Behind the Scenes at Horse Master: The One In Which I'm A Total Dork

If you've ever watched Horse Master with Julie Goodnight, you know that during each episode she does what's known as her "Quick Tips".  They're 15 - 30 second of bite-sized pieces of information.  At the end of the first day of shooting, we were ahead of schedule, so we decided to go ahead and film some Quick Tips and do some sponsor-related stuff.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm kinda in awe of Julie and her horses.  Dually and Digs have been on multiple magazine covers and are featured in her shows and articles.  To say I was a bit star-struck by her horses would be an understatement.

Julie decided that we'd use Dually for one of the Quick Tips - I don't even remember which one - and I got to hold him off-camera.  You would be surprised at how thrilled I was to just stand there and hold that silly horse while she was doing her bit on camera.  When we were finished, we went to the barn and I got a little one-on-one tutorial about how she sheets her horses.  I've never put a sheet or blanket or cover of any kind on a horse, but she was really patient and answered questions I had about it (not many - it's pretty straight forward, but I didn't want to screw up with one of her horses).  We used her husband's horse, Digs, for another Quick Tip and I got to hold him for that too.  I know it makes me a total dork for being so excited, but I know I'm careful about who handles Estes and she's just my mutt.  I was super honored to get to "handle" Dually and Digs.

A couple of days later, she asked me to pull Dually and get him tacked up for an episode in which she was going to be riding alongside the cast member.  Never have I ever been so happy to groom and tack a horse.  Again, I know how picky I am about who handles Estes and I rarely let anyone else tack her up for me.  Call me a control freak if you must, but I want to know that she's tacked up safely and correctly.