Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Rodeo

When I went to write a post about our trip to the Florida beach I realized that I did not have any photos of our beach trip. The pictures some how did not make it onto my CD. I emailed my sister and she has sent them to me and now I just have to download them all. So, until I do that, I will play some catch up. Before we went on our trip we had a rodeo. We had a good time. I tried ground roping for the very first time. I have absolutely no roping skills what so ever. It is funny when Big Cowpoke tries to give me pointers. I just stand there holding the rope and looking blond. I do that part well. While I was getting ready to rope Big Cowpoke took some pictures.



Big Cowpoke took this! I was really nervous. Really I was! I hate standing in front of a bunch of people. Not that anybody was watching me rope, but I was still nervous. I do not know how to do anything with a rope. Well, not totally true. I can use a rope to make a halter and lunge rope. But to actually rope anything, I stink.



Here Mr. Cowboy is giving me some last minute instructions. I am scratching my head and I think I might be saying something like, "Are you sure I can do this?" When the boys practice at home on the dummy they will ask me to try roping it too just to get a good laugh.


Here I am, the roping cowgirl. Funny! See that girl in the orange shirt behind me? She fell off her crazy barrel horse twice that day. Well, I don't think her horse is crazy, but I do think the way she rides it is crazy. Then when she lost her balance around a turn and fell off, which was totally her fault, she grabbed her horse and started jerking on its mouth. I could just kick people who do that. They beat their horses because of something that was totally the rider's fault. It's sad what animals put up with from us humans. I will get off my soapbox and move on to some more mad roping skills.



Here Little Cowpoke joined in on my photo shoot. But you see that girl in the background? Her name is Leanne. She is a crazy roper. She can rope that dummy in 2.4 seconds. She beat Mr. Cowboy by .1 of a second.


This photo shows a lot. Leanne is taking her rope off of the dummy after her awesome rope. I aspire to rope like her. You see the flagger? He is super nice. He is riding his super nice horse that was given to him. That is a son of Petoboonsmal. That colt is three years old and so awesome. His name is Guapo. I rode him, and I love him, and I tried to buy him for 5 bucks, but for some reason his human would not take the deal. Then there is me. I am getting some last minute instructions on what to do. Just look at how natural I handle that rope! It's like a second nature!! Whuahahahaha!! Here I go......

I am defiantly awesome! I can't even get that rope over my head! Maybe I should practice more before I go out in public again. I lack in the form department. While I was roping this is what Little Cowpoke was doing.

Awe yes, life as a boy is just never quite complete without some dirt. Arena dirt is nice and clean right? Enough of roping and lets talk about Buttercup. She is our small pony mare that is crazy about barrel racing. We brought her along with us for me to ride on barrels and for Mr. Cowboy to ride on poles. But when we got there a little boy wanted to ride her. His name is D, well that is what I have been told to call him. He has a really long name that nobody pronounces right so we all call him D. D rode Buttercup in every event and did really well, despite his stirrups being too long. They even got a fourth place. Here they are doing the straight away barrel pattern.

She is a spunky pony. I have a hard time with her raising her head and then flipping her tongue over the bit. I need to have her teeth floated. But she did really well with D. I did hear that this past weekend at the rodeo D fell off of Buttercup when she turned too fast around a barrel. But he got back on and kept on riding. That Buttercup is a fireball. I think some work on balance and D will be back in business. Our next rodeo is in two weeks, so we will have some time to work on it.

Tomorrow I will try to have my beach pictures up. So, until next time, y'all come back now ya hear.

11 comments:

Beth from the Funny Farm said...

You are totally ADORABLE! I can only rope myself. And, I am so with you about people who ride badly and take it out on their horses. So. With. You.

My mouth has been known to act UP over stuff like this.

Karen said...

Looks like so much fun! We keep saying we should learn to rope so that when the ponies get out we can catch them a little easier. In theory.

You asked how far we are from Toledo - 5 hours. Still a drive.

Amanda said...

HEre you go. A comment. Are you happy? :)

Andrea said...

Amanda, golly gee, do you think you could leave any better of a comment, man oh man!! Sister, you gotta love them!! :)

Pony Girl said...

Andrea, I am impressed with your roping! Once you learn, can you teach me? lol!
Oh I dispise people who yank on their horses, too. It's so obvious they are just embarrassed and mad at their own mistake!
Can't wait to hear about the Florida trip. Your summer is off to a great start!

TjandMark/AKA PearlandHawkeye said...

Andrea, I can't rope either. I have tried, and I am terrible. Just terrible. My son ropes me as I walk away.. he ropes me as I come toward. I hate him. He can rope. On the ground anyway, he isn't so good on a horse. Ha, Ha. I take pleasure in that somehow. Hey, I had to keep up with you, so I got a goat too. You gotta love goats.

kdwhorses said...

Great pics from the rodeo!
Everyone has to start somewhere! I always tell people who are wanting to learn to rope everyday! Practice, practice, practice! I rope everything around here, not just the dummy. Trees, weeds, little cowgirls, big cowgirls, dog, etc.! Everything is a target! (not so sure hubby likes it, but I figure I owe him for all the years he roped me! LOL) When you get to a point of roping solid on the ground than move to the horse. So many people do it backwards and it is really frustrating! It is not something you just decided one day and go hope on your horse and start roping! LOL! I can tell you that for sure! Have many calluses to prove it! It is alot of work, but so worth it! One thing I noticed is your loop-it looked alittle small to me. MAybe just be the picture though! I had a great roper once tell me that you should be able to put your loop under your arm and it should almost be touching the ground! As you get better you can build while you are riding, so you can start with a smaller loop. I will say hubby has tried to teach me, but hubby's and wives do not mix! When I started I went to someone else! I still train with somebody else. Keeps the peace at home! Keep it up girl!

kdwhorses said...

Okay I meant to say big cowboys too!

Unknown said...

Looks like fun. My family is heading to a similar event this week-end. Hopefully we do as well as you. I'm not going to even attempt to rope anything. I would totally make a fool out of myself!!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Awww-I can't rope from the ground to save my life. I do just the opposite of what kdwhorses says to do-I rope from horseback-very little ground roping. I suck! I don't care! I love to rope! Of course my horses get a little tired of having their ears roped but hey...they learn to carry their heads lower-LOL.
First time I caught a tracking steer, I about lost my fingers because I was so surprised, I forgot to let go of the coils-oh, well-that is a mistake you only make once-hehehe.

The Wades said...

I thought your form looked impeccable! Keep on keepin' on!

:) Michelle