What a winter!

Sorry I haven't been better about posting,,, I'll try to catch up a little here today :) we finished the winter run this weekend in Pocatello Idaho and I'm happy to say that most of the excitement happened in the arena this year :) I can't say enough about my horse Tommy. This was our 3rd year to be lucky enough to get invites to the limited winter rodeos and we finally had some good luck!
We started out at A little slow, hitting barrels at Odessa, Denver, and Rapid City. Then we got to Texas and hit a little groove :) Tommy worked amazing and just tried so hard every run. We made the semi finals at San Antonio and placed in Jackson. Then made the finals at San Angelo where he made one of the best runs of his life. Wish I could say the same,, I almost fell off twice but was lucky enough to finish with him to win the round and 2nd in the average. We found ourselves in the top 15 for the first time ever! Eventhough that doesnt mean very much right now because it is such a long season and we have so much work to do,,,,, it's pretty darn exciting!
From San Angelo we placed at a cool little rodeo in Bay City,,, then it was of to the big dog,,, Houston.
Houston is just an amazing rodeo where they go absolutely out of their way to make things easier for us. They have a camp with stalls and rv hookups where we stay. There are concerts very night after the performance and though the pattern is challenging, we only get to use 1/3 I the arena and they set the stage up while we are running, it's crazy to hear 70,000 people screaming as you run home from 3rd! We were lucky enough to win a round there and make the semi finals :)
From there we went to Austin where we just didn't have any luck,, I always have a terrible run after Houston, we made a good run in the 2nd round but it wasn't fast enough.
From Austin we headed to the Ram National Circuit Finals in Oklahoma City. It's for the year end circuit and circuit finals winners. I was really happy with our 1st round run. It was super tough, we split 6th place 3 ways,,, there were 5 runs within .01!
My family flew out for the circuit finals which was awesome! I hadn't seen them in a couple of months so it felt so good to have them back with me. I didn't even feel bad when Kade told Tommy "I might have missed you more than mom" lol
I got to go home for the 1st time in over 2 months which is kind of surreal to be honest,,,, everything just kind of goes along and you have To find your place again. I'm so lucky to have independent and mature little boys and a husband who somehow keeps everything together while I'm gone. My parents and sister are also amazing about helping the boys get to their sports.
We finished the winter run at Logandale Nevada, where we made a good run but were kind I slow. We then drove to Pocatello Idaho where we placed in he 1st round but hit a costly barrel in the 2nd.
I decided not to go to California or Guymon and give tommy about a month off. We will crack back out May 18th in Cloverdale BC, one of Tommy's favorite places :)
I'm so grateful for the opportunities Tommy has given us. It's amazing to think a horse can have such a profound impact on your life but it is indescribable.
Thanks to all of my friends and family for helping to make this possible. Encouraging words, phone conversations to get through all night drives, and just having people who get excited about what Tommy is doing are all things that keep us going. We have also been lucky to have great traveling partners and friends who let us crash at their places between rodeos :)
I'm excited for the summer run,,, I think we have a pretty good plan mapped out, can't wait to give Tommy a shot at it :)