Play Days in Texas

Hello Curly Friends,

I'm a Sand Hill Piedmont Carolina girl by birth and I grew up riding mostly English near Southern Pines; but, now that I call Texas home I am trying hard to learn Western riding and terminology. So when my girlfriend asked if I wanted to go to a Playday, I said sure.."sounds kinda elementary but I'm game". Well, folks, elementary it's not. I looked it up on the internet and Southern Texas Play Day website ( http://www.angelfire.com/tx/southerntexasplayday/) gives a good description.

What is a Playday? It is a combination of horse and rider timed events. There are usually four events at each playday: Poles, Cloverleaf Barrels, Straight-away Barrels, and an optional Jackpot Race. Riders can ride for fun or compete in the playday. Riders must compete in his/her age group/class to receive points. Points are awarded on the basis of the rider's finish/place. Riders accumulate points for each event that they compete in. At the end of each playday and Money/Saddle/Buckle series, winners in each age group will receive an ALL-AROUND award on the basis of his/her accumulated points.

Note...anything in Texas that involves a Belt Buckle is major competition. Now the folks there were real nice and their horse are really fast and big but I got a good chance to talk about our Curly Horses (no one knew about Curly Horses).

Still, I've decided to practice a wee bit more 'fore I venture out to compete in Playdays for one of those shiny Belt Buckles....

Your very elementary Curly Friend.,

Angie