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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
   
Location: Kansas | Saturday afternoon, a friend of mine put on a barrel race with a sidepot for every rider who wore a helmet, and the three horses I ran all worked pretty well, plus they all won a little money. It was a much-needed confidence boost after I'd had a pretty rough couple of weekends.
The jackpot was structured so that everyone who entered got two runs. You could exhibition once & run once, run twice, or run once & scratch your other run. She didn't offer exhibitions, but you signed up for a 30 minute session with 9 other people, and those 10 got 5 minutes of open arena time with barrels set up, then they drug the pen & ran 1-5 in the draw, drug and ran 6-10, then another drag followed by 5-1, drag & finish the session with riders 10-6.
Since it was half second splits all the way I didn't really plan on running Streak when I entered, but I ended up having to give Clifford a weekend off so I went ahead and ran Streak. He's been running 2 to 2.5 seconds off the top horses in our area so I figured we would basically be added money. He was the third horse out, and ran a 16.093. I really didn't even hear past "16" because I was trying to get him stopped! Midway through the race, a 15.1 was winning it, and I started to realize that he'd actually have a shot at money. http://youtu.be/kgLN14bvF0Q was our first run, and since he worked so nicely, I just loped through easy the second time. He did wind up getting second in the 3D of the helmet sidepot but was 6th in the 3D overall and missed money by five thousandths of a second.
A couple sessions later, I got my opportunity to run Matt's mare Honey. I've been wanting to try her for a while and since he had wrist surgery a couple weeks ago, he agreed to let me run her a few times. He figured he'd be pushing it to run any of his horses and she's the most free running so probably the toughest to ride with a slight handicap. I honestly had never loped her through the pattern until the very end of our open arena time, and most of our warmup was spent fighting. I finally gave up on the gag bit he uses and put a hackamore on her in hopes that we could start getting along! It ended up being all right. She cruised a 16.8, then ran a 16.001. Cruising: http://youtu.be/CBvGe07gZQ8 Running: http://youtu.be/DGU_wRBcF1o We got third in the open 3D (27th out of 64 total) and won the 3D in the helmet sidepot.
Chance and I only ran once, but we made it count with the third fastest run of the day. We also won the helmet sidepot. I wasn't thrilled with our run since I overshot the first & third barrels, but he ran hard. He hadn't run since Jan. 15th (I'm trying to give him some time off this winter) so I was happy to take him for a spin. http://youtu.be/JSUaGEtofoY |
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| Streak looks like he's coming along nicely... and Chance is looking like he is feeling good. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Chance was firing, great job on all your horses. |
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Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | Thanks! I am beyond thrilled with Streak. We have struggled mightily with the first barrel but he finally turned it pretty decently. Hopefully that continues because he's so sweet that I want to haul him everywhere and he needs to be competitive for me to take him to big shows.
Chance does seem to be feeling great. I'm hoping that a light schedule this winter will keep him fresh for the late spring jackpots and summer rodeos. He seems to do really well when I leave him home at least one weekend a month and haul my others. |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | Nice runs on all horses, but I love the way that mare turns 3rd!  |
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Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | mtcanchazer - 2015-02-02 3:30 PM Nice runs on all horses, but I love the way that mare turns 3rd!
Thank you. :) She is really neat and I felt like I might fly off when she dropped to turn the third. LOL. |
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  Whack and Roll
Posts: 6342
Location: NE Texas | Ya for the Streak-meister! Good run on all of them but he's my fav.  |
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Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | rodeowithjoker - 2015-02-02 2:34 PM mtcanchazer - 2015-02-02 3:30 PM Nice runs on all horses, but I love the way that mare turns 3rd!
Can I just say I know the feeling...I've had the same feeling when my mare turns third...especially if the ground is a little hard (she loves hard ground and turns even harder!). Still nice, love those tight turns! |
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Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | Herbie - 2015-02-02 4:14 PM Ya for the Streak-meister! Good run on all of them but he's my fav.
I am so proud of him because that first barrel has been a major struggle for us and I was actually wondering if he was ever going to figure it out. It has been very tough to keep being patient and try to help him learn, so I'm thrilled with that performance. Hopefully this was our turning point. He is a really sweet, fun horse and any barrel racing success we have is icing on the cake. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
Location: White Mountains of AZ | Cuz my computer is a loser, can you tell me what the title on one of the videos would be? |
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Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | They are titled Streak at Topeka, Jan. 31, 2015, Chance at Topeka, Jan. 31, 2015, Honey cruising at Topeka, Jan. 31, 2015 and Honey at Topeka, Jan. 31, 2015. |
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1392
Location: Central Texas | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1028
| Streaker man is looking good!! Chance looked like he was really gettin it! |
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Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | bowersk - 2015-02-03 10:12 AM Streaker man is looking good!! Chance looked like he was really gettin it!
Thank you! I'm very lucky to have both of them in my life. |
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Great day at the barrel race - w/videos!