Pre-Work: San Angelo, TX

So after the "South Texas" pre-work we headed home Wednesday afternoon, worked the horses Thursday and then worked them Friday morning, loaded them on the trailer and headed out to San Angelo, TX for another pre-work.

We got there just as the sun was setting, and got to unloading...

The horses were much calmer at their new destination than they were when we first unloaded them at South Texas. Stalls are what they know, and they all settled right in. Except for the above wingbat, who thinks it's appropriately to play the "rear as high as I can for 45 minutes" in her stall whenever we take her anywhere... sigh... can't help 'em all can ya?

THIS is my most favourite sight when we arrive at a show, or a new place. Hay out for the morning, supplements by stalls, horses fed and blanketed and halters used as an extra locking mechanism = meaning = done for the night.

We were put up in serious style, the hotel we stayed in was quite nice. 

However, it's not like we got to enjoy it much because the first horse was to go at 7:00 am the next morning...

BUT

Excellent News....

Our horses were complete and utter gems (for the most part) during San Angelo. At the beginning of the week they were absolute hell demons, and all of a sudden by the end of the week it was like the "show horse" switch got turned on, and all of a sudden they were like "hey, we got this". San Angelo was a very important pre-work for us because it was done up just like a show, various (maybe 10-15) trainers brought their 3 year olds. There were draws, and sets, just like at a typical show, and we warmed up the three year olds like we would show horses at an actual show. So, it was a great way to see how the horses would be in a real show setting, with lots of other horses in the warm-up pen, new stalls, etc. etc. We, being the over-achievers we ar,e brought the most three year olds of anyone... 18... that meant myself, and our other loper were literally on horses from 6:00 am all the way until 6:00 pm. No rest for the wicked.

Here are Fonzie and Peppa taking a breather in the centre of the pen, and saying hello too eachother.

The only "hell demon moment" we had for the two days was unfortunately with me... (always the lucky one)... I was swapping out a loping bridle for a show bridle and turned around to talk to Boss Man's wife. I had the reins around a horse, Jewel's, neck, and the second I turned around, she ducked right out from under those reins and went screamin' and gallopin' through the outside of the warm-up pen and right outside, and all the way into the barn area. She turned into the first aisle, which thankfully was our stalls, and Boss Man went gallopin' off after her as I booked it down the other way. We got her cornered and I haltered her, but I wasn't exactly happy about doing the loper walk of shame back through the warm-up pen and bridling her... Unimpressed, very unimpressed.

Fonzie, who unfortunately for him, was ridden twice in one day because his morning performance was a little less than stellar.

The Spur Arena is where we were in San Angelo, and I must say that it was 1000000 x nicer than the fairgrounds in Jackson where the Southern was held. Big and open, really clean, and the only downside was the arena got pretty hot with all of us in there. 

First night done! You can't tell really well in this photo but a lot of those trailers are super mini-mini trailers that haul hogs and sheep, there was a big 4-H deal going on at another arena on the grounds when we were there. It was SO CUTE.

What does a loper need after a day at a "show" or a "work" or whatever the heck you wanna call it? A Margarita, always a margarita, maybe even a beergarita... :) This is the #1 reason I love it down here, there are margaritas EVERYWHERE.

Each aisle had their own washracks.... what an absolute dream come true, no walking to and from washracks, no waiting on other lopers, no carrying your stuff too and fro.. suck on that Jackson!

Our last day was foggy and cloudy, we worked through all the horses and again, all of them were wonderful. It was AMAZING to me that they could go from SO BAD at the beginning of the week to just... figuring it out. I also contribute a lot of it to the fact that in a show-setting there were TONS of other horses there, doing the exact same thing that our babies had too, so it helped that they were never alone like they had been in South Texas since it was just us, and that they just had to move forward alongside the other horses there.

We were pretty proud of our little ponies, and on Sunday night we hauled home after our works were done. Yup, 20 hour day by the time we got done and home, and the next morning we were up and show-bathing them at home by 8 am. 

Nobody ever said lopers get sleep... nobody.

Tis the Season of: Pre-Works

Pre-Work:

1. An event held to simulate a show, so three year old cutting horses can have "show-experience" before their first show experience - the Fort Worth Futurity... "The Futurity".

