Haytrucker: I had tongue in cheek a little bit there on re-training the mare. She is very exciting and a lot of fun to ride. I have noticed however that arena riding is different than pasture riding, or perhaps more to the point: everyone likes something a little different in a horse. She is very sensitive and easy to train, so I can fix the little things that need fixing.
We were very pleased with her performance at the World Show. If you are interested in the results, I don't want to re-hash it all again here, but you might check out my story in "Horses & Dogs" entitled "We went to the World Show and now we're back". It's about three fourths towards the bottom of the page by now. Thanks for asking!
nr: I've always thought that us ranch folks have a "certain" look to us even though people are basically the same all across the country. When I'm watching the news on TV, I'll occasionally see a guy in a business suit who appears to me that he'd look natural in a western shirt & hat, but most do not. It's funny though, they are always Republicans. Now, I didn't mean to start anything with that!!