Another Year, Another Show

So yesterday (that's Saturday), I took Opie and RC to the CAQHA Buckle show (no, we didn't win a buckle). It was Sam's first show, so we gave her the honor of riding RC, who has an extensive show history, if I might say so myself, even if that history isn't necessarily quarter horse stuff. I rode Opie, just for fun. Good thing too, because if I had taken it too seriously, I would have been a tad upset when she decimated the poles in the trail class. She was getting pissy, not to mention that she was in a flaming heat...
RC did his english classes like a champ (won english equitation, again), but had some issues going low and slow in the western classes... You live and you learn. Fortunately he placed in every pattern class, and I now have another pattern class convert. (Yes!)

Opie did trail and walk/trot (western). She placed in green horse walk trot, decimated the trail class and would have won green horse horsemanship, had I not messed it up for her. We did the pattern wonderfully (for her), but then I went stupid and touched the reins with my other hand (darn it). For just pulling her out of the pasture she did quite well. I wasn't disappointed in her in the least. And it was really fun to hear her name over the loud speaker...

Where it all began

So, I've been back in Houston since Sunday morning. And it is even more humid thenI remember. Ew.
Deli and RC are living out at Pattison with London, Opie, and Sonnet. The introduction did not go smoothly. Go figure, that right when I want to introduce new horses to the herd all three mares are in heat. What are the odds? On the plus side, it'll only be another few days before Opie quites being so bitchy to the new comers.
So for now Deli and Sonnet are in the little pasture while RC, London and Opie are in the big pasture. RC is in much better shape then the other two, so they don't chase him around too much. They have been in this arrangement for two days now and the only one who is truely disturbed by the change is Sonnet. I figured that having the two year olds together would be ok, but Sonnet is not a big fan of change.

Today I went out there alone since Mom worked last night (I seem to spend quite a bit of time alone now that I'm home). I took Opie for a little trail ride, which made me think (thus the title of this post). Isn't it odd that this one fat little orange horse is the reason that I have all these other horses too? I've had Opie for 12 years now, and we've dabbled in just about everything. I've tried Katy Cowgirls, western clases, barrel racing, trail rides, dressage, carting, swimming and all sorts of other things that a silly teenager would do with a horse she thought was perfect.
I know that my riding has pregressed by leaps and bounds fromthe day that we brought Opie into our lives, but she doesn't care that I learned all about riding and horse care, using her as my guinea pig. Honestly, she's probably the only horse who could be expected to clamly go trail riding one day, then win a barrel race the next.