Well for those that have been waiting for an update sorry to keep you waiting. I had no idea that there was such a following.

Cliff and Hercules have continued to work together over the winter and officially joined the Aces Wild - All Mustang Drill Team for their performances at the 2008 Utah Horse Expo this past weekend. They even carried a flag for the team on Sunday during the flag ceremony. What a wonderful addition to the team and we are all so excited to have them.

Now that all the stress and pressure is off I slept like a baby last night. We arrive at the arena early and meet Jamie and her father. We go ahead and feed the boys and then get everything packed and put away for the long trip home while they eat.

Jamie gets Patriot loaded and then I load Hercules and Ranger goes in last. Hercules is happy to have someone else to ride home with I think.

We make a couple of stops in Amarillo to do some more shopping but other than that and the stops for fuel and a couple of stops to let the horses out to drink and walk around we drive straight through and arrive back home early Tuesday morning. It sure is good to be home.

I didn’t sleep very well overnight and neither did Janet. It really hit us yesterday as people were walking around admiring the horses that there is a definite possibility that we may loose Hercules if we can’t go high enough. I have really come to love this big guy and will be heart broken if I loose him. I send Janet out to get a good seat. As I spend time with Hercules he is acting very nervous and I think he is just picking up on my anticipation and nervousness.

We are the third to last to go up for auction. Many of the trainers are not even taking their horses out under saddle as they are trying their best to take them home. I just want to do right by my horse and show off how far we have come. If it is meant to be he will come home with me if not then there must be something better in store for him. After I introduce Hercules and the bidding starts I really start to get nervous as I can hear the price going up but yet I don’t see Janet doing anything. The bidding goes crazy for what seemed like an eternity and then all of a sudden just quits. The auctioneer says “sold for $3,000”. I am scared to look at Janet but as I turn and give her the thumbs up sign she gets a huge smile on her face and gives me the thumbs up back. He is really mine. It is all I can do to get out of the arena. As soon as we are out in the tunnel I hop down and give the big guy a big hug with tears in my eyes. He just gives me a big hug right back like he knew it was going to be ok the whole time.

I take him back to his stall and untack him and give him some treats. We are all exhausted so we make the decision to stay one more night and head out first thing in the morning. Richard Sewing who came all the way from Utah to give us his support takes us out for a congratulatory early supper. After we drop Richard off at the hotel we decide to go see the Stockyards. There were only a few shops still open but we were able to get a few souvenirs.

Rick and Kitty ask if we are still willing to haul Ranger back to Utah so they can take their kids and do some sightseeing which we are more than happy to do. Jamie Thomas also needs a ride for her horse so we haul Patriot to Utah as well and then Rick and Kitty will take him on up to their place in Oregon.

Today is the big day. We arrive at the arena early so that we can get Vicky set up in a good spot with the camcorder. She has agreed to video the day for us. Thank you so much Vicky, you did a great job. I also want to thank my sister Fran and my niece Amber for flying in from Colorado to be there as part of my support team and running errands so that I could concentrate on Hercules. And I would also like to thank Richard Sewing from the National Mustang Association for flying in from Utah to be there as part of the support team.

During yesterday’s trainer meeting my draw number for competition order works out to be on my side. I will be last on the in hand course and second to last on my riding portion. So I have almost the entire day to study the patterns and watch the other competitors. I am nervous but very excited and Hercules picks up on it and is constantly looking to me for reassurance. I feel like we can do everything in the on-line course as it is all stuff we have practiced before. I am more nervous about the horse course as I have not practiced on picking up correct leads or lead changes with Hercules.

