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.

Well I decided to take Hercules on one last trail ride before our trip to Texas. I really hope that I can bring him home from Texas with me but if not I know that he will make a fantastic horse for whoever ends up with him.

We decided to see how he would do leading the ride and though a little unsure he handled it all very well. We went up through "tire alley" and he was fantastic.

We also took him through his first on the trail water crossing and I was very pleased with how he did. He never tried to jump the stream just walked right through it.

After we stopped for a few minutes to let the horses drink we decided to head for home. There were some cows hanging out around the water trough and one calf in particular that was very interested in Hercules. So we let him check the cows out until he decided he really wanted to chase them and since they weren't our cows decided to head on home.

The more I ride Herc the more I notice him tripping and acting ouchy so today my farrier (Gary Belliston) came over to put a pair of front shoes on Herc to see if that would help any. Herc got a little nervous a few times with the hammering but over all did very well.
I was amazed at the difference in made in his gait while lounging him afterward. I can’t wait to get on him and go for a trail ride to try the new shoes out. Hopefully I can get that done Wednesday.

Today Herc had the day off. We were doing the last day of the IWHBA Summer Training Series clinics. One of our volunteers was out watching and decided to fill the water troughs in the stalls. Janet caught a couple of pictures of Herc playing in the water with her.

This week has been such a crazy week. Utah isn't supposed to get tornado's. Well take a look at the second picture. That used to be my hay barn behind Herc and I. You can see it in some of the other pictures here on the blog. We got hit pretty hard on Tuesday night with a small tornado. Luckily Herc was unharmed and actually seemed to be the most calm of the horses around him and seemed to be trying to reassure them that everything would be ok.


Today we held a Meet & Greet for Hercules. Around 80 people showed up to meet Herc in person and he was very impressed and definitely was on his best behavior. He took time out of his busy schedule to pose for pictures and knowing him he also was more than willing to take the time to eat the many morsels of food offered to him from his adoring fans.
I rode Herc around for a while to show everyone what we are able to do to this point. Then we had a great BBq with so much food. Thank you to my two sons (Roy and Nathan) and my brother Troy for keeping the hamburgers coming. A co-worker brought out his corn roaster and we had fresh roasted corn, cowboy beans and to top it all off we had dutch over chocolate raspberry cake and peach cobbler for desert.
My daughter Rissa put together a slide show for everyone to watch so that those that had not been able to follow the blog could see the progress from beginning to now. Everyone really enjoyed that.
We also had a silent auction and raffle going. It was a night that I will not soon forget.
I want to thank everyone that donated and those that worked behind the scenes to make such a successful evening. I love you all so much and couldn’t have done this without the support of each one of you. Oh yes, Hercules thinks your all pretty cool too and is more than happy to give each of you a kiss.