Catch Up Time!!

Since July I have been going warp billion. I took Chuck and Daisy to the Grant County Fair. Daisy was Reserve champion in all her performance events and solid red ribbons in the gaming. She also was star at the Moses Lake Round-Up carrying sponsor flags. Chuck won his open showmanship and was third out of about 13 in his novice horse western pleasure. Daisy qualified for the state fair in performance and gaming, we did not make the trek to Puyallup. We instead went to the Adams county fair where we also ran sponsor flags there. Daisy has the biggest heart of any horse I know. After the Adams county fair we buckled down and got ourselves Queen Pageant ready. I ran for Miss Moses Lake Round-Up and came in first runner up winning the speech category as well as the personality category. The weekend after that my parents, Daisy and I traveled to Grand Coulee where I was crowned Miss Colorama Rodeo Queen for 2013. I am VERY excited this!! First parade is this Friday the 30^th and everything starts rolling from there.

I am a senior in high school and in my second year at the community college through running start. In June I will have my high school diploma and at the end of summer quarter I will have my Arts and Science AA degree from Big Bend. I have been accepted into Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City. I am waiting to hear from WSU, but I really want to go to SD for the geology program.

Catch Up

Waaaaaaaay tooooo many things have happened since my last post in…..November.

I’ll touch down on a few.

February 3 turned into the worst day of my life when my beloved HotRod had to be laid to rest do to a ruptured collateral ligament in his left hind leg. The same leg that had just healed from a sprain. He will be forever missed by anyone who ever met him or heard about him. He was the best horse I could have ever had the opportunity to love.

The loss of HotRod led me to borrow a lovely horse named Betty to use for high school equestrian team. We ended our regular season with the top spot in trail and working rancher; the number two spot in western equitation; number three spot in in-hand obstacle relay and the fourth spot in English equitation. We went onto state in Lynden and placed well in all events.

In March during my finals week and spring break my parents and I drove out to Missouri to buy a new horse. We went out and back in five days. Talk about one fast trip! We left on a Sunday around 1pm, got to Westphalia, Missouri on Tuesday afternoon. Spent a few hours riding Chuck, visiting with his owner and her family, learning about their fifth generation family farm, they raise hogs and cattle. We stayed the night in Jefferson City. Wednesday mid-morning we picked up Chuck and headed home. We got home Friday night around 10. On the way out we spent a night in Burley, Idaho and Hayes, Kansas. On the way home we stayed in Mitchell, South Dakota and Billings, Montana. Spending nights on the way home was a big trickier because where we stayed there needed to be a place nearby for Chuck to stay. We planned the route home accordingly. Chuck is a 2009 American Quarter Horse Dun Gelding.

This summer I have also been riding Cara’s horse Daisy. We have done two shows together and been top three in all our events. I will be using her to compete on at the Grant County Fair in August. I also plan to use her for high school equestrian team for my senior year.

Chuck and I had our first ABRA show a few weeks ago and we walked away from it with a shiny new belt buckle for winning the “Bonnie Rea Memorial 17&Under Western Pleasure” class. Bonnie Rea was my high school equestrian team advisor my freshman year. Going into my sophomore year Bonnie passed away suddenly. She was very involved with horses in our county and wanted every youth to succeed.

I also finished my first year of college. I even was successful in a watercolor painting class. That was a stressful last week. Yikes. In the fall I will be taking 18 credits and in the winter I will probably have to take 20. The plan is for me to graduate from Royal High School as well as Big Bend Community College come June.

Now maybe I won’t “forget” that I have a blog and will get pictures posted soon…..

Time Flies!

Holy cow it's been awhile!
Well since last post I have been to the State Fair in Puyallup with HotRod, started school, been all over and busy. That's why there haven't been many posts.
State Fair was an interesting experience this go around. I went in 2009 then decided the hoops weren't worth it the next year and decided to just do it this year. So HotRod, mom and I went! I earned a red ribbon in my fit and show because I messed on my "quartering system" I was upset :( then in my English class I earned a blue ribbon. I was very please with HotRod, he moved out very well for me. Then in trail we had one of our cleanest goes of the year! I was so happy with my boy! The next night, yes warming up in the dark is very icky. HotRod and I had western equitation. We battled through with the naughty horses and strange flashing lights outside to get a blue ribbon and called to return for the championship round! I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up! My grin had to be from ear to ear! All I wanted was to return in on of my classes and I got my goal! HotRod could have cared less. So I went back to the barn and learned my pattern. I was not going to mess this up. Then they called for all the riders in the championship round to return to the show ring to perform one at a time the written pattern. HotRod and I were in the middle of the group. We went. Then the rest of the riders and they had us line up in the center of the ring. They called the placings starting with eighth. They called sixth place and my number! I was flabbergasted! To actually place was so exciting! Oh I was so happy and proud of my HotRod at that moment I almost cried! The next morning we rode our bareback class for a blue ribbon. At 2 that afternoon we cleaned stalls, hooked up trailers and headed home. I had a decent trip.

