Rip gets some points

By Patty Wilber

My last hurrah with Rip (at the NM Buckskin/NM Appaloosa show) was fun! (He has been for sale, and he did get sold.   He will be moving east as soon as shipping is arranged.) Rip is a registered Appaloosa, but he is grulla in color with no spots, so he could be registered in the American Buckskin Registry Association, as well.  Grulla is a black dun.  The dun factor gene diluted his black to a blue-gray color with black points, and in the sunlight, his coat has a beautiful silvery sheen.

It is always an adventure showing a young horse, and this was no exception! Rip is a very quiet minded youngster and he is executing most maneuvers really, really well, at home.  The indoor arena was a brand new experience for him.  On one end of the arena, there is a door that looks out onto an alleyway and on the wall out side there is a large cutout of a cartoon cowboy with really large eyes. Rip was sure that guy was real and staring right at him! Don’t look, Rip! I tried to get him to look around the corner instead of out that door as we went by!

On the other side of the arena were PEOPLE, and they moved and stuff.  The results of the discombobulation varied, depending on whether we were heading toward the people or not.

When  approaching the people, it took extra time to get transitioned into a lope, and instead of maintaining nice straight lines of travel, we were a little squirrelly! When going away from the people, we scooted out of there with some extra speed and more stiffness than I would have liked.

This is to be expected from a youngster!  He was never willfully bad.  He was just a little overwhelmed, so my job was not to get on his case, but to support him and help him gain confidence and enjoy himself.  I think I was successful as he got steadier as the day progressed and he definitely had credit earning moves in there (like his spin and his logs)!

We showed in the green ranch classes, which are for horses that have not yet earned 10 points in that event, regardless of their age.  The classes were a mix of young horses and horses that had shown for a few years.  We also showed in open classes.  In both categories, he generally held his own, often coming out in the top half of his class and even taking a second (out of five) in Open Ranch Riding and earning half a national point!

Rip is good over logs! I have a little bit of hair!

I enjoyed having him around.  He was the perfect colt start to have while I was on chemo, too.  Here’s to having his best life going forward, and I will move on to getting some basics on a horse bred to barrel race (from the same breeder.)

Cancer Treatment Update. I still have muscle fatigue on some days, but am riding around four horses a day, so that is progress.

I cracked a molar (unrelated to cancer) and it has to be pulled. This mess may delay radiation, which is supposed to start May 22.  I will find out more Friday when I go in for the pre-radiation set-up appointment. My preliminary discussion with the radiology folks suggested that the tooth may not affect the radiation schedule at all.  Fingers crossed.

I am still in the dark as to when my maintenance chemo will begin. Soon I hope.

Happy Friday!