Tennessee Extreme Mustang Makeover.....as spectators!

I got a flu bug last week and missed a day of work - that does not happen very often, and I was feeling so bad on Wednesday that I was worried about not being able to go to the EMM.  I was better by Thursday morning, but still out of it.  We both worked 1/2 a day, then hit the road hoping I would be alright.  

This time around we are going as spectators...and I am glad we did.  I will admit that I missed being involved with a horse, but I also would have missed seeing every single mustang/trainer team do their stuff.  Since I was not feeling good we pretty much stayed in our seats.  We walked around to look at the vendors a couple of times, and went out to the barn and practice arena on Friday night.  Other than that...I was in my seat watching everyone.

These pictures are going to be out of order.  I wish I would have gotten more but my camera really stinks when it comes to indoor pictures.  One day I will do an entry on the camera and why I don't recommend them if you expect a camera to do its job.

Anyways, back on topic.....Dale Lively and his mustang El Cuatro waiting for their Top 10 scores.  Dale is still a crowd favorite and got 3rd place.  He did very well, but I can't argue with the 1st and 2nd placings.

Here is one of my favorites.  David and Stardust.  Check out the look on Stardusts face...he was so cute!  He was watching the judges flip their score cards around...
I am happy to say that Abby, who was a yearling trainer last year and again this year in NE adopted Stardust!  I feel like he is in the family.  :-)

Greg Reynolds has done several EMM's, and he and his horse Justin are on the left, and Terry and Mr. Big are on the right.  Both were doing a lot of PR and posing for photos.
Mr. Big was one of my favorites.  He is so small and cute, and his eyes are so soft.  Terry's wife said they were taking him home.  She is a shorty herself and fell in love with his size and his big heart when they picked him up.  Story with this guy...the BLM guys offered them another horse because Mr. Big was so broncy.  Terry's wife looked at his eye and fell in love...nope, he was going home with them.  Look at him now.  :-)

Greg riding Justin around.  Justin is another shorter horse so his whole name is Just My Size.

Some stall decorations...

More stall decorations...

Darlene's daughter Ashley has competed in 3 EMM's now, and this year Darlene joined in the fun.  This banner was in the horses stall on the back wall...

It took a bit, but I got Jody Call to cooperate so I could get his picture with the banner.

Here is one of the yearlings posters....the young gal took Stargazer to an elementary school.  If you can't read the little blurb in the center, I will tell you the funny part.  It is from Stargazers point of view and he was telling about one little kid who asked Jessyca how you tell the difference between a girl mustang and a boy mustang.  Jessyca finally said "You just do" and moved on.  HA HA!  Isn't that great? 

 Here is another team favorite.  Joe and Ranchero.  Check out the cute look on Ranchero's face.  He is young and curious, and whenever another horse or human would walk by he just had to sniff it out.  Notice no bridle...they rode all over like that.  Joe would touch Ranchero's neck or grab a small piece of the mane and wiggle it to get his nose back where it belonged.  They won the Idols division and it was well deserved.  Joe came in with a bridle on and Ranchero did not handle near as well with a bit in his mouth as he did without it even tho Joe barely touched the reins.  One of the gals sitting by us mentioned that too.  I hope his adopters try him out with a bitless bridle - he is the perfect candidate for it.

Some of last years yearling competitors came back this year for a 2 yr old lunging competition.

Max is one of the mustangs, and he has his own quilt.  You really need to click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see the Many Moods of Max.  This is awesome!

 This is awesome!  Here are your 1st and 2nd place riders in the Legends division.  They are engaged to be married!!!  They held hands and kissed.  I missed the picture of the first kiss, but it will be imprinted in my mind forever.  It was so romantic....
Madeline got 1st place and Robert got 2nd place.

 

 Madeline going over the bridge.

 Head shot of Mr. Big.

Here are some of your Top 10 Legends doing the shuffle ....

One of the obstacles for the Top 10 finals.

We went outside Friday evening to walk the barns and watch the riders practice.  The sun was setting and I got some neat pictures...this is one of them.  

 One of our local girls was in the yearling competition - Star is in the pink hat.  Again she was so close to Top 10!  This is her 3rd year and we are so proud of her!

Star's stall sign.

Star's poster for her mustang, Beauty.

