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ISU Barrel Racing.

 Jayden and I were on the road by 5:00 headed to an ISU jackpot barrel race. We arrived at 6:00 in the heat of 92 degrees. There was a breeze and some shade if you parked just right. By the time everyone rolled in, there were 50+ barrel racers. I was amazed at the good turn out. People try to put on barrel races locally all the time and only get a handful. The old rodeo stomping grounds brought back  some college memories. Sadly the grounds have not changed in 20 years and the University is trying to get rid of the rodeo grounds and even the rodeo program. 
This would be my first time competing in barrel racing in a long time, I am thinking 7+ years. Jayden has been wanting me to get back into barrel racing for some time. I just don’t have the drive in me like I used to, but to have some special times with my daughter who will be graduating from H.S. in 3 years, I will do it. I have been riding Traveler and working the barrel pattern doing slow work. I have not run him through the barrels yet. My plan was to do a couple slow warm-ups then a fast lope in competition. During the warm-ups, Traveler wanted to go, he was fighting me trying to run. I knew there would be no slow run. I was happy with our run, he took the barrels great for a first run and he flew home. There was room for improvement and we weren’t going that fast until the run home. It felt pretty good to be running again. I ran an 18.9 and a 15.0 won the show. There were only 3 horses that ran in the 15 second time. The competition is so tough, there are several PRCA barrel racers. Jayden ran Tex with a wide second and beat me with an 18.4. By the time she ran in the Youth division, she was ready to roll. She improved her times by almost a second. She ran a 17.8 on Tex and a 17.9 on traveler. She took a check for 1st and 2nd in the Youth 3D. She has just done an amazing job with big Tex. She misses running Ace so much, but has really made the most of the situation. She is quite the little rider. I am so proud of her. We ran into an old friend who talked me up to Jayden and saw a lot of barrel racers I have run with over the years. This is a 6 week summer series so we will be doing this many times. The ground isn’t very good, and will be awful if it rains. I am glad to have something this close to home. It was plenty late, 11:00, when the chores were done and we went to bed.

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