5:30 comes a BIT to early when you go to bed at 11 or 11:30, huh? YEAH, it does!
Got the kiddos up so we could be dressed and out the hotel door by 6:30 for breakfast.
6:35 we walked out of the hotel room, truck re 'packed' with all our 'stuff'. Good deal!
Breakfast....hummmmm...yeah..........should have been described as 'small town' instead of continental!!
Headed out to the judging contest about 7.......found it easy enough with good directions and the GPS.
Arrived at 7:25 and got the kiddos checked in, sat down to go over patters, wrote patterns in our judging sheets and wished them well. The weather was bit chilly....kiddos we lucky enough to be wearing blazers! As this was the MULTIDISTRICT contest there were a LOT of kiddos there. Parents/Coaches usually get the last set of bleachers, but only got 1/2 of the bleachers this time as we had to move down to make room for the kids. THE NERVE!
(we interrupt this post for a special news bulletin - co-worker brings her scanner to work....we get to hear local county calls.....guy got pulled over....has 2 warrants....cop taking him in. Guy wants to cop to call 'friend' to come get his car so it's not towed. Guy gives dispatcher a number.......dispatcher calls...no answer....... Guy gives another number......no answer..... guy gives ANOTHER number.......dispatcher gets someone on the like....we'll call her Veronica.....dispatcher advises officer SHE DOESN'T HAVE A LICENSE!!!! OMG, how STUPID is the 'guy' in question?? Gives one final number, and if I were cop/dispatcher I'd be tellin 'guy' he ran outta phone calls, gets someone who says they will try to come. Is that stuff crazy or what??)
We now return to our regularly scheduled blog post
So, we sit through 3.5 hours of judging. MOST of the horses we nice. There were some obvious show horses, and some back yard ponies. The halter classes we performance halter, not 'halter halter' and the kiddos, believe it or not had a tough time with that. Out of 8 classes I got 4 100% correct. The other 4 were a mix of one off.....and a lot off! Jr and Intermediate kiddos were supposed to be dismissed while Sr kiddos had to stay and prepare reasons. OR SO WE THOUGHT! They then announce that DISTRICT 11 INTERMEDIATE kiddos have to give reasons! WHAT? no one told me anything! Only 1 of my 3 intermediate kiddos had even practiced reasons!! OK, whatever. They all stayed up there and toughed it out. Good Job Girls! And, believe it or not....the 2 that had no idea what they were doing placed WELL in reasons! WOW! :)
1:30 rolls around and the younger kiddos are done. I'm still waiting on my Sr. The 2 parents that were there decide to take the younger ones off to get lunch and bring back something for Sr member and me.
So I wait......
and I didn't have to wait long and my Sr came strolling out of the arena. She felt confident she did well....not great....but well. That, was good!
I started checking http://www.judgingcard.com/ for results.....nothing......nothing...nothing....and still nothing!
FINALLY........the FFA results were up (they don't do reasons). If nothing else I could get official placings off there to compare against my kiddos.
Got 'em. Sr did well. 4 classes perfect. Others just a bit off........
So...we wait....and we wait......and lunch gets back.....and we eat....and we wait....and we wait.....
3:30 rolls around. I look at one of the parents (my co-coach on the Victoria Team) and tell her that I hate to do it...but I'm going to have to leave soon. DH left early that morning for class and I have critters who have been penned up for hours.....need to leave by 4 at latest....probably should have left already....
so we wait a bit more......
4pm rolls around......other parent and her kiddo head out.....I decided to do the same. I felt bad that the kiddos wouldn't get ribbons right there......but I'd given a lot of my time for this event and had to head home to take care of critters.
I'd 'lent' my tailgate to some folks looking for a place to sit. I walked up and told them 'sorry but we need to head out'.....they moaned and groaned in good humor and hopped off the tailgate so I could shut it.
I had opened the truck door, and had my right foot up in the cab....I was about to hoist myself inside when our District 11 Truck pulled back in. DRAT! I should have tried leaving sooner! Frantic call to the mom who'd just left got her turned around and headed our way...she was only about 5 mins out. She got back just in time for the awards to start.
Team awards first.....neither of my groups were a full team.....although we'd signed the Victoria kiddos up as a team....so....they placed as a team! They got 3rd!
Neither of the JR or Intermediate kiddos got individual awards. They placed JUST out of the ribbons.....
My ONE AND ONLY Senior on the other hand.......she won the District 11 High Point Individual Senior award. She was SHOCKED, I was proud! And she didn't just win by a point or two...her score was 467 (out of 500)!!!! The 2nd place Sr....score of 418.......my kiddo won by like 49 points!!! It was a great end to a long day! There are 2 other counties that usually beat my kids. They have been doing it much longer than we have. It was nice for her to win for a change. I know it's not all about winning, but it sure feels good when you do! Glad they got to get their awards in person, it's soooo much nicer like that!
Congrats to all my kiddos!
We headed home, and made it back to Victoria around 7, putting me home at 8.
What a day!
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