WooHoo!! Its finally time!!! September 5th was the day that we headed out for Fort Worth! Of course it was going to be a mud pit at the ranch the day that we had to load up all of our props from the arena that is at the back of the ranch... But it always is when you have something important that you have to get done! So its a good thing we started packing two days early or we would not have made it in time! ;) It was pretty hard loading the props up with mud up to your knees with just me, my mom, and dad! He had a day of rest before we left because it was just a total swamp, but it was fine, he was at a really good point and could probably use a little rest before we headed out. When it was finally time to go, we went to the ranch, had to unload all our stuff out of the back of the trailer so we could put the horses in the front, then load it all back up again. (we didn't figure out until we were on our way back from the competition that it would work to have everything in the front and the two horses in back...) Right when we went to leave Lucky completely attacked Disco in the trailer and got in big trouble for it... After that he was pouting for a long time and wouldn't eat anything, if you tried to give him a carrot he turned his head away and stuck it into the corner until you left. When we got to my aunts house, we unloaded everything again and took the horses out to let them graze together. We didn't really do much with the horses that day because it was already about 6:00 when we got there. Poor Luck had to sleep in the pasture all alone and Disco had to sleep in the trailer so he didn't get any new bites right before the competition. Lucky was running back in forth in the pasture looking for his buddies and whining for a long time until my brother went out with him and just rubbed on him and stuff. In the morning we started the day with getting the props out and fixing them up one last time! After we finished the props, we brought Disco into the shed and started shining up his hooves, it took a really long time because we had to use like 3 different types of sand paper on them! We also all spent some time riding my uncles ATV,it was super fun! When my dad took it out he started jumping over a pile of dirt and wasn't really paying attention to where he was going and ended up landing on the fence! Everyone was fine though after, and I don't think I have ever laughed so hard before! :D On Monday (The 7th) we headed up to Stephenville for me and Micah's private lessons at DUH. Tuesday morning we went from our hotel to the ranch to get all my props set up in the arena and to warm up the horses. Certified clinicians Jeff Davis and Luke Lundahl worked with me and Micah for 3 hours with our horses. At 9:00 I started my lesson with Jeff by doing my freestyle routine and seeing what he thought needed work so he could help me with it. When I finished my routine we worked on high energy backing and C-Patterns, Side passing away and towards, Backing Circles around the pedestal, doing the spin on the pedestal, Spanish walk, and the bow. I learned SO much! And so did Disco! By the end of the three hours he was doing everything SO much better and his bow was just WAY WAY WAY awesomer! He was really tired at the end and we decided to do the routine one more time since our time was about up... Bad idea! When we got to the jumping part in the routine, on his second time over he miss judged it and punched right through the Boom Box for is second time!!! Oops.... At least this time it wasn't nearly as bad and we were able to fix it. :) After that we decided to go out on the obstacle course and go over a couple different jumps out there for the rest of our time. Finally it was Wednesday! Time for EMM check it! We got there around 10:30ish for check in and there were already a whole lot of people! We found Disco's stall, then went around and talked to some of the other people. My dad and brother went to the stock yard stables to board Lucky there for a few days while the competition was going on. Me and my mom hung out at the stalls and I worked Disco in a couple different arenas there. We went ahead and went to our hotel after a couple hours so we could get to sleep early for the competition in the morning! We got up early and went to the stables so I could get to my trainers meeting in time. At 11:30 the Handling and conditioning started! I was 9th to go out, I studied my patterns for a long time and knew exactly what to do, but you really have to think hard about what comes next when you get out there! The first thing I did was walk aroud to the right side, go into the roundpen, tip his head into me, then unhalter him and tell him to stay still. then I exit the round pen and wait for the judge to tell me when to go back into the roundpen, tip his head, halter him up again, and exit the roundpen with Disco, then I go to the right again, walk to the barrel, stop, ground tie Disco, pick up the brush, brush all around him on both sides, put up the brush, grab my lead, trot to the cone, stop, back up at least 6 steps, then I accidentally walk forward and then stopped, ground tie him, pick up all four hooves, grab the lead again, send him into the trailer, hop in, back him out, then walk him out of the arena. When I first started walking out of the arena from the trailer Disco spooked when everyone started clapping! LOL! Everyone was super nervous while we all waited for the scores to come out, finally they posted the scores on the wall next to the stalls and I got 7th place!!! Yippie! I made top ten! It wasn't very long after that we all had to go down to the arena for a walk through of the trail class with the judges without our horses. It was really confusing when you would ask the judges questions and they couldn't make up their minds on what to answer and said a bunch of different things so we were all more confused when we came out of the arena than when we went in... I went 17th for Trail and I was late to come out because me my dad and another one of my friends there were talking about that I should when I get to the mail box, pull out the course from it and look at it confused like I didn't know where to go after that, then show it to Disco, then start walking the wrong way and stuff. XD I didn't end up doing it because I didn't want to get kicked out before my freestyle! so I ran out a little late, then sent him over the poles, trotted around the cones, stopped him at the cone, back up 3 steps, walk to the bridge, send him over it, walk through the gate, close it, yield his forequarters around, walk into the square at the mail box, yield his hindquarters 180, ground tie him, check the mail, show it to the judge, grab Discos lead, yield his forequarters 180, and exit the arena. I came in 3rd place in trail! That night we went to the Unbranded movie, and it was A W E S O M E! The next day was Freestyle! There were a lot of really cool props and really good routines! I was also 17th freestyle so it took awhile for it to get to my turn. When I started, we came out a little crooked but made up the ground on the C-Patterns that turned out really good! The whole routine went really good accept for that he wouldn't jump or spin on the pedestal, but he was distracted by the crowd and it was probably a little scary for him to jump towards the solid wall and crowd right above it. Also the fog machine decided not to work during the routine ether! Lol! Oh well... not everything can go perfect! And I was still really proud of him! 9/10 of the Adult freestyle horses ran away at some point in the routine and the first place youth also missed a jump, so i'm proud of Disco for how good he did! It was really cool when all the youth and their horses walked around the arena and all the kids would come up to the rail and say how much they liked our costumes! Then we all lined up in the center on the arena and the judges started to announce the winners, first they gave out the Handling and Conditioning ribbons, then the Trail, then the Freestyle, then the overall winners! We got fourth place overall! I got 4 ribbons, $2,000, a $25 SmartPack gift card, and a really great mustang in the end!
They also had some wild horses and burros for adoption!
After a long day of work!
Day 1 Scores!
Disco: You better not be taking a picture of me... My nails aren't finished yet.
Disco: Its mine! I did all the work!
Done with this!
I will post pictures and videos ASAP!
