Day one of the beginner’s team roping clinic started with a big breakfast. The NRS arena has a cook that whips up some pretty good meals. Krece Harris was the instructor. He has won a lot of team roping titles and really knows his stuff. He is a good teacher and fun to learn from. His other instructor is a guy named Levi, he reminds me of a big kid, funny and nice, likes to tease. We did introductions, went over fundamentals, then started in the arena roping dummy’s. The clinic consisted of 8 people, a very small group when compared to the typical 16 person. This meant a lot more one on one and instruction. In practicing, we made gigantic loops and had to practice our swing. About 6 swings like that and you felt like your arm would fall off. We did some other exercises where you swing the tail of your rope. I still tend to catch the right horn and neck. At noon we took a long break and had a big lunch prepared for us. After lunch it was saddle up and ride time. Mark and I leased our horses for various reasons. I fell in love with my horse named “Dog”. He was so easy to ride, extremely broke, and so automatic. We warmed our horses up then began roping the hot heels. The hot heels is like a mechanical steer pulled behind a jeep. I was third in line to rope and Lara lee was first. We were the only two girls in the group and we both caught our first time. It was pretty cool. We roped all afternoon on the hot heels. I felt pretty good about it and was catching most of the time. Mark was learning how to rope the heels . He had to learn a whole new way of roping. He liked the challenge and did well. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and my knees and back were sore. We got cleaned up and went out to eat before calling it a night. Back at home, the kids had a snow day, first snow we have gotten this year and the high was 9. Glad to be here in Texas.
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