2009 Nebraska Horse Expo

Well, another year of Expo is done and it was a lot of fun. Vanessa got to ride in the Mane Challenge competition, the Youth Rodeo and participated in two clinics. One clinic was with Richard Shrake and the other with Julie Goodnight.

Day 1 we got there and I groaned at the work ahead of me getting a Paint horse cleaned up for show. We bathed, we clipped, we banded, we froze our butts off! We must have done a pretty good job though because Mom overhead a guy telling his buddy "See those two horses back there? they are stalled all time because look at how clean they are." WOO HOO! Yep, we must have done a fine job.

Day 2 Vanessa and Annie competed in Western Showmanship and then rode English in the Pleasure class. In classes of 20 entrants, they placed 5th in Showmanship and 4th in English. Vanessa was the youngest rider of the entire group. I was very pleased with how they did.

After the Pleasure class, we had to rush rush rush to get Vanessa back in to Western clothes and get the two speed horses over to the other arena for the rodeo. I already had them saddled, but we didn't have much time in between. In the rushing, Vanessa's nerves shot up. She suddenly didn't want to do Break-Away roping. After some fussing and arguing that it was her idea, not mine... she calmed down and went in. She didn't catch her calf, but she looked pretty good trying! Spike looooooooves that stuff and you can see the determination on his face. I love how his forelock is sticking straight up in fine Don King fashion.

She did catch her goat, but she had a bit of a snag on her dismount that cost her time so she didn't place. But her goat stayed tied! and that was one thing she knew she had to accomplish.

Barrels and Poles went ok with Buck. Buck has pretty much had the winter off to get fat.. and he has certainly accomplished that! They ran clean patterns though and it was a good first time out.

Day 3 was Trail class. It wasn't a horribly difficult pattern, but it wasn't a piece of cake either. There was a lot of precision required. Although they performed their pivots perfectly outside the arena, Ness and Annie had some troubles with it once in the class. They touched a timber in the sidepassing, but everything else was nice and clean. I was surprised she didn't place and went to try to find the judge afterwards to see if I could look at the score sheets in order to see what he saw that I missed. I would have placed her around 5th or 6th probably. Oh well! The judge's word is final!

This was the day they got to fill in a vacant spot in the Richard Shrake clinic. At first I was bored and wondering what he would have them do. It ended very exciting though because after he put the three girls through a few exercises, his assistant took their bridles and had them lunging using their seat and not their hands. I LOVE this exercise because it really does help the girls realize how much they depend on their hands.

He had them posting at a trot while trying to find the beat of the stride with their hands. Then he had Vanessa pretend to swing a loop at a lope. Then he asked her to swing with both hands. Then he asked her to do them opposite directions lol. She was trying and it was funny and then he laughed and said "Ok, that doesn't do a dang thing for you, but I wanted to see if you could do it."

As Vanessa continued to lope on the lunge line he said "Ok, now put your hands on the horn and swing your leg off in a dismount." I saw her head whip around and ask him "WHAT???" but she took another round and attempted it. She miscalculated the stride and the lift of her leg over her pleasure saddle and landed on her butt in front of Annie. Annie stopped promptly as the crowd said "oooooooooo". I yelled "SHE CAN DO IT!" and she got back up there. She started in again and did twice perfectly. The crowd applauded and I was very proud. Mr. Shrake told her "Good job."

Later that night I very successfully embarrassed Vanessa on the dance floor. Oops lol. Heck, I was having fun!

Day 4 we got up bright and early again for Vanessa and Annie to join in Julie Goodnight clinic. I think I got more out of this than Vanessa did. I liked listening to Julie explain why we ride in the positions we do and how to change what we're doing wrong.

When that was finished, we ran back over to the main arena because our friend Dan was going to ride Spike in the Stake race. It was AWESOME! 23yo Spike FLEW and rocked the house. They got the fastest time earning 1st place points for the Quarter Horse team. I was so proud of them. I was jumping up and down screaming as they were running to the finish line. That old boy still has some wheels.

The Awards for the Mane Challenge resulted in the Paint team that Vanessa was on to get 3rd place. The Quarter Horse team got 4th. The Paint team had 32 points, the 2nd place team had 33, and the winnig team had 34. It was very close.

I'm thrilled for the 1st place team because a young man who was obviously not as comfortable as the rest being in this competition helped them to win it. I think he was trying hard not to beam with silly joy lol.

It was a long, exhausting, and wonderful weekend full of horses, friends, and laughs. I'm looking forward to 2010.