Team Penning

My sister is a notably talented horsewoman, trained intensively under my grandmother and Champion Reiner, Ray Hall, a dear family friend who recently went home to be with the Lord. She's started and finished reining futurity horses for Waggoner Ranches in Texas and worked with legendary Quarter Horse sires at stud there and on loan from 6666. I'm rather glad she moved home from the tornadoes, javalinas, snakes and scorpions... That's just me being big brother...

She hadn't done any team penning before yesterday because her views of the event were rather like mine; "a waste of time." When you have spent your formative years pushing cattle, gathering, cutting and riding young horses, equine events and rodeo can seem rather frivolous and underwhelming. Mostly because of the scientific anomaly- los caballos tienen dos pendejos. Alpacas suffer from the same condition.

My lovely sister is a dynamic individual and quite versatile in what she can accomplish on a good mount. A client entered Jen and the young mare that she has been finishing for the client in the event this weekend. Well, she won a class yesterday, won the first competition this morning and placed second in the next competition. Icing on the cake- she was recruited to compete on the team for the event host who is relocating to the Grand Valley and starting a regular event series on the Western Slope. She had a lot of fun, as did I just photographing. Perhaps as we mature frivolity seems less underwhelming with the change of perspective that takes place.

Anyway, enough with the chatter. Let's get to the photographs.

Jen and the client mare.

And a couple of gratuitous artsy-fartsy shots.