NCHA

Wow, Just Wow!

This was quite the weekend, that’s no lie! I’m not real sure I did a whole lot but so much was done at the same time… Let me explain!

Friday night we picked Tbug up from her mom and then went to dinner. From there we went home real quick to grab my camera (which I should have taken with me) and grab Hank and we headed to the ball fields. Earl asked if I could take some pictures of TB for her since they missed picture days. I said no problemo! So went to the ball fields and watched his game and then I took pics of TB.
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Hank being the ham that he is didn’t know what to do about that leash. It was his first time being on a leash in fact. Hubby and Tbug said that while walking him through the parking lot he would plant his feet and then jump straight up almost like a rabbit. He was funny! By the end of the night he started to get the hang of it.

We finally got home and to bed around 11. Why so late? don’t ask me because I can’t explain really.

Then Saturday we got up and headed over to the arena close to our house because NCHA day was going on. It’s kind of a big deal :). My dad was planning on showing so we wanted to go over and at least watch him since I still can’t show or really even ride a horse right now. bummer!

When we got there dad said that if Tbug wanted to show, get her signed up. We asked her if she’d like to take a chance at winning a belt buckle and she jumped at the chance so we signed her up and then hubby and I ran home to get her hat, spurs (although I didn’t put them on her) and a long sleeved shirt. Dad showed and did really well but I would have sworn a cow kicked poor KG. Dad said it didn’t though.

But Tbug, for her first show did AWESOME! She had a bit of a rough go and I should have put her spurs on her because KG can be cantankerous sometimes but really, once they got the pre-jitters out of the way everything went great! Now Tbug is ready to show again. I think we created a monster.

Boy was Saturday hot. I think being pregnant didn’t help that feeling on my part though. :). After the show we took KG home and picked my mom up and all went out to dinner. Boy was food good by that point!

We went home and crashed. Well I did anyway… lol. Tbug and hubby packed up dive equipment and loaded it into the truck because……

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to head to church. Dive gear needed for church? Nope. Last weekend Tbug had some hiccups in getting scuba certified so Diver Dan took her down Sunday after church (yesterday) and finished up her Scuba Certification. So now Miss Tbug is Scuba Certified as well.

What did I do? I stood in the lake water and kept getting bit by fish :).

I told you, a lot was done but I’m not real sure I did much of anything except sweat my butt off :). Now here we are Monday morning and summer school starts. Wish me luck! I’m going to need it. Especially since my due date is during finals week…

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Ft. Worth Trip in a Nutshell

Oh Ft. Worth how I miss thee!  So Wednesday December 11th, my family loaded up and headed to Ft. Worth.  I think that Bella knew that something was up because all morning long she kept staring at me and giving me the evil eye.  She stayed home while we were gone and my Mother in law came over to check up on her.

There was snow on the ground and hubby had been outside.  When he came in he didn’t want to walk on the heels of his jeans and get his socks wet so I walked in and saw this.  Cracked me up.

When we were getting ready to leave I asked him if he had drawn the curtains.  Now we were waiting on the UPS man to show up so when he asked for a piece of paper and pen, I thought he was going to write the UPS man a note and instead, he “drew the curtains”…. yuck yuck yuck.

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NCHA Futurity – Will Rogers – Ft. Worth

Friday brought a start to our day bright and early.  The Open Semi Finals started at 8am.  Now truthfully that means they bring the cattle in at 8am to be settled, and the actual show starts about 45 minutes later give or take.  We missed the first horse.  Not bad, right?

During intermissions they have a huge trade show set up with Cowboy Tack, Gifts galore, trailers, trucks, anything you could think of pretty much.  We actually walked through the Horse Bus.  I meant to get a photo of the horse stall portion, however I forgot :(.  It was a pretty steep incline to take your horses up though!  But you have your horses and living quarters all in one.  Now you’ll just have to tow a car behind you so you can get around in the city :).

It even had a nice flat screen tv where you could sit outside, enjoy the night air and watch tele.

Inside the trade show they have the automatic horse/cow simulation.  You climb up on the horse and you get the general feel of what it is like to show a cutting horse.  I’ve heard from a lot of people it’s a really cool experience, even if you’ve grown up showing cutting horses.

