gentle reader, are you able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace?

there was a time i'm not sure how i would answer this question. today? i will tell you that more than 90% of the time, i am quite able to go to bed with my soul at peace.

there are times in which it's not as easy as others to be sure. i honestly don't know one single person that would be able to say this 100% of the time and be honest about it.

i so love this definition of success though. when you really think about it, how much better could success be?

success is not about material things...it really isn't. or at least it shouldn't be...in my never to be humble opinion.

success is knowing you forged forward into the world today, knowing you did your absolute best, knowing that the only competition you were in was being a better person than you were yesterday.

and when it comes to horse showing, that is all we have ever asked of the girl.

for her to go out there and do her absolute best...because to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

and let me tell you something...when it comes to horse showing, the girl is definitely gifted.

and this past world show? definitely showed her talent. it really did...

i'm not bragging here, just keepin it real, folks.

the girl showed her horse memorial weekend...they were circuit champions in amateur pleasure the first time out.

the girl went to the ranch and rode the weekend before her debut as an amateur.

the girl rode 3 days before she showed in her class.

i swear to you...she did not ride a horse any other time than that...

and what she accomplished? amazing!

but none of it would be possible without espuela ranch! we have started our 12th year with this outfit! amazing! if you are interesting in showing paint horses, consider talking to mike...he is the absolute best at matching riders with horses!

gentle reader...this was such a bittersweet world show for a miriad of reasons...let's start with this ⬆⬆⬆ i met carri, the rider, for the very first time at this show. she's an awesome lady! the horse she is on? we bred him...meaning we own his mom and picked out his daddy, with the help of mike of espuela ranch. the horses name is curb ur impulse aka kirby. they were a world champion team.

the horse mentioned here ⬆⬆⬆ we bred her also. same mama. same daddy as kirby. the lady that owned her passed away in september. everyone was hoping she would be able to show pom pom at this show. but it didn't happen.

another of our babies was at the show...a lipstick impulse...lipstick was shown in a couple classes and was in the top five each time! same mama. same daddy as the other two.

unfortunately, we lost their mama, a zippos darling aka kiwi, this last summer. she was a fabulous broodmare. she gave us fabulous babies. she was a fabulous mama. she was truly one of the great ones. we miss her. we will miss her for a very long time to come.

how cool is this? one of the great highlights of being at this show was seeing banks in real life person! he's doing great! i was so happy to be able to give him a big ol' hug!!! we were able to spend quite a bit of time with him over the weekend!

friday night was time to practice...enjoy the process, girl, enjoy the process!!! this is the girl, the trainer and cookie. headed to the pen for some riding time!

we had a little down time on friday so the girl and i hit the nail salon for some pampering. we both got our nails done with a mini manicure to clean up the cuticles and a shoulder massage to relax us. the girl went with shimmery pink and white!

saturday afternoon kiroman arrived! after he stopped at the stalls to meet up with us, see the ponies and say hello...we walked to the car for him to unload his backpack. we were approached by a group of women that were on a scavenger hunt. one thing on their list was to have a couple re-create that famous photo of the sailor kissing his girlfriend from ww2...she snapped the photo on her iphone. i made her send it to me! it was fun to be part of their fun!

and then it was time for everyone to hit the books. the girl had a bit of homework to take care of. kiroman had a presentation to write and i think i read and surfed the net. this cafe in one of the barns was a great place to hang out. the peeps working there are fabulous! they had a lot of tv's with all the football games!

we headed back to the show pen and guess who we ran into??

and they had a complimentary bar. so kiroman went in search of scotch. they only had dours. and they only had these plastic cups. a beer woulda been better!

in between every single class, the tractors come out and drag the arena so each class can start with pretty dirt...

saturday night, the girl and i took kiroman back to the hotel room to take a nap. he'd been up since 4am and we were going to have to be back at the stalls at 1:30am for the girl to practice in the show pen and kiroman wanted to be up for that. so while he was sleeping, another lady in our barn had a horse that mike showed. when we went for the photo afterwards, she had these fun glasses for every one to wear in one of the photos! i love having fun and being around other people that love to have fun!!!

these next photos are from sundays practice time and totally out of sequence but i don't feel like re-arranging the page. i'm sure ya'll are capable of keeping up with me!

a fun part of horse shows is catching up with friends that you don't see very often...only at horse shows! this guy...we watched his daughters show in youth and now they are all amateurs...the girl was doing leadline when we first met and now, now the girl is an amateur also!!

and this ⬆⬆⬆ this is what happens when you go back to your hotel room to "nap"  for two hours so you can get up and head back to the barn. we made a quick stop for coffee and headed back...you can see that cookie was happy to get a whiff of the caffeine herself!

one thing about riding at 2am, you pretty much have the entire pen to yourself!

this photo is from sunday afternoon...the girl and i took cookie for a little stroll to the inspection center so we could her numbers stamped with approval.

preparations for show time means  hitting the bathroom to apply the stage make up!

and now it's time to chill...the girl has her motivational stuff to get her chilled!

hmmm...i'm taking some shots and the girl is shooting me!

this is one of the shots i was taking...cookie is getting all dolled up for the class!

and here kiroman is giving some advice to another gal that will be in the same class as the girl. see how serious he is???

the girl is sescond from the left!

and the girl is 9th overall...so proud of both those girls...the girl and cookie!!! it was a tough class, filled with world champions. the girl was the only rookie in this class, i believe. cookie was probably the oldest horse in this class...all in all, it was a very comptetive class and these two held their own!!!

the following photos were taken by the show photographer ⬇⬇⬇

the proud girls!!!

i am grateful:

• for how awesome this experience was
• for how awesome the girl was
• for how awesome cookie was
• for how awesome the trainer is
• for how awesome seth and alicia are