Opportunity in Disguise

Blaze's wound is healing very well. He quickly learned to let me hot pack it AND continually kick a pinecone for my ball-crazy dog, Ziva. As much as I miss riding Blaze, I now have the opportunity to "save" him for the Trainer's Challenge at the Horsin' Around Expo in July. We can have up to 40 rides so I can just keep him laid off for the spring. I wasn't going to use him because I wanted to have many more rides on him than that by the time summer rolled around. He's a good candidate and will be a good example of Smarty babies.

I've been keeping up on riding Cayenne. I will be sending in my entry forms for the Supreme Cowboy Race in Nampa, Idaho on April 18th. I plan to compete on Smarty and Cayenne. It may be a bit much for her level but I'm confident it'll at least be good experience. She has more riding than Smarty did when I took him to the Craig Cameron Extreme Cowboy Race! He had a scattered 120 days or so and very little arena work and we tied for 11th out of 36. The building blocks I've been working on with Cayenne's spin are starting to pay off. I've not asked her to really spin yet but am speeding up her turnaround. She stays correct, is very soft and supple, and doesn't fall apart when I push her. I really hope that Pat Wyse will be happy with the progress I've made on her when we go to the clinic in Sandpoint in a few weeks! We'll go from the Cowboy Race to the clinic with only three days in between. She'll be tired by the time that whole week is over!