Cardillo was the man both Friday night and today! Last night we headed to the match, got there to find out that they had to cancel due to the storm. The guy running the match is a friend though, and he set up anyway so that we could get both Cardillo and Calif into the ring and getting in some practice shooting. Cardillo surprised me in how good he was. We did two full stages of 10 shots, and he was great. Calif hasn't been shot off of in at least 18 months ( probably closer to 20-21 months) and he was typical Calif, took it in stride and was fine with it.

Today I headed out on the early side to go watch Alaina and Jose show at her 4-H County Show. Jose was very, very good. He and Alaina looked great out in the ring, they did a fine job representing the Paso Fino breed. After she was (nearly) done I headed toward home, picking up feed on the way. The CMSA match was on, so I started getting Calif and Cardillo ready to load up and go. Jim and Alaina joined me ( they had returned from the 4-H show) so we hit the road. Nicole and her Mom met us at Malibu Dude Ranch in Milford PA. We had no sooner pulled in and parked when they hollered that if I hurried I could make the 3rd stage, so we quickly tacked Cardillo up, I hopped on and I was in the ring shooting! He was fantastic. He did 4 stages today ( each stage is a run of 10 balloons, set in a pattern) and he really was good. Any mistakes that were made were due to rider error, not to the horse. Calif got his turn as well, competing in the 2 stage match that was help after the rifle match. Before that competition though, there was a bit of excitement. Someone hollered out that there were loose horses. Two horses came running toward the arena, having come out of the woods. Both were saddled, and the folks at Malibu quickly realized that they were two horses that were supposed to be out on a guided trail ride! Two of the wranglers hopped onto them and went to head out into the woods to find the riders. The first horse quickly disappeared down the trail, but the second horse wouldn't leave. I asked the rider if he wanted a lead out, and when he said yes I took the lead and we went out into the woods, through a creek and toward where we could hear the dismounted riders. They had unfortunately encountered a ground hive of bees and had to bail off the horses. All was well with them fortunately, so we all went back to the arena.

Tomorrow will be my first day off in over three weeks, if you can count a day off being house cleaning, weeding the garden and helping put in 4 wagonloads of hay.

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