We got home a little after 6pm ..... it was nice and we had a wonderful 
time ..... This was a Charity Show put on by the Rotary Club in Bartow, FL.
(Bartow is a little over 100 miles from LaBelle).
    The grounds were clean and nice -- HUGE area to park in and there were 
MUCHO trucks and trailers (BIG rigs - Air Conditioned and all) ..... there 
were a lot of pleasure classes .... and a lot of classes for the mules (I'm 
never seen so many different BEAUTIFUL mules in my entire life!!  They drove 
them, they rode them ..... one girl told me that her mule was a "gaited" mule 
- like a Tennessee Walker horse ......
    There were youngens riding English, and Western -- there were adults 
(women AND men) riding English and Western ..... there were men & women 
driving ...... it was totally amazing how many men there were there and older 
people driving etc along with riding their horses.
    I drove SEDONA in the Pleasure Driving Class -- we won a 4th place trophy 
(out of 10) ...... and I entered X in the "Gamblers Choice" driving class 
(obstical course) and WE won a 4th place trophy out of 6 entries ...... not 
too bad for me just really starting to drive.
    BUT, the remarkable part was when the judge came over to Buddy and 
motioned me over to the fence -- she told me that SEDONA was definatly FIRST 
PLACE MATERIAL ..... it wasn't SEDONA that lost the 1st place -- it was ME 
that lost it ..... I gave her too much loose rein and let her extended trot 
go into a lope (a definate NO-NO) ...... she came right back down into an 
extended trot - and I had hoped that the judge didn't see it - but she did 
......anyway, the judge told us that she sure liked the say SEDONA 
moved ..... nice road trot, nice working trot ...... worked on voice commands 
only (I never had to use the whip -- I didn't even have it in my hands).
    Soooooo, that was that -- next time we'll do better  ... and, next 
time *I* will know better at what to do.  All in all though we did very well 
and I sure was proud of both my driving horses for sure!!
    OH, yea, we were the only ones in a 4-wheel carriage -- all the rest were 
in 2 wheel carts .... some nice - some homemade. Everyone was dressed to the 
hilt!!  One guy looked like he came straight out of a picture page in Ireland 
.  We fit right in ..... didn't look shabby at all.  And they were all 
amazed that I maneuvered the obstical course in a 4-wheel buggy - piece of 
cake with X  (but I was scared to death and it probably showed 
>).
    So, that's how the show went .....
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