Glowin' & Showin'

Sophia invited me to be a part of the children's advocacy Glow Run in down town Rogers which benefits a group in an effort to prevent child abuse. Sophia brought her two ponies, all dolled up, and we visited with kids, let them take photos and visited with the event attendees. I was talking to one girl and signing an autograph sheet. A little bit later a girl came running back up, her name was Gabby. She said "I will always follow my heart." It took me a minute to realize why she said that. When I hand out autograph sheets, I write a note on each one and I wrote "Always remember to follow your heart" on hers. It meant so much to me to to what I wrote to heart.

There was about 1000 attendees! Shiloh was just as big of a hit as the ponies and he was not lacking any attention! Shiloh and I both wore green in support of my cousin, Tony, who was having an organ donation evaluation that day. Green is the color for organ donation so we had to spread the love and let him know we were thinking of him.

After the event wrapped up I rushed to change clothes, threw Max in the trailer and headed to the Oak Grove play day. Maximus is getting his barrel and pole pattern now so we're getting ready to speed things up! The remainder of my weekend consisted of working on my truck, finishing my trailer living quarter project, a great Easter Sunday church service and a very efficient Rounders practice.

Sunday night, I got a last minute call at 9:30pm asking if I could bring tack the Horse Tales event the following morning. Let me recap, Horse Tales for Literacy is a program where 4th graders read a book then get the opportunity to learn first hand about different aspects of horses by spending half a day rotating to different educational stations. Since I was a bit worn out and still had work to do I decided to get up early to get everything together.

After feeding for the morning, I loaded a ton of tack. It started to rain just as I finished loading. I hopped my truck, got ready to take off and remembered I had no windshield wiper fuse. Thank goodness I still have my trusty ole Buck Truck. As the skies opened up and it began to pour I transferred 7 loads of tack and other materials I was using to present, from one truck to the other. Soggy and grumpy, I got into my truck and headed for Lowell Elementary. My mood quickly dissolved because when I arrived the sweetest boy was there to help me trudge everything to the classroom, where I was to present for the day.

I spent the day talking to some 400 4th and 5th graders from area schools about tack and about my job as a rodeo queen. One of my favorite parts of presenting, is giving the kids a chance to ask questions because it is so interesting to hear about what they don't understand. Questions such as: "Does the mouth  hurt them?" "What is that made out of?" "What happens when the horse starts bucking?" were all pretty common and then I was asked "Are you married?" I told them "no" and the boy says "oh well you should meet my friend Jordan Peterson." Thankfully there was another question before I could respond because I was at a loss for words!

The school librarian and teacher assistants were all very hospitable and supplied snacks, water and lunch for the volunteers. I also had the chance to meet Robert and his trick horse, Frosty. He was so impressive! At the conclusion of the day, I cannot help but to look back and think about all of the little girls who tell you they want a horse. While most of the kids seemed to be interested, there are some that I can pick out that have the biggest stars in their eyes. Horse Tales is such an enlightening program and I am so priveleged to be a part of!

Horse Tails, Horse Tales and other Tales

Last week, I read an article on the front page of the Northwest Arkansas Times about a program called Horse Tales for Literacy. It is a program designed to encourage students to read and get them excited by allowing them a hands on opportunities. Find out more by going to: http://horsetalesliteracy.org/

After reading it, I knew I wanted to get involved so I got in touch with those in charge and soon found myself at the front door of Harp Elementary in Springdale, Arkansas. At Harp I was placed at a station that talked about the uses of horses around the world, specifically divided between work horses and recreational horses. Can you guess what my section was?? You got it, recreational = rodeo! I spoke to 4th grade students from Harp, Lee, George and Jones elementary school about the 6 events in rodeo that use horses and briefly described each. The time was a bit restraining on how much elaboration I could do but nonetheless, I great way to introduce kids to the sport and promote my rodeo. I was sure to mention Rodeo of the Ozarks, since it's in their hometown. When beginning the presentation, we ask the kids, "Can anyone name some uses of horses?" One student exclaimed "To eat them!" another quickly and seriously retorted, "no, that is illegal." I'm thankful I didn't have to address that one much, I quickly diverted by saying that here in the U.S. we do not because we consider horses to be a companion animal but they do have many important uses...

This morning I was at Bayarri Elementary and stati

oned at the grooming/ shoeing area. The kids have a journal of questions that they are supposed to filling out as the rotate stations. In this group, I was able to speak more and the kids seemed to enjoy it more because of the hands on factor. I had a table of grooming utensils set up and briefly told the kids about the most important ones while letting them touch each one. Some of the comments and questions asked were very interesting because they ask things that a horse person, never thinks twice about. Thankfully, when preparing to run for Miss Rodeo of the Ozarks, I had a great support team (especially my boyfriend) who helped prepare to answer questions on the spot. I can attribute my ability to think quick because of the pop up questions he would ask me and I would rattle of an answer in a heartbeat. After giving the students a run down of grooming, we split them up into two lines and each child got to brush a horse several times then pass it to the next person. While they were brushing, I asked them if they had any other questions about horses or about me. By the second part of the day, I though I'd heard it all when the ultimate question was asked, "How do you tell if it's a boy or a girl?" A quick wave of panic probably swept over my face but all day I had been relating horses to the kids so my response, "just like you boys and girls have different body parts, so do horses. If you look underneath them, you can tell the difference." In another group, we some extra time so I asked if they had questions about me. One question turned into another and one student asked to touch my belt buckle so I let her... bad choice because if you let one, the rest of them have too as well. As if that wasn't a lesson learned, another kid wanted to see my crown so I squatted down to let him see it. And... you guessed it, all of them had to see it. The result? My leg workout for the day was one really long squat!




I had such a great time, not only working with kids, but getting to know the kind people behind hosting such a spectacular opportunity. Jacci Perry and the team presented me with the sweetest box of gifts in order to thank me for helping but in reality, no thanks is needed because it was such a rewarding time. I look forward to the next Horse Tales for Literacy events in Bentonville and Rogers around March or April.

Hope everyone is staying warm!