The story of "Spoon"

In mid 2000 we decided I needed a new horse. The one I had was a GREAT pole horse but a 2-d/3-d barrel horse, and that just wasn't going to cut it at the rodeos. We run across a ad in a local assoc. newsletter and decide to look at the horse at the next barrel race. The lady that owned the horse had Chad Crider run her that night and they ended up 2nd. I rode the horse around after the barrel race and it was love at first ride! But we wanted to run the horse before we bought it. She took it to a local arena for me to run at a little Jackpot and we set the arena record, but the lady wanted me to make another run on her to make sure it was going to work out. We had a assoc. show the next weekend at another arena. I once again climbed on Spoon and out ran everyone by 4 tenths and set another arena record. She was the fastest thing I had ever sat on and by far the wildest thing I had ever run. She would sidepass down the alley till we were almost at the mouth of it, turn and take off wide open. It felt like she never slowed down, she would dive down at the barrels turn back and be gone again. But I hung with her and never got behind her so we bought her.

After we got her we started going to the UPRA rodeos in 2001. It seemed for the first 3 months it didn't matter where we went or who was there we were first or 2nd as long as I sat up there and rode her right, although there was quiet a few down barrels with her style. After that she got hurt in the pasture and we turned her out for a month, then we were back again for a few months. Then she got hurt again, once again we had to turn her out by the time I get back on her it is September and after a few runs she started running up the fence. After spending THOUSANDS at the vet injecting, x-rays, ultrasounds, blocks ect. We took her to Los Colinas vet clinic in Dallas,Tx to have a bone scan done. It revealed that she had calcification over the tendons on her right hock that they could not remove due to it was on the tendons. So she no longer has as much mobility as in her other leg and couldn't reach as far, but that wasn't career ending thankfully! But it also revealed that her heels had been turned under on her front feet and they had were now pressing on her foot causing severe bruising and corns, and breaking the bars in her feet.

We had to drive 65 miles one way every 4 weeks to have her correctivly shoed, and couldn't ride her for 6 months while this was corrected. After we got it corrected it was still in her mind. I then started running her to the left for 3 years off and on. Then my sisters horse got hurt the end of 2005, we tried other horses but mid 2006 she needed something else to ride and I was mainly riding Jet. So she climbed aboard and started winning on her. They ended up winning the saddle for the Real Cowboys assoc. Jrs. that year. She even smoked all of us in the open one time.
We came home from the RCA finals in 06 and turned the horses out at the gate like we always do. Except this time something was diffrent. As soon as we turned her loose she circled the trailer twice in a run and then her and the other horses were off in a run for the house. The only problem with this was they were running towards a closed gate, that had been closed for months. We figured they would stop like they always do but we couldn't see them as it was around midnight and of course dark outside. Then all of a sudden we heard a crash. Spoon had tried to jump the gate at the last second I guess and ended up catching the top rail of it. She hit it so hard she pulled it away from the henges along with pulling the t-post halfway out of the ground that it was chained too. This resulted in strained/stretched tendons but no tears and fluid build up in both front legs. All we could do was treat it and turn her out. After 7 months she was moving around the pasture great, so I started riding her. All would go well until you loped her 3-4 minutes then she would start limping so back to the vet we go. It is now September 07 and the vet decided to split the tendon in her ankle on both front legs due to the fluid was causing her ankles to lock up when getting warm. The end of October we made our first run back. I ran her, along with taking turns with my sister running her in 08. She was 10th in the 1-d of the first go of the Texas NBHA show in July. After doing so well there I entered her in the WBR race in Waco,Tx Memorial day weekend. While warming her up she tripped and took a nose dive with her front right leg out in front of her. When she came back up she was limping. After walking around awhile she seemed fine so I tried to make my run on her, but back up the fence we went. She had strained her tendons in her right leg. So she was once again turned out from September 08 till January 09. She is now being legged up once again, but is mainly just the "pony horse" for Jet and Shorty at the barrel races and ponies Jet at the house.