked.  The tarp protects the tack from moisture from the ground, and we tent the tarp up over the tack to protect it from dew.

The horses started out in a temporary pen we created by running hot wire (tape, actually) around a few trees.  It worked great until a gust of wind came and spooked Washoe, who bolted.  Luckily, he's unsure on his own and didn't go far.  Meeker, Jesse and Ranger stayed in the pen; Washoe got to spend the night tied to a tree.

Finally!  We got camp set up, spent some time looking at the stars, then called it a night.  Or tried to, until Washoe pulled his great escape.  Once he was secured to the tree, we crawled back into bed.

At one point, I had pictures of the next morning, which was beautiful, but I think those got lost when my computer contracted its ITD.

It's Hard To Believe...

...that this fuzzy beast...

Cleans up well enough to be a TV star on Horse Master with Julie Goodnight.

I also have a brand-new picture of my little girl, her daughter Meeker and her granddaughter Audubon.  Missy Meeker and Audubon are both preggers, so I guess that makes the picture a four-generation picture, right?  Three on the ground generations and one new in-the-womb generation.

Left to right: Meeker, Estes, Audubon

Thanks Mom and Bill for hunting down my girl and getting me new pictures!

Wheelin', Horses and Gunpowder Therapy

What a great week!

Wheelin'...I've been working my butt off at work, feeling every ounce of resposibility for getting almost 200 students scheduled correctly, grading done and new classes set up. So I was really, really looking forward to last weekend. RockCrawlinChef and I had been planning for MONTHS to attend the Rock Zombie Outlaw's Winterfest with his truck, Tinkerbell, in Parker, CO. I couldn't wait for a weekend away - I wasn't going to spend one second thinking about work. We loaded up Tink and took her on down to Parker. I've never been rock crawling, but I've been looking forward to it for a long time. RCC did warn me that we wouldn't be doing any actual rock crawling, but four-wheeling (yes, there is a difference), as the obstacles were designed for "normal" four-wheel vehicles, not big girls like Tink. Didn't matter, I was thrilled to be going, to get to ride in Tink "for real" rather than "for pretend" like around the block or at the Christmas Caravan for Kids/Toys for Tots event.

We found our way to the event site, unloaded Miss Bell, climbed up her big 49" tires into her cab and we were off for a lap to get the layout of the land. Miss Bell, for some reason, was not very happy. She kept stalling and being belligerent, but RCC kept coaxing her on. We managed to make one small obstacle - a short slope downhill with a water crossing and back up the other side - when she became even more belligerent, so we turned around to head back to the truck and trailer to figure out what was going on. We powered up the hill leading back to the parking area and RCC decided that he'd check the transmission fluid. Hmmm...not good. She had transmission fluid, but it was obviously burned and was a little low, so RCC topped her off and climbed back up into the cab only to find out that Tinky no backy. Somehow, she'd lost reverse and we could now only go forward. Not a big problem, but Tink's a big girl. Her turning radius is somewhere around a half a mile. Without reverse, we were dead in the water. No wheelin' for us. Ten minutes or so after we unloaded we were done. We loaded Tink back onto the trailer, very thankful that she was stuck in forward not reverse, grabbed the Flip (camcorder) and headed down to the Zombie Graveyard to watch. Despite not being able to participate, I had an amazing time watching everyone attempt the Graveyard, which is a fairly difficult water crossing with loose boulders on each slope to navigate. There was lots of carnage (wheel-speak for tipping over and/or breaking of vehicles) and tons of audience participation. I heard one woman say that she loved the event because you don't even need a vehicle to have a good time. I whole-heartedly agree!

I was disappointed that our weekend away turned out to be a weekend at home afterall, but it felt so wonderful to spend Saturday outside in the sun after being locked up in my office for what felt like weeks on end. I even enjoyed the free dermabrasion from the wind and river silt.

...Horses...
Even though I had a wonderful time on Saturday, I was still feeling a bit stressed out at work and decided to play hookie Tuesday afternoon. Monday, I sent an email to my collegues telling them that I would be unavailable from Tuesday at 1:00pm to Wednesday at 6:30 am. I had no intention of even thinking about work, the students could manage for one afternoon/evening without me, any schedule problems could be handled on Wednesday, I was outta there!

