"The Southern": Jackson, Mississippi (In Photos)

I honestly can't even think enough to formulate an intelligent blog post to talk about my first big show as a loper, so instead, you get photos first - words later.

So, without further udo...

The Southern in Jackson, Mississippi

Goose, my poster child for the show. Goose made it into the 4 year old open finals, 4 year old non-pro finals and 4 year old amateur finals. He's a big deal, and i'm quite fond of him.

***

We woke up for 4 am, worked all the horses that my Boss was going to show and then headed out for Mississippi around noon. Bankie (the blanket myself and two of my best friends also have) had to come along for a ride. This is Bankie looking solemn in front of a random shanty in Mexico. Just kidding, that's my apartment. :) 

We pulled three rigs, my Boss with his Coach motorhome pulling a 4 horse, his wife pulling an 8 horse and the lopers (us) pulled a 6 horse. Yep, 18 horses, and 4 other client horses met us there.

Favourite American thing of the day: That you guys call borders "lines", as in "Just heading across the Louisiana line now".

Sunset in Louisiana... still had a long way to haul.

THE Mississippi River!

Can people from Mississippi write their state name without singing the song in their head? Because I certainly can not "Miss-i-ss-i-pp-i".

One blurry photo of the Mississippi line...

This was my view for about 6, if not more, hours a day.

Circles, Circles, make your horse sweat until it wants to die, Circles, Cirles.

My generally philosophy as a loper is lope them until my body is literally screaming, then lope ten more minutes. Then walk, let them catch their air, then do it all over again. Everyone kept talking about how they had "feel" for when their horses were ready - I call bullshit.

Outdoor arena where we exercised horses that weren't being ridden that day.

Fordice Equestrian Centre, where the cutting was held.

So. Many. Trailers.

One tired loper, our first few days were 18 hour days. My feet were KILLING me.

"Get me outta here"

"I dont waaaaannnaaaaaa be in Mississippi anymore"

One of the many stall barns, this was taken from the top of our trailer as I was chucking bales down. Glamorous, that's me.

One day I actually got to put on tennis shoes for a couple hours... the simple things in life.

& of course, what do you do when you ride ridiculously expensive show horses...

Use them as pack horses for all your shit. Of course.

What do you do when you work for a trainer who works his horses before the shows, and then at shows?

Do 30 lbs of laundry. Of Course...

Show Laundry... the worst.

This is like 3 days worth of polos and boots... kill me.

We had to put them into the back of the truck because the bags were too heavy with all the damp laundry.

Back to my pack horses...

This mare has won over $350,000... and yet I turned her into a pack mule. No rest or dignity for these show ponies.

& then what do you do after you do all that laundry, hang it up to dry... 

It covered three stalls worth.... brutal.

My most favourite Goose again, looking at me before we headed to the arena for his last show today.

"I don't want to do this either you crazy lady, let's run away together"

Casual, my first cockroach sighting IN MY LIFE.

In my bathroom stall.

Kill me now.

Just do it.

Oh, and let's not forget about show shirts...

all the show shirts.

how many starched show shirts have you ever worn in one week?

bet I can beat it.

Cows!

Because we're at a cutting!

The amount of cows hauled in and out everyday was insane

and you can bet all the Texans were (smugly) always saying "those cows were from Texas", about the good bunches.

My trainer and his wife bought their daughter this mini aussie for her 8 year old birthday, it arrived on the Thursday and hoooooooowled in it's stall that they would leave it in while they were showing all day long.

"Please let me outta here!"

But we weren't the only ones doing that, about 5 other people did the same with their puppies so our barn was a howling, yelping place the whole week.

Everything is bigger in... America? Yup. 

Went to Red Lobster and ordered a margarita, got this massive fishbowl for only $9.

My facial expression is due to one of my coworkers saying she was going to send this photo to our boss.

More "glamarous life" shots, living out of suitcases and clothes piles at the closest Best Western.

Sunrise on our last morning in Jackson

Bankie was ready to leave Jackson about as much as I was...

(ready, very ready)

The last show shirt of the show!

All of our stalls empty and cleaned out!

Pulling out of Jackson!

Casual decrepit building that was in the fairgrounds...

Jackson wasn't exactly "picturesque"

& that was that... I'll update more with words when I feel a little more alive!

Early Insights of a Canadian in Texas

As of tomorrow I have been in America for two weeks, most days (because my days are so long) it feels like I've been here at least two months. Just wanted to give those of you that commented a bit of love for being as shocked as I was about this whole 4 am business. This Canadian girl would much rather wake up at ya know... 6 am. I guess it makes sense since in the summer the afternoon heat is sweltering and most choose to not ride. However, I bet you any money that in the summer these guys ride straight through it - there are so many horses here you just have too!

Weatherford... where Cutting is such a big deal even Ronald McDonald does it himself.

So of course I had to take a tacky tourist photo! Ronald was doing it brideless on a paint too! What a talented rider - who knew?!

