It's Rodeo Time

It's Rodeo time in Mineral Wells.  Keannon wanted to go with me on the Trail Ride Thursday May 7th . We didn't do the whole ride which begins at the Parker County Sheriff's Posse Rodeo Grounds in Weatherford. The group stops in Millsap for lunch. That's were Keannon and I join the group to ride the rest of the way to Mineral Wells. It's about 7-8 miles.

We started at the front of the group as Diamond wanted to be there.

As we're riding in this deep grass, Fancy kept putting her head down in it. I thought she was getting bites of grass but the next thing I know she goes down to her knees! I'm thinking "What the heck is she doing?" I no more got that thought out when her back end went down. I realized "she's going to roll!" and I stepped off. Yep, fool horse rolled not once but twice with the saddle on while I watched in disbelief! I have never had a horse do that! If I had realized what was happening sooner I would have jabbed her in the sides with my spurs before she went all the way down! Chock that one up as a first! Once she was done. I readjusted the saddle, pulled grass out of the headstall and we were on our way again.

Fancy was interested in the cows.

Going up the famous "Patterson Hill". Traffic is stopped until all the riders top the hill.

At the top of the hill this sweet family every year for the last several offers watering troughs for horses in the ride.

Loved this girl's shirt. I thought it was appropriate for the ride! If you can't make it out, it says "Hey Ya'll" with the 2 L's being boots.

We had to share the road every once in a while. This time it was a big rig!

I was admiring this hay field! It should be a good hay crop this year. The tall grass was so pretty waving in the wind!

Not even halfway through the ride Diamond pulled his front right shoe. I just had shoes put on the day before the ride! I had heard him catching it while we were riding. I was thinking if he didn't quit overreaching he was going to pull it and sure enough he did.

I called my farrier who had done the first part of the trail ride and got out where we got in. He said he would meet me and put a shoe back on! He's the best! Thanks Curtis Price, you're my hero! Curtis is also a hunting guide in New Mexico and he is showing Doyle some pictures he had taken.

We got the shoe on and picked up one more horse to do the Rodeo parade.
The 3rd horse was for Kennedy. This was her first time to ride in the parade!

Gathered up waiting on the parade to start.

He looks pretty good on Diamond, doesn't he? Doyle doesn't like him as well as Clyde. He still needs some work to get him to the point he will relax and just stand. Course this is only his second time to do something like this.

Kennedy was excited to get to do the parade!







It was so nice of a couple of people to take pictures for me while the parade was in process. I couldn't do that with riding and leading a horse.

This one was taken by Kennedy's Nana (Vanessa's step-mother Janice).

This one was taken by my scrapbooking friend Nanci. The parade route goes right by the scrapbook store's new location.


I believe you're looking at a future Rodeo Queen! She already knows how to do the wave!

This and the next photo was taken by our local newspaper The Mineral Wells Index. Doyle riding with another Palo Pinto Sheriff's Posse member Scott Simonton.

We were right behind Doyle, I just hate they didn't get Kennedy. I am hoping some others got some pictures. I just haven't heard from anyone yet.

After the parade we took a few minutes to cool our heels then we went on to the Rodeo. Vanessa wanted to ride in the Grand Entry so we had to do some tack changes to be ready.

Forgive me for my photography skills in the next few. I was trying to take pictures with my phone, ride a horse and make sure Kashton stayed on! You can't see the horse but he and I are riding Fancy. He loved every minute of it and when it was time for him to get off he didn't want to! His shirt I got for him at Christmas.

Me and Vanessa. You can see the top of Kashton's head!

This is horrible of me but at least it has all three of us in it! Just riding around before we line up for the Grand Entry.

Me and the hubs, lined up to begin the Grand Entry.

Vanessa still sits a horse good! We completed the Grand Entry and went to the trailer to untack horses. The sky was growing more dark. Vanessa got done and went on in to help Keannon with the kids. As Doyle and I finished, both our phones went off at the same time. I knew it was a "Code Read Alert". It is a service offered by our city if you sign up for it you get alerts of impending weather. After checking the radar on his phone Doyle suggests we take horses home. I let the kids know what we're doing and tell them we'll be back. While at the horses, Doyle suggests taking my truck home to put under cover since it is newer. That also gave him an opportunity to get a better look at the radar to determine whether we go back to the rodeo.  He believes the worst will go north and that within 30 minutes would be over. We call the kids. They have already loaded into their car and decide they will just go home. We decided to stay home. It did come a really heavy rain. I poured out 1.35 out of the gauge the next morning.

Pastor Kirk stayed at the rodeo and posted this cool video he took that shows how wet the arena was and some of the lightning. The rodeo went on but without us!

Have a good one!