Mercy Came A Runnin'

4.

I kept going to see Mercy at Sherri's for a little while. My parents bought her at some point but we didn't bring her home until a little while after they did, because everything had to be set up PERFECTLY at home for my new expensive horse.

While Mercy was at Sherri's I went to see and ride her pretty often. Each time I'd put her back in her pen she'd follow me down the fence line and neigh at me when I left. She couldn't stand the fact I was leaving her.

Well, I finally got to bring her home. On the ride home, in the trailer Mercy somehow scraped her face a little bit. She never failed to get hurt! She was always scraping up her face and her legs... The poor girl. She should've been wrapped up in bubble wrap 24/7.

A few days after bringing her home, the sheriff was at our house, due to some strange kid flying a drone around, but that's irrelevant. He walked over to the pen Mercy was in and she was so excited to see him. She trotted up to the fence and wouldn't leave him alone until he pet her.

As the weeks passed, all Mercy and I did was practice and practice. Eventually we got to go to a barrel race where we exhibitioned, and totally failed. We knocked ALL of the barrels!!! Every single one of them!! My knees still have scars.

But that failure just made us work harder and harder. At our first real barrel race we ran a 15.9! Buuuuut we knocked the first barrel. We kept working hard though. Never quit trying.

We started hitting barrel races every weekend. Doing better and better together. But still not making our best times. We would either make a clean run too slow, or knock a barrel going too fast.

We just weren't clicking.