I try my hardest not to stereotype or generalize people or cultures, but there's definitely similarities and a lot of differences too. (Texas is pretty far from home, I'm leaning towards differences for the most part). My co-workers definitely like to poke fun at my "canadian-ness" and I've been immersed in a world of food that I am not used to, but I am always game to try anything! (Maybe it's the Canadian in me ;) hahaha)

For example, I tried Cajun food at a restaurant called "Boo-Rays" in Weatherford, TX. We had Alligator to start, and then I moved on to bacon wrapped shrimp in crawfish hollandaise. People in real life eat like this regularly? I would be 60000 lbs. Another day, I also tried "nutbread sandwiches" at an adorable little cafe, which were banana bread sandwiches with cream cheese in the centre, again... people eat like this? They were delicious but I just about popped a button on my jeans. I was also surprised to see that americans don't have ginger beef at their Chinese restaurants, guess that's a Canadian-Chinese thing, it was invented in Calgary dontyaknow? I guess I could get "real texan" and say, "ya'll don't have ginger beef ova here?" So.Many.Ya'lls. In fact, my boss' 8 year old daughter had a shirt the other day that said "Every smile starts with ya'll", I wanted to mug her for that shirt. What? Did I just say that? Ya'll just know I'm kiddin' dont ya? (No I'm not, I am ruthless)

Alligator (Deep Fried, of course). Tasted kinda like popcorn shrimp!

Jambalaya and Shrimp et Brouchette (I think that's what it was called anyways) yummy, yummy, yummy.

On the topic of the language there is definitely some difference there, my favourite is "I'm just fixin' to...", such as where I would say "I'm thinking of riding that horse next", I often hear, "I'm fixin' to ride that horse next." Never fails to make me smile.

Is everything bigger in Texas? Well, I have seen more car dealerships that take up city blocks than anywhere else in my life. We also went to a pre-work at a very famous ranch the other day. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Everything was monogrammed with the ranch's name - the barn help/trainers/lopers all had shirts, hats and vests with the ranch's name on it. The barn staff houses all had porch lamps with the initials of the ranch's engraved in them. Finally, there were gardens everywhere, and each garden had a rock or a statue with the ranch's name. They had a 12 ft statue of a bucking horse and a rider right outside their beautiful kitchen and lounge area. They also had TV's outside of the indoor arena so that the lopers in the warm-up pens could catch the news of the day... casual. Finally, their cow pens each had automatic waterers... made out of beautiful cobblestones. Those cows were drinking in style!

This cow is doing okay in my books.

Finally, is Texas a bit more "god-fearing" than I'm used too...

... Not that there is anything wrong with that, but you wouldn't see much of this in my neck of the woods.

Finally, I was informed of a "fun activity" that people do called "noodling". Which is the act of snorkeling to a cave underneath a lake, reaching your hand in, letting a catfish chomp down on you and then hauling it up to the surface. This, to me, sounds like a game the devil created to torture humans... apparently this is "fun"... No texans, you are wrong.

Not okay, simply not okay.

Texas.

 I have been a severely absentee blogger, but that's because I just packed up my life and headed farther away from home than I've ever been, ever.

I said goodbye to the best boy in the whole wide world. It was pretty heartbreaking to let him go. However, I have him at a family friends place with some show horses and already got an email that he's doing well. Apparently the weather has been up and down and they've been taking his blankets on and off for me, and he has some buddies. Sigh. Good news, but still makes me a little sad. I miss the goof. I have both his stall sign and monogrammed halter here in my room to remind me of him.

Anyways... between saying goodbye to Jingle, friends and family, I finally got my shit together and packed the day beforehand. My "Bankie" had to come along for the ride, but my suitcases were hitting the weight limit so bankie came on the airport (along with a Tim Hortons sandwich - missin' that Canada!)

Texas is like horse bootcamp.

We have 70+ horses where I am, all disgustingly expensive, mostly owned by people who have disgustingly high amounts of money in their bank accounts.

I wake up at 3:30 am, have breakfast and head to the barn for 4 am. Generally, we saddle as many 3 year olds as we can, and then we begin by warming them up and my boss will come. He will then work each one either on cows, or the flag. We'll switch him a "fresh" horse, unsaddle and bathe the horse he handed to us, and then do it all over again. Once we get through them, he's generally done for the day and we'll take a bit of a lunch break and then myself and two other lopers will switch to exercising "show horses", which is anything 4 and up. Boss man's assistant and the two year old trainer will then work all the two year olds we have on the place. We then have to return to the barn for 8 pm to turn off fans and blanket 40+ horses, sometimes just slinkies, but right now slinkies and stall sheets.

The days are very, very long. The heat was insufferable the first week I was here, and now the humidity is what is getting me. Once my body figures out how to live in Texas climate, I will be a bit more settled. haha.

A 5 am loping shot, I still find it hard to believe me of all people is awake at 3:30 am to ride horses.

The past three days it has been pouring rain, which makes for pretty cramped and uncomfortable conditions with us all squeezed into the covered arena trying to warm up horses between Boss-Man working horses. I'm hoping the rain will let up soon but it's still coming down outside. Furthermore, the dirt here is just .. so... dirty... the clay composition is like a thick paste and just coats everything. My boots are taking the brunt of it.

The lines beside the names mean that all the horses have been ridden aka a day is officially done. The first week my head couldn't hit my pillow fast enough, not it's a bit better but "bedtime" is no later than 9 pm or i'm feeling it the next day. Sometimes it's hard to believe i'm currently living in Texas, a lot of things are different and i'll blog about them soon. A part of me definitely misses home, but a part of me is glad I made the trip down here. Shows are coming up so i'm excited to hit the road and see a bit of the country that way!