The Futur(ity)

We had the opportunity to attend The Futurity for the first time this year.  Usually, it falls on a day/week/month when we are traveling (I know...stand back in shock).  But, this year it didn't.  Wondering if it has to do with a little one who is baking away in my belly. 

And since I know everyone knows what the Futurity is, I won't bore you with details.  Okay, I'm kidding.  We really had no clue what we were going to until we actually went.  It was a field trip of sorts and an extremely nice gentleman met with all of us to explain what we were actually going to see.  So, here's the lowdown that you can just skip if you already know what it is.

The Futurity is a week long cutting horse competition held every year in our town (okay, it's a city).  Cutting horses are trained to cut away a cow from a herd so that he/she can be treated, branded, or just looked over.  They were used primarily out west (which explains why I never heard of it.  I believe my granddaddy, daddy, and uncles just used a barricade of sorts to brand the cows...yes, my granddaddy was a cattle farmer and my uncle still is).  Anyway, while the cowboys were out on the "range" so to speak (I feel myself turning more country as I type), they got bored watching cows eat grass and whatnot.  So, they started competing to see who had the best cutting horse.  This naturally grew in to a big competition with big prizes.

Now, this is a horse competition.  So, what happens is, the cowboy or cowgirl rides in, picks out a cow from the herd and gets her singled out from the rest.  Then the cowboy or cowgirl relaxes her reins and the horse takes over.  And that's the amazing part, to see these majestic animals do what they are trained to do with little to no involvement from the rider.  It was also fun watching some of the riders because, well, some of them were big ol' boys!    Each horse gets about 2 minutes to cut away a cow.  And all of us totally loved it.  Mark swapped his regular off day to go with us and that was such a blessing!

Of course, our resident animal lover was beside himself!  Horses and cows everywhere.  He was saying "Horsie, Cow, Moooo!" almost the entire time. 

The John Deere tractors on display were a nice treat too.

 This is for my niece J, it was really neat to see several girls/women who were riding horses competing.  Their horses scored very well too!

 Still loving it!

*And since this was a field trip, most of these pictures were taken by the kids.  In all, they took over 100 including some of someone's shirt.  I pricked some of the best to share though.