I started school on September 19 at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. Things have gone extremely well! I am passing all my classes and enjoying it so much! Just driving that far everyday is fairly tiring. Especially now that we have snow on the ground. My inner granny comes out heehee. I am not one for rushing in the snow. My 50 min drive turned into an hour and ten minutes. The freeway was horrible then Dodson Road was disastrous. I can't spell, sorry.

On November 5th my parents and I were out doing yard work and HotRod came to the fence. So I took him a carrot. He kept hanging around so I thought "hey I should get on you!". My mom said she wouldn't give me a leg up because she knew it would end bad. So my dad gave me a leg up. I mean it's HotRod, we trust him, he's easy going. I was bareback and bridless in the pasture with the other two horses. I tested my starts and stops. They worked. I asked HotRod to walk forward, but Daisy was there and kind of jumped and all three horses took off running. Then HotRod bucked, I went sky high and then landed on my left side on the frozen pasture ground. Oh it hurt. I laid there scared to move. I'd hit my elbow and hip pretty hard. My parents came over and HotRod came RUNNING back to me. He was so worried, kept grabbing at me with his mouth trying to get me to do something. My parents got me to roll over onto my back. Then helped me up. I couldn't bare any weight on my left leg and thought I was going to throw up. So dad brought out his little red truck to get. HotRod was still right by me, worried as ever. They got me into the truck and dad drove me to the house. Mom got me inside and I sat for about an hour to calm down. After that I still went pale and was nauseous when I put weight on my leg so off to the walk-in clinic my and I went. They got me in a room and then down to x-ray. They MADE me ride in a wheelchair, that was horrible. Got my x-rays back with nothing broken thankfully. The doctor was worried my hip or pelvis would have something wrong from where the pain was. I was so happy nothing was broke or cracked or anything. So now today, the 16th my elbow is still bruised, left hip still sore, probably 5inch across bruise on my thigh and a couple higher. Hurt to touch and riding is a bit painful too. That was an exciting day. Needless to say I learned my lesson about bareback and bridless in the the pasture with other horses.

I am really looking forward to having a week off from school for my birthday, oh I mean Thanksgiving(;

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Summer is coming to a close...

Since my last post I've been to a Buckskin Show in Spokane and to the Grant County Fair. The show in Spokane was...interesting, to say the least. Fair was great. HotRod and I had Reserves in everything and one Grand Champion. My lamb received a blue and a call back in market and I received a blue in fit and show with the little devil. The lamb was sold in the livestock sale and loaded onto a truck. I don't know where they take him. Now with HotRod I will be attending the State Fiar in Puyallup from September 8 through the 12. There we will compete in showmanship, bareback, western, english and trail. My horse is my wonder-man!

While Royal School District will start school on Thursday the 25, I will not. I don't start till September 19. The community college starts later. I will pick up my books today because I've remembered. At the college I'll be taking Math 95, English 101, College Survival Skills and a group piano class. I'm fairly excited, but also nervous. I'm just happy I won't be at that high school anymore.

Now that summer is closing I realize all the things I didn't do this summer, friends I never saw and placed I never went. Oh well, I'm 16, there's lots of time for those things...right?

Picture Time...!

English

Trail

Trail

Halter

Showmanship

Western

Cara on Daisy and me on HotRod out for a morning ride

My Memory!

It's been almost 2 months! Whoo! New record!!


So much has gone on. I've been to shows and that's about all that's new.
I've been to a few in Moses Lake and to American Buckskin Congress in Nampa, Idaho. HotRod was a rockstar that weekend! It was a three day show. We came out with two hi-points. Which included a new belt buckle, a girl can never have too many!


I have my FFA lamb, T-Rex. In order to catch him I have to rope him, then ride him and THEN I can halter him. He doesn't really lead very well on a halter or my his head. Fair will be just great again.


We've been making hay. Lots of it! There's been lots of  swathing, fluffing, raking, baling and stacking. It's never ending fun!


I will be attending Big Bend Community College starting September 19. I am slightly nervous, but it will be a much needed change for me in my schooling life. I was hating the high school by the end of the year. I was excited to get my sign-out paper signed! I could not get out of that school fast enough!! There were just enough things happening that in my opinion were just plain wrong that it was not a good place for me to be anymore. It's great for some people, but not for me.


At the fair I will be shooting to place well with HotRod so I can go ride at the Washington State 4-H Fair in Puyallup. I went in 2009 which was my first full year showing HotRod. We didn't go last year because of the hurdles that were set by the county. I've decided I will be going this year since we didn't go to the World Show in Tulsa. (That's next year!) I jumped the hurdles for state and now just have to ride a the fair.


