HIGHS and lows of a weekend show...Well,
despite my horse troubles I packed up late until Thursday night - and took an
hour or two out of my time to finish up my friend's birthday present -
a framed B&W photo of mine (which it seemed like she liked) to fill some empty space on her walls. Put
everything that I could in the trailer and truck crashed then woke up early Friday morning to
finish packing.
I took my truck and trailer to work with me that morning so I
could leave directly from work and jump right on the interstate. This
meant I had to leave my dog Roper at home this time, which he was sad
about - but he hasn't been feeling all that well anyway so it was good
he stayed home with hubby. Getting to the show in a timely manner was
important because I'd had delusions of grandeur of putting at least one
of my Hunt Seat Horses in the Hunter Under Saddle Futurity. My friend
also wanted to do the futurity and I figured that if we both did the
futurity - and were the only ones that did it - then both of us would
at least win back our entry fee. Futurities are fun to do anyway - a little increased competition with the money - so I didn't think anything of it.
Well, after hauling ass down to
the show - 100 miles south from Spokane after work, I made it to the
show grounds in time to unpack and unload and get dressed for the
futurity, the AQHA classes were over for the day but I had plenty of time to get ready for the futurities. It turned out to be a
great success - me and my friend both competed and I won under 2 of the
3 judges!! She won under one judge - we both got our entry money back plus some.
Lame?But
after that the show turned kinda ugly as the next day my horse Stretch
turned up really lame for my english classes. This was especially sad
considering I had to work on Friday and therefore missed all the
English classes on that day - it was a split and combined double judged
show so Saturday was my only chance to show Stretch English (to date
the only thing me and Stretch are real competitive at). I went in one
class - he felt kinda funny, then went in a second class and had to go
right back out because he was so lame. I have never had a lame horse so
I really didn't know what to make of it.
He was still off the
second day - but it wasn't beyond a dose of "vitamins". We found no
heat or swelling in the leg that he was favoring and I only had one
class to go - so I got him out of stall just before the class and rode
through a horsemanship pattern with him (it went rather poorly by the
way - there were only 3 in the class and I was last and beaten by a
reiner that was just there to fill the class up and warm-up his horse).
I
really really really hope that this doesn't lead to a big vet bill -
nothing would put the brakes on the rest of my showing than one of
those. I think and hope that he just had a stone bruise going on - from
pretending to be a wild mustang in the round pen Saturday morning - the
footing was horrible (very rocky) but he was being so dang goofy on the
lunge line in the arena I thought a round pen work out would be good
for him as he could work out some of his goofiness in there instead of
scaring people in the arena by his leaping, hopping, striking and
bucking.
PattyTo top
matters off I didn't get a chance to ride Patrick. I thought well,
heading to the show after missing half of it might be worth it if I
could invest some real time riding Patrick - didn't get to do that
either. Joe rode him a ton, which was great but I kinda wanted to hop
on for a bit. I did however get the chance to bath him and try out some
new whitening products on him. He looked just stunning!! If my camera
would've been near by I would've gotten his picture for the blog.
Long still time no see...But
what made me real sad was that my friend from Wyoming was there on a
two week visit to see her folks and to visit her horse which Joe has in
training. You see I had looked forward
for so
long to doing this show with her to hang out like old times and she
hardly said 3 words to me the whole weekend. It was very strange and I
have been over the whole weekend in my mind a dozen times I can't think
of anything I did to make her mad. Seriously we talk on the phone while
she is home in Wyoming more than we spoke to each other at the show -
and I made it a point to seek out opportunities where neither of us
were busy so there was times that she could've struck up a conversation
with me, but choose not to. There were also times I tried to hang out
and talk a little bit and it was kinda like she avoided me. I was
crushed.
I mean I know she was up to see her folks and horse
show a little - but she'd spent the last two weeks with them straight.
I wasn't wanting to hog all of her time, just wanted to hang out for a
bit. When she moved to Wyoming we were like best friends so many things
in our lives are so similar even when she moved we would call each
other and talk for hours - our likes and dislikes and dang near
everything is the same. A couple of years ago we meant up at the AQHA
world show and had a blast - it was so damn fun! Usually when she comes
up for shows or whatever i give her plenty of space and time to spend
with her folks but we always find time to hang-out, go shopping or
whatever the case may be. But this time if I didn't know any better I'd
say she was actively avoiding me.
To look forward to seeing her
for like 4 months and then not really even get a chance to talk to her
- killed me. Now I know what people are thinking - why didn't you go
over and talk to her? Well folks, we were at the darn fairgrounds its
not like we were miles apart we both were camping there - she knew
where to find me. I didn't want to be the annoying insecure friend - so
I just minded my own business and was nice. But it hurt ya know so I
didn't and don't really know what to make of it. Maybe she'll email me
and explain, she'll be back home today - or maybe she won't and I will
have lost one of my best friends ever....I just feel a little sad about
the whole thing.