Calgary Western Riders Gymkhana

I almost forgot that I write a blog from time to time. I am not sure what excuse to use but it just seems that there is always something going on here down the road from Dogpound that keeps me busy, well busy enough that I get no writing done. But I have remembered to take my camera along with me so I will dig around and see what pictures might motivate me to write.

The last Sunday of the month here in the summer is the Calgary Western Riders gymkhana at the Springbank Equestrian Centre. Long time readers will know that I have often attended that event and cheered on my niece Caron. Well after making a fool of myself at the TACC gymkhana’s down at Dogpound South I finally got up the nerve to enter here at Springbank. Now this might not seem like much but the organisation had to acquire all new equipment for the timers because of my entry. Their clocks like many time things down to the hundredth of a second but they had no settings that could deal with an actual change of date. And after my inaugural runs I am sure they are thinking about lights for the arena or maybe just an earlier start so that I can actually finish in the daylight.

The photo above has the Dogpound North team making their way to the arena on May 27th, granddaughter Madison and her pony Spanky, of course Willow and I and behind us is our ringer my niece Caron and her new pony Quiz. Below you can see this is serious business and just like at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness the jocks get thrown into the saddle before their runs. Well at least the little ones do I had to drag myself up there.

And below are pictures of the girls runs

 

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And they set up these stakes just to see if I was actually moving.

Now here I am working the flags and I am not sure if that is the second or third girl to run, while I was completing my run, there in the background. Unlike TACC all the events here except for the barrels are run as races so there are actually two horses competing in the arena at the same time, makes it a little more exciting WHEN you actually get a horse race going.

and here we are actually in the saddle and waiting for our runs. These events are western dress also so if you are not wearing a helmet you need to have a cowboy hat on at least when you start your run.

I am not sure how we fared in the placing's but that is not what we were there for anyway. We all had a blast and it was good to see the girls having fun.

Now that is probably enough for now and I will try to be a more regular writer.