I took a big swing and went for a home run…. I had a horse that could play pretty hard and it looked good, but we fumbled.

Oh well, we’ll play again in the derbies. But the good news is that I made the finals, and so did Sarah!

I have to say that having achieved the Million Dollar NRHA milestone made a difference: I really felt the freedom to try hard to win, take the risks, and accept the outcome. I’ll do it again. There’s more personal reward to approaching the show ring that way than playing safe. I know that if I’d backed off and played it safe, I probably would have ended up with a high enough score to make the top 10, but I wanted to try to win the whole thing.

Of course, I was lucky to have an owner who shares the same point of view!

We bought some nice horses that I’d seen before the sale. I wouldn’t be willing to take the risk in buying a horse that I hadn’t looked at carefully beforehand–the previews and demos can be deceiving. We got some good deals, too! But, while the economy is down, a good horse is always a good investment and they do hold their value.

We’re leaving Texas for New York tomorrow with several 2 year olds and I”m excited to create, build, and see what we can do.

The new facility of Santa Hall Ranch is almost finished… it’ll be exciting to move into our new facility, although I like everyone at the current barn and will miss seeing them every day. The good news is that there will be 3 major reining facilities within a mile or so of each other. Maybe we should change the name from
Campbell Hall to Whitesboro.

Let it Rein…Craig