THE BLUE RIBBON!!

I can hear you say "what the heck is this for"?  A first place ribbon hanging off that refrigerator?  Here's what happened yesterday.

Chance granddaughter Laila is still in 4-H and goes to every horse show they have.  On this day it was Gymkhana, including any number of ways to race around an arena in five or six events.  This is not the Olympics for sure, but these kids have a blast!!  My first new friend to meet was Tess.  Isn't she a cutie?  I think Zoey from https://jimandbarbsrvadventure.blogspot.com would approve.

We arrived just before starting time, which then got pushed back one hour, no reason given.  So they let the girls practice carrying the flags around the arena.  If anyone knows horses, you know that is a big deal.  Most horses don't care for flags waving over their heads.

Ta Da!!!!  They did it with panache and flair, with no one falling off.  It was a big win!!

On to the games.  There are fence rails in every picture because standing at the rails is a no-no.  Parents cannot see the kids if you are in the way.  This one is Blake (maybe 6 years old?) riding the best little pony at the gymkhana.  I'm not kidding, this little horse went everywhere he was told, even it it was at a walk.  Blake is of course looking the complete wrong direction, but it's okay, cuz she got 2nd place!!

"What?  Second place?"  Can you not just see what this pup is thinking?  His job was to carry the cell phone so it didn't get lost.  

Parents and friends clapped and cheered for every single rider, whether they stopped the time clock at 102 seconds or 10 seconds.  Every kid came out with a smile on their face!  Even the announcer gave kudos to kids who had to run it twice to get the pattern down correct.  If they missed a barrel, no one cared.  This is a GREAT group!!

Laila rode a horse called bones ... quite old in spite of his looks.  He ran like a champ and placed in the top three in every event I think.  He's got moxy for such a tiny horse of advanced age.

So who is this on the palomino?  

Yeah, that would be me!!  Out of the blue they decided to have a tick-tock event, as in tick tock watch the clock go around!  They put the moms, most of whom have never ridden much at all, ON the horse and the kids lead them around the course, like the Mom's used to lead the horse when the kids were too small ... called the Lead Line Classes.  They take forever, thus the tick tock event.  

This is Francesca and UNO is her horse, a recently purchased heading horse with 18 years under his belt.  Heading, meaning in calf roping, he was the first to exit the hole while his rider caught the head of the calf.  He's a pretty sweet boy, although so darn tall I had to stand on an ice chest to get on!!!

This is Laila and her Mom Shandra, which I probably spelled wrong because I can never remember how it goes.  I just know how to pronounce it!!  I'm going to print it on a card and put it on my fireplace so I remember next time.  Behind Shandra is her friend who hasn't ridden since she was a kid.  

And we were off into the arena to run the barrel racing pattern.  Let me just say that Francesca is a rock star!!  She RAN the entire course on foot in boots in soft sand while I encouraged UNO with leg pressure around the barrels.  He trotted like a pro as we raced to the finish line!!  

WE WON!!!  I don't know how we did it, but Francesca ran like the wind and we got first place.  HOW FUN WAS THAT!!!!!  I got a WAY TO GO GRANDMA as I exited the arena.  I wasn't sure whether to be offended by that or not!!

The bad news is Nancy is reminiscing about her horses and now wants to buy a little horse ranch and pick up a rescue horse or two.  Hey, I'm not too old, am I?????