2008 Show & Celebration - Preparing for the Show to Start

After months of training and preparation, and blood, sweat, and tears, we finally were able to head out to Missouri for the World Show. The 2008 Show and Celebration was held in Ava, Missouri again this year (as always.) It took us about two days to arrive at the show grounds in Missouri from Wallsburg.

We brought two rigs, our Chevy dually hauled our 4-horse trailer and Lacey's mother's mini International diesel hauled her 4-horse trailer. We hauled a total of six horses. 5 were owned by Stephen's Fox Trotters and 1 we hauled out for a youth rider that is a good friend of ours. We brought Touch, Pizzazz, Tuffy, Majestic, and Jazmine. In our Chevy there was Dan, Bryce, and I, and in Nancy's rig there was Nancy, Lacey, and Kamille.

Both horse trailers have living quarters in the front of them and that is where some of us stayed for the 2 weeks. We also rented an RV and had it set up out in front of our stalls when we got there. Bryce and Dallin stayed in our horse trailer's living quarters, Julia, Kamille, Lacey, and I slept in the RV, and Nancy slept in her trailer. Dan and Stephen slept at a hotel in Springfield. Stephen, Julia, and Dallin all flew in the day the show started.

This year Stephen bought new stalls. He bought them because we liked that they were bigger, they had cross-ties in front of them, the location was great, we could plug our RV's and trailers in front of the stalls, and they were over-all much nicer. At the Missouri Fox Trotter show grounds, you don't rent stalls, you buy them. So, Stephen's Fox Trotters owns five little patches of land out in Booger County Missouri.

Here I am outside of our new stalls. It finally stopped raining for a minute..Here is a short video clip of the front of our stalls.

Here are our trailers all set up in a half circle in front of our stalls..

Sometimes we just loose our minds for a second cause we are in muddy, muggy, miserable Missouri for too long...
Julia sometimes likes to strangle Bryce.

Jazmine chillin-out in her stall...
Lacey's mother, Nancy, is one of the most talented and creative ladies I know. Not only is she an incredible artist, she also sews clothes. She custom makes all of our show clothes. Kamille wanted a purple outfit made and Nancy didn't quite have it finished before the show, so she brought her sewing machine with her and finished it! She's amazing!


Here is Jazmine in the cross-ties in front of our stalls.
Stayed tuned for more pictures and show results...

2008 Show & Celebration

These two pictures pretty much sum up the trip...

Just kidding. I will post the rest of the pictures and give you a full account of the trip later.

Breeder's Cup in Springfield, MO

On August 12 (2 days after returning from Wyoming) Lacey, Kamille, and I flew out to Springfield, Missouri for the 2008 Missouri Foxtrotter Breeder's Cup. We stayed for a week and watched the show on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. We got the opportunity to help Barb and Geno prepare their horses for the show and to learn how they do things. Barb and Geno brought 12 horses to show, so we had plenty of work to do to prepare all of them.

We learned a lot by watching all of the very talented horses and trainers. We also got to network and meet a lot of new foxtrotter people.

Kamille got the opportunity to show a horse that our trainer friend Jamie Johnson owns.
Me, Lacey, and Kamille. Everyone out there referred to us as "the Utah girls."
Kamille and Geno joking and laughing about something.Kamille, Barb, Geno, Lacey, and I after the show. Barb has been showing foxtrotters all of her life and the garland she has around her shoulders is the first garland she has ever won. You win garlands if you win championships. I feel pretty fortunate to have won one my second year showing in Missouri on Goldie.

We also got to go to Branson while we were in Missouri. Branson is a huge tourist town with a lot of entertainment and things to do. We went to an amusement park called Silver Dollar City and we also went to the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum.

Kamille, Lacey and I outside of Silver Dollar City. We went on a bunch of roller-coasters and rides. It was pretty fun. We got to eat some Kangaroo, Ostrich, and Alligator jerky while we were there, Ostrich was my favorite.

Me outside of the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum. Isn't the building neat? The museum was pretty weird...

Me standing next to the world's tallest man! And I thought Christian was tall!

Big Horn Basin Foxtrotter Show

August 8-9 we had a horse show in Powell, Wyoming. After the show ended on Friday, we went up to Cody to hang out for a little while. Cody is a neat little town, we had a good time seeing all the sights. The show went really well, Lacey won the open all-around award, Bryce won the youth all-around award, and Jazmine is still undefeated. Here are some pictures of Cody...

Lacey, Bryce, and Kamille watching a wild west shootout.

Me, Julia, Kamille, and Lacey posing next to a bear.

Time For Three Concert

A couple of weeks ago mom, dad, Preston, and I went to a Utah Symphony and Time For Three Concert in Park City for the Park City Music Festival. It was at an outdoor amphitheater in Park City. The setting was beautiful and the music was inspiring and peaceful. We brought sandwiches for dinner and ate them while we waited for the show to start. We all had a great time.

Mom and Dad watching the show
Preston and I

Time For Three. My favorite classical music group. Check them out! http://www.tf3.com/

Image's Jazzy Ragtime Hit - Undefeated Thus Far...

My Boss

My boss is probably the best boss in the world. He spoils us rotten. The week after we got home from the Great Western Horse Show, Stephen wanted us to have a couple of party days. He told the horse team (me, Lacey, Kamille, Bryce, Dallin, and Julia) to all relax one day and go watch 3 movies at the theater and go out to eat and to not worry about the ranch or the horses. Well three movies didn't seem too appealing to 5 A.D.D. people who can barely make it through one movie. So being the spoiled rotten children we are, we asked him if we could instead go to Lagoon for the day. He agreed with our plan and not only did he pay for us to go, he payed us while we were there.

I really wasn't too into Lagoon because I would actually rather be up riding but Lacey and Kamille said that I should bring Preston and suddenly Lagoon sounded a lot more fun. Preston rode in the morning at Coyote Creek and then I came and picked him up and we drove to Farmington together. The rides were so fun. Dallin is so much fun to take on the rides, he gets to go to the front of the line and he screams the WHOLE time! We were cracking up at how funny he is.

Preston doesn't love heights... But one day he told me he wanted to someday do something to defy his fear of heights. Well I remembered that little comment and I made Preston go on the SkyCoaster with me (Ahren, I think you went on this ride a long time ago). For those of you who are not familiar with this ride I will explain. First you have to put on a harness looking thing and they attach you to cables and then you get lifted clear up into the sky. It is kind of like a giant swing. Once you are at the top, you have to pull a cord and you drop for a while and then swing out. It is freaky! Preston screamed. I laughed hysterically. He was so brave to go. You could tell he was really nervous to do it. The things I make that poor boy do... After Lagoon, we went to Texas Roadhouse for some steak. Yum!

So that was our first party. Stephen thought we should have another relax day and he let us go boating, jet skiing, wake boarding, & knee boarding. He told us he wanted us to not worry about a thing and to just lay out on the beach and take as much time on the boat and jet skis that we wanted to. He bought us food and let us take out his super nice, super expensive toys. Oh ya, and we were getting paid.

That was the first time I tried wake boarding (sort of like snowboarding on the water). It took me a couple of tries but I actually got up! I loved it! Knee boarding was really easy and fun. Jet skiing is probably my most favorite thing to do in the water. I got up to 54 MPH out on the lake on those things. We fell off numerous times, it was a blast. The next day I could barely move because I was so sore. We work hard and we play hard.

Anyway, just thought I would make you feel jealous. Have fun at work! ;)