The Best Proposal...

Excuse this break in me whining about how early I have to wake up, I (for once) have a non-texas related blog post:

Professional's Choice shared this on their Facebook page, they found it on Pinterest...

How cute is this?! Ten points for this man, for sure.

Okay, now back to our regular scheduled whining about how FAH-REA-KIN early I have to wake up during the Futurity...

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.

The Southern: Jackson, Mississippi (Final Thoughts)

So, it's been a week since Jackson, and as of tomorrow we're headed off to some pre-works a couple hours away for about a week, (no rest for the wicked), so I thought I should "scribble" my last thoughts down before I find myself without any time for awhile.

How to be part of the "in crowd" if you are a loper...

1. Vests

What you wear matters kiddos, and even more importantly than that who you wear matters more. What was "big" in the loping pen were stud vests. These are vests with stallion names that are given away as promotion for the studs. However, the vests come with some stipulations...

If you have a current and hot stud vests on, you are cool. Make sure the stud is a popular stud on the market right now and you are set. If you have a lesser stud you are still doing okay, just not as good.

You better make sure said vest and the horse you are warming up have "cat" in their name. Aka, they are the offspring of THE High Brow Cat, bonus points if you are riding/wearing an own son or daughter. 

Now... if you are not wearing a stud vest, you still have a chance because your second best bet is a finalist jacket. These are jackets/vests given away to anyone that makes the finals at shows. Lopers who truly were finalists can smile smugly to themselves where as the rest of the lopers just got horses warmed up that made it into the finals. However, still shows you've been around the block - bonus points if the finals were at one of the "big" shows aka the cutting triple crown, or one of the big money mecuria or world shows.

Fnally, if all else fails have a nice shirt on - bonus points if you are ballin out with a finalist jacket, stud vest AND a nice shirt that matches the following criteria: it must walk the fine line between sparkly, boring, old fashioned and new age. Trust me - this was achieved by quite a few girls and I drooled everytime they loped by.

Where we were the "in" shirts were definitely those made by CR Ranchwear... really nice, really pretty, almost on the plain side, but everyone knows you are cool because they are also really expensive. sigh.

2. Who you are & Who you ride for

These things matter, especially if your a child of a trainer that has a big name and you, yourself, have racked in the big bucks at the non-pro events, people instantly know who you are. If you are "just" a loper, if you ride for a big time trainer and have ridden for them for awhile, everyone knows ya.

If you can't manage any of this .... well, you just aren't part of the cool kids.

&, since you're asking... did I fit in with the in-crowd? Nah, not yet. I felt like my hat was a little on the manly side and my boss even made fun of my hat band (in a joking way of course) but again, at the shows, everyone walks that fine line between old school and flash - some of those girls just looked so impeccable and had the best, most beautiful shaped feminine hats. I am now on the lookout for a hat that is a little more feminine but still gets you noticed. I also felt a little out of my element, as was to be expected, I definitely wasn't on of those impeccable girls who could still lope around with their phone hooked to their ear carrying on conversations with god knows who.

& yep... bonus points if you can do all of the above while glued to a cellphone, it was AMAZING to me how many people loped while texting, or calling others. It's almost it's own mini trend in the cutting world, I swear 75% of the time if a trainer isn't showing or turning back, they are on their phones. Same with lopers. Craziness.

How do you know if someone is a "Trainers Wife"...

The answer is pretty simple my friends, it's four little things:

Yip, Yee, Yeooo and some very short, to the beat, hand claps.

This is what you will hear instead of cheering at cutting events, and a lot of trainers wives went all out while their husbands were showing. Boss man, apparently, doesn't like his wife too, but even she let out a couple if his ride was going really well.

However, dear readers, don't fall into the prejudice that all Trainers Wives are also trophy wives, etc. I saw some of those ladies out there loping horses before dawn and way past dusk. Some of them I was honestly amazed by, they would lope all.day.long for their husbands... even if they employed lopers. Some of them clearly ran the show by organizing who was riding who, what was being brought where etc. etc. and those ladies all ran it while looking just so dosh garn good.

Basically, what I've taken from Jackson is I need to figure out how to look more stylish while working my ass off... haha, It's just not happening for me yet, but it will come with time... and mascara... and maybe the loss of 10 pounds. 

What can ya do? haha.

The Southern: Jackson, Mississippi (In Words)

Okay, so I've finally come down off the mental and physical obliteration that was Jackson and can finally actually talk about it. Also, I'm box-dyeing my hair and have nothing better to do :) Ghetto Texas Cowgirl Princess ya'll.

I am going to piece together how the show went with some of my overall thoughts which I tried to scribble down in a hurry while it was all going on. Overall, we had a very good show. (I know this because other lopers constantly remarked that to us, apparently we were kickin' some real ass).