Now, don't hold your breath for my next post (;


I'll get some show pics up ASAP!

I Remembered My Blog....Finally!

Again.. I know it.. I’ve neglected my blog. I’m sorry. I have a good excuse. School. HotRod. Golf. Life. Those are wonderful excuses if you ask me.

School. Is well school. I don’t like it much. It gets in the way and angers me. The teachers think they know everything and are always right, but they aren’t. Their heads are just too thick to realize that. If they really knew how many times they were wrong, they would probably be pretty aggravated. Then since I’m a sophomore I had to take the HSPE, for those that don’t know it’s the High School Proficiency Exam. It’s the replacement for the WASL. I’ve done the reading and writing and science. It’s a waste. It determines if I graduate or not. Again my health teacher was being rude. We filled out things about what we are in our community, I only had citizen down. She was questioning me why I didn’t have church member. Yes I’m white. No, I’m not Mormon. She kept asking me if I was a church member to which I replied no. She was pretty adamant about asking. Talk about discrimination! She then just recently wrote me up for having my iPod out during a video that we were watching for the THIRD time! I knew I wasn’t suppose to have it out, but she never enforces her rule. At least not until I’m the kid with my iPod out, so she wrote me up and I had to serve an hour detention. This school is horrible. The teachers don’t push you to do better unless you are below, no one that could be ahead is pushed. UGH! I’m so happy I only have 17 days left!

One my most recent accomplishments has been testing into the Running Start program that I will start in the fall. I will for sure be taking Math 95 and English 101. I’m so excited!!

HotRod. In shape. Shiny. Full of himself. Total baby. If only he wasn’t so lazy. But he’s a good boy. Carried Cara to a victory at a schooling show. Won the Showmanship class. Now we’re through WAHSET, I’m super excited! Showing, cattle and gaming all in THREE days! I’m so happy it’s over! We qualified for state in showmanship (which I absolutely HATE!), trail and working rancher. I placed 8^th in showmanship. Then had a clean go in trial and placed 22^nd, out of 23. I am not happy about that, HotRod apparently showed tension in his maneuvers. Then in working rancher I finally caught the dummy calf head! My seventh time into the arena in that last two years and I caught! Then HotRod bucked, for no apparent reason, it was actually quite funny, we placed 16^th.  My parents hauled the horse and I to Albany, Oregon to compete in an American Buckskin Registry (ABRA) Sectioned show. We had some good goes and some not so good ones. We came out with the ABRA Youth hi-point for the weekend, winning a bale bag on wheels. Yes, they make suit cases on wheels for hay bales!

Golf. Ha! That was a joke. I didn’t even go to districts because I didn’t feel I needed to because I wouldn’t qualify for state, I didn’t really enjoy being on the team anyways and felt it would a waste of my time to go. Those few weeks on the team just proved again why I don’t do team sports. Gah. I hate those prissy girly girls!

Life. Oh it’s great. People prove themselves all the time. Never proving me wrong though, always proving me right that they’re the same as everyone else. Liars. Cheaters. Stupid. Ignorant. Just plain pain in the butts for those of us who want to succeed. Just got to ignore them. Can’t get mad, just gotta get even.

My lamb! I’ll be getting her on the 29^th  at 9:30 am. I will post pictures. I’ll raise the lamb for FFA, take her to fair, show and sell her for market. I don’t know why I am torturing myself again with this project, but hey it’s some extra cash. I already know there will be many tears shed, even if I tell myself not to get attached and that she will gone by the end of August.

This past Friday we hosted a team taco bar for the WAHSET Team. At about 10 that night as my friend, Taylor, and her mom and sisters are leaving she asks if I want to go to Spokane with them. The parents let me go. We got there house and were asleep by 12:30, to be up at 5:50am the next day to do chores and load into her moms stretched Dodge truck and head down Highway 2 to Spokane! We dropped some saddles off at a leather shop then headed to the soccer fields for one of the little girls soccer games. They won both games!  It got pretty intense a few times! I ended up completely fried. We left there did some errands and finally got lunch. We went to the hotel. I was cruising faceboook when I saw that one our friend’s was in Spokane. He came and got us, he was with one of his friends. We were going to go to SkyHigh, an old warehouse that is filled with trampolines! Yeah that idea got smashed when they said you can’t jump if you’re under 18. We are all under 18. So we left there and ended up laser tagging. That was a blast! I fell down a ramp and UP a ramp, yes, up a ramp. I have some major talent! After laser tag we hit TacoBell and back to the hotel for swimming and hot-tubbing. Taylor and I were asleep by 12:30 again. Just to get up, watch half a soccer game, race back to their house so they could get ready and go to church. It was a seriously fun weekend!!

Now lets see how long it is until I blog again! (;