Two in a row!

Two days in a row of horse fun that is! :D

I gave myself the stupidest, most brutal schedule possible this week at work... I had Monday off (which I normally do, it's Pie's ONLY day off) then I did night audit training Tuesday & Wednesday (11pm - 7am) had Thursday off and then day shifts (7am - 3:30pm) Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  ALL so that I could have Saturday evening free to go penning lol

Well it turned out that there was a bonus, Friday night there was a barrel racing jackpot scheduled that I had forgotten about!  So after a few trials and tribulations (stuck truck, low tires, air not turned on at gas station, etc) my boarder KD & I went barrel racing.

Voodoo hasn't seen barrels in months, and he hasn't been ridden a lot so I was just planning on taking a slow cruise through the pattern and getting a couple qualifying jackpots on our card (all you have to do is enter and "run" the pattern at whatever speed you want, you don't actually have to place you're just required to enter a minimum number of jackpots to qualify for Finals)  I was more interested in seeing how he'd act, Voodoo had gotten a bit silly at the gate toward the end of the year.  Obviously, being winter, this jackpot was indoors... so he'd already be "in" the arena.  He would however have to get into the alleyway and run toward the barrels.
Our first run he was juuuust turning into the alley and noticed the pattern set up and gave the tiniest pause and then he was all the way in and loping toward first.  Unfortunately I goofed... on second I didn't ask for that little bit more of a stride and let him turn too soon.
That darn turn has been my nemesis!  But I think I've gotten it figured out, thanks in part to Browneyed Cowgirl for that!  I started barrels riding Cessa, who was much longer bodied and less "bendy" than Voodoo.  As a result when I asked her to turn she'd glide into her turn and around.  When I ask Voodoo for the turn in the same spot he snaps around right.there and turns on top of the barrel.  I'm going to take BEC's advice and ride to MY spot on the barrel not HIS (ride to where my knee is at the barrel)

Saturday I hauled to penning with my neighbour Nell (who also happens to be a good friend and an equine body worker)  We've missed quite a few pennings this last little while either due to being cancelled because of cold, the Christmas break or lack of means to get there, and Voodoo has been missing it!  He's such a funny guy, our Dexters are in the pen on the other side of his and he'll go up to the fence, push his chest against it and stare at them then look up at me and back to the cows, it's like he's begging to chase them lol
This Saturday was pick night, which means you can choose your team mates.  Our little club is a "just for fun" club so teams are usually drawn.  Nell & I opted to team up and said to just put anyone that needs a partner as our 3rd, which turned into a funny story... the lady we ended up with (Carol?) turns out to be a neighbour of ours.  That makes at least 5 "new" neighbours I've found at penning lol
We may not have a very successful night as in actually getting our cattle penned but I was pretty darn happy with how Voodoo worked.  We actually got quite a few compliments - I appreciate a compliment on my riding/horsemanship (especially as I'm not that confident in my own abilities) but a compliment on my horse means even more to me :)