There's only one way to never fall off your horse.

Hello people of the Internet! Some very interesting things have happened this past week and I shall be informing you of them.

First off, last Monday I had my riding test. I got all prettied up and took my horse over to the place where the test was and I warmed her up. The first thing we did was ride on the rail (circle around the arena close to the wall) and got told commands. We would have to carry out these commands as fast and accurate as we could. It was basically things like: walk, jog, lope, stop, turn around, and such. Oakie doesn't have a lot of control, so this was fairly difficult. After that, we dismounted and mounted our horses. The judges asked us a few questions, then it was on to the patterns! We had been practicing these patterns for weeks, so Oakie did really well on it. The only thing she did wrong was picking up the incorrect lead on one of the patterns. Fortunately, I discovered this right away, brought her down, and brought her back up on the correct lead. After that, the judges talked for a while and that was the end of that. I think I did fairly decent on the riding test, despite a couple of mistakes.

On Thursday night, we had our next test. Our written test. After the test we were supposed to walk around the farmers market, so my mother took me to someones house so I could get my hair and make up done, perfectly. Finally, it was time for our test. It was so hard! I now get what my dad means when he says that we are cow people with horses, not horse people. The test had some questions about horse parts and Pete Knight, the legendary bronc rider, on it. Those were multiple choice and fairly easy. The hard part was labelling the parts of the hoof, saddle, bridal, and horse. I was so lost! After our test, we went and walked around the farmers market and talked to people. It was pretty fun, although after a while it got a little boring.

Friday night I was preparing for my parade the next day. I decided to take my horse for one last ride before the parade and we went to get the calves in from the field. My brother saddled up his horse and came with me, his horse's baby following. It was going pretty good, until my brother had to go get a calf and a cow cut away. I went after the cow and picked up a jog. Oakie decided she'd rather run, then slow down to a jog really fast so I'd lose my balance. Then she decided she'd buck, sending me flying. I hit the ground so fast, and it hurt so much. My brother then went and got the quad so he could bring me back to the barn because I couldn't even put weight on my leg. J.T. got all the cows in, and both of our horses. There's the old rule that says when you fall off your horse, always get back on. At the time I couldn't even put weight on my leg without almost collapsing, so there was no way I'd be able to ride. Instead, I asked J.T. if he could get on for me. He did and Oakie was fine. Since I had a parade the next day, I decided to just sleep off the pain.

Saturday came around and my leg hurt more than ever. It was about 5:30 in the morning when I got up and I was super tired. My mother said that I had to ride my horse before I went, no matter how much it hurt. After getting dressed and curling my hair, I went out. I needed help putting on my saddle, though, because I couldn't lift it high enough to put it on. When I went to get on, it hurt so much! I got on myself, anyways. We went to the parade two hours early, and the parade only took about 30 minutes It was a lot of fun, though, because we got to put glitter and ribbon and stuff all over our horses! They looked so good! After that we went home and I finally got to relax.

So much stuff has happened and it's all been so fun! My towns rodeo, where I get crowned, is coming up this weekend and so after that there will be a lot to talk about! And there is only one way to never fall off your horse. That's to never get on in the first place. Until next time.

~Miranda~