Trail Log: 6-20-2020

• Trail: Lone Pine - Prineville
• Miles: 5.97
• Riders: Self - Jon - Alice
• Horses: Jack - Cochise - Dusty and Zip

Notes: A total change in plans. My original "plan" was to take J'Lo to the shoot in Prineville and have her bred to Kitty's stud. I took her into the vet on Monday for a pre-check/ultrasound. Dr. Frank said she was in heat right now and suggested I not wait since J's never had a colt and she's 11 years old. I asked if he knew of somebody local...he did. Deb Dehaven has a little bay cow/cutting bred stud that  throws some really nice babies. I called Deb and met at her place that evening with J'Lo. Long story short - I ended up leaving her there. I can shoot anytime - but if I want a colt out of J'Lo - I need to do it now.

Wasn't planning on competing off Jack just yet but as they say...shit or get off the pot. I loaded up Jack Thursday morning and arrived at Laumans' with a couple hours to spare before practice. Jack did really well in practice. I kept my fingers crossed he continued to do so the remainder of the weekend.

Folks started pulling in Friday morning for the weekend shoot. There was a big turnout being one of the first shoots in the area since the COVID-19 BS. 93 shooters signed up.

I had a few hours before Friday afternoon practice so saddled up for a trail ride behind the Lauman/Butts ranch. Jon S. and Alice S. joined me.

Practice went well again. I decided to formulate a plan for the weekend. I knew we wouldn't be competitive so my plan was to try for a clean shooter check. Saturday was the OMSA Oregon State Shoot. We weren't fast - but we were clean. Jack is so smooth at that slow lope he's easy to shoot from. We shot the four stages clean and took our first trip to the pay window. I could't have been more excited if I'd just won the Kentucky Derby. We placed 46 overall and 2nd. in our class. Not bad for barely breaking out of a trot.

Sunday was Thunder in the Ochoco's Lone Pine Rangers shoot. I missed a balloon on my first stage putting me out of the clean shooter pot. Might as well go for it...we've got nothing to lose. I let Jack pick up speed with each stage. By the last stage, our time was as fast as my class competitors and we were hardly breaking out of a slow lope. We moved up to #34 in the overall.

Jack was like a different horse without J'Lo there. He gets herd sour and focus's on her when she's around. This weekend, he didn't miss a beat. He was amazing.