Mercy Came A Runnin'

2.

Now, again, this story is about Mercy, not Chip, Coco or any other horses involved. These others are, however, very important as to how Mercy came into my life.

My parents saw how I wanted to run barrels, and bought me a $2,000, 22 year old, blue roan gelding. Aka Coco.

Coco wasn't very fast, but he knew his job and did it well. Coco and I became very close. He taught me what it was like to run barrels and poles, and because of him I'm a completely different rider than I was before him.

People talk about how they train horses to do things, but my horse trained me. I will value what he taught me for the rest of my life.

Coco gave me my first taste of what competing in rodeo was like. All we went to was the little britches rodeos during the summer. So, basically about every Friday night we would be running barrels, poles, and straights at a little series close to home. Now, Coco wasn't a fast horse by any means, but he very rarely had an unclean run. That horse had a magic hoof, I swear. He'd always land you in the money, or at least with some points.

Coco majorly boosted my confidence. And he also took me from a beginner rider to an intermediate one. But as he taught me, I began to out grow him. I learned all I could from my sweet old man, and I needed a new horse to learn from.

Maybe that's the downside of learning to ride. Out growing your favorite horses can be heartbreaking. I loved riding Coco, but I knew in order to become a better rider, I needed a new horse.

Even though I knew this, I didn't look for a new horse. I kept to myself for over a year and just kept riding my old CocoMo Joe.

I would, about once a week, go ride with my moms cousin, Sherri. Sherri is a (nearly) pro barrel racer. She knows more about the sport than I'll probably ever be able to comprehend. She's one of the best.

Sherri helped me learn to ride Coco, she was there every step of the way, since I bought him until she wanted me to step up from him.

When Sherri wanted me to move up, she made sure it happened.