Friday, August 14, 2009

Friday, August 14, 2009

This promises to be a full day with dogs to work, 3 trailers worth of gear, horses and things to pack up – get ready for the rodeo and have fun!!!!!!! That's a big order. Last morning of riding got off to a good start.

Roading:

· Lea, Bandit, Hank & Ritha – very solid 41 min. Linda back on the dogs rig everyday and she is doing AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she sure loves it and the dogs like her.

Hills:

· Lily & Midge – well this was a backstep for Midge – just not a lot of fun or pattern today – more looping and back casting and not her regular drive. Lily usually runs a good race but hooked some tweety birds and got a - wake up call – which kinda shut her down – She opened up some in big tills and they both flowed a bit better with Lily having a bad course that still was way better then Midge. Not a good day for Midge. 40 min.

· Sorrel & Katie –Kate was dog of the day – very consistent forward race with 2 good finds – Sorrel ran good for 25 but just lost it at the last 10-15 – almost like he was in trouble but I never got on him. Katie had a very big bunch of birds and shows her maturity in application. Not a real high tail but plenty of brains and application.

· Bart, Galt & Tequi – hang on cowboy – this group rocks. Tequi has become a tagger so plans will be to work on that because she's too busy chasing rather then hunting. Bart was big as Phil showed in to the front in the back look – Bart had blown away some the course but handled and both did a very nice job in the lower hills. This is a powerful group of young dogs.

We kept a few horses saddled and Phil took several folks for their farwell ride on the hills. They sure enjoyed it. Jenny, Linda, Corinne, Sue & Susan all went to Valentine early Friday afternoon to soak up all the ambiance of Valentine. We stayed back and did some chores while Phil & Grahme went to get the ATV – didn't happen. The kids had the instructions to take down the tents and pack up so everyone would be ready to leave at 7:00 am. Whoops! It didn't happen – trip home was delayed a few hours!!!!!!!!!

So the plan was to leave for the rest of us about 4:30 and get to Young's prior to the rodeo. We were all a bit late and met at the fairgrounds. Ate the local greasy spoon foods that you have at a fair but James and Elizabeth had never had corn dogs so we found them some and they enjoyed this strictly American fun food. I don't think it was ill it was cracked up to be.

We got into the rodeo early and saw the most fun rodeo ever. We had great live stock, good riders and really nasty weather. It poured for a good half hour with competition suspended until it passed – many lightning strikes around and the rain just soaked the arena. Finally it came back on and event was highlighted with great rides in all the events. Got to the bull ride and a couple of good ones to start then while they're trying to collect a bull – huge lightning knocked out all the power. It just was black--- with a bull loose in the arena along with riders, clowns and judges. They got the bull in the chute and the only light was some trucks and the announcer's booth. They played some great tunes while the fans clapped and sang and just enjoyed the whole thing. Our friends from England were amazed starting with the opening ceremonies and continuing to the end. It took a good 30 minutes to get it going again and we watched these cowboys and especially the pick up men work the bulls and protect the riders – they were just plain awesome.

The grand finally was the wild horse ride and it was a zoo with multiple contestants being dragged in the mud for almost the whole arena trying to get a handle on the wild horse only to only have a slippery rope at the end. Wow!! What a night. It was spectacular. The Valentine Rodeo is 2nd to none. We headed home and got back to camp – only .25 of rain at camp but 1-2" everywhere else. After midnight and all were ready for bed.