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 :)
Monday, April 16, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Rodeo 101 lesson of the day
One thing I've learned about the rodeo road is if my horse isn't trying to teach me something, the universe is,,,, so I'll be posting some of my lessons on here in an effort to help others not have to learn so much the hard way :)
Turns out a semi will actually start when it's cold out, as long as you have it in neutral and not drive,,,, I'm positive the person that installed this feature did so with barrel racers in mind :)
When hailing to or from texas along I 25 through Raton,, make sure you have a coffins health and brand card on all your horses. Spent some quality time with the new Mexico department of ag today,,, luckily we had everything covered.
And lastly,,, if your gonna hang in the sleeper in Jill's semi,, be prepared to share the bed w 3 big dogs,,, incidentally,,, a gas mask would not be a bad addition to the list of must haves on the rodeo road, lol
Peace out till we learn something new :)
Turns out a semi will actually start when it's cold out, as long as you have it in neutral and not drive,,,, I'm positive the person that installed this feature did so with barrel racers in mind :)
When hailing to or from texas along I 25 through Raton,, make sure you have a coffins health and brand card on all your horses. Spent some quality time with the new Mexico department of ag today,,, luckily we had everything covered.
And lastly,,, if your gonna hang in the sleeper in Jill's semi,, be prepared to share the bed w 3 big dogs,,, incidentally,,, a gas mask would not be a bad addition to the list of must haves on the rodeo road, lol
Peace out till we learn something new :)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Odessa part 2
Odessa wasn't any better for us this year than its been in the past :( felt like I had to give it one more shot though. Paige Conrado a rookie from colorado is currently winning the average with about 48 girls left to run
On a positive note,, there are still some kids out there being raised right,,, this young kid sitting a couple tables over from us at dinner last night bought Britany dinner just because his mom taught him it's the right thing to do,,, not gonna lie, the rest of us were jealous!
So now we are headed back to Denver, Jill is up there tomorrow night but there's a nasty storm in Colorado right now do we are calling around asking about places we might lay over tonight. The storm should be through by tomorrow. This is the part of this life where as my husband Bob always quotes his dad "life isn't fair, learn to adjust" lol. We do a lot of that out here :) The wind has been blowing like a banchee, all day but at least that gives us some tumbleweeds to look at,, not much else in west texas lol.
Looking forward to my shot at Denver a week from tomorrow :)
On a positive note,, there are still some kids out there being raised right,,, this young kid sitting a couple tables over from us at dinner last night bought Britany dinner just because his mom taught him it's the right thing to do,,, not gonna lie, the rest of us were jealous!
So now we are headed back to Denver, Jill is up there tomorrow night but there's a nasty storm in Colorado right now do we are calling around asking about places we might lay over tonight. The storm should be through by tomorrow. This is the part of this life where as my husband Bob always quotes his dad "life isn't fair, learn to adjust" lol. We do a lot of that out here :) The wind has been blowing like a banchee, all day but at least that gives us some tumbleweeds to look at,, not much else in west texas lol.
Looking forward to my shot at Denver a week from tomorrow :)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Odessa 2012
Bob has some good memories of cold mornings in January, loading mybstuff in somebody elses trailer so I can go to Odessa, lol. Britany Fleck, Sabrina Ketchem, and in all threw into Jill Moodys rig to head south. We heard there was a storm coming so for about 30 miles we debated on if we should just turn around and go back to Denver. All our research indicated we could beat the storm and it would be gone before we headed back to denver so we continued south.
It started raining just as we were getting to bed, about midnight, and by the time we finished running barrels in the slack Monday morning, there was 6 inches of snow on the ground,,, more than I've seen in colorado all winter,,, Texas must have heard I was coming lol.
