Like being the first to run through pure white snow, there is nothing like riding into the arena after the drag!
Last year when I entered the arena, I was so nervous I was trembling... This year, I entered the arena with my friend. Believe it or not, I wasn't shaking at all.
We trotted to the middle of the arena and stopped. I looked down. Reiny was peaceful, listening, waiting for my queue.
First the spins. It's my job to give Reiny the queue to start spinning, then count. You'd be surprised how hard that is to do. The slightest distraction can cause you to think about something else and you stop counting... We spun left, "beautiful" I whispered to Reiny. I breathed a sigh of relief and took a moment before spinning right. We spun right, again I whispered "beautiful".
Now the dreaded lead departure!
Reiny loves to give me a hard time during practice on lead departures out of the middle. Everywhere else is fine, but out of the middle he loves to mess with me. It's a game he plays. He pops his head up, leans one way or the other. It drives me crazy and he knows it!
As we were standing there, I told myself, "Just walk forward and lope off. How hard can that be?" In my head I could hear Brian, Lisa, Alex, and Ava. "Don't make a big deal out of it", "Keep your head up and look where you are going", Don't bring your hand any higher than that horn", Do as little as possible to get him going", etc.
I took a deep breath, did something, and Reiny walked forward and loped off into a beautiful small right circle! Oh thank God!
Than panic... I looked head and saw nothing. No tracks. Just fresh dirt - a new challenge...
I picked a line and we managed to draw a beautiful small circle, and a large circle after that. As we started the second large circle, Reiny found his footsteps and left one set of tracks in the sand. I sat motionless on his back, and head the words Jesus said, "when you see one set of tracks, it's because I carried you".
Blessed. Humbled. So incredibly thankful for this experience and all the people who make it possible...
As we finished the pattern, all I could hear was Reiny breathing. I felt his body moving beneath me but I wasn't thinking about anything -
I just enjoyed the ride!
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