Zephyr Rodeo

We decided to just go for one night of the Zephyr Jr. Rodeo because we have been going alot lately, and wouldn't you know, it was a two-night buckle series. Had we known, we would certainly gone for both nights! Anyway, Katy did very well, winning barrels and poles with the fastest overall time in both, any age group. She ran very nice runs, a 17.0 on barrels and a 21.4 on poles. She also did flags and goat tying, improving her flag time but still placing 4th. She is having problems with flags because she has to slow down too much to grab it because of Aprisa's height, where some of these other kids have smaller horses and can just zip right around the barrel. Her goat tying run was quite an adventure though!

She was the first one out and had a fresh, rather large goat, and that goat was not too happy about being thrown down and tied! She road down and dismounted pretty well, ran over and pulled the goat in (it is on a 10 ft tether), struggled a little to pick him up and throw down, and just as she put her knee on him and started to tie, he shot right out from under her. She was mad, but got up and reeled him back in, threw him down, and out he came again! This scenario repeated about 4 times . . . at one point she had him by the horns trying to pull him back. She was tiring out and the goat wasn't, but eventually (after 5 minutes, should have been about 20 seconds!), she got him to hold still long enough to get the string tied around three legs, and she let go. And poor thing, after all that effort, her tie didn't hold and she still got a no-time! Everyone was rooting for her though, she wasn't going to give up until she tied him . . . it was actually pretty comical. I am going to have to remember my camcorder next time!

We also picked Aggie up from "roping school" at Charlie Seider's. He has been there for 30 days getting an attitude adjustment and some training on breakaway roping. He is doing great, and they really liked him . . . Katy chased a few calves on him and they did great together. He looked pretty miserable though, I think he had been treated somewhat harshly and ridden hard and put up wet for a month. He is back home with us now and is looking much more relaxed and happy, so Katy will be working with him too now, getting ready to rope.