Taz & Kirstin at their 3rd parade

These loaded in reverse order, but I guess that's okay. This is a picture of Kirstin & Taz watching the reminder of the parade. They were entrant # 12 so they were done early on. We told her to pull off right here close to the announcing stand so that she could watch the rest of the parade. It was so cool, as the announcer was reading the blurb about Taz, Kirstin was sidepassing him for the crowd. This was a local parade, so a lot of the people had already read about Kirstin & Taz. Kirstin even had some people yelling from the sidelines: "Good job Taz!"-Cool, right? They recognized them from the newspaper. A couple of weeks ago they were in the paper with a headline of "Taz makes Debut" It was a picture of Kirstin & Taz from their first parade. Pictured with Kirstin is her dad and her grandma.

While waiting for the parade to start, Kirstin was doing some riding around. More to get Taz accustomed to different sights and sounds than anything else. We came upon some rodeo clowns from the San Antonion Livestock Show float and they were nice enough to pose for a pic with Kirstin & Taz. Taz wasn't bothered in the least bit by the bright colors or the hankerchiefs flapping around.

This reminded both Kirstin & me of the Cuero parade and the Lion statue. You have to look at the picture underneath to see Taz's initial reaction. Kirstin had to ride him by this trailer several times before he decided to get close enough to check it out. This was a Kodak moment for several people. They all got a kick out of the horse checking out the pig. Taz wouldn't get any closer to the calf that is in the bed of the truck.

There's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes of parades where the floats, bands, cars are all lined up. It is full of sound and comotion that could rile even the calmest of horses. I have been so impressed with Taz's ability to absorp all that is going on without getting too nervous. He has always taken everything in stride. It was so awesome for Kirstin to be at a local parade where people knew her and had read about Taz. They got to see firsthand, Kirstin's dedication to this amazing horse.

Getting by these floats the first time around, Kirstin had to dismount and lead Taz through. Not sure if it was the floats to the left of him or the people with umbrellas to the right of him(his left/right). Kirstin eventually got him to walk by without any problem. Just a matter of showing him that he wasn't going to get eaten by the pretty girls with shiny dresses on.