She believed she could, so she did

Eliz & Treasure's first barrel run

 They had walked and trotted the pattern several times, both were familiar with it, Treasure more so than Eliz. This was evident by the way that Eliz kept trying to turn the wrong direction on the last barrel. It was almost comical watching Treasure fight with her to go the correct way and then giving in to Her Little Human(that's what Eliz has decided Treasure calls her), knowing it wasn't right. It was just after midnight when they did their run; Eliz was exhausted after a week of riding hard. She seemed so tired I broke my rules and gave her a Mt. Dew just before her turn. The thing most concerning to Eliz going into the arena was that Treasure was obviously ready to run hard and fast; she had been occasionally breaking into a canter from a trot without Lizzie telling her to. Earlier in the night, she galloped.  Eliz knew she couldn't handle Treasure's jets. My advice was to do her best to trust Treasure, & hold the horn of the saddle if she had to. They went into the ring, Eliz obviously nervous, and Treasure ready to go. They did the first barrel, and then Treasure started to canter on the second barrel, and they went too wide and crossed the timer again. 

 

At this point the run was officially over, but they finished the pattern, Eliz trying to keep Treasure slowed down. When they finished, Treasure began to run large circles. Eliz told me she was “Holding the horn for dear life and thinking, 'I need to stop her!'”

 

Treasure came up to the fence and started a sharp turn, however, Eliz didn't turn.  Eliz came off the front of Treasure and landed, quite literally, at her Aunt's feet. 

By The Teacher's recounting, Eliz had a big smile on her face while on the ground, and as The Teacher tried to grab Treasure's reins, Eliz jumped up smiling and said,

  “I'm fine!” and took Treasure's reins.

As soon as Eliz came off, Treasure came to a stop, and looked at Eliz if to say,     

   “What are you doing on the ground? You're supposed to be up here with me!”

Of course, everyone watching had gotten quiet and was watching to see if Eliz was okay. I had started to run out, and when Eliz jumped up, Vaughn(we board our horse at their ranch) told me to calm down, she was fine. The announcer said over the loud speaker,

   “Way to cowgirl up.”. People all around were clapping as Eliz started to walk Treasure out, but then Vaughn started hollering,

   “Get on that horse! You're not walking, you're riding her out!” Once Eliz heard Vaughn, she stopped and started to try to throw Treasure's reins over her neck. As she was struggling, Vaughn walked into the arena saying,

  “I'm comin'.” But Eliz got them on before he reached her, and so he paused and watched.  Then Eliz put her knee into her stirrup, pulled herself into her saddle, and rode out of the arena to all around applause and whoops of congratulations. 

People were saying, “That's a lot of horse for that girl” and “That horse has a motor!” Since Eliz hasn't been ready to really run, we'd never seen Treasure go all out, and I don't think we have yet. As much as Treasure loves Eliz, I think she still held back, even though she probably wanted to run into the moonlight.

 Eliz is young enough that even though she knows something great happened in those few minutes, she doesn't understand how much meaning there is in the experience. People came up and told her good job, and she had to give out high fives-well, low fives for her on the horse, high fives for those on the ground- to people. So she knows other people think she did something extraordinary. 

 

I told her that people were more proud of her for getting back on than they would ever be of her running a good time; that even if she had run barrels in 10 seconds, people would always be more proud that she got up on her horse-especially by herself.

While we untacked Treasure I asked her how it felt to come off her horse like that. Her response?

“Kind of awesome.” Once we were in the car and on the way home, we talked about what had happened. She asked me,

“Mama, why do I feel so amazing?!” I explained to her all the possible negative ways a person could respond to coming off their horse, and that she hadn't done any of those things. I tried to help her understand that getting back on after a fall like that was something that some adults wouldn't do, so being 9, her first time ever coming off this horse at her first barrel race with a horse she's only been riding a few months, was a very big deal. Some people would have said, 'Never again. I won't ever ride again.'  She told me,

“She's my gift from God, I have to treat her like the gift she is. I have to learn her heartbeat, and the motor in her legs. So we can go fast together, because that's what she wants. That's what I want us to do together.” Can I just say, I have never wanted to pull over and squeeze my daughter while sobbing tears of joy and pride more in my life.