Well hello there 🙂

This was a quilt they had set up.  So awesome, I want one!!

I thought with that saddle pad flipped upside down on that saddle it looked like an English Saddle.

The Open semi’s were awesome.  Sadly a bunch of good horses just weren’t having the luck on their side and didn’t make it back to the finals on Saturday evening, but a lot of good horses did.  It took a 215 to make it back to the Finals and they took the top 25+ ties which wound us up with 30 horses in the Open finals.

Bamacat ridden by Austin Shepard set the bar high with a Semi Finals score of 224
followed closely by
High Brow Jackson ridden by Monte Buntin who scored a 221.5.  The speculation was High Brow Jackson was the horse to watch and not only did High Brow Jackson have a story to be told, so did Monte.
Hi Ho Nabisco ridden by Grant Setnicka came in 3rd place going into the finals with a score of 220.

2012 NCHA finalists:

SF Score Horse
224.0 Bamacat
221.5 High Brow Jackson
220.0 Hi Ho Nabisco
218.0 Highrey Cat
217.5 Looks Halreycious
217.0 Autumn Boonsmal
217.0 Botero
217.0 CR Tuff Hearted Cat
217.0 Lil Catbaloo
217.0 One Gone Cat
217.0 Primary Cat
216.5 Hal Ofa Secret
216.5 Jett Setter
216.5 Kittyswood
216.5 Mo Faye Rey
216.5 Reverendquintanspoon
216.5 Travelin Smooth
216.0 Jack Boon Cat
216.0 Meradas Sly Cat
216.0 Summer Stays Here
215.5 Desire A Lil Pepto
215.5 He Bea Cat
215.5 Peptostruck
215.5 SFR Magic Doll
215.0 Compact Style
215.0 Donas Suen Boon
215.0 Ima Studio Cat
215.0 No Way In Hal
215.0 Reys Lucky Gal
215.0 Spoonful At Noon

After the Semi-finals were over, it was time to go find some grub so we headed to Joe T. Garcias down by the Stockyards.

Here’s a fuzzy view of the skyline of Ft. Worth.  Best I could do with my iPhone running down the road and by running I of course mean driving :).

After dinner we headed to Central Market where I found these cute gifts.  A Milk Chocolate Cowboy Santa, a Milk Chocolate regular Santa & Chocolate covered apples.  Holy Cow!

As we were leaving Central Market I saw this cute sign.  I so need this sign at my house!

And that boys and girls was my Friday (last week of course)

Don’t forget that tomorrow is the July-September Review Link up &&&&& I’m involved in a giveaway over on Megan’s blog!  Check it out!

Ft. Worth Bound – Part I + a Giveaway

So last Wednesday night, I may or may not have posted this photo on Instagram.  And EmmyMom may or may not have said I looked like I was up to something…  My reply – a couple days vacation!!!  It was 5pm and I was headed to my parents house so we could move out!

Part of the goal was to make it to Pryor to JL’s (shhhh don’t tell Tbug!!) for dinner.  Hello Yummy!

Then we were back on the road headed to Ft. Worth!  We made it as far as Durant and everyone was tired and sick of being in the car so we stopped in at a hotel for the evening.  Btw, it was warmer at home than it was in Durant that night!


Next morning we were up and at em headed to Pilot Point, TX, for a stop at Paul Taylor’s tack store before heading on to Ft. Worth.

Hello Red River & the Texas State Line!  You know, we’ve seen a bunch of the Texas state line this year, but not as much as I did when I was a little kid!  I was the master traveler as a kid because we used to show horses all over Oklahoma and Texas.

When we got to Paul Taylor’s this lovely kitty followed me all around the store.  I think she/he really wanted this saddle, but it really wasn’t my cup of tea! 🙂

I did manage to sweet talk my daddy into stopping at Starbucks for a sweet Holiday Treat after we left Paul Taylor’s!  This was a Peppermint Mocha Frappe!  mmmmm!

So we didn’t really need to be to the Will Roger’s Coliseum until 4pm on Thursday afternoon so we decided to go kill a few hours down at the Stockyards.

I so should have bought this just because it was cute!  I didn’t though… I resisted the urge!

