I wish it was possible...

... to order confidence as easily as I order shoes.

The rodeo was fun. This year's weather was great, with only one extremely hot day, and enough rain to keep the dust down without soaking the arena into a giant mud puddle.

Watching the final evening, the drill team looked good, the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls were still amazing, and the clown/announcer's pat spiel hadn't gotten too old yet.

Every year I watch with a sense of wonder at both horses and riders. I truly think that aside from the circus, rodeo has to be one of the most challenging venues mental-stress-wise we can ask our horses carry us through.

Shows are hectic, but there's a pace to them. Endurance rides are populated mostly by horse people, and have less extraneous stuff going on. Parades? Well, okay, I'll grant you parades rank right up there, too - 20' tall blow-up Garfields and marching bands might be a bit worse!

But at a rodeo we ask them to simultaneously deal with continuous noise, large crowds, rambunctious animals, flags, small children, strollers, dogs, vehicles, etc. It's nuts. And amazingly, almost no one ever gets badly injured, run over, or stepped on except for the contestants who've actually paid for the privilege.

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I rode yesterday afternoon. It was hot, but I'd been looking forward to riding all weekend, so I went for it anyway. I wanted to work on really feeling my diagonals, trot transitions, nice round circles, etc. We're still adjusting to English tack, so I wasn't expecting spectacular. Just to spend some time brushing up on basics.

Initially, things were going well. I'd dug out my breeches - so much more stretchy than denim! - I'd forgotten exactly how much extra flex spandex allows my knees. I mounted from the ground and from a bucket a couple of times. Sunny stood for mounting, which has been a challenge lately with the western saddle. We walked some easy circles and serpentines with good bend. He was listening and even stepping over underneath himself off my leg when I asked around the corners. Leg yields both ways - check. Nice square stops - check. Backing - also check.

Maybe I should have stopped there for the day.

Because when I asked for a trot, I got about three good circles and things fell apart. A pheasant flew up in the next field, and his brain switched off. He didn't spook, but he started watching everything. He jigged and made eyes at the bucket I'd used for mounting and at the horse trailer. He pulled for the gate. He looked down his nose and snorted at grasshoppers.

Okay, horse, you've lived in SD all your life. Here. On this farm. Pheasants are not that interesting. You have seen a tractor more than once. The horse trailer is not inhabited by bears. Sheep are not carnivorous!

After working against the jigging for a bit, I thought maybe something was poking him somewhere, but couldn't find anything. He stood for mounting again (good boy!) and, we worked on walk-trot transitions, but his head just wasn't in it. We went back to walking, but our circles had gone bulgy and our corners were flat. Even at a walk he was ogling the sheep as if they wanted to have him for dessert.

In retrospect, what he probably needed was a good hard ride. Lined out down the trail at a working trot for a mile or two, the goofies would have worn off and he might have been ready to focus. What he got was slow work until we managed to get a couple of decent transitions and a few more acceptable leg yields. Then I called it a day.

My goals for tonight haven't changed, but I'm going to set up the ground poles and see if focusing on his feet will help keep his head in the game.