I have two Quarter Horses. My old gelding, Boomerang, is 24 years old this year. I've had him since I was 12. He is the kind of horse that everyone should be lucky enough to grow up on...makes you feel like you can do anything! I grew up roping with my Dad, and Boomerang was my solid head horse-he knew his job and I just had to concentrate on the steer. He's retired now, due to unsoundness. The drawback of having a great once in a lifetime horse-they only come along once in a lifetime AND you tend to compare every other horse against them. Which brings us to horse #2, Fancy. My uncle bought her and later gave her to me. So I've had her for 4 years, but between two pregnancies she hasn't been ridden consistently. For a while, I was disappointed in our relationship-we just weren't "clicking". I even started looking for a different horse. But as soon as I stopped telling myself "she's no Boomerang", our relationship blossomed! Lesson learned: If I want another great horse, I've got to accept Fancy as the individual she is, and put in the time to build our trust in each other.
My friend Dawn is trying to turn us into barrel racers! I have barrel raced ONE TIME (I ran Dawn's horse when she was pregnant and couldn't compete), and Fancy is new to barrel racing too, so we're learning together. So far we've just done slow pattern work. It's fun! Working at Circle Y, I test ride a lot of different saddles-for research and development, to investigate a problem on a repair saddle, etc. Since I've never barrel raced before, I needed a barrel saddle. Right now I'm riding the Xtreme PerformanceTM Studded Croc Barrel-http://www.circley.com/catalog10.shtml. It's the saddle Kelly Kaminski is riding, too (she's on our Team of Champions). The Xtreme PerformanceTM series have some very unique features. So it's fun when I'm riding and people ask about the saddle and I can let them take it for a test ride. So far everyone thinks it's really comfortable. After a ride last week, I noticed the stirrup leather positioner was broken (its a new feature that lets you adjust how far back your fenders can swing-barrel racers don't want their legs to get too far behind them and throw them off balance, so the positioner is an adjustable strap that holds your fenders right where you want them). Mike, our design engineer, fixed it and we are making a design change to use biothane (a super strong synthetic) instead of leather. That's how product improvements are made!
Dawn and I are riding tonight so she can tune up for a barrel race on Sunday. Fancy and I might haul with her, just to ride around and get used to the competition atmosphere. If I get brave, I may do an exhibition run. I'll let you know how that goes next time...