The Stockyards used to be where they shipped cattle in and out of Ft. Worth.  All the stores are in old stores &/or cattle holding grounds.  Now the Coliseum there at the Stockyards they still hold rodeo’s in, however they no longer use this as shipping grounds for cattle.  It’s just a main attraction.  The train though still runs on these tracks but for pleasure only.  Someday I’ll have to ride the train just to say I’ve done it!

I think I need the red lipstick to pull this look off, what do you think?

Just a different shot of a portion of the stockyards.  By this point we were walking up toward Riscky’s Steakhouse to grab a bite to eat before heading to our hotel to check in.

 

 

After we were done with lunch we headed to the hotel to check in and drop off our luggage and then headed to Will Rogers to watch the NCHA Amateur & Non Pro Finals of the 2012 NCHA Futurity.

Cutting horses are a blast if I do say so myself!

 

Amateur Winner – Destini Benson, on Jimmy Cracked Corn, by Widows Freckles
Amateur Reserve – Luke Barnhart, on Hal Of A Mate

Non Pro Winner – Paula Wood, on Donas Suen Boon with a 220
Non Pro Reserve – Greg Coalson,  aboard Mia Browbeater, with a 219

We got back to the hotel around Midnight, ate at Jack in the Box because they have a 24 hr drive through and we all crashed for the evening.

p.s. There’s still time to sign up for the April-June Review Extravaganza!!!

p.p.s. Check out this blog give-a-way… I may or may not have sponsored something there that I may or may not have bought in Ft. Worth!!  Check it out!

p.p.s. linked up with Sincerely, Paula’s Wordless Wednesday (or not wordless!)

The Tale of the Buckle

Do you see this lovely hunk of metal?  This was up for grabs to the lucky winner of the 500 Limited Rider Class (persons who haven’t won over $500)

And do you see this lovely guy I’m with?  The handsome one I might add!

Well this weekend was NCHA Day… er…. weekend.  I’ve always known it as “day” but I guess over the years it has turned into weekend.  Anyway… Here’s the list of classes for the weekend.

Now when I started dating my husband back in 2009 he said his brother in law was going to teach him how to be a team roper.  Now… team ropers have never been nice to me, I guess b/c I show cutting horses, I dunno.  Maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Anyway My mom issued a challenge to my husband to learn how to show Cutting Horses.  And he has been working on it ever since!

Well on NCHA Day especially he wanted to win a buckle.  So we loaded up the gang and headed to the show.

Hurry up to wait mom… thanks… I could be snacking on grass most of the day… LOL 🙂

Don’t worry, I had to wait too!

Robert came out to hang out for a few so hubby was telling him what was going on.

Finally at about 6pm it was time for hubby to get ready.

Dad giving a few last minute pointers to hubby.  This is only the second time showing KG.

Three loves in my life: hubby, dad & horse!

By this point I was sitting up on the announcer’s stand, probably annoying them because I was getting nervous.  By the time he was showing I was telling him, “Sit,” “Put your hand down,” “Step up,” “Hold him up,” etc.  Don’t worry, I was going through the moves with him even.  Every time I’d say sit, I’d sit deeper in my chair.  Finally Kurt (the announcer) looked at me and said, “How’s he doin Nicole?”… LOL.  Boy that was a long 2 1/2 minutes.

They had a professional photographer there being NCHA weekend.  I bought him a photo of his ride to hang in our house.  He marked a 71.

And I’m so proud to say, as those of you on instagram & facebook saw, He won!  He’s the proud new winner of the belt buckle!