First up was the 5/6 Open, with boss man riding 5 of our 5 and 6 year olds. 3 of our crew made it through and one that I warmed up in both the first go and the finals placed third overall, so that was pretty exciting and a good way to start off the show. Our 4 year olds also did pretty good in the 4 year old open with 3/5 making it through there as well. The two others that unfortunately didn't make it through also had respectable showings though, one was a 0.5 point away from making it in and the other was new to showing and had a respectable score. We didn't show any three year olds in the open, and so from there we went into non-pros and then from there the novice/amateur classes for the rest of the week.

We also showed three nights in the added championship classes, and a lot of our horses picked up cheques there. Let me tell ya - I was VERY happy that none of our clients or boss man showed in the Novice/Amateur added classes... rumour has it some of those ran until 2 am a couple nights. My boss had us up at 5 and meeting him at the flag by 6 every morning so he could work whatever horses were showing that day. Then our days ran until about 7 or 8 pm, any later than that and I would have surely died.

Out of the 18 we brought to Jackson, 15 made it into atleast one finals whether that be the open/non pro or amateur, if not more than one. That's over 15 cheques. Some of our horses are owned by husband-wife teams, where the husbands will show the horse in the non-pro, and the wife shows the horse in the amateur, so many of our horses showed in all three different categories. I think out of the horses we had showing only one or two didn't have owners come to show them, as well as have my boss show them in the open. I ended up loping primarily for one couple and the horses I warmed up picked up over $10,000. Don't all those zeroes hurt your eyes? They sure hurt mine... that would be nice to have in the pocket right about now.

So... my thoughts on my first big cutting show... (as written by me the day of)

This is me, covered in poultice and clearly being a grumplepuss as you will read below

Day One:
I am tired. I do not understand how to perfectly warm up a horse and it makes me want to punch a baby. That's how frustrating it is. My feet hurt, a lot. Did I mention I was tired? I hate blankets, sheets and slinkies and putting all three on every night. Screw how long that takes and how slinkies dry out my hands. Ain't nobody got time for horses rearing in an outdoor pen and trying to throw you off into a semi. Nobody. I am tired and my feet hurt. I don't want to talk to anyone anymore, I'd actually rather just curl in a ball of silence anger.

Okay, I am a drama queen but the first day WAS the longest day, ever. 18 hours after a previous 18 hour day and I was D-O-N-E. Slinkies do dry my hands out, and I do hate them. (Except that they make horses look like batman esque superheroes... I like that shit). Everyday the horses that didn't show had to be ridden, one of them, Money, was being a right jackass and trying to throw me off every 5 minutes. My body was giving up even trying to pretend I could ride a horse and I ended up handing her off to another loper and slinking home in a depression. Finally, I had warmed up two horses that day (maybe actually three? I can't remember) one had been warmed up well, the other (I thought) was ready to go and everyone assured me he was. Except he got into the pen with my Boss and proceeded to literally just try to run into the walls instead of actually cut the cow... My Boss handed him off to me with the words "Way. Too. Fresh"... woooooopsies.

Day Two:
Everything is fun and happy when your winning, but everything is awful and miserable when your losing. Plan to win.
Efficiency, organization and leadership are key for a smooth show of this size and scale.
I am still tired and my feet might at this point just melt away from my body?
Wanna know how I knew my two finalists were ready to go today? Here's how: Lope until I feel like dying, walk, then lope another 10 minutes, then walk, they do it again until 4 before the horse goes. Lopers that claim that there is a "feel", and a "finesse" to the warm-up are full of crap and don't believe them, they are just saying that because they don't want to admit that they are about to die too.


Day Four:
Do's and Don'ts:
Do: Bob that head all you want at the sitting trot, grab your cantle and bounce your arm - that's what the cool kids are doing and you should do it too.
Don't: Run into the back of a world famous non-pro in the loping pen, she might have you fired on the spot (true story I heard today)
Do: Work your ass off and try not to compare. Comparison, whether it be "I'm not as good as she is", or "I work a thousands times harder than he does", is comparable to evil in my books. Motto: You do you.
Don't: Don't tell a cutting client that reiners are better than cutters because you come from a reining background. Don't say that cutters, essentially, just extended trot with no collection around an area whereas reiners are actually broke and you could easily cut on any of yours. Don't say that reiners are actual horseman and cutters aren't... You are an idiot, a complete and utter idiot. 

Life lessons from the loping pen right here kid, and that last don't? That actually happened, that was a conversation between another of our lopers and a client who was buying us dinner for our hard work. I was absolutely mortified.

Apparently the rest of the days just meshed together and I didn't have time for jotting down any notes. So that's all you get of my tired, grumpy rambling.

Overall, I felt the show was a definite success, and I was pleased with how well it turned out - especially since it was my first. Except for the show laundry, there is nothing nice about show laundry. Ugh. ;)

"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!