If you're related to me, you might want to know what cow horses are. This is what Wikipedia says:
Working cow horse is a type of competition, known also as reined cow horse, where horses are asked to work a single live cow in an arena, performing specific maneuvers that include circling the cow, turning it in a specified manner, and performing a reining pattern. Horses that can perform these tasks are called "reined cow horses," "cow horses," "stock horses," or "working cow horses." Competition consists of three parts where a horse and rider are judged on their performance in a reining pattern, herd work, and "fence work". Horses are judged on accuracy, timing, and responsiveness, as well as how they handle a single cow and their ability to ride into a herd of cattle and quietly "cut" a cow from the herd.
Of course, another reason we decided to make the trip was the fact that our friends, Zane and Holly, were not only participating, they had three horses in the finals. (The Snaffle Bit goes on for about two weeks with preliminaries and all. We just showed up after they'd narrowed the field a great deal.)
We waltzed into the arena on Thursday, just in time to watch Zane ride a reigning pattern in the open bridle finals on his 2009 Snaffle Bit Futurity Champion horse, Reymanator, and over the next two and a half days watched everything from horse sales to saddle talks and training workshops.
Zac helped out wherever possible, since Zane and Holly had their hands full with six horses, three finalists, and a 10-month old Presley. On the last day of the finals, Zane had three horses to warm up and not enough time between runs, so he had Zac take Smart N Smokin Rey (R2) out for for a few laps in the big arena where Holly was warming up Brother Jackson. I sat up in the stands and took as many pictures as possible.
Once Zac was done making his Snaffle Bit debut, we grabbed a couple of cowboy beers and settled in to watch Zane compete and enjoy the rest of the show.
