I haven't been blogging this past month because I really hurt my back again, so my time spent sitting at the computer has been severly limited. And I had so much to tell you before that happened! The previous weekend, the first weekend in October, I took Kitch to the Team Penning Finale in Leeds. We borrowed my parents camper and spent the weekend....
Kitch did really well. I planned on him being slow because he hadn't run all year - WRONG. He was sooooo overexcited to be there, it was all I could do to control him. But, therein lies the difference between he & Tillie, he wasn't fighting me or being scary, just FAST!! DAMN can that horse RUN!! I had forgotten and people were shocked. Some of them had never seen him before, so they were very surprised. We had FUN!!
Our very first run was in the Pro-Nov division, which combines the experienced riders with less experienced ones, like me. TOUGH, tough, tough competition. I only enter that class once in a while, but the Canadians needed another novice to make up a team - father, son, AWESOME penners, and me. I was scared to death! The son went into the herd and cut out his cow and started running it down to the pen, I actually saw the next one and Kitch went right in and we cut it out, with the father holding back the herd. By then, his son was back to do hold-back while he cut out our third cow and we penned them!!!! In like 45 seconds or something crazy like that. I was beyond psyched!!!!
Our 2nd run, in the callbacks, wasn't quite as quick, and this time Kitch and I only did hold-back because I wasn't in the position to get the cows, but we did spot and helped a lot to control the herd and stop the trash cows. So, it's not like we were just standing there goofing off. We penned 3 again, and I really wish that I could remember how fast it was, but I can't. Doesn't matter - it was fast enough for 5th place!!!! YEE HAA!!!!
(Here's a picture of me with that father/son team that I rode with.)
The thing was, I started to keep track and during our first 6 runs we penned 3 cows FAST. That is an amazing record for me!! We also did well in the Novice class later in the day on Saturday, but the competition was fierce and we came in 6th - just seconds from the money. People were amazed because they didn't know that I could ride that hard. I'm not afraid to push Kitch to the limit and he always comes through for me. He's BIG and FAST, which just blew them away. Of course, he looks really old - without muscle tone his sway-back is worse than last year, and he already has a pretty thick winter coat, so he was covered in sweat and grime all weekend. Doesn't matter though, he's a good boy.
'Course he was EXHAUSTED. Poor pony!! On Sunday we entered only 1 penning class - a buckle run. I figured there wasn't much chance of us winning it, but if we didn't enter, then there was NO chance. The bad part was that Kitch was just plain too tired. We went into the herd several times during the course of our 2 runs, and the cows just kept beating him. Granted, they were really tough and even the top penners were having a hard time Sunday morning, but I could just feel it in Kitch - he couldn't do it. He didn't have the energy that I felt on Saturday. And he was just as frustrated as I was that the cows kept scooting around him and heading right back into the herd. Oh well. At least we tried.
Sunday afternoon we rode in the Novice 2-Man Ranch Sorting. Much less running and Kitch did very well at this event last year, so I was optimistic. Until our first run, which lasted all of 20 seconds when he locked up and wouldn't stop the cow that was running right at us as we blocked the gate. Now granted, it wasn't entirely our fault, my teammate was pushing that cow at us and she shouldn't have, but I was very certain we could stop it and Kitch failed me. Not only did he lock his feet when I asked him to leap forward at that cow, he threw his head up, which he usually only does when I pull on the reins. If he had even kept his head down and eyeballed that cow it might have stopped him. It was very weird and I was bummed.
And then we did 2 clean sweeps in a row!!!!!! All 10 cows out of the pen in less than 90 seconds!!!!!!!!!!! I was beyond thrilled - I've NEVER done that before, and to do it twice in a row was amazing. During that first run we got the last cow out of the pen in 75.81 seconds, which put us in the lead going into the callbacks. I was really, really nervous sitting there waiting for our turn. (The callbacks go in reverse order.) I wasn't sure we could do it again because we blew it on our 4th and final run in the first go-round. In the end, we got 7 cows out in less than 90 seconds, but by going slowly and being careful, we didn't get all 10 cows and we didn't stay in the lead. 4th place wasn't bad though and I was very, very happy!!!! Plus, we won even more money for that class than we had won the previous day, so when it came to checking out at the end of the weekend, I was well under budget, even though we rode more than I had planned on. Pretty cool!!
Here is a video of a successful run in the Novice 2-Man Ranch Sorting....
That next weekend was when I hurt my back so badly that I couldn't even get out of bed. The spasms were unbelievable. During the week I had spent way too much time sitting in front of the computer uploading & editing all the photos from the penning. Then, on Friday, I rode Kitch to Norway for my hair appt. It was a really, really great adventure!! Riding through downtown South Paris was wicked fun - we totally freaked people out!! On Saturday we did some landscaping, although not too much 'cause my back was sore. But, the straw that broke my back was riding in the car to Auburn that evening for dinner. My Ion is horrible for my back and I really need a different vehicle.
I adore my chiropractor, she actually came out to the house to adjust my back on that Sunday! She's just amazing - she popped me back into alignment and I could move again. Although, I had to keep moving, because as soon as I would stop, my hips would seize up again. Very frightening. I ended up only taking short naps for the next 2 days and getting up to walk for a half hour every hour or so - it was exhausting. Fortunately, I only experienced one more really, really bad spasm after she adjusted me. And, now I'm on the road to recovery. It's just such a slow process and since this is the second time this year that this has happened, I'm being really careful. Sitting is what always causes this, so I'm not spending much time on the computer....
