Harney County Reined Stock Horse Futurity~Part 1

~I have a mind of my own,

and I'm a very stubborn and determined person.~

~Iris Gordon 1905~

Well, it won't surprise me if you've forgotten me...it's been three weeks since I last blogged!!!

What have I been doing? Well, I had to look at the calendar to figure that out...in a nutshell: I got a horse in for training that needed a crash course for the Futurity (a green 3 year old by the name of Whisper), worked Colt for the Futurity, irrigating, moved cows with Rancher Dan, took a couple of roping lessons (Colt and I had to rope a 700-800 lb steer at the Futurity), attended a two day training clinic with Smoky Pritchett, got my hair cut (twice a year thing whether I need it or not), worked at the Post Office a couple of days, and attended the cow horse show at Lakeview for two days (yes, I know I was supposed to blog about that but didn't).

I know, poor excuses for not blogging, but to tell ya the truth, I've been pretty high strung about the Futurity and just didn't feel like opening up. I kept my nose to grindstone as much as possible and tried to stay focused.

But, as of yesterday afternoon I can breath freely again...Colt and I completed our first journey together. Five years of training and five Futurity shows later, we can officially say we made it!!

In that journey, we surpassed all expectations of what we could achieve. My main goal was to learn how to train a cow horse and not embarrass me or my horse. We not only did that, but we placed every year in the Futurity with respectable scores. Something I never dreamed possible~

Tuesday, after riding both Colt and Whisper, I clipped and bathed them and tucked them into their stalls for the night. Showing two horses is a lot harder than showing one (but, I have a friend who showed five...she's crazy!!!) Herd work is always held at the Bell A Ranch on Wednesday, and we needed to leave home by 8 AM.

The three year old class was first. I took Colt with me to the warm up arena and as I rode Whisper, Colt is having a temper tantrum like a 2 year old's first time away from home. Bucking and carrying on...I wanted to disown him...I wondered if that was going to be his attitude for the whole day!

We moved over to the cutting pen for the judges meeting, and I tied Colt to the fence with some other horses and inched my way further and further away from him. He finally settled down.

I got Whisper showed. We scored a 60, which is what both her owner and I expected. She had never worked cows out of a herd before, and she'd only followed cows on two other occasions. But, she tried her hardest to listen to me, she never got upset, and her owner was happy. The goal for Whisper was to show her this year so she'll still be qualified to show next year.

Then showed the four year olds and the five year olds...and finally my six year old class. I got a lucky draw...first...which also means I get to choose who will be settling our herd of heifers. I chose my good friend Michelle Severe...you know Michelle who did my awesome drawing in the two-rein on the right panel of my blog. These were a great pen of heifers, and she did a great job.

I chose an all girl team. My friend Wendy sat in one corner (a perfect spot for her to coach me), Peggy in the other corner and Michelle and Melanie turned back for me. It was the most awesome run Colt and I have ever had. We scored a 73...my best herd work score ever...and we won the class!!! In fact, we had the highest score of all the aged classes (3 year old to 6 year old).

Wendy told me after the class that she knew I had a perfect run going and didn't want to say a thing and jinx it...she just let me do my thing...

Wendy and I are celebrating...Colt and her horse Houdini don't seem to give a rip!!
Colt had no idea how well he did...I wish I could talk to him.

One leg down...three more to go...dry, fence, and roping. We do all of that at the fairgrounds the following day...so, I'll leave this to be continued...