Crowbait, The Amazing Peeing Appaloosa!

(Okay--I realize that the original title of this post was "Crowbait, Amazing Peeing Quarter Horse!" And that was a slip of my brain...because while all of our other horses are Quarters, Crowbait, quite obviously, is not...He is, and will forever be, the most famous Appaloosa in Osage County. Forgive me, I have a "brain worm.")

Summertime means playdays for us. Roundup clubs are groups of people who get together to practice/showoff their amateur skills at rodeo events like barrels, pole bending, flag race, calf roping, dummy roping, goat tying, etc. Monthly playdays are a great opportunity for the girls to see friends, practice their rodeo skills, get a sense of what is means to be in a competition, and generally just have a great time. The girls' first playday for the summer was the last Saturday in April.
Rhian loves playdays. Near the end of each month she asks me approximately a million times, "When is the next playday?"

Because Rhian is now in the "big arena" with the "big kids," I must split my time between watching her events and watching the little girls. My mother-in-law, DeeDee, graciously watched the little girls and led them through their first event while I watched Rhian run barrels. Rhian was terrified to be in the big arena, and was concerned about the number of people watching her. I tried to reassure her that she would be fine, but she nearly cried as she entered the arena. I told her, "Just go this one time, and I promise it will get easier."

She did just fine, just as I thought. However, she did turn each barrel completely backwards, but I did not have the heart to tell her...I really blame myself, because as I was reminding her of the barrel pattern (which she has done a million times), I told her to make one right turn and two left turns. Which is correct, but she interpreted it to mean go to the right side of the barrel and then to the left side twice...my bad...

But she finished, and trotted back, so I gave her a big smile, a "great job," and money to go to the concession stand. She had a great big smile on her face and was willing and excited to do the next event--sucess in my book.

While Rhian was enjoying her snack in between events, I made my way over to watch the little girls. I got there just in time to catch DeeDee taking Jacklyn through the poles. Doesn't she look tiny atop that big 'ol palamino?
She was really excited and was all smiles! She would not come down from that horse for anything!
Because her sister refused to share Peppy, Elizabeth charmed a little boy out of his pony (not just any boy--we knew him!) and she completed the rest of her events on the cute, fuzzy little pony. Elizabeth had never been on a pony and thought it was the funniest thing ever!
When David saw these pictures, his first reaction was, "why is Elizabeth on a pony?"--with great disdain...when Elizabeth mentioned that she thought the pony was fun, David quickly corrected her that Quarter Horses are much better than ponies, and Peppy is a very beautiful, very nice horse and that any cowboy would be glad to have him. Because her daddy is her hero, Elizabeth quickly agreed and later told me with much conviction that horses are better than ponies...
I snapped a few pictures of my friend Betsy being a very proud mommy, taking pictures of her adorable son, Cort. He is six months younger than Jacklyn, and she is the first girl that he ever kissed (they were 11 months, and 5 months respectively)--except for mommy and grandmas, of course...Betsy's husband Josh led his baby boy through the events, on a pony which, as Rhian reminded me, looks remarkably like the miniature horse, Midnight, that we had when Rhian was little. (Was that a run-on sentence?--Dalene?)
When the little girls were done with their events, they rode double back to the trailer, so that they could watch Rhian complete her events. They were so very proud of their "Gold Medal" participation buttons.
Rhian was excited about the poles. It is her favorite event, and she did the pattern perfectly--except for one little hiccup...I took this picture about two seconds before Crowbait stopped to pee--in the middle of her pattern--with the entire crowd and the announcer laughing. I was laughing so hard I forgot to take a photo. Rhian had the funniest reaction. She sighed, put her elbow on the saddle horn and propped her chin on her hand and waited until he was done--about 30 seconds...the crowd laughed harder. I was afraid that she would be terribly disappointed, but instead, she just laughed it off. She's a good sport.

Rhian completed the flag race just in time for them to announce that there would be a goat tying event, complete with the lead line age group (Liz and Jack's age group) goat "undecorating." Basically, they have to be lead down to the goat, jump off their horse, and pull a ribbon off the goat's tail. I had not entered the girls, but Liz begged Mimi into letting her participate.
So DeeDee literally ran to the horse trailer to get Peppy, ran to the announcers stand to enter Liz, mounted Liz on Peppy and ran to the arena gate just in time for them to call Liz's name.
Elizabeth completed the event with her trademark gusto, and then held up her ribbon for her adoring fans--the entire crowd...like I have mentioned before, that kid is growing to have quite a ego...
All in all, it was a fun Saturday afternoon--can't wait until this Saturday! Maybe Crowbait will hold it this time!