That's Gonna Leave a Mark

Last night there was a barrel jackpot at Prairieland and I had the night off so heck yeah I was going!  Better yet, my bestie Nell was going to tag along which meant that I could take two horses :)
(There's a 'no tieing' rule at Prairieland so unless you rent a stall it's really tough to take two horses without a babysitter.  Fees are already a bit steep at these jackpots and being that I was going more to season Lefta and get Voodoo out again I was pretty sure there would be little to no money in it for me, I don't really like dishing out any more than I have to)

Nell and I had a quick warm up on the ponies before the time onlies started.  I had bought 2 minutes for Lefta, being as green on barrels as she is it's nice to put some work on the pattern with her right at a jackpot but before the run.  The huge turnout (over 50 open in the first jackpot, great numbers for a winter jackpot here!) and the amount of people that were wanting time only runs put the start time of the jackpot behind but they still gave us another warm up between the end of time onlies and starting the jackpots so we warmed up some more.  One of the times as she loped by Nell hollered "I love your horse!" :) 
After the second warm up she said Voodoo was feeling really good, moving nicely and he was very soft and responsive  
*keep this in mind*

I had entered both horses in the first jackpot but only Lefta in the second, testing out the "maybe Voodoo is a one run horse" theory.  I was up on Lefta first and we loped through, hey at the last jackpot she was trotting so there's some improvement lol
Then Nell and I switched horses, Voodoo was still really chill and we just hung out for what felt like forever.  (I was up something like 9th on Lefta and 51 on Voodoo)

During the rake just before my run for Voodoo I started to walk him around, and he was a jerk.  Kept trying to drift over and wouldn't keep his nice shape on the circle.  I kinda chuckled to myself and figured not much had changed.  We went in for our run and I was pretty happy that he didn't have any of the gate nonsense he had been having last year.
Our first barrel was okay but he came out quite out of position, heading more for the middle of the second barrel and could easily go to the wrong side so I lifted my rein and used my leg to push him over.  Over he went nice and easy, and then as we turned the barrel he D.O.V.E HARD.  We hit that dang (metal!!) barrel so hard that he actually knocked my stirrup right off my saddle!! :o
(only thing I can figure is that when he hit he also rubbed around the barrel and it made the blevins buckle slide??)
Going to third I knew I didn't have my inside stirrup but just figured I'd keep riding and try to catch it on the way home.  Yeah, obviously that didn't happen and when I went to get off I saw why lol
I turned toward the pen and one of the rakers was already running up with my stirrup.

I took Voodoo to Nell so we could switch horses and she said "I swear he wasn't bad during warm up!"  I told her it was okay and that I believed her, he's can be an angel during warm up but gets on the muscle and a bit ignorant when he knows his run is coming.  I got Nell to hold both horses so I could run to the washroom and check my leg - yep already bruising and a bloody scrape down the front of it just off my shin bone.  This morning it's very tender and swollen.  Darn metal barrels!!  Nice thank you from Voodoo for the two massages he's had in the last two or three weeks! ;)

The second jackpot started and I loped through on Lefta's next run.  It was a bit faster than her first, not much but still improving.  She's a bit all over the place going from first to second and drifts wide going to third.
I'm sure glad I talked to the neighbour about using his indoor, I see barrel practice in the future for two horses of mine ;)