I went on my first trail ride today... with the horse of course ;)

[smurfalicious]

smurf!!, that is an awesome picture!!! thank you for posting that!!!

I'm going to watch the youtubes now... thank you so much... you rock!

So here is the funny thing about that picture. The barrel race was a double header and it was also the first time my mom ever showed, in my life, for a horse show/barrel race/whatever. There was a buckle on the line for just winning the average in two gos.

Naturally I freaked out over my mom being there and managed to knock down two barrels on our first run. By the second run my ex had gone to get me food and what he rightly believed to be liquid courage. After a couple beers I was laughing instead of being upset and my attitude was "Fuggit, I'm gonna go balls to the walls and see what happens!" Sure enough we set our personal best on that run!

I HIGHLY recommend reading Sally Swift's "Centered Riding." It is an amazing book!!! For those of us who are visual she is a godsend. If you do anything try and develop good hands. I've gotten a little sloppy after years of riding basically backwards at the guest ranch, but the one thing I still have really going for me is my hands. For some reason, even if I'm almost falling off, my hands will still be soft.

Love and cookies!
-HillBill