McArthur

Last weekend I went to a working cowhorse show in McArthur. McArthur is a small mountain community about 3 hours from home. McArther doesn't have a hotel or motel so we stayed in Fall River. McArthur and Fall River are about 5 miles apart and what one doesn't have the other one does. Fall River is a little bigger but has the same small community feel to it. They are the kind of places that feel like time has stood still. It made me feel like I did when I was a kid and went downtown in my home town. One grocery store, a couple of stop lights, fair grounds, a cafe, no McDonalds, no Burger Kings, no 7-11's. Just nice welcoming people with family businesses. I was ready to move there. Then I remembered. It snows there. Not a whole lot but enough for me to rethink calling the U-Haul moving vans.

We pulled in on Friday afternoon. Several of the club members were sitting out by their trailers telling cowboy stories, laughing and talking. We visited for a minute then asked where we should put Semp for the night. They directed us to a pen and showed us a place to park. We unhooked the trailer and went in search of our hotel. We came back to check on Semp and feed before we called it a night. One of the draw backs of small towns is the quality of hotels or motels. I like a nice room with a good bed. I don't sleep well in a hotel anyway and when you get a room with poor beds and lack of air it makes it near unbearable. This room wasn't too bad but the air conditioning was really loud - like a generator. Really loud. But it did cool the room down. You know what else was loud? My husbands snoring. Yes folks, he snored all night long. It too was unbearable. I thought about putting a pillow over his face so it would muffle his snoring but he might also stop breathing - yikes! I think that the pressure was getting to me.

Saturday morning came around and we got up and off to an early start. Fed Semp and then went to the local cafe and had breakfast. It was a "greasy spoon" kind of place. Taxidermied animals hanging on the walls, a philodendron that went all the way around the place but the leaves showed it definitely wasn't getting enough water - how could it, it was a half mile to the last leaf! Tables set up to accommodate large parties in the middle of the room and then booths against the walls. The food was good, the waitresses were friendly and the locals were there to liven the place up.

I was showing in two classes each day. The first was a stock horse class. The weather was supposed to be warm and sunny. They had thunder storms and a little rain on Friday night. In the shade it wasn't too bad, a nice breeze was blowing through and it was comfortable, but in the sun it was hot. We did some of our warm up in the outdoor arena while they were doing the herdwork classes and some in the indoor. The footing in the indoor was deep. Mr. Semp hates deep footing. He let me know right away that the footing was unacceptable, but it was what it was and he dealt with it for the duration of our warm up. Besides it was a lot cooler inside than it was outside. Their were 7 riders in our stock horse class and I was 4th to ride. We marked a 68.5. The score was generous. The circles were great, the transitions and lead changes were good, the turnarounds were o.k. and the stops sucked. I bet you saw that one coming. The first two were his usual "hop, skip and slide" stops but the last one... I asked for "whoa" and nothing. He just kept right on going. So I asked again and had to pull him to a stop. It wasn't pretty. Each time as he started the run down, he would get pushy, his head would go up, his back would hollow and he/we would forget everything we had practiced. Did I mention that Bobby Ingersol was the judge. Not something that you want to have happen in front of an industry icon. The next class was the Limited Cowhorse Class. 5 riders. I was 2nd to the last to go. It was the same pattern as the Stock horse class and we rode it about the same. Not bad, but not great either. Stops were about the same. The cow work was a different story. I don't think that Mr. Semp even realized we were working a cow till about 30 seconds into a 50 second ride. Not good. He was behaving and doing what I asked but he wasn't watching the cow. He was looking around and checking out the other horses and the cows on the other side of the fence. I marked a score of 66 and when I looked at the score card we got a minus in "eye appeal". After a long hot day of showing and waiting and showing we went to a potluck that the club sponsored. The club members are so nice and welcoming. They cooked tri-tip and everyone brought something. People talked, laughed and relaxed. It was a perfect evening.

If my husband snored much on Saturday night, I didn't hear it. I went to bed and sleep came fast and sound. Sunday I was showing the same two classes but to a different judge. Again the first class was the stock horse class and we marked a 67.5 - another very generous score. How is it that when you are riding that you know every mistake you make? If I had scored myself, it would have been a 63 or 64 at best. It was the stops that submarined me again. By the time that the limited class came around, Semp was cranky. His white nose was sunburned, he was tired, hot and generally in a really foul mood. He is a funny horse that way. He wears his attitude like a beacon flashing on his forehead. I chose not to do a lot of warm up for the last class and was just going to school him through it. The pattern started off really good. The first two stops weren't too bad but the last one - going towards the gate was awful. Mr Cranky Pants was headed for the barn and he wasn't stopping to pass go or collect two hundred dollars! After I pulled him into the ground, got after him for not stopping, then asked him to turn around and go back to do the cow work, he was beyond pissy. His nose was wrinkled(which makes he teeth show), his ears were penned back and he was moving like a slug. This time he went to the cow and went to work. Almost daring the cow to move. He was tired and didn't want to have to work that hard so Mr Cow was going to do what he said when he said it. It was almost comical until the cow snaked him. He took off after the cow like a F14 fighter jet, of course the cow stopped and turned and Semp was pushing so hard that he got way to far in front and I had to pull him into the ground again and get him back on the cow. Thank goodness you only have to work the cow for 50 seconds. He walked out of the arena with is ears back and nose wrinkled, teeth showing - not a pretty sight. I haven't seen the score cards for the cow work but I think that the eye appeal was probably a minus again.

Things to remember for next time are to pamper him a little more through out the day. He needs to be stalled in the down time if possible. I watered him often and he was in the shade but he was out in the wind and watching all the goings on. Maybe to much for his little walnut sized brain to process. He was like a cranky two year old child that had too much visual stimulation.

Practice stops, stops, and more stops. Practice the run down to the stop, practice, practice, practice. At our lesson on Wednesday we just worked on the run down. That seems to be where all the trouble begins. He puts his head up, hollows out his back, he gets scotchy, he wants to pickup speed before I ask, etc. I worked on the run down again last night. Just want to get him to relax and wait for me to ask him for speed and stop.