I checked the weather and found that Tuesday was supposed to be almost 70 degrees! In March! Score! I called Mom and Bill to see who wanted to join me for some equine therapy and planned to spend Tuesday afternoon with my baby girl. Turns out Mom had guests checking in, but Bill was in desperate need of equine therapy so we arranged to meet in Lyons at Ida's pasture.

As I drove alongside the pasture, I looked over to find the horses and what do I see but Ida's red truck dragging the field and the entire herd, Mom's grays in the lead, following the truck in circles. Ida was like the freakin' horse Pied Piper. Bill was just a couple of minutes behind me, so I called him and told him to watch as he drove up, but by then the show was over, the horses had decided that no hay was going to fall off the back of the truck and the ground up cow manure blowing in their faces wasn't a whole lot of fun.

Ida saw Bill and me when we walked out to the herd and stopped to chat for a minute. I asked her if she'd seen Estes' picture in Trail Rider Magazine and she told me that she had bought the magazine. It's not often that the horse you raised and trained shows up in a national horse magazine, even if it is just an advertisement for Julie Goodnight. Ida went back to dragging the field and Bill and I set to catching our horses.

Estes gave me a little attitude about being caught, but was fairly easy to catch. She just had to let me know that it was her choice to be caught. Of course, the treat in my pocket and the curry comb in my hand may have helped her decide not to be a poop about being caught. She loves being pampered, especially after her stint as a TV star. I groomed her, scratched all of her itchy places, and pulled chunks of mud from the feathering around her hooves. I think if she was a cat, she would have purred.

The whole time I was grooming her, Bill was trying to catch Ranger, who was being a poop about being caught. Ranger was definitely in "wild horse" mode; he didn't want to be caught, and by God, Bill wasn't going to catch him. Funny how that attitude changed once Bill cut him from the herd and wouldn't let him re-join it. I was long done grooming Estes and had run the curry comb over a couple of the other horses in the herd while we watched Bill walk off Ranger. Doc, one of Ida's younger geldings with a wide white blaze and blue eyes, decided that I was a-okay and groomed my hair for me while Peanut, her big bay gelding, snuffled and helped Doc groom my ponytail.

Ranger finally ceded to Bill and allowed himself to get caught and groomed. Once the halter was on, he was magically transformed into Bill's mild mannered dog.

You know all is right with the world when you're sharing a beautiful, albeit windy, day in the foothills with some of God's best four-legged critters.

...and Gunpowder Therapy...
I went back to work Wednesday absolutely refreshed and ready to go (even though RockCrawlinChef and Digger had spend the night playing not-so-musical bathroom due to an ugly stomach bug). But my wonderful week wasn't over yet! I still had a GunDiva reunion to look forward to! Glenna, the other GunDiva, finished her book and revisions and was ready for some Gunpowder Therapy. I love shooting, but haven't been since I got my ass handed to me at the August Defensive Pistol match last year. Since I sold all of my guns a couple of years ago, I've been shooting borrowed guns and one in particular I just can't get a handle on. I tried and tried with this gun, but it just wasn't working for me, so while I was really, really looking forward to shooting with Glenna, I was also dreading shooting that darn 9mm. Last night as I was falling asleep, I remembered I had a .45 to shoot and I even had some extra rounds in a couple of my old magazines. Yay!

I woke up ready to go. The GunDivas haven't spent any quality time together since before RCC and I started dating, so even if we didn't get any shooting done, it would be wonderful to catch up with her. I unloaded the 9 from my shooting bag and replaced it with the .45, determined to do better this time.

We long ago decided that quality shooting was better than quantity shooting, so we knew going out that we'd only shoot a magazine or so. It's all about technique and precision when we go out, and the last couple of times we had gone (forever ago) I had finished up completely frustrated. I felt like I had to master that 9mm and the harder I tried, the worse I got. I knew going out today that I might not shoot any better with the .45, afterall, it's been seven months since I've had any trigger time and that was not a good experience.

Shouldn't have worried. We did some dry-fire practice, just presenting from the holster and lining up our sight picture for warm-up before going live.

1st live round, dead on! 2nd live round, right above the first. The 3rd round obliterated the small sliver of paper separating the 1st two rounds and so on until the magazine was empty.

Hell yes! The GunDiva is back!


I can't explain the relief I felt to see the half-dollar size hole in the target. That's more like it. That all-over-the-place bullshit with the 9 was o-v-e-r. I didn't realize how much psychological damage shooting poorly had done - after all, I'm the GunDiva, I've always shot well and prided myself on it - until I picked up that .45 and did well with it today.

