Yesterday I found out that the husband doesn’t have the patience for auctions. Personally I think auctions are fast-paced but if he isn’t bidding he’s bored and that is dangerous at an auction. We ended up getting a dwarf gala apple tree and a dwarf fuji apple tree. I’d like to get several more fruit trees like cherries also. I’m not a huge apple fan but I have two large apple fans in the barn who will think daily supplies of fresh apples is great!

Then I went to the sorting show. I was very proud of Prize. She settled right in. I groomed her and then rode her without having to do lots and lots of ground work to settle her. I think maturity may be sneaking up on her finally. It also helped that the show started at 2 PM so I had her out in the pasture all morning and she was ready for a nap. After I rode for a bit I tied her up. She worked for a while on untying herself but eventually gave up and decided to take a nap.

When it came time for her to go it didn’t go so well. In this event you have two small round arenas set side by side. A 12 foot opening is in the middle. Two horses and riders go in. The goal is to move 7 of the 8 cows from one arena to the other in numerical order in the fastest time. If a cow goes in out of order you are disqualified. One rider goes and gets a cow and the other stands in the opening as a gate to stop other cows from moving.

I was worried if she would be able to stand her ground if a bunch of cows charged at her. Now I know that the answer is a resounding NO! We started and my partner went and got the first cow. It was coming towards her and she faced it and started to shake. I think she was going to be ok but then another cow joined it. In Prize’s mind that qualified as a stampede and therefore you need to get out of the way. (It is hard to argue with that kind of good sense.) Here’s the vibe I was getting from her – “Ok, ok, ok, I’m going to be ok, Holy SHIT!!! Run!!!!!!”

She went into panic mode but this is why I love this horse. Spirit in that instance would have flung me repeatedly into the fence in an attempt to escape. I would have had to bail out to calm him enough to get him out of the arena. Prize took two fast steps sideways and stopped. That was enough to get us DQed as the cows rushed past her but she stopped. She turned to face the cows and then helped round them up and put them back in the other arena. After your turn your job is the put the cows in a bunch in the middle of the arena for the next team to work. When they start you have to get out of the one arena through the other arena and out the gate without letting any cows out. So in a flurry of action one horse shoots forward to get a cow, two horses run from the cows and pass through a 12 foot opening where another is standing, and there may be cows coming too. She had no problem with that. This is a horse with a history of kicking in crowds but she was fine. She also had a horse back into her and she was fine with that. Yep, maturity is catching up with her.

She was mad after her run. She was standing by the fence and as cows would come over she’d make nasty faces at them and try to get them through the fence. She’s a tough girl when the cows are on the other side of fence. There was also a dog there and she decided that it would be good fun to step on his tail. I stopped that plan quickly and decided to go home before she picked more fights because she was mad about being attacked by cows.