Tommy made a great run but had a little bad luck and drug 1st barrel over leaving it. I had been riding him really aggressive, but after I tipped I just rode him real quiet. The way he shut the clock off makes me thing that hit barrel was my lesson to back off him a little and let him do his thing,,,,, we will see tomorrow, have our 2nd run here tomorrow in slack :)
Snow is pretty much gone,, just hope it dries out a little so there isn't quite so much ice tomorrow morning :)
It started raining just as we were getting to bed, about midnight, and by the time we finished running barrels in the slack Monday morning, there was 6 inches of snow on the ground,,, more than I've seen in colorado all winter,,, Texas must have heard I was coming lol.
Tommy made a great run but had a little bad luck and drug 1st barrel over leaving it. I had been riding him really aggressive, but after I tipped I just rode him real quiet. The way he shut the clock off makes me thing that hit barrel was my lesson to back off him a little and let him do his thing,,,,, we will see tomorrow, have our 2nd run here tomorrow in slack :)
Snow is pretty much gone,, just hope it dries out a little so there isn't quite so much ice tomorrow morning :)
Denver invitational rodeo
Tommy and I were invited to the 1st Colorado vs World Invitational rodeo. Denver invited 20 contestants in each event, bareback, saddle bronc, steer wrestling, barrel racing and bull riding. They puked winners of various rodeos along with some wild cards and gave us the chance to run for a total of $100,000! The Colorado and world teams each would advance 4 contestants to the finals, then the top person from each team would face off to win $10,000.
Our 1st run was pretty good but I had a stall on the back side of 1st,, tommys signature mistake,,, lots of horses spooked at a pile of shavings in the kindle of the arena left by whiplash, the dog riding monkey, and his herd of sheep,,, gotta love rodeo lol. We won 3rd and made it to the finals.
Tommy really made a good run in the finals, I was 2nd, but since the girl who won was on my team, I didn't get to run fornthe $10,000. It was a really fun event, very exciting!!
It was fun to have my family there with me, I think the boys had a good time :)
Decided since I only got 2 runs in Denver I would hitch a ride to Odessa and try my luck there one more time :)
Our 1st run was pretty good but I had a stall on the back side of 1st,, tommys signature mistake,,, lots of horses spooked at a pile of shavings in the kindle of the arena left by whiplash, the dog riding monkey, and his herd of sheep,,, gotta love rodeo lol. We won 3rd and made it to the finals.
Tommy really made a good run in the finals, I was 2nd, but since the girl who won was on my team, I didn't get to run fornthe $10,000. It was a really fun event, very exciting!!
It was fun to have my family there with me, I think the boys had a good time :)
Decided since I only got 2 runs in Denver I would hitch a ride to Odessa and try my luck there one more time :)
First runs of 2012
After over 2 monthsboff from competition, I loaded Tommy and my 2 year old filly, Greeley up and headed to utah for some amateur rodeos. Just felt like I really needed to get back in synch with Tommy before the invitational at Denver. It was interesting going back to really small rodeos after all the amazing events we've had the privilege of competing in. It was interesting to me that I had just as much fun at as I do at some of the big rodeos,,, at the end ofnthe day,, it's all about getting to run Tommy around the barrels.
It was also funny that at both rodeos they got my name wrong so I felt like I was flyinhbunder the radar,,, kinda cool!
The first run I'm not sure Tommy really thought he was getting to run. He worked good but didn't fire too hard. The 2nd run he was ready,,, set really hard for 1st and dash boarded me,,, lucky I didn't do a lawn dart lol!
Nothing to eventful except the look on the waitresses face when one of my buddies ordered a vegetarian omelet with ham and cheese, lol
Bonus for the weekend,, ended up winning $ on both runs :)
It was also funny that at both rodeos they got my name wrong so I felt like I was flyinhbunder the radar,,, kinda cool!
The first run I'm not sure Tommy really thought he was getting to run. He worked good but didn't fire too hard. The 2nd run he was ready,,, set really hard for 1st and dash boarded me,,, lucky I didn't do a lawn dart lol!
Nothing to eventful except the look on the waitresses face when one of my buddies ordered a vegetarian omelet with ham and cheese, lol
Bonus for the weekend,, ended up winning $ on both runs :)
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