Congrats Hunny!  Now you get to show against the big boys… haha 🙂

Key Points I've Learnd from Showing/Riding Horses

My parents started showing cutting horses when I was 5 years old.  Sure they had both grown up around horses, mom showed Arabians in pleasure shows and dad had farm horses and competed in play days, but the cutting Arena was new to all of us.  The day my mom came home and told my dad her Arabian was for sale was the day we became “Cutters.”
I spent many hours sitting on a fence listening to the horse trainer talking to, yelling at and explaining what to do and what not to do; stop, pull back, why did you do that, don’t lean, tag off now, and the list goes on.  Have you ever heard the old phrase, “God gave you two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you speak.”  If you are talking you won’t hear nearly everything someone is trying to teach you.
The first time I went to show a cutting horse was in McKinney, Texas.  I had never shown before but the opportunity presented itself to me and my parents allowed me to show my mom’s horse.  Riding into the herd I asked the herd holder if I could just go home now.  I did everything in the rule book you aren’t supposed to do from a hot quit to turning tail to the cow to reining points.  I walked out of that arena and my parents just looked at me.
I hadn’t ever been in a show situation before though, I knew what to do and what not to do, but I was nervous.  Nerves sometimes play a big deal in how you react to things.  The next time I went to show, I did everything right.  My dad talked me through things, he showed me some key points and they worked with me.  How many times have you attempted something on the first go and succeeded?  Now how much better have you done after practice?  So the age old adage “Practice makes perfect” comes to win.
Practice isn’t easy and sometimes it is hard work even, but if you are truly dedicated to learning more and succeeding whether it is in the show ring or in life, you will go far.   You’ll never truly succeed at something you aren’t even remotely dedicated.  When it’s 100 degrees outside and you are hot and tired, it’s extremely easy to just give up, walk inside, pour yourself an ice cold drink and kick your feet up.  While you are doing that though, there is someone out there who is outside, shedding blood, sweat and tears to be better.  At the end of the day, who do you think will come out on top?
Something my father used to always and really still does say to me is “Can’t died in the corn patch.”  As a little kid, I’m not sure I totally understood that phrase.  As I got older though, that phrase started making more sense; the only person stopping you or standing in your way of truly succeeding is yourself.  If people always said I can’t to everything ever presented to them you couldn’t read this because we’d all be uneducated and living in the dark.  So on those hot days or cold nights, if it was time to go practice, I’d get my boots on and head out to the barn.  I wasn’t about to stand in my own way.
Patience is a key factor.  You aren’t always going to get everything the first time.  Sometimes you have to be patient and persistent.  There are times when everything that can go wrong will.  You will get fed up; your horse will get fed up.  Sometimes it is ok to call it a day on that note.  Make sure you quit with one good thing and call it a day.  You definitely don’t want to undo something that took you days, weeks and even month’s to accomplish.  Knowing when to stop, knowing when to keep going, using your best judgment is key to success.

Weekend via Instagram & Camera+

Sometimes I love Love LOVE my iPhone.  I get some easy shots that I might not have gotten otherwise, for whatever reason.

Ok so the quality might not be even as good as some point and shoots, but heck, I still like it!

So today’s post is brought to you by my new favorite app Camera+ and by my old love Instagram.

A relaxing Friday night once we finally made it home.  We were watching Sweet Home Alabama on CMT (the Reality show)

Helping Tbug and myself not get pinched on Saturday, you know St. Patty’s Day

Saturday we headed to the yearly buffalo sale. (2010, 2011)

Uh oh… I’ve created a monster! haha

Our Yearly Buffalo Sale photo 🙂

Driving home after we left the sale, we stopped in Nevada and ate lunch at Iguana Azul.  OMG it was good Mexican food!  My great grandfather used to have a hardware store up on the square also, just a random side note.

I’m starting to learn to live with the fact, windows down & my hair just don’t play nice.

Later in the afternoon we headed over to Lucky J to watch the cutting going on.

She looks happy eh?

Later my mother in law called us and said she’d like to take us to dinner.  She chose Habatchi.

Then we went with her to Atwoods and helped her load up something she was buying… and I fell in love with these boots.  They are so out of the norm for me and my taste but aren’t they sexy?!?!  Ok so I’m a shoe person but I absolutely LOVE boots!  Just saying!


Million Dollar Alley

So every year when we head to Ft. Worth, it is for a reason.  That reason is the NCHA Futurity.  So in a nutshell, it is babies (horses) that are 3 years old and never been shown in front of a judge.  The show starts right around Thanksgiving and runs until usually right around this last weekend.  There are only 3 divisions, Amateur (Never won $50,000), Non-Pro (Basically you can be a professional rider but you don’t train other people’s horses, just your own), & Open (The trainers).

This big show is held at the Will Roger’s Equestrian Center there in Ft. Worth.

