*Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy*

I am bouncing off the walls in anticipation of the EW clinic this weekend....

The only down side is that our air-quality is absolute crap...

The smokey haze is getting thicker and thicker. As soon as I noticed it, I put Moon on all of his breathing 'meds' and he seems to be doing okay, but I have not worked him in it either for fear of aggravating his lungs.

Oh, my gosh...I feel so sorry for all of the people who have lost so much due to the fires this year. It's e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.!!! I fear we have not even begun to feel the brunt of the devastation. Hay prices are skyrocketing...the price of cattle is bound to take a dump because so many people are going to be forced to sell off...and the roller-coaster ride begins. Soooo sad.

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Back on a brighter subject though...A little time off has done Moon wonders...

That butt of his just keeps getting thicker and thicker. Pretty amazing that a 14y/o horse is just now coming into his prime.

 LOL...He's getting a bit of a pudgy belly...

Which is all good with me, 'cause after all of these years of struggling, Moon actually seems to be fairly 'happy'. Healthy on the inside makes for a much more content horse on the outside...I've always known that...it's just taken a hellava lot of effort to make that happen for this horse.

Spooks still looks like Spooks...LOL...

Bad angle on this picture...he really doesn't have a 'belly'.

Anyway...I am most excited for the EW clinic. I think I have my head right again on Moon, but definitely need Ed to yell at me a few times to make it stick. ;-)

The next 3 races are all indoors. I am going to have to get my head wrapped around pushing Moon instead of rating him. LOL

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I went out on a limb...

I know how absolutely wrong this is of me, but I have such a hard time thinking of Spooks as a 'serious' barrel horse. It's totally and completely unfair of me to think about him as less of a barrel horse than Moon...when in fact, Spooks has proven to be exceptionally reliable and consistent, whereas Moon, although more speedy...has proven to be difficult to attain any consistency with.

I decided to give Spooks a shot at some big money. I entered him in the big Utah race that is coming up. I waffled and waffled, but technically, Spooks held his own at the Cortez indoor arena and placed in the 4D, his usual 2-seconds off of the fastest time, against some very speedy horses. He ran so well in fact, that the next day I had to slow him down because he had jumped a division compared to my district members and we gathered points in the 3D instead of the 4D. The last few races I have also had to let him coast so he stayed in the 4D and gathered the appropriate points for year-end awards....

Anyway, I figured that Spooks is good enough and consistent enough that he does rate at least getting the chance to see how he would place at a much bigger race. The fact that these are held at indoor arenas helps him a lot. Spooks gets outrun...but he doesn't really get out-turned. So smaller pens, with his quick turns should be right up his alley.

The darned horse is so lucky, he may just win big. LOL