Thank you Glenna for going out to the range with me today, it was wonderful. Euphoric, even.

Vote for Julie!

Heidi Nyland, Julie Goodnight's producer, is also an exceptional equine photographer and has had many of her photos published in major horse magazines. In fact, Heidi's the one who took the picture of me and Sundance (one of the livery horses) last summer that ended up in Trail Rider magazine. Heidi's also the one who chose me and Estes to be cast members on "Horse Master with Julie Goodnight".

One of Heidi's photos of Julie and Julie's horse, Dually, is in the running for the October cover of Perfect Horse magazine. Perfect Horse magazine chooses their covers by reader vote. So...I've included the link to the survey so that we can all vote for Julie. I figure it's the least I can do for Heidi since she turned me into a magazine model and TV star!

To vote (and it's unlimited voting) go to http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001OKrttuHNuHfq8VM5xUhe53_QzlEijLOPiV-A7PWF3MVzN_bdSqpuLRIxT3ji9rigt6xkskaHZ3EoU0h7sj6VaJs2xl4QheeazTtMkIO0NOQI72Yg6s8540Wuun1CRNUVs5aW6BieQtkhKti_DLyxrdKI9j0HQi4a and choose option #2.

Vote lots!

My TV Debut

Just finished watching "my" episode of Horse Master (http://www.horsemaster.tv/) and it wasn't too horrible. The worst part, as I knew, was my interview. I was thinking too hard. It was kind of fun to watch it, but I couldn't take my eyes off of my beautiful Estes. She's such an amazing animal! The cool part was knowing what was going on in the background, behind the scenes so to speak. Julie said Estes is a smart horse, but I think the divot above her left eye from not getting out of the way of a tree branch proves otherwise! Seriously, she's an awfully smart horse and it really did only take one correction from Julie and one from me to "cure" her. I've had her out on the trail since and not had a single problem with her walking off, even when I missed my mount (bareback) and fell on my arse beside her.

If anyone gets a chance to watch it, let me know what you think. It'll replay on RFD-TV Thursday and Saturday nights and again in September. I believe that Julie will also put it on her YouTube channel after all five episodes have aired.

Horse Master with Julie Goodnight

In June, I got the unbelievable opportunity to work with Julie Goodnight on her show, "Horse Master with Julie Goodnight" (http://www.horsemaster.tv/). Estes, the equine love of my life, had a bit of an issue with standing still for mounting and walking off without a cue. Julie showed me how to fix it and what follows is my journal from that most amazing three days.

HorseMaster Cast:
· Julie Goodnight – HorseMaster
· Heidi Nyland – Producer
· Lucy – Grip/Heidi’s “boss”
· Twyla – Grip/training assistant
· Brenda – Julie’s Office Manager
· Cheryl – Grip/Wardrobe Wrangler/Hair/Make-up
· Steve – Cameraman
· Bo – Film editing/camera assist
· Alle – Grip/Go-Fer (15 yo)
· Tara – Cosequin rep
· Linda /Stinger – came for water crossing, ended up being bad saddle fit and sore back
· Dave/? Horse – Versatility/flying lead changes

Day OneFinally got in to GTS about 5:00 pm as they were wrapping up the first day’s shooting. Met the rep from Circle Y Saddles who finally got us settled with Lucy. Unloaded Estes into an outdoor pen behind the high-dollar horses – she looked as good as or better than the others. Signed a million release forms for the show and property liability. Got my “party favors” – Dan Post socks, Circle Y t-shirt, bandana, and Troxel helmet (wow!).

Dropped the trailer at 4 Seasons RV park on the other side of Salida (GTS is closer to Poncha Springs than Salida). Really “cute” as Ash says. The bathroom/shower house was nice and well-kept (Thank God – I hate public showers). Went to dinner at an amazing Mexican restaurant – Los Girasoles – where the waiter spent the night hitting on Ash. Now I know how Mom felt when we’d go to Mexico and the waiters there would hit on Nelle all the time.

The shower house, while well-kept, was much creepier after dark. All I could think about while I was taking my shower was all of the ‘80s slasher movies. Can’t say as I liked being so far away from the trailer by in a strange town all by my lonesome.

