The Chronicles of a Horse-Show-Girl

The adventures all started on September 2nd......our church's annual water day. The actual day itself was an outrageous amount of fun, but by Wednesday, I was singing to a different tune. Turns out that whoever rented the epic water slide before our group was infested with extremely contagious pink eye. Emphasis on the "extremely contagious" part.

I, who always seem to do either all or nothing in every aspect of life, got it all the way. And then some.

Flat on my back, sicker than anything, I was forced into complete immobilization as the rest of my family scrambled and stressed, trying to pack for our 2 week trip to Nationals in Oklahoma. Since I'm normally very involved in everything we do, having to be completely un-involved was a huge trial for me. If you had visited me over those few days, you would have found a pitiful, blubbering, discontented, unreasonably-guilty-feeling mess in place of my usual less pitiful self.

Saturday came, and to my dismay, I realized I physically couldn't sit up. No way could I spend the next 24 hours in our less than luxurious pickup truck. (Talk about having to learn to just surrender everything I wanted!) Reluctantly, we called in an emergency prescription for high powered antibiotics, and after swallowing those, I went to sleep. 3 AM rolled around, and, hoping and praying that everything had been remembered and packed, I dazedly crawled into the front seat of the truck and prepared for misery.

We saw the sun come up........watched it go back down.........and finally pulled into Ft Worth as it came up again. After quite a few hours of unloading and setting up, we crashed for a couple hours, and then woke up ready to roll. By this time, Jessie had shown signs of coming down with pink eye, but it was gone within a day. 

I, on the other hand, had to go around and greet friends (who I hadn't seen for a year or so) with eyes that looked like they belonged in a zombie movie, and a voice that was.....elsewhere.

Fun.

After about a day to settle in, the show started. And while we had a great time, it was nothing like last year. The stallion Mom showed was a bundle of nerves (lost about 50lbs by the time he came off the trailer), and wouldn't perform at all. Embarrassing and humbling.

On the other hand, Jessie's horse and my horse were awesome!!!

Jessie & Sam before a class

Me before a class

Jessie did such a good job....she broke Sam and trained her all on her own. Sam was great, performed beautifully, and everyone loved her!

I got to show Sam in a class ;)

We spent a lot of time helping a trainer (who is also a good friend). Jessie took one of her mares in In-Hand Roadster and they got Reserve National Champion! This mare is so talented!!

Mom showing one of their young stallions...

Yes, that is me....dressed in a Roman toga :) One of the classes they have is called "Roman Chariot", and the friends we were helping needed some help. SO fun!!!

My little Treasure - she was so beautiful! She did wonderfully for me, and we were placing Top Five in the open classes!! I was thrilled and can't wait for her to have her baby this spring!

One of the craziest things there was the overwhelming amount of huge black crickets. They were so numerous and so large that we decided to break them to drive! :D

Right next to our barn were some people that had the most adorable three year old. When we left, he came running over and said, "I want to stay with you!"
I want a little boy!!!!!!!!!!!

Loading up to leave!

Our backseat on the way home ;)

One of the best highlights of our trip was getting to see my dear friend, Savannah, again!! Living a couple states apart limits the time we can be with their family, and it was such a blessing to get to see her and her dad for a little while.

After a 26 hour drive home, we were exhausted and glad to be back. But for me, that "being back" didn't last for long! Less than a week later, I was on a plane headed for Ft. Worth, Texas to help some friends at the World show.

It was an amazing trip...filled with wins for them and fun times for all!

Their 2 year old stallion won Supreme.....basically the most beautiful Miniature Horse in the world for 2013. It was extremely emotional and overwhelming for them because they did all the conditioning and training themselves. So neat to be able to be there!!! 

I waltzed off the plane on a Sunday, and on Monday, I was thrown headfirst back into real life by the arrival of a new litter of puppies.

Life has gotten somewhat back under control, and I am glad to be done with all the excitement...as amazing as it all was. We all learned a lot - the value of keeping a positive attitude even under extreme disappointment, how extremely different we are than other horse-show-people and how good that is, how God is always good and always has a plan, and how valuable family is!

Hopefully some "real" blog posts will be coming soon...now that I'm feeling sane again :)