Pool Noodle Pickup With Bishop

I gave Bishop a pat. Stella was beside me, Rose and Zoey squirming in her arms. “Hey, why don’t you have Haisley help you while I run Bishop?” I asked. Stella rolled her eyes. “Rowan, I’ll be fine. You have fun on her.” Stella said, nodding to Bishop. I chuckled, Bishop is a very competitive horse, so as long as I was able to keep up we’d be just fine. 

I hopped onto Bishop. She was tacked up with a western saddle and a bitless bridle. I had a cowboy hat on and white tank top. We walked over to the starting line, Bishop kicked the sand as we went. I leaned close to her ears. “It’s not a competition.” I reminded her. Bishop gave no indication that she heard or understood what I said. The man waiting at the starting line grabbed Bishop’s bridle. “Hi, I’m Dexter. Once the buzzer goes off, you and your horse will race in a straight line, attempting to pick up as many pool noodles as possible. You’ll circle the last barrel and head back, and try to pick up any noodles you missed. Any remaining noodles will have a time penalty. Any questions?” Dexter explained. “Nope! I think we’re good.” I said. “Alright. Keep her as still as possible until the buzzer goes off.” Dexter said, and pointed to a white line in the sand. “Your horse’s legs can’t pass that line before the buzzer goes off otherwise you’ll be disqualified.” Dexter noted. I nodded. 

I held Bishop’s reins tight. She tried to squirm around but I managed to keep her fairly still. I heard an announcer. “A new contestant is trying the pool noodle game!” They announced. I heard a buzzer, and urged Bishop to go forward. Bishop lurched forward, whinnying as she picked up speed. The first barrel was coming up. I let the reins go in one hand, and reached over and successfully grabbed the noodle. “Woo!” I screamed. Bishop kept going, the second barrel approaching. We were a little far from the barrel so I had to lean over much further to grab the second noodle. Two down! Bishop kept her speed fairly constant. I had just enough time to grab one of the noodles with my other hand. I reached to grab the third noodle, and realized we were shifting further from the barrels. I missed it. “Damn it!” I whispered. I got control of the reins and encouraged Bishop to get closer to the barrels. The fourth barrel came up and I was able to easily grab the noodle. “Three down.” I sighed as the fifth barrel was coming up. I moved my leg so I could hold onto the pool noodles with my leg, so I could grab more noodles. I leaned over and grabbed my fourth noodle. Bishop was still running at the same speed, and now in more of a straight line. The last barrel was coming up. I braced myself, this would most likely be the hardest barrel. As we came parallel to it, I grabbed the noodle. Bishop then rounded the barrel pretty tightly. She exploded after the barrel with more speed. We passed one and two barrels rather quickly. Bishop’s speed was rather fast, and as I tried to lean over to grab the last noodle, I barely missed it. “Fuck!” I whispered as we passed the barrel. Bishop picked up a little more speed as we sped to the finish line. 

We flew past the finish line. I was so thankful that the arena didn’t come to a hard stop with a wall or something. It was a white line painted in a square, so when we went over it, it wasn’t that big of a deal. “Hoo.” I soothed and pulled back on the reins. Bishop eventually slowed down, and we circled back to the arena. “That was fast! And you were so close to getting the last pool noodle!” Dexter said happily. I chuckled. “Yeah we did come pretty close.” I said, giving Bishop a pat on the shoulder. I handed over the five noodles I had collected. “Thank you guys for hosting this event, it’s a lot of fun.” I said, pretty happy with how me and Bishop did, considering Bishop isn’t a barrel slash western horse at all. “Yeah. Do you want to know your time?” Dexter asked. “Ooo sure!” I said, and gave Bishop another pat. “So without the additional twenty seconds because of the pool noodle, your time was two minutes and thirty four seconds! With the pool noodle penalty your time was two minutes and fifty four seconds, but still really good!!” Dexter answered. “Thank you!” I said, and went out to where the ocean met the sand to cool off Bishop.