This just tickled my funny bone!  This is a before and after photo....

Now this is a teeter totter!!!

Here are the final 3 for the Legends finals....Madeline, Robert and Dale.

Yearling Top 10......

Abby getting ready to show her 2 yr old, Ford.  Ford is the one she showed here last year as a yearling.

I wish this photo was more clear - but you get the idea.  This is part of the course for the 1st place yearling finals.  If the jumps look close together, it is because they are!  This girl was running full blast all over and her little mustang was so in tune with her...it as beautiful, high energy and just plain awesome!  She ran her horse over the jumps then thru the fire hoop, then she followed him thru.  She also had a line of about 5 barrels on the other wall that were close together and they blasted thru those too with only 1 step between each.  I can't wait to find them on You Tube!  Their win was well deserved.

I like to take pictures of the obstacles for ideas.  This is the bridge they used for the Legends division and it really was not very wide.  Some horses liked it just fine, and others made the decision to save their rider the hassle of going over it.  Ha ha!  Others just fell off and acted like it was not a big deal.  I think I would have been a little freaked out to fall off the bridge...but they all just worked thru it.

We had such a great time and I am so glad we went!  Sherry and Jeffrey were a couple we talked to last year and she found me and asked about us and about Copper.  It felt so good to be able to tell her about Copper and how wonderful he is.  I do wish I felt better because I know I was not as peppy as I usually am, but then again I would have been bouncing all over the place and would have missed some of the riders.  The only thing we missed was the Showmanship for the youth trainers - not my thing so we went outside to walk the barn and watch the riders in the practice ring.

Now, there is always someone who does things that makes others feel uncomfortable, or just downright ticked off.  We head out there and I get a few pictures of Greg riding his horse outside of the arena, and at the far end is a guy, Cowboy #13, on a black horse and there is excessive slapping with the reins, spurring and yanking going on.  It was not the correctional kind of stuff (which would have still been excessive in my book)....this is something that went on and on.  Holy smokes, the horse did not have time to think about what he was supposed to be doing.  About that time I thought I would record it.  I did miss the nice big rear the horse gave him but I got some of the other stuff.  There was a lady at the other end of the arena taping too, and I saw her looking at me.  I thought she might be with that guy but I did not care - I kept doing my thing.  Come to find out, she was not with him...she was taping him too hoping he would stop his actions with the horse.  She had been out there longer so saw a lot more than I did.  The video I have shows him glancing at her and also at me.  He finally left the ring, and the whole way to the barn he was jabbing the horse with his spurs.  He did not ride the horse course, or show up to walk his horse thru it.  Don't know what happened....I hope someone nice adopted his horse because the horse was not being mean spirited, he just didn't get it.  His eyes said so.  Yes, the eyes have it!  :-)  When the horse did have a chance to move without having his jaw yanked on, he moved nicely from what we could tell.  It is just sad that some people think they have to do this to any animal.

Ya always meet the neatest people at these events.  I met a gal who was there to adopt!  Yay!  The gate is closed at our place, but it was open at hers!  She heard Brian  and I talking and saw me taking notes so she asked our opinion on some of the ones she picked.  It was so much fun going over our notes about what we liked and did not like, and I learned a lot from her.  She is a teacher so has the summers off, and one summer she spent as much time as she could riding around with a lameness vet, so she had a lot of information that she was more than willing to share.  Oh how I would love to do that!  She also rode around Lake Tahoe!  She took off with her dog and her horse and was gone for 5 weeks.  It took her about 2 1/2 weeks to ride around the lake.  How awesome is that?!  We really liked her.  She is every trainers dream in an adopter....she asked a lot of questions and gave opinions on what she thought, and she kept awesome notes.  She knew exactly what she was looking for in a horse, and it had nothing to do with color.  Today I heard who she adopted, and out of the 5 on her list, he was my #1 choice.  She said the trainer was so glad it was her who won the bid because she was at the barn talking to him, and the trainer had not talked to the other person about his horse.  I totally know how he feels...that is why Sonic Boom is home.  :-)

Next year the EMM will again be in Murfreesboro, TN, and another one is in Arizone - right by New Mexico.  Will see what that brings....

Until later...Karen and Tripp who took a 'trip' down memory lane of 2008....