Proud

I was so proud of my pony Romeo this weekend.

I've had this guy for 6 years, and he has not gotten the opportunity to showcase his barrel racing talents as much as I'd like.

I ran out of money doing college rodeo on him, so I had to quit my Junior Year.

Romeo had only competed once in barrel racing when I bought him at the age of 7.

I thought, What the heck, it'll take no time at all to get him competing at the rodeos.

Ha!

For anyone who's had to spend time taking a novice barrel horse to rodeos knows that it's just not that easy.

Long story short, I didn't spend the right amount of time with him getting him used to the rodeo atmosphere. Instead, I just kinda threw him into the game and wondered why he wasn't winning rodeos after only competing a handful of times.

Over the course of 6 years, I have given up on Romeo countless times, and then put my faith back in him. He can be a handful at times, he's just got a lot of GO! Unfortunately, I spent the majority of the last 6 years trying to teach him how to WHOA at the barrels. It wasn't until the last year or so that I found a bit that he can respect STOP in while running at top speeds. Unfortunately, I have only taken him to two barrel races since being back in Cali for the last 7 months. Hopefully since he's got a traveling partner (Miss Jade) and now he's in great shape (Thank you Texas!!), we can start hauling more.

Here is Romeo making his first check winning run at a local barrel race here in the Central Valley:

No, we didn't make enough money to take everyone out to a Steak Dinner, but we did almost make back our entry fee - which is the goal for me as I really don't make enough money to spend hundreds of dollars on entry fees per month.

So cross your fingers for me, Romeo, and Jade in the upcoming months and years as we try to take down this Barrel Racing Fever!!