For the online course we have to enter the arena and wait for the judges acknowledgement. Then we are to walk across 4 ground poles without the horse touching them. Hercules clips his toe on 2 of them I think. Then we are to walk into an “L” formation and back out of it. Hercules does this on a loose lead without any bobbles. Then we are to make a 270 degree turn and trot to the cone where we are to pick up all 4 feet. It is not a long enough distance and Hercules does not trot for me but did well with all 4 feet. Then we are to turn and walk over a “v-shaped” set of poles (this is the obstacle that most trainers missed that resulted in them getting DQ’d). Then load and unload out of the trailer. Hercules does this like a dream. Then the final obstacle was to trot through a slalom course of 6 cones. Hercules broke to a walk a little but other than that did it very well. Our final score for this portion was 63.3.








After lunch break it was time for the riding portion. We were to enter the arena and mount. Then pick up a left lead and lope past the judges to the cone. Stop and turn left. Then pick up the right lead and canter back around the arena crossing through the middle where we were to change leads to the left lead again and lope to another cone. Then break to a trot for about 10 strides then walk into a box and do two turns to the right and two turns to the left. Then trot out of the box and through the panel serpentine. Once past the serpentine we were to pick up a left lead to the bridge. Walk across the bridge and then trot across the poles into the L shape and then back out of the L and pick up a trot to the gate. The only part that Hercules really struggled with was picking up the lope on the first pass he just trotted. After that he picked up his correct leads and we just had a ball. Janet got so wrapped up in the routine that she only remembered to take pictures for the first half. After I exit the arena I jump down in the tunnel and get huge tears in my eyes. Hercules has done so good and I let him know just how proud of him I really am. Our final score on this portion was 91.0. So combined with our conditioning score of 34.5 this put us in a tie for 17th place. We didn’t make the top 10 finalists but we definitely did better than I was anticipating.

My practice times were early today so that I had time to get Hercules cleaned up for the conditioning part of the competition and still get myself cleaned up for the big media party at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame tonight.

I fed Hercules and spent time grooming him. As soon as he was done eating I decided it would be good to go ahead and get my conditioning portion out of the way and try and beat the rush. Once I was done with the judges the Foundation put a Hip# on Hercules so that everyone could identify him through the competition and adoption. His number was #89.

I rode Hercules for my practice sessions and then had to head for the mandatory trainers meeting at noon. Janet and Vicky took this time to head to Office Depot to have signs and badges made up to get people to vote for Hercules for Mr. Congeniality.

Then we went back to the hotel to get cleaned up and ready for the big party.

Once we found where we needed to be and which stall was Hercules’ we pulled into the Watt Arena stall area and unloaded and got things situated. I went ahead and gave Hercules a bath to help cool him down a bit and then Janet clipped his face to help make it prettier.


Each trainer was allowed to sign up for three 20 minute sessions in the big arena per day to help the horses get used to the obstacles and the arena. I was very impressed with Hercules willingness to go wherever I asked him to go and to check out all the new things. He even loaded in the trailer very well, which surprised me after having such a long trip here.




It is so much hotter here than it has been at home and so I send Janet and Vicky to the store to get a fan so that we can try and keep Hercules a little more comfortable. He made the trip well but did loose a little weight. While Janet and Vicky were shopping they decided to decorate Hercules stall as well. It sure did bring a lot of attention. I met the other trainers that were around me and got to speak with them a little. They are all very excited to be here as am I.

We left our home about 6:00 pm. Janet and I along with our good friend Vicky Green were going to make the long journey to Forth Worth. For the most part the trip was pretty uneventful. We got stopped around Cuba, New Mexico for a couple of hours when the freeway was closed because of a truck fire. We also stopped a couple of times to let Hercules out of the trailer to rest and stretch. We arrived in Wichita Falls, Texas around 8:00 pm on Wednesday and decided to let Hercules spend the night at the Cruse Acres Horse Hotel since we couldn’t check into our stall in Fort Worth until Thursday morning. Sam Cruse was very nice and put Hercules in a nice big stall. We made sure Herc settled in and then went to find a room and food for ourselves.




I would highly recommend Cruse Acres to anyone traveling through Wichita Falls, Texas. They have a very nice facility and the horses are well cared for.