My First Rodeo

I did something that i never thought i would do... ride in the rodeo! During memorial weekend, we took the boys to Hanna Christensen's house to ride some horses. We thought it would be a fun family activity and it was but while i was there i told the family that i really had never rode a horse more then two maybe three times and honestly they were shocked half. Dave (the owner of the horses) had me hop back on and wanted me to trot. It was so scary but so much fun. He told me that Hanna, his daughter, would start training in a few weeks to run barrels at the rodeo and he said if i was interested in training with her, i could run the barrels in the rodeo. Going home i kind of laughed thinking of me riding in the rodeo! After we took a little trip with Brandon's family to Colorado, i went on a little ride with Hanna again. Once again she tried to convince me to train with her. I really wanted to but how do i leave my three children (one being four months old) to go train three days a week three hours a training?? Brandon, had been trying for a long time to get me a hobby so he said maybe this would be "my thing" so we talked it over and decided to give it a try! During the summer i trained in the mornings and once school started i trained at nights and it was a blast! Hanna just started her senior year of high school so she is just filled with lots of funny stories and situations so it was a lot of fun to be with her! We started training the first week in July and i started from scratch learning how to saddle a horse, how to clean her shoes, brush her, feed her, walk, trot and finally a run! It was so scary and there were days training were i really thought i was going to die but it was an amazing experience!

 

Saturday, September 1st was the rodeo (also Hanna's 18th birthday)

  

I was so nervous! Here is me with my horse Rose! I had Brandon and the kids, Brandon's parents, and my brother Curtis and his family there to see me run not counting all the ward members who came, who would have thought a lot of people went to the rodeo! (in this picture the house directly behind me and to the left is the front of our house :)

 Here was us riding in the Grand Entry we had to run in a crazy pattern and i was very lost :) We had a bit of a situation once we put our horses back after the grand entry. I was suppose to run first in my division but everyone was confused of the order of events . We all thought that it was after the "muttin bustin" that i was to run but when we thought they were going to be starting it come to find out they were just drawin the names for the muttin bustin and i was up but no were near ready to run! suddenly i can hear over the announce them call me to go and i was on the other side of the field!!! I had to run over to Rose, her get her brittle on (which she is a stinker about) and get over to the gate! well, i was not that fast and i kind of was panicking so they called my name probably ten times and they actually had Hanna go before me since i was not there yet! I was then a little frazzled! Not a good way to start of my first run! After Hanna runs (and Badit went nuts when he ran and i thought she was going to get bucked off since she had been having some troubles with that) I go in and kicked Rose probably five or six times then she finally got going :)

 

First Barrel

 

Here was me running to the second barrel 

 

  

 Third Barrel 

Running Home!

 

Finished! I wish i could say i won my division but sadly that didn't happen! I did get third though! Hanna actually did not do as well as she expected. Bandit went crazy and would not run the pattern so she hit about 52 seconds. I did an amazing 35.28 seconds! OK, that's not that fast of a time but i felt pretty good for my first time!

I owe Brandon so much for helping me to get to the rodeo! He watched the kids three times a week for three hours each time and there were many nights were he put all the kids to bed while i was training! He was so excited to have me run it and it made it so much more fun! I could never have done it with out him!

 

 Hanna and I on the night of the rodeo!

 

Here are the boys! They had there cowboy hats on to cheer me on! It was a fun night and i wish i could have done another round but i wont get another chance til the next peach days rodeo!

I posted this picture for Curtis! He said its his favorite : / He thinking i look funny with my thumbs up but i just wanted to thank him for taking all of the pictures, they turned out great!!!