Six Weeks and Counting...

The fair and band camp are over so now we can re-focus on our horses. In six weeks N will compete at the State 4H Gymkhana show. S will compete in the BHSA (local series of shows) Fall Finale. Same weekend, same day. I've already made plans for someone to take S to her show. That's easier than asking someone to take N half way across the state. I will be doing that. I imagine my cell phone bill that day will be rather large as S will be given a cell phone and instructions to call me after each event.

On my palm I have all our workouts mapped out. With the heat wave that has hit the middle of our country, we have to be early birds. Yesterday we were home by eleven am, but realized it was too hot - we'd have to get up earlier. Today we were riding before eight, and off before ten.

Our workouts consist of exercises that the girls learned at camp, and once a week a run through the barrels and poles. On Sunday I dragged our arena for the first time since I was awarded the area. It is a very nice sandy knoll in the midst of a hay field. Sadly the cows also are in the field, so we end up with manure piles and cow diggings. The cows love the sand and like to kick up sand on their backs, creating holes.

Our schedule today called for a nice, long, lazy, trail ride. It's about 5.5 miles around our block through woods, houses, hills and valleys. The horseflies are bad this time of year, so whenever we go through woods we work at swatting the bugs off the horses ears. We've found trail riding gives the horses something else to focus on besides just drills and helps us all relax. The more trail rides we can squeeze in a week the calmer the horses are at a show.

I don't have any recent pictures of the horses, so here, for your viewing pleasure, is a picture of our neighbor girl H. She is just eight years old, and this is her first year showing swine at the fair.




I, personally, can't sit at a swine show with out laughing. It just amuses me so!