She fell asleep for the rest of the ride home, leaving me to consider the events of the evening. My little girl has proven that she's meant to be on a horse. She's a cowgirl, through and through. Her recently deceased Great-Grandmother would have been proud of her determination and adventurous spirit.  That's the Grandma that wanted to drive her son's racecar, mind you.

 There was also Treasure to consider. She didn't do anything wrong, just ran fast. The moment Eliz came off, she stopped. She didn't move, stamp her feet or toss her head. She waited for Eliz, and never gave any sign that she was going anywhere without her. She stood still while Eliz climbed her way back on and walked out and went straight to her stall. I've always known that Treasure loved Eliz & vise versa, but I think I saw the beginning of a beautiful partnership. Some of that definitely comes from Treasure having had a wonderful previous owner, and I will always be grateful for that. My Dad and I were talking about it, and he made the observation,

“Treasure and her the girl that owned her obviously had a great relationship. They probably got to run full speed down a dirt road, and in a field, and she wants to do that with Eliz. She remembers and wants to do it again.” So now we have to find a dirt road in Indiana. Shouldn't have a problem with the field, though.

 And here is the sad part of this story. Bry-D and Lex weren't there. At midnight, Bry-D & I put Lex into Bry-D's truck, because Bry-D had to work first thing in the morning, and Lex needed to sleep. Oh. My. That boy needed a good night's rest. So five or so minutes after they drove out of the Fairgrounds, I had to call and tell him about his daughter's amazing feat. He was, of course, very upset. He exclaimed,

“I missed that?!” I can't rewind time & give him the joy of seeing his daughter prove herself a cowgirl, but maybe writing it for both of them to go back to will help.  Just as getting Treasure is a reminder that God answers prayer, getting back into the saddle will be a reminder that Eliz can do whatever she decides to do.

Clyde & Lex

These two will cause all sorts of trouble together someday.  And while everyone else is shaking their heads worrying, I'm going to be documenting it for prosperity's sake, and a book/movie deal.

I sent this picture to a few of the men in my family, asking if this was normal, and everyone said yes, but be careful.  I guess the next step in this bonding is to see who can pee higher.  Won't that be fun!

Looking at motorcycles together.

And when they woke up, they watched old school Transformers.

They may be tough guys, but they can still hold hands.

Lex's Guardian

Bry-D & I have both noticed this.  Whenever Lex is outside by himself, Kaya is always within 3 feet of him.

We've both been watching her to see if we can catch her away from him,

 but so far, she is his constant companion.  We never told her to do this,

 she's just a very maternal dog.  And his best friend.

Birthday Shopping!!

One of her gift cards was to the most wonderful place in the mall.  Build A Bear!  We went and joy of joys, they had a Shake It Up Chicago Rabbit!  She got the Shake It Up noise, outfit, a very pleased little girl.  I just enjoy watching the kids.  I've promised Lex more than  afew times that I'll take him, it jusy hasn't happened yet.

a chocolate kind of morning

Hot Chocolate and chocolate chip muffins, there's no such thing as too much chocolate!

Back to normal

With all the birthday hoopla over, we're back to school and all the everyday things.  Here is today's science experiment, a M&M Habitat.

You're supposed  learn about camouflage, b/c some colors of M&M's will be easier to find than others.  But maybe it's our love of chocolate, we found all but 2 M&M's.

Mad Hatter Tea Party

It happened, FINALLY!  The day/night came for the Mad Hatter Tea Party!

Here she is, the birthday girl!

The tables, all set up. It looked the way I had imagined it, which is always nice.

Hats on teacups,

The Red Queen and some party quests.

We started with lessons on how to properly sip your tea while we waited for everyone to follow the white rabbit to Wonderland.

They came down the hill in the background next to the privacy fence,

And found the party waiting.  Everyone was having a good time

A few Mommies joined in the fun.

Stop being so cute , Eliz! Gracious!

We played freeze dance, which was highly entertaining for me, the grown up.

