Final Finals

This weekend is our district finals for barrel racing, or as we often call it Mini Finals. Its a 2 day event with day money paid out each day and prizes for the overall winners to be given out on the 2nd day after the AGM (this way its more likely people will stick around for the meeting).
I elected to enter Voodoo and leave Applejack at home. Primarily because as a member of our district's board I have to help work/run the finals but also because Applejack hasn't had a lot of riding and is bucking on the pattern.
Yep bucking. My theory is that now that he's feeling good he thinks he should run all out. I however would like to get him back in shape before asking that of him. In return he gets pissy and bucks as a horsey version of "F. you".
Speaking of finals I never did fill you guys in on how the Provincial Finals went.
They were NOT good. At least for me. Our district had a pretty respectable showing.
But no, Mr Voodoo did not like the arena set up. It was indoors and the "arena walls" were made of corral panels.
Not a huge deal except that the only bleachers were on the right hand side. The arena was pretty small so the bleachers were very close to the corral panel. Add to that the fact that we run left first so when you cross the arena to go to the right barrel its not just a bunch of people close to the rail its also that they look pretty much like they're sitting in the arena around the barrel.
He put on the brakes and I'm sure was thinking "hells NO!"
Yeah so it wasn't cool but it got my horse out seeing something new. Next year will hopefully be better.