By Dan Roark
Preparation for Chisholm Challenge (CC) began at New Hope quite some time ago with Susan planning the drill team routines and all instructors gearing lessons for CC events. On the Sunday before Chisholm, preparation continued in earnest – loading the trailer to take to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo (FWSSR) grounds and set up the paddocks before taking the horses to Fort Worth on Monday morning.
It also happened to be the first day the horses had been let out since the snow and cold began on the Thursday before. Since Libby seemed to think this was her time to shine and kept posing for me, I’ll use her for an example.
As Kim was letting horses out, Claire, Torunn, Cyndy, Melissa,
and Susan were loading the trailer. Kimberly did what she could with her foot tender post surgery. Cyndy and Melissa loaded the different horses’ special feed, etc. from the hay barn. Unfortunately, that left the door to the hay barn open. The goats, Oreo and Henry, and Hugo the pig smelled the food and decided to be a nuisance. After shooing them away ran its course and they decided to ignore it, Cyndy took it upon herself to try to solve the problem by sticking her tongue out and poking at them with a long broom. Hugo had already given up, picking whatever he could find in the dirt. The goats were simply confused by Cyndy’s actions and gave up.
The horses, on the other hand, went for hay wherever they could find it – on the golf carts and elsewhere – and double-checking all the food buckets for remnants left behind. Since Cy goes bat crazy when let out, he runs around frantically and bothers the other horses, Kim put him in the long pen behind the arena. Then Olivia wanted in with him and Kim gave in. They would hang around at the bottom end of the pen. Then one of them would take off toward the high end and back at top speed. They would hang out again, then the other one would take off.
Meanwhile, the other horses milled about, enjoying the freedom to roam around the grounds. A good number of them enjoyed a good roll, like Libby pictured below. It was the first time a horse posed for me while rolling. But the trailer got loaded and left for Fort Worth with Dave driving. After the picture of Libby rolling, I’ll leave you with pictures of some of the people helping to pack.
Ride on and ride for hope.