Day Two
Up and at ‘em and on the set (GTS) at 7:00 am getting my girl ready. Cheryl chose my tops to compliment Julie’s outfit (pink long sleeve and black vest) for the day’s shoot. Lucy took one look at my saddle and decided to oil it because it is so ugly. It was much prettier after it got oiled, but then the executive decision was made to put Estes in a Circle Y saddle, so Estes and I got to ride in an expensive Flex tree saddle – cool, but I’m not sure I could really tell the difference.
Shooting day really was hurry up and wait. When it was finally my time on film, I was swarmed by Cheryl, Lucy and Heidi to fix my hair under my helmet (required by one of the liability releases) and “mike up”. We went up to one of Julie’s pastures that would look “trail-like” for my “before” shot. That shot went pretty well as far as being a disaster. I couldn’t get my foot up into the stirrup, Estes danced around and almost spun away from me, we had to resort to finding a mounting block (a rock, just like I’d have to find in the mountains) before I could mount up. Finally, after much gymnastics and horse vaulting, I climbed aboard and managed to get her to stand still long enough to get both feet in the stirrups. Then for my “B” role, we stripped the saddle and found another mounting block – a tree stump this time – for my bareback mounting show. I managed to get up, but again, it was a mixture of gymnastics and horse vaulting. I could really get used to having a “crew”; the minute I was done filming, Ash and Mom would step in and take Estes to get her ready for the next shot or start fussing with my hair to make sure I was presentable. Lucy was always ready with my jacket so I wouldn’t get too cold between takes – it wasn’t too terribly bad J.

The “before” shot was the easy part – then I had to do the interview. Thank god I’m used to public speaking, because the interview was a bit tough. Mostly because I had to keep reminding myself to keep it short and not say “um” – thank you speech class. The toughest part, though, was trying to make eye contact with the camera, which was less than three feet away from me. Well, that and trying to keep from getting a splinter enema from the tree stump I was sitting on. The day was going pretty well until the wind kicked up. That stupid wind! We broke, had lunch, sat around and waited for the wind to stop. In the meantime, the other two people arrived with their horses: Dave, who happens to be the President of the National Versatility Ranch Horse Association, and Linda with her horse, Stinger, who wanted to work on water crossing.

Steve, Heidi and Julie decided they could shoot some footage of Dave despite the wind, because no one needed to be miked, so Estes and I stood down and we went to watch the versatility horse. Dave really needed to work on transitions; specifically his lead changes. We stood out in the cold wind for a long while watching them film Dave and his mare do each component of a VRH competition: reining, cow work, and trail. It was pretty cool and I know that Estes can and will do all of that. We also managed to take some footage of Linda and Stinger, who entered the water like a pro, so we had to go to Plan B for Linda, which was to work on Stinger’s canter. Linda thought it was too fast and wanted him to gear down to a nice easy lope. Once we left the pond and went back to the outdoor arena, it was obvious that Linda and Stinger’s biggest problem was not the water crossing, but that he was in pain. Her saddle didn’t fit him or her well and she was practically sitting on the cantle. His head was too high and he was hollowing out his back trying to get away from the painful saddle. I can’t quite explain how he moved, but when he went into a canter he would really try hard for a couple of steps, then it would just hurt too much and he’d lift his head, hollow out his back and lock his forelegs. A couple of steps like that and he’d set to bucking – not hard – but bucking sure enough. Poor Linda kept insisting that she was trying to “communicate” with him that she wanted him to slow his canter to an easy lope. That wasn’t the problem at all. Her idea of “communicating” was more like dictating – she was telling, but not listening to what Stinger was trying to tell her, which was “ouch, ouch, ouch”.

After all of the non-verbal shooting was done, the decision was made to move to Cheryl’s indoor arena, which wasn’t ideal, but at least we could continue shooting. By this time Estes had been tied at the rail for six hours or so and was behaving beautifully. I couldn’t have asked for a better behaved horse. None of the other horses had such a long down time without being used or broken down. Since Cheryl’s place was just a quarter mile away or so, I decided to ride Estes and Mom and Ash took the truck. It wasn’t a long ride by any means, but it certainly felt good to stretch our legs. Estes was stiff from being in the trailer on the mountain passes for four hours the day before and then being tied to the rail for so long. It took a while to get the whole production moved to Cheryl’s, so once we got there, Cheryl gave Estes a stall and run to be turned out in for a bit. It was only twenty minutes or so, but between the walk and getting turned out, she started to loosen up. The light in the indoor arena wasn’t great, but at least it was even and out of the wind. We ended up using the flatbed of Mom’s truck as a base for the camera. Mom just pulled the truck up to the door of the arena, removed the rail, and Scott and Bo set up shop. It worked out great, because then they had a good overhead angle and didn’t take up any arena space, so we had more work room.

