Kirstin & TAZ!

They make a beautiful pair, Don't they?

Kirstin & Taz learns the truth!!!

Saturday was a huge day for all of us. I have been plotting & scheming since Thursday and all worked out perfectly except the videoing-we had technical difficulties so no video, but the moment is forever ingrained in my mind. Before the parade started I went to the announcer to talk to her about my plan. She was beside herself at my request. She said, "I'm so excited to be doing this, I hope I can make it through the announcement without crying." She did a wonderful job. She did the spill about Taz and how he was in last years makeover and how he won the champion of his division and then she told Kirstin that she had heard that she had applied for this year's makeover in an attempt to be 1 of the 25 youth trainers. Then she went on to say "but I understand that you haven't found out yet whether or not you have been accepted." She continued then with " Well, a little bird told me today that you have indeed been selected as 1 of the 25 to train a mustang yearling." The crowd burst out in applause and started yelling for her-Kirstin pumped her arms up in the air and then gave Taz a huge hug. It was absolutely the most awesome deliverance of good news that I have ever seen. When we finally caught up with Kirstin after the parade, she was all smiles, asking how long I had known at which I had to come clean. But, she loved the way I arranged for her to find out.




Before the parade, Kirstin & Taz wait for the judges. I'm sure Taz was trying to figure out what was going on. We were running late because line up was in a different area than what we were told. We had unloaded about 1/2 mile away and Kirstin had to ride Taz to the line up while we tried to find out how to get to where they were. We had 10 minutes before judging by the time we found them, so we had a lot of primping to do. Kirstin jumped on while her sister & I-one on each side brushed out Taz's mane and fixed Kirstin's chaps, etc. Taz seems to like the pampering.





The float behind Kirstin & Taz is the one from our town-Kirstin is the Rodeo part of the float. Her reign is coming to an end, unfortunately next year's Rodeo Queen won't be riding a horse, she doesn't know how, but it's not a requirement for whatever reason. Kirstin has done a remarkable job representing our town and had held very true to her title as RODEO Queen, she has ridden her horse at every parade possible, she posted the colors for our rodeo-a first best to my knowledge, she even ran an exhibition barrel race after she was crowned-another first. That's a lot of first for a then 14 yr old.

After the parade, Kirstin was thirsty.

OK, we've all seen it and we've all wanted to do this, & Kirstin did. She was extremely thirsty after the parade, and there was a Sonic drive thru(they have carhops who bring your food to your car), so Kirstin drove in her 4 legged automobile. There is a red button right where Taz is sniffing so it looks like he is pushing the button for Kirstin.



Kirstin getting ready to pay for her order. Taz is still intrigued with the menu board.



Kirstin getting her drink handed to her by her dad, the carhop was a little bit intimidated by the huge horse.





Finally with her thirst quenched, Kirstin & Taz poses for pictures not only by me, but by every passerby who had a camera with them. Not very often you see a horse in a drive thru.

I have a secret!

I am having the hardest time keeping this to myself, so I am going to spill the beans here only because I know Kirstin won't be able to check her blog today at school-they've blocked sights like this. I got the email yesterday letting Kirstin know that she has been selected as 1 of the youths for this years Mustang Makeover. YEAH!!! I haven't told Kirstin yet because we have a plan up our sleeves. Tomorrow Kirstin & Taz will be in a local parade so we are going to have the parade announcer tell Kirstin that she has been selected as a trainer. Figured most of the area already knows that Kirstin trained the yearlings last year and that she adopted Taz at the makeover, so why not make them a part of this wonderful news. Hoping to get it on video, so I will post it if I do. Last night was so hard when she asked if I had heard anything and I had to say not yet and then I reminded her that only 25 youths were being selected so competition for this would be tough-not to be getting her hopes up to high(am I mean or what?). So all of you know this before Kirstin, but it won't be much longer then she will know and then for the next month, I will have to put up with "I wish it was June 13th," "I can't wait to pick up my horse" etc. Of course, I'm just as bad as she is about the waiting thing.

Some great pics of Taz & Kirstin

I haven't posted pictures of Kirstin & Taz in a few weeks, so here's some updated photos. Kirstin & Taz start the parade season next weekend with their first parade since October. Saturday morning they will head to Kennedy, Tx for a parade and then the following weekend they are off to LaVernia, Tx for a parade. Her reign as Rodeo Queen will come to an end in June, Kirstin has really enjoyed her time as Queen and having Taz as a partner has been great(The queen & her king).

He is so relaxed now when he goes out for a trail ride. Not much seems to bother him any longer. It's so nice now that Kirstin is comfortable and confident enough to take him anywhere she wants. She used to just keep him in the area right around the house-the area Taz is used to, but now she just goes. A lot of that has to do with Mark Lyon's clinic that she went to. She learned so much from him.

Off they go, look at how relaxed Taz is. Kirstin called me on her cell phone, so when I saw her number pop up I was thinking something was wrong. She wanted me to come outside, she had something to tell me. Every new thing that Kirstin does with Taz is monumental in her eyes and it is. You can just hear the excitement in her voice while she is describing it. She hasn't loped Taz down our driveway yet. There are horses on both sides of us that like to follow as you ride and I guess she was a little worried about how Taz would react if these horses started running after him. Well, yesterday she decided that it was time to try loping down the driveway and she just couldn't wait to tell me. Of course, he did great-what else would we expect of him.