Welcome To The Trophy's Page

Welcome
To

The Appaloosa Saga continues
Down Memory lane page 6

Yea, it's Trophy time. This is some of the trophies that the boys won for that year. All the ribbons aren't shown here...

Picture #1 This is Eric receiving his all around reserved high point youth award in the 9yrs. old and under class. Presentation being made by Miss Nan Tippin

Picture #2 This is Jimmy receiving his all around reserved high point youth award in the 10 to 13 yrs old class. Presentation being made by Miss Nan Tippin.

Picture #3 This is Eric, Jimmy, and Scott with Miss Nan standing behind some of the year end award trophies.. Miss Nan is holding her Awards Plaque of Excellence she received from the Blue Grass Appaloosa Horse Club...

Picture #4 This is Jimmy, Eric, and Scott behind the year end award table...

Picture #5 This is Scott, Eric, and Jimmy sitting at the kitchen table of the old house about half was through the show season featuring some of the trophies that they had won so far.

Picture #6 This is Eric, Jimmy, and Scott sitting in front is our trophy display wall in the old house. I would like to mention that the shirts that they were wearing were hand made by their grand ma {my mom}. Pretty nifty shirts huh? Well, this picture is special in that it is the one used to tell about the boys in the Hopkinsville and Todd Co. news papers. This is the account of the Hopkinsville News paper....

"Eric, Scott, and Jimmy Keeling sit in front of the trophies they brought home from the Bluegrass Horse Club banquet which recently was conducted in Elizabethtown. Eric and Jimmy both claimed state championship trophies in their age classes.... The paper goes on to say; "Keelings Take State Title." Eric and Jimmy Keeling of the Bar-K-Ranch, near Allegre, each won state titles this past year in riding events sponsored by the Bluegrass Horse Club. The championship trophies were awarded during the club's banquet in Elizabethtown early in December.

Eric, riding Circle of Honey, a Joker JV bred mare, claimed high point totals in poles and barrels to take the state tile in both events of his age group. He also was the reserve grand champion for the 9-under class.... Older brother, Jimmy, also brought home some state championship hardware in the poles, barrels, and Western riding competition. Additionally, he was the reserve grand champion in the 10-13 class. Jimmy rode Little Miss McCue, a 7-year-old Appaloosa which is the daughter of Cloudy McCue and 11 time national pole and barrel champion......

Scott Keeling, the middle brother received an appreciation trophy at the banquet for his help in working the shows throughout the state. The boys are the sons of Mr. and Mrs. James Keeling of Bar-K- Ranch". In the Todd Co. Paper it read; "Horsing Around", "Horse Sense---Eric Keeling {Left} and Jimmy Keeling, of Allegre pose with the riding trophies they've won this season. Both won the barrel riding and pole riding championships of the Bluegrass Appaloosa Horse Club. Jimmy also captured the Western Riding, High Point Youth title. In addition both earned Reserve Grand Champion crowns. Altogether they won seven state titles."

THIS IS JUST ANOTHER LITTLE FUNNY HORSE STORY ABOUT THE BOYS AN ME!

Have you ever played tag? Probably, but I'll bet you haven't played it quite like the boys and I play tag. These are the rules; First you must disk up the riding arena and then make a figure 8 with the disk and then disk one time around the outside edge of the arena. You must then put a shovel or two of fresh, soft dirt into a burlap hundred pound bag. No rocks are allowed.

The idea is to keep your horse in the figure 8 or outside disked area. No cutting across, as this is not fair and it will prompt all competitors to beat you with their sacks of dirt. One person is deemed it and he must tag one of the other riders with his bag of dirt and then that rider becomes it. This process is carried out until everyone is completely exhausted or a set time runs out. One corner of the arena it designated a safety zone so that horse and rider may rest and get a breather. It is a night game so as not to over heat the horses and good lighting is recommended.

Now that I laid out the ground rules let's play.....Well, the first time that the boys and I played this homemade game was quite a site. We often times played cowboys and Indians in the fields and the horses new it was a fun time and they would get all excited. Our horses loved to play games and were usually up to anything that came their way. But being something new was a bit scary to them. I can imagine them thinking. `Just why were we carrying this bag of dirt around and why can't we go anywhere we want to in the arena? I think that I will stick my head up and look around and see just what my master is up to now.'

And so for the first little bit the horses would raise their heads up and try to figure just what was going on. LOL It didn't take long because the first time you missed you the one riding and tagged the horse along side the head with that bag of dirt sure did wake him up. [chuckle out loud] sorry, can't help it, every time I think about how after a little while all the horses were running around with their noses next to the ground just cracks me up....I am here to tell you that I have knocked those boys right out of their saddle and off of the back of the horse.

This was a rough game! I have even had them double team me and slide me out of the saddle but never completely off of my horse. LOL... This is a great, clean, well maybe not so clean, but fun game and I would recommend it to any one who has horses.. It is rough but not dangerous but you will need a horse that is ridden very regularly and not only knows you but trust you... Otherwise you might get thrown...Other than that i can't recall a time of any of us getting a bruise or getting hurt and the best part was it trained horse and rider to be in tune with each other without hurting either one.

I guess that the only one that it hurt was Connie, when the 4 of us would come in lookin like dirt balls, all sweaty and smellin like we belonged in the barn. Our clothes were all the same color (smile), and you can guess what that was right? Yep, a lovely shade of brown. Back then we ran about 10-15 head of horses and most of the time there were 8-10 people riding in that arena, counting all the neighbor kids. Those were great days and I sure do miss them.

I hope that you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me.....

Song is; "The Wayward Wind"
Sung by; Slim Whitman

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