My sisters were supposed to be helping, but they had disappeared to get "dressed".  Then something start to appear and disappear over the fence.

It was Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum!  So glad they could make it!

The Red Queen approves, better late than never. 

And back to the freeze dance.

Of course, Dee & Dum gave pointers.

And the girls tried to keep up with the adults' amazing dance moves.

Then something wonderful happened!  The Mad Hatter showed up at our Tea Party!

He had a case and a show for us, how exciting! 

So, we gathered 'round, all giggles and excitement,

He started simple, tie the know, magically untie the knot.

His first helper was a little scared.

But not Casserole, she couldn't wait to help.  She volunteered, whether that's what he was asking for or not!

HA!  We caught Diva Dee smiling!  It doesn't happen often, but we have PROOF!  She smiled!

I'm not sure what he did at this point, but his tricks went quickly from good to pretty great.

Yes, I'm eating iced chocolate cookies.  Gotta problem?  Oh, well, Off with your head then!

This one had everyone laughing, he was just being silly, then he silenced us all, even the grown ups with a little shake of the bag at the end.

Birthday Girl's turn!  He told this little story about these two rabbits, Mary & Joseph, and Tater Tot got to help him "marry" them.

Then he gave Eliz Mary to hold and squeeze while he told another story about them.

He explained they were going to having babies, lots and lots of babies.

And when he told her to open her hand, there were lots and lots of babies bouncing out of her palm!  I love her face, she didn't know she could do that!

And Casserole finally got her wish.  She got called up to help with a new gadget.  It was so new he said he hadn't even read the directions yet!

And the Casserole learned why some people say, "Be careful what you wish for"  If everything works right, he said, the celery would get chopped off, but not her hand.  Of course, he hadn't had it long, so he wasn't really sure.

He had a captive audience, to say the least.

I love this man.  He drew this part out for a good 5 minutes, the girls were on the edge of their seats with worry.

The Quilter told me she kept getting "save me" looks from Casserole, her daughter, if you hadn't figured that out.

He was very confident this would work just fine.  Surely, surely it would go well, but just in case here's a bowl for your hand.

And he makes the chop!

Everyone sighed with relief.  Of note, The Mad Hatter was so funny, that the adults had side aches, and the poor photographer had a hard time taking pictures.

And then, he had to go, his time was up!

While the girls did an art relay race, we started bringing food down.

You start an art project, and after a minute, you have to get up and start working on another art project.

Dive Dee liked this.

As the sun started to set, we had to bring out sweaters for the girls, it got chilly fast!

A little shenanigans with the deer in the woods.

Eliz was given 8 bags, the contents of each one corresponding with the number of the bag- bag 8 had 8 items in it, bag 7 had 7 items, and so on.

Then it was time to come inside!  To keep them busy while we hauled everything up the hill, they had a special maze to go through.  One part of the house was covered with white yarn.

The other was covered with red yarn.

The first group to gather up all their yarn, wins!

Harder than they expected, but took just long enough.

I don't remember wrapping yarn around Tater Tot.

Yay!  The white team wins!

Time for cupcakes!  And the Red Queen got dressed in her jammies.

Eliz and I compromised on the gift giving portion by asking that people only give gift cards.

DEE & Dum changed also, but continued with their antics.

I think that hat suits Dive Dee perfectly.

Cupcakes, gift cards, what more could there be?  Oh, yes, general antics.

Sticker pox flared up.

and spread like wildfire!  We got the girls settled down and watching a movie, the Johnny Depp version of Alice in Wonderland.  These little party animals were still talking and giggling at 2am, when I told them they had to go to sleep.

In the morning, they watched a slide show of the party while eating a super healthy breakfast of sticky buns and tea.

What kind of tea, you ask?  Why the brown bubbly kind!

They got to decorate the house, and just play and have fun.

I forgot to show you the incredible party bags The Quilter made- they're teacups!  How cute!  They had Lisa Frank pencils and stickers, some candy, and hair bows made by Aunt A & I.

I paint faces, and so I spent the morning painting little girls' faces, but I only got a picture of these two.

I don't know about the rest of her fellow party animals, but this little tiger slept for a couple of hours that afternoon.