Its like a rodeo dream. I can remember my first big rodeo check. I can remember placing at a rodeo and winning a rodeo. And then beating the girl on top. It is a feeling like no other. Now, I get to be the mother of a competitive rodeo girl. The good Lord has given her a wonderful horse and she is doing amazing things with him. It does not come easy, he is not automatic, and he doesn't just work perfect every time. Jayden has put many hours into Ace, training, conditioning, feeding, and loving. She treats him better than herself. She makes sure he is getting the best in feed, supplements, and special therapy. When I occasionally help with chores, I mix her grain with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. it is quite the concoction for improving his feet, hair coat, stomach ulcers, topline, muscle, etc. She puts her horse in a stall if it is too windy, too cold, too rainy. He gets a blanket on if it is chilly or the flies are biting. He also gets to wear magnetic boots before he runs. These expensive little boots, Jayden won for her horse. She worked at her job to spend her money on her horse. He is very pampered and I think he appreciates it by giving her his all. They are quite the team!On this night, everyone except Jacob went to the rodeo. It was a great day for it with sunny upper 70 degrees and later dropped down into the 60's. It got cool when the sun went down and a coat was needed. I like this time of year for rodeos so much more than when the heat is on! Luke is a fun kid to watch at the rodeos. He has a way of finding and making friends. By the end of the night he had a new buddy, Drew and the two of them were sitting together and walking around together. He is a social kid and friend to everyone.
We rolled into the rodeo an hour before the performance and the trucks and trailers were rolling in. I have never seen so many trailers at one place! I was thankful Mark was driving and parking. We ended up parking right next to Ace's former owners husband. He was excited to see Ace and said he looked great. There were dark nasty clouds that rolled across the sky more than once, but thankfully nothing ever came out of them. The rodeo was at 7:30, however Jayden was not up until slack. There were three other girls running that Jayden runs with from TMRA, Kalyee, Morgan, and Carley. There were also the top names from IRCA and so many out of staters that would be running the URA level. TMRA is the Dayton youth competitors, IRCA is the Iowa tough rodeo competitors, and URA are the United rodeo competitors from the surrounding states. Rodeo is the toughest level of competition and todays competition would be no exception. Because rodeo only places the top where all other barrel racings today have divisions 5D with half second splits and they place a lot of holes. Rodeo is not for the noncompetitive! Go hard or go home! There were a ton of Missouri riders. I was nervous and just hoping Jayden would make a good clean run and not get completely smoked. During the performance the last 3 girls slipped and one her horse went all the way down. The ground was getting slick. That made me very nervous and I prayed a lot. Jayden was very worried about it too. She decided not to put rubber bands on her stirrups in worry that she could get caught if her horse went down. 15 ran in the performance and thankfully they dragged the arena before slack. She was 8th in the slack and there were over 40 running altogether. Slack started with all the ropers and then on to barrels. Ace was calm and ready. He came in running hard and took the first barrel a little wider than normal, but still looked good, second was tight and third. It was a clean run. I pray first for her safety, and her horses safety, I pray for a run she will be proud of and a clean run. It was all of those and the time I heard made me scream. 16.08. So far all night I heard at least a half a dozen in the 16.4 and a couple 16.3 and a 16.1. Jayden's time was the fastest! As the slack went on another ran a 16.01 took first. The times were all in the 16's and several in the 17's. Several knocked barrels, but the times were all right in the 16 and 17's. It is crazy that 40 barrel racers can run with times within 2 seconds. I think the level of barrel racing competition is getting tighter and tougher. I never heard the other time that beat her, but she ended up third. I still think she was second and the secretary made an error. The secretary had everything mixed up when it came time for pay out. My heart was racing when she got done and we were both in awe and disbelief. We were so excited. Mark was on the bleachers with the video camera and asked me twice if he heard that time right. He was amazed too. Jayden told me she wondered if her run in April at the Horse Fair was maybe just a fluke, she got lucky. I don't think so!! As I watched all the barrel racers, a lot of horses run fast, smoking fast. In fact there time always shocked me when I headr it is much slower than Jayden. Many of the girls run hard and fast, but they lose time as their horse goes a little wide around the barrel. Ace runs super tight barrels and he is fast. Those tight barrels are everything. That is how my Joe horse ran. He shaved time making tight turns just like Ace. That is just awesome. In the end close to midnight, she got her check for $478. Wahooooo. It was midnight leaving and 2Am when we got home. I had to work at staying awake and keeping my eyes open to help Mark stay awake as he drove. Jayden and Luke slept. I was beyond tired and several times Mark and I looked at each other and said,"I don't know about this". It is a good thing she is doing so well, because it would be awful hard to keep going if not. This late night driving home is rough! It was a night to remember, we are thankful for a strong start to the rodeo season. What will this summer bring?
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