Right Where You Want Me To Be...

I've competed in a numerous amount of competitions. From horse shows, to sporting events, to pageants, and Sire Stake finals. All of them resulting in one common thing. Nerves. Ive sat and felt the nerves of wanting that blue ribbon, I've watched the score board and hoped for the best, I've stood on stage with my heart beating in my ears praying they call my name. But none of those moments can compare to last Saturday night.

Over the course of the year we have 5 legs of the sire stakes. Depending on how many eliminations they have for each leg you have to be in the top three horses of the eliminations to make the $75,000 final that follows after each elimination. You have to make it in those finals to get points to allow you in the big $220,000 super final.

We ended up in a few of those finals, placed well in them and made it into the top ten of the points. Which meant we were in the Super Final! We were very excited. Now it was time to make sure she was 100% ready.

She had a three week break before her last three races, which consisted of an elimination one week, a $75,000 final the next, and finally the super final. So these next three weeks were crucial. She was 3rd in the elimination, 5th in the $75,000 final, and now the super final was upon us.

To say my nerves were shot is by far an understatement. I woke up at 4:30 am to excited to really sleep (still think my nerves just weren't allowing me!) I headed to the barn to make sure all of her stuff was ready and packed for detention. That day we had to be at Hoosier Park by 10 am for early detention. Which meant I had a long day of thinking about this race!

Well lets push this story ahead. I spent the day in front of her stall, watching netflix, and constantly fidgeting around. Goose on the other hand spent her day eating and sleeping. By 4:30 everyone was starting to make their way into the paddock to get their horses ready for warm up.

4:30 was when Goose was awake and incredibly active in her stall. She knew what time it was and she was getting pumped. She was squealing, kicking, and bucking around her stall. It was race day and she was letting us know she was ready.

Now me on the other hand it just increased my anxiety. I got her harnessed up with shaky hands and my heart beating in my chest. You may ask "Lexi, why in the hell were you freaking out?" Well I'll answer that in a minute but back to the story......

So she warmed up great and before you know it, it was race time. We hooked her to the race bike, i told Sam to go for the gold, and off they went to the track. It was officially out of our hands and all trust was in God and in Sam to pilot her around the track.

Mike and I went our separate ways as we always do when we've raced in sire stakes. He went to the paddock and i sat outside on the light pole and watched.

They marched to the gate and i bowed my head. My heart beat was in my ears and i heard Alexa walk up and watch the race with me. She sat with me and told me how the race was going. Sam had ducked off and landed 8th. I looked up to confirm what she had said. First Quarter in 27.2. I kept telling myself that was okay. They got to the half in 56.1 and Sam pulled her, coming with cover. He was sitting third in the outer flow. I sat silently as Alexa just kept encouraging me. Telling me it was looking good.

Here's Goose. Shes 5th, shes 4th, shes third. "Yes, shes gonna at least go to the spit box." I remember telling Alexa. The tv announcer, Steve Cross is talking about Hah ChaChaCha who's currently in the lead and Rock Me Gorgeous who's coming with the upset. But Goose is still surging and before i know it I'm screaming and jumping. Telling Goose to go, to leave it all out there. Steve Cross is saying "its Rock Me Gorgeous who takes command", and then " its Gooses Weedie. Gooses Weedie gets by for the win in 1:54.4"

But all i heard is her name as she crosses the wire and I have just fallen over in tears. Alexa is there hugging me and telling me congratulations. But i cant figure out what just happened and shes telling me go to the van. At this point Mike is running out of the paddock just on cloud nine. So i of course run to the van and we head to meet our girl in the winners circle.

We get out of the van and as we wait for her to make her way to us i run and hug my mom who had come to cheer us on. I pull away and look around to see so many familiar faces. (Some apparently didn't get in the photo with us! lol Hello at that moment everyone is invited!) I run up to catch Goose and we make our way in the circle, so many people telling us congrats. Some familiar and some strangers, but I still cant grasp what is going on!

We take our picture and I'm off to take her to the spit box while they interview mike. And here i am in the spitbox on cloud nine. Because we knew she go do it and she did it.

So to answer that question from a minute ago. I was so nervous because i wanted this so bad for our owner and for mike. If you havent been tuning in we had a horse that mike and i just simply adored. She was also a sire stake horse, and a good one at that. But she died last year from west nile. And nothing was the same after that.

So to go for there to here has been a huge blessing. To see Mike that happy and the owners excited was just an amazing feeling. It was an amazing blessing. I had sat there time and time again and asked God when things would get better and questioned why we lost our mare. But while i was in the spit box, no joke a verse popped in my head i had seen only days earlier.

"The pain that you've been feeling can't compare to the joy that's coming." -Romans 8:18

And how right that verse was. We went through some tough trials. But God certainly saw us through all those times. So if your going through any tough times. If your feeling lost, broken, alone. I tell you this God is always there. He is always with you. You may not feel like things are going the right way. But I promise you this, they will get better. You will get there!

Proverbs 3:5 says "Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

I promise you God truly does have a wonderfully beautifully made plan for each of us. Just trust in Him!

Before i sign off a special thank you to our familys, Charlie and Nancy Kline for sticking by us, Sam Widger for taking such great care of our girl each start, for Marcus and all his warm up pep talks, the miller stable for being our converse family and cheering us on, to Ryan Welch and his family for always encouraging us and wishing us luck even though we faced off each week. To Mariah and Alesha who helped grab all my things for the spit box and their sweet words, Alexa for being my moral support during the race, and to everyone else that sent us text messages, phone calls, and facebook comments. You all have been truly amazing and we are so blessed to know each one of you.

Thanks for reading and remember...

<3 Jesus is the Wayy!! <3