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.