We got everyone settled, and then it was Estes’ turn again. “My” crew was busy helping the camera crew get settled, so Heidi’s crew helped me get Estes ready. They practically fell on her – Twyla was putting gel in Estes’ mane, Alle was cleaning out her eye boogers and runny nose, and Lucy was brushing out her tail. Cheryl, in the mean time, was trying to make my hair look presentable and Heidi was getting me miked up. Twyla did a final dust off of Estes and Heidi attacked my vest with a pet hair remover. In just a few minutes they had both of us looking better than we had a right to. Estes looked as good as any show horse I’d seen by the time they were done with her. And she LOVED every minute of the primping and pampering.

She put on a heck of a show for the camera again, dancing around and spinning away from me when I tried to mount up. I managed (as I always do) to get up and get her under control, but she wouldn’t stand still for Julie to talk to me, so we spent a long time circling. Then it was Julie’s turn. Julie attached a longe line to her bridle and talked me through mounting up in slow motion. The minute Estes got out of line (when she felt the weight in her stirrup), Julie sent her out on the longe and worked her. It was amazing how quickly she was able to get her foot out of the stirrup and set Estes to cantering. That’s all it took. One correction. Once Estes realized that she was going to WORK if she didn’t behave, she settled right down. It was freakin’ amazing. Julie talked me through the correction one more time and we were done other than our practice time with Twyla. During the time I was riding for Julie, Estes was acting up and playing a bit – nothing big, but enough to impress the hell out of Dave. He offered to work with me at any time on the VRH skills I’d need to compete. He seemed to think that we’d be into prizes right off the bat with just a few lessons on what was expected of her.

I rode Estes back to Julie’s, turned her out, and went back to Cheryl’s to see Julie work with Dave. I learned so much about lead changes during his session. Before, I never had a clue how to cue for a lead change, but I think, once we get Estes’ mounting issues straightened out, I’m going to start working with her on figure eights and lead changes.

Despite the fact that Estes only needed one correction from Julie to be “fixed”, I still had to practice with her, so it was back over to Julie’s at 7 pm for my practice session with Twyla. She did awesome! It only took one correction from me to get her straightened out. I mounted her from the on-side and the off-side and she never moved a muscle. So, as a final test, I had Ash mount up. Again, she never moved a muscle. It was miraculous! She stood quietly and waited for her cue to move out. A totally different horse after just a few minutes. Since she did so well in the arena, I stripped her saddle, took her out of the arena and mounted her bareback. Twyla was shocked at how well she did bareback (me, too). Finally, by 8:00 we were done with our day. Hallelujah!

Day ThreeLast day! Kind of bitter sweet. I’m so thrilled with Estes’ progress and so proud of her. She won everyone over with her easy-going personality and her intelligence. Even Julie was surprised that it only took one correction from each of us to change 18 years of training.

6:00 am we were on set and getting ready; Cheryl was digging through my clothes to find the perfect complement to Julie’s outfit and “my crew” was getting Estes ready – I really could get used to this. A quick breakfast in the Bunkhouse and it was hurry up and wait again. Mom walked Estes up and down the yard for a long while to warm her up so she wouldn’t be shivering on camera, and then I rode her around a bit – no standing on the rail for my baby today. Finally we were called to the set for our “after” clips with Julie. Estes stood like a champ for me to mount up in the arena so we moved out to the field to give her her “Final Exam” for Julie. She did the first take perfectly, but Heidi wasn’t happy with the ending, so we had to do it again. By that time, Estes was done playing and because we didn’t have the longe line attached, we couldn’t correct her and we managed to undo the training we did the day before, but it’s still fixable. We knew we’d have a set back now and then, so I’m not too disappointed.


Julie then used Estes for her “Quick Tip” for the episode – where to stand and how to hold the stirrup to help reduce the chance of the horse walking off. And, just like that, our TV stint was done! It felt good to get loaded up and get on our way, but it was hard to leave the crew – everyone was so nice and went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable.