March rolled in with a mother daughter trip to Oklahoma. Jayden had Ace at a trainer in Oklahoma and it was my turn to make the trip down south to pick him up. Leana, the trainer was willing to give Jayden a few lessons and help her with her young barrel horse in training, Joker. Thursday morning, Jayden loaded Joker in the trailer and we headed south. She drove the first 4 hours and I drove the from Kansas City, the remaining 3 hours. The drive down went pretty well and it gradaully got warmer the farther we drove, reaching up to 60. We arrived at Leanna's ranch at 4. Leanna has a silver braid down her back, she looks to be late 60 and a hard core cowgirl. Her ranch consists of many pens with horses in training and a big arena on a hill. Her and her husband also have cattle. She looks like a hard worker and spends many hours in the saddle. We unloaded Joker and started right in on a lesson. Leanna rode Ace and gave Jayden lots of training and riding tips. Mostly she showed her some horsemanship skills, teaching how to make your horse more responsive and working on transitions in the barrel pattern. It was fun to sit and watch the lessons and I learned a lot too. It was a lot of constructive criticism and a lot to go home and work on. When we finished and got horses all settled in, it was dark and cooling off.
We cheked into a hotel in Claremore a few miles away. We went out to eat at a delicious restaurant called ,"Billy Sims". It was melt in your mouth shredded BBQ. Without a hot tub at the hotel, we took turns taking a hot bath. Jayden was sore and tired from a hard work out on her horse. I was just tired and stiff from driving. Day two was another morning lesson and then a road trip to the Pioneer Woman Mercantile. It sounded like a good idea and being that close we thought we had better go. It was an hour and a half drive and we didn't have a lot of extra time due to evening plans. Our time got cut even shorter when we had to stop for fuel and got stuck behind an oversize slow moving vehicle. It was a long curvy hill drive. By the time we got to the Pinoeer Woman Mercantile, we literally had 30 minutes to look around. I was bummed and Jayden was pressuring me to find something to buy for my birthday. It would have been nice to have time to look it all over, but hey I can say I was there.
In the evening Leanna invited us to go and compete in a local barrel racing jackpot. She described the arena as a "decent setup." I was expecting something like Bondurant or Elkhart. We were blown away when we walked into the gigantic arena. It was like NRS but bigger. It was so nice and even had a steak house in it! We arrived at 5, and it started at 8. Jayden and I had a steak while watching the warm up runs. Now that is my kind of Friday night entertainment. So cool! When the barrel racing started, the first girl ran, and she was smoking fast. The arena pattern was huge, considered a standard pattern. A 16.5 won the barrel racing. Girl after girl went flying into the arena on powerful fast horses. I was worried that Jayen might not be able to compete with these girls and be discouraged. These Oklahoma girls were all business. There were no ametauers here. They were hard core and not a one that didn't belong. There were 125 that ran, only a handful in the 16's, a few more in the 17's and a lot in the 18's. I was nervous for Jayden, but not as much as normal. I knew that it was just a practice run and there was no pressure. Ace went into the arena quiet and calm, almost like he didn't know he was going to run barrels. Jayden kicked him up and he ran, he ran a great run, wrapped the barrels beautiful, came out of third a little wide and it cost a tiny bit. Every inch counts in barrel racing! She ran a 17.5 and I was blown away. Ace can run with these big dogs! Jayden was feeling super good and I was so excited for her. She really needed that with the string of bad luck she had last summer. I hope she will be on a good streak this upcoming season. Jayden ended up winning the 3-D and got a check for $250. That was super exciting. Leanna was very encouraging and happy for Jayden. The next morning we had one more lesson with Leanna before loading both horses up for the ride home. The ride home was long and stressful. When we got near Kansas City we switched drivers and Jayden navigated. We had to take a detour and before long that detour had a detour. We were driving through the middle of KC with traffic merging on both sides and I merging and switching lane after lane to make the right exits. It was stressful and hard with a trailer. People aren't very considerant and switching lanes is a challenge. Trying to read the signs and drive would have been impossible. Jayden kept me calm and was a good navigator. We got home in the evening and got horses settled and were happy to be home with all the fam. I could relax and say a prayer of thanksgiving in safe travels both going out and coming back.
March started out with cold temperatures and random snow and ice mixtures. It wasnt very nice and we were hoping for warmer weather. Lots of days with dreary gray skies and no sun has an effect on you. Sunday March 4th, after we returned from Oklahoma, Karen and Orrie planned a birthday celebration for Allie at Hickory Park. Since my birthday was so close, I was included too. We all went to the Stratford church then went on to Ames to eat. Allie, Blake and the kids all went too. Andrew and Bridget are such sweet kids. They are adorable with blue eyes and big smiles. The more we are around them, the more I adore them. I hope and pray that they will be family someday soon. Bridget sure latches on to Jayden and loves to be around her. She is so full of personality and giggles and talks a lot. On the way home Mark and Jayden insisted I stop at Western Edge and find something for my birthday. Jayden kept telling me to find more and I ended up with some neat items. She was most helpful. I found a really neat belt that is the latest style. It used to be the blingyer the better, now it is the serape design. I also found a necklace, bracelet, and komono top. I felt very spoiled.
On March 5, my birthday it was a rainy snowy icky day and we all stayed home.
The 13th Mark and I celebrated 19 years of marriage. We went out to dinner the following night with our good friends the Buhr's. They are so sweet and we cherish their friendship! We had a nice evening eating and talking. They surprised us by having the waitress bring out dessert with candles. They also wrote a really sweet card. Dan retires soon and he has plans of taking a new job and moving. We will miss them so much when they go. I am praying they won't go far and we can still get together.
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