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I now have another hero. I don’t know who all of the well-known trainers are yet since I’m new to all of this. But at the futurity, I was able to learn and see them all together, under one roof, riding their hearts out. One man, stood out for me, over all the others, Ken Wold. That guy can ride! He was spectacular to watch. I don’t know what it is that makes one rider stand out from all of the other incredible riders, but Mr. Wold has whatever that is. He was magic.

This is one of his rides during the futurity with Playgirls Miss Grace. You can tell by the crowd that I wasn’t the only one who was thrilled to watch him. I heard that he was inducted into the NRCHA hall of fame this year. Congratulations to Ken and thanks for the show! WOW!

Ken Wold’s web site is: http://www.kenwoldtrainingstables.com/

I’m home! I’m too sleepy to make the movies tonight, but wanted to post this photo because I was thinking about the fashion I saw. Ok, ok, I’m fairly certain that cowboys don’t EVER use the word fashion, but, well, what else should I call it? Maybe “cowboy style” or “cowboy gear?” Anyway, I’m not sure who he is, but does this guy have some style or what? One of the things about the futurity is you see a huge variety of cowboy fashion/gear. This guy, with matching blue horse, was the winner of fashion week in my mind.

I saw a lot of square-toed boots still, but also a lot of those tall buckaroo cowboy boots. There were a lot of men and women wearing the buckaroo boots with their pants tucked in. There were also a lot of elephant and hippo hide boots for sale, if you can believe it. They said the elephants all died of natural causes. I walked away grumbling.

I like the more unusual hats, like the traditional cowboy hats that have some crazy shape to them. I love the one this guy is wearing, but I saw this other guy wearing a palm hat that had THE COOLEST shape. I think I captured him of video. I’ll try to find it. I don’t even have a hat, but if I could find just the right one…

Al, I bought another pair of boots, and I’m actually going to wear them and retire my English ones. They’re soooo comfy. First thing I did was get some of that futurity arena dirt on them for luck. I also got a pair of Ricotti spur straps. Then I lost my mind buying NRCHA shirts. Amanda, I got the cutest hoodie and jacket with the NRCHA patch on it. Ya! I was THE BIGGEST tourist. I don’t care if I’m a big goofball. I was to excited about everything to care.

And can I say, no matter what they were wearing, rich or poor, famous or unknown, everyone was so nice. What a great group of people. I didn’t meet anyone that had a nasty attitude and best of all, I didn’t meet anyone that didn’t want to talk about horses.

A horse called Black Pearl won the Futurity! The rider, John Ward, took home the prize. What was that prize again…ooooh..mmmm….something like $100,000. It was amazing to watch the two of them. What a horse!

I have lots to say, but it’s midnight and I have to catch a way-too-early flight back to Seattle. Al and Amanda, you guys HAVE to be there next year. I mean it! It was so exciting. You can’t help but fall in love with at least a few of the horses. My absolute favorite was a horse called Mr. Playinstylish out of Playin Stylish and Tari Chick Gay. He was so cool during the herd work.

I think, of all the riders, I enjoyed watching Ken Wold the most. That guy can ride. I mean, they were all amazing to watch, but Ken was just out there riding the hell out of his horse. He’s on my list of heroes now for sure.

Since we were recently talking about stopping, I kinda had that on the brain going it, so I recorded 20 slides–one of each of the futurity finalists. I’ll make a short movie and post it asap.

Also, coolest the EVER, for some of the show, Les was in the row of seats above me so I got to hear his commentary. I learned so much this weekend. Know what else? I’m pretty sure I’m completely lost to this sport now. Is there anything more glorious than a cow horse?

Stand by for pictures and videos! I’ll have them coming your way soon!

Oh! Oh! Oh! And I got to meet Lyle Lovett! I almost fainted but held it together long enough to shake his hand.

I finally picked up some skid boots for my little stopper. Heres how much he likes it. He may act like this is the first time he’s ever worn them, but this was taken after he’s worn them about ooooooh…eight times. He does this every single day!

If this plays really slow, try following this link to YouTube. It might work better and you can see it in high quality. If this works, I’ll be able to post some videos from Reno this weekend!

I’ve be working really hard on the stops. Leo is just a superstar stopper from a trot now. I’m talkin’, I sit down and barely lift the reins and he tucks butt to nose. HOWEVER, at a canter…forget it! It’s like all that softness in the mouth just disappears.

So a few weeks ago, I decide to just do rundowns over and over until he decided to stop. We got through maybe four of those, when on the last one he just slammed down on all fours, mainly the front. I was sitting slightly twisted I think and MAN! It just destroyed my back. I was a hurtin’ unit for about four days. Ugh! Lesson learned.

Since that approach didn’t work, today I worked on just letting him canter for a while, but I kept him very very collected. This is one of those approachez I learned at a Vogt clinic. I attempted to stop maybe four times from a canter before I really asked for extreme collection, and all four stops were bad. He just trotted down and pulled against the bit. The last time, I had him canter the length of the arena three times and had him very collected. Then I turned him down the middle of the arena and sped up a little then sat back and said “whoa.” WOW!!!! It toooootally worked! He stooooooooooooooped! Woooohooooooo!
I had to hop off and let him be done for the day. It was so cool!

I’m a little bummed that winter is coming because I won’t have a place to really work on cantering and more speedy things. I hate that. I wish I had a big huge covered arena with the perfect dirt. Ooooh well. At least I have a great horse to ride, huh!!!