On Saturday’s there is this thing called Super Stallion Avenue or also known as Million Dollar Alley.  Basically it is a way to promote your Stallion (the male horse to use to breed the mares) but the catch is, the stallion has to have Lifetime Earnings (LTE) of 1 Million Dollars.  The way LTE is figured is not only the stallions winnings from showing, but his off-springs earnings are figured in there as well.

Sorry about the blurry picture, but some promoters go all out.  They have these big booths set up, they give away free things, they cater, One year one did free drinks (alcoholic or virgin), they bring the stallions in so you can see them (and boy do they sparkle and shine), They give you cards that show the write up about that particular horse, etc.  They go all out basically!

Unfortunately I can’t remember which stud this was, but they made his own pillow for his booth.  I got silly glare.

One of the things a few of the stallion breeding stations did was offer free breedings to a particular stud.  Heck hubs and I both signed up, plus signed up dad (b/c he wouldn’t), mom (she wasn’t with us, she went shopping), my mother in law (she doesn’t own a horse, but she’d give it to her loving kids). 🙂  Then once we’d made our way through, we headed off to pick up my mom and head to the Old Stockyards.

Hubs had never been on the Will Rogers show floor, so since the show wasn’t going on, we were able to run in and see the arena from the floor.

You have no idea how exciting it was to be down there.  I’ve never gotten to show here, but I have ridden around in this arena.  My goal is to show here someday!

Isn’t he cute?

Yup I was there too 🙂  Nope, not my hat.  It’s dad’s hat.  You have to wear a hat to be on the floor, so dad gave me his hat for a few :).  I left mine at home (I get bad hat hair!!)

So now that were back in Missouri it’s time to start studying for finals. I’m not going to lie I am sick of bones. So last night I was looking for every excuse not to study. When I heard a new e-mail tone from my phone. Of course I just HAD to stop studying and check it! I read the e-mail and it caught my attention so I walked in to the kitchen and asked Husband which mare we are going to have bred?  He looked at me funny and said what the heck are you talking about? Me: I just won a free breeding to smoother than a cat. Hubs: How do you know that? Me: I just got an e-mail!! Hubs looked at the e-mail and I swear you would think we had just won a Million Dollars!!! So we grabbed the phone and called my dad and went through the same thing with him! However I don’t really think it totally sunk in because about 10 minutes later we got a call from him saying… “I was just thinking about that  phone call and that’s GREAT!!!” You can use ANY Mare on my place… that’s GREAT!! We were all floating on cloud 9!! And I had to go back to studying the bones… but who can study after news like that!!!!!

Isn’t He Gorgeous?

Picture courtesy of http://www.smootherthanacat.com/site.htm

Soooo Not a Morning Person!

So Friday morning hubs and I had to be up bright and early to hop on a plane to head to Ft. Worth.  Hey we got 2 tickets for $5 (taxes)… um… I can’t drive there for that!  And my parents ROCK!  Dad flies a lot and has frequent flyer miles so it works!

So this is how our Friday morning went at my house….
4:45am the alarm goes off

Hubs: Honey, you need to wake up
Hubs:{about a min later} Honey, you need to wake up
Hubs: {about a min later} Honey, you need to wake up
Me: Don’t say that again!
Hubs gets up and leaves the room
I roll over, Grab my phone, look at the time, ah 5 mins and I roll back over and close my eyes.  A few minutes later Hubs walks back in the room, Honey you need to get up.
Me: I have 4 minutes.
Hubs: 4 minutes until what?
Me: 5
Hubs: No, you have a minute.
I roll over, check my phone, I have 2 minutes and I roll back over and close my eyes.

I’ll have you know, I got up at 5 🙂 and I was ready to go when he wanted to leave at 5:30 🙂
Now I’ll bet I was a cute sight walking through airport security.  I usually forget to take my belt buckle off at security and set off the alarms so I packed it up and sent it with my parents in our luggage.  I decided to wear my jeans I can’t wear a belt with because of all the pretty doo-dads they have on the waist line… then I realized the silver brads would set off the security alarms so I went through in my shirt (black and really cute), my brown sleep shorts, my tall boot cut socks and my cowboy boots plus my big furry coat.  Yes I was quite the sight!  no sorry no pictures were taken….
And don’t worry, I sent my jeans through on the conveyor belt with my boots and then changed in the bathroom once I got past the metal detector!