Also:

2. A way to completely burn out your lopers before you run them absolutely ragged before "The Futurity".3. A fun way to bring out the most innerest hell-demon in your most mildest and meekest three year old.

Our First Pre-Work was last week, and will from here on out be deemed...
"South Texas".
We headed to a client's ranch near Brady, Tx to have a sort of private pre-work with just our horses, and then some of theirs that they still have at their house. A way to test the waters before we headed to pre-works with other trainers.

We woke up at a really awesome time...

& we left, and drove the entire way there with some really spectacular light...

& I was really just over-joyed with the entire concept of a 2:30 am wake-up call...

No. No I was not. The above statements were dirty lies.

Our very stalled, very sheltered three-year olds (we brought 18 in total), were for the most part put in outdoor runs, which caused them to become over-joyed bucking machines... "Oh my god, we are outside, and we are somewhere new and we should just run blindly around..."

Here are Floyd and Jake looking like cute little friendly three year olds, later on in the morning these two would both try to turf my ass multiple times...

& that, my friends, was the general theme for the entire first day of the South Texas Pre-Work... "let's try to turf these lopers asses". I kid you not, I did not have ONE uneventful ride. My sweet little babies turned into absolute HELL DEMONS and by the end of the day my nerves were rattled and my shoulder muscles were so tense I wondered if my body would ever feel normal again.

Atleast South Texas was very pretty...

I could look out on some gorgeous scenery while my three year olds ran around like they'd never been ridden before.

Even my most dependable, most loving stallion Jacko (and most laziest... the most laziest...), farted, and scared himself and bucked. COME ON.

However, as one would think, South Texas taught us a lot of things about our little hell-devils... We had to start to figure out how to properly calm each one down due to personality. 

For the ones that were just being evil (okay they were just being very fresh, excited, and feeding off eachother), there was "the game". See, a lot of the time, our little shitheads would think it was acceptable to try to run us into arena walls... "The Game" is what I also like to call "The Breezing Game". It takes a bit of guts and courage and hold onnnnnn, but basically what you do is get those little buggers going as fast as they can, the rules are you just let them run, turn them only when necessary and stay out of their way. They will run, and run, and run, and run, and when they begin to slow down because they figure out that your not going anywhere and they don't realistically like pretending to be racehorses you say "NOPE" and keep them going. Finally, when YOU decide that they are done pretending to be secretariat, you slow them right now and let them walk and think about their evil ways. "The Game" got pretty western a few times (a saying I love dearly... meaning: a little bit scary) but worked like a charm for every horse I had to do it on. The next day those little racehorses decided they realistically wanted to go back to extended-trot champions.

Then there were our genuinely very nervous, very timid, very scared crew... for them.. lots of pets and lots of slow stuff. They take off... you take them into a corner and trot small circles, widening those circles until they are less scared. You take your legs and spurs out of the equation, you get nice and quiet and calm and you work really slow until they figure out that this new arena isn't going to eat them. Then you can pick up the speed, but for the most part you can't pick on them, and you need to let them figure it out for themselves.

& for those times when you really feel like your about to hit the dirt... this arena was marvelous because the centre was much deeper due to them working cows on the outside. So, you would send those naughty ponies right to the middle and they'd quit fighting you because they'd have to fight the dirt instead.

By day two, most of our hell-demons were reformed, and by day three... all of a sudden we had progress and some budding show horses. What's up now?!

Here's the crew - slinkie and sheeted up on the afternoon of day three - waiting to be loaded and taken back to home... where "The Game" does not exist.

My fellow loper and I were quite happy with the end result, but let me tell you... that first day of South Texas is not a day that my body can repeat for quite some time... no thank you. Mostly, all I could think of was Fort Worth, and the stress that comes with it. I've begun to call it the "Fort Worth Flu"... aka... the sickness that is, "WHAT if our three year olds are like this at "The Futurity", this cannot happen to me."

Oh and how do you know you work at a cutting barn...?

Chipped nail polish, hands that look 20 years older than you and of course - elastics as accessories.

Gotta keep those tails up and off the ground!

& final tip of the day: How to tell if someone is "in the know"... after someone rides a horse at one of these things the proper question is not "how did it go?" or "how was the ride?", it is "How was your work?" - cutter lingo ya'll.