100 percent SUPER results for our horses at the Double A Horseshow

Yesterday was a fabulous day for us at the Double A show. Amy rode Ittybit in Schooling Hunter, along with me on Winston and Jenna on Rusty. (Rusty is pictured here with me at Dalton a couple of weeks ago...) All three horses were perfect and Jenna got third with me fourth. We all did the same class because it was a huge show and we were afraid if we waited until the end of the day for jumpers that it would rain and we wouldn't get to ride! Anyway, in the jumpers I turned the tables on miss Jenna! Monty and I were third and Jenna fourth! Monty and Rusty flew round the course cutting their corners like pros and Amy got two sixths with Itty who was switching his leads like a made hunter horse!!!! Trudy cleaned up and won just about everything in the afternoon. Olivia got a championship (Basic Hunter) on a very tired and well hehaved Nick who has been schooled twice a day all week and promised not to misbehave in the future! Nola schooled Sam who was perfect.

A nice sunny day...

Nola, Jenna, Amy and I got to ride in the rare sun at a beautiful private farm today. We got to go schooling at a gorgeous farm near Over The Hill Farm. All our horses improved and worked hard under Trudy's direction. It was so nice to be in a group schooling situation that WAS NOT a show! We really got some new stuff under our belts. Anyway, Mike is on his way home from his trip to Arizona so Shane will be happy. Wonder if it will be sunny again tomorrow???

Getting busier...have had no time to write!!!

The last few weeks have been hectic...lots of rain, mud, horses coming in and out and both Nola and I doing horseshows. This weekend was supposed to be the Dessin horseshow but it's been mysteriously cancelled so we get a break of sorts. Mike is chomping at the bit to cut hay but after two weeks of torrential thunderstorms, with another WEEK of rain forecast, he is being forced to wait. I'm nursing a smashed finger which has finally improved this morning after four painful days. All horses are good...Monty is going better than ever and likes his new farrier Brian who has helped his stride a lot. Tuffy is amazing...I rode him yesterday after almost two weeks off and he's just the same. He's very clever and learns fast but he still feels like a two year old under saddle. I may do some shows with him later in the year. Rusty blew away the warmbloods at the Dalton schooling show last weekend and proved he's the best all around horse ever! Now we go to the Double A horseshow with him and Monty to do jumpers on June 28th with Jenna riding Rusty. Doc is still out in the field at home...doesn't seem to care that he is alone. Lexie has a cut on her neck from where I accidentally cut her with the scissors getting her ear mats out. The vet glued it and it is healing. Big oops!

Feeling philosophical...

Sometimes I really struggle to understand human relationships...People get so caught up in arguments and 'he said, she said' that the cause of the conflict in the first place becomes forgotten. We all deal with it differently and I don't deal with it well at all. I think I might become a hermit and live in a cave with my animals. After days like today I lean on them...just to see Lexie curled up on the back seat as I drive home is a comfort. I find solace in the sight of Doc swishing his tail and eating grass without a care in the world. Does that make me a crazy cat (or horse) lady? Maybe, but each to their own!

Back from the Cook Forest...

Yes we've been back for a week...but it's been too busy to write. Mike, Amy and I had a relaxing trip and lots of good rides with Rusty, Dunson and Ittybit. The weather was great and the food as good as ever. Today I signed us up for Direct TV as our one channel has finally failed us. It's been like camping here in the evenings...with no TV we've been sitting on the porch, Rita's been gardening and Mike and I have been cooking together and even reading! He's done more yardwork in the last week than in the four years I've lived here! Or is it five?! We'll be married five years on August 2nd so it's five. Perhaps I shouldn't get the TV after all...Anyway, today is Memorial Day and we've been chilling out at home and enjoying a relaxing day. Yesterday's horse show was tiring, as the new horse I was riding decided to pull my arms out. It wasn't just him though...a lot of horses were overly fresh. I actually really like this one...he's talented and usually very quiet. Alright, Mike wants to go food shopping now so I'd better go...where did this new husband of mine come from!!!!

Monty does fantanstic...in a HUNTER, not a jumper class!

Wehad a good weekend manning the farm by ourseleves while Nola, 12 horses and a bevey of boarders, clients and helpers attended the Dillgberg show. We had OK weather and did some spring cleaning and had some good rides. Then yesterday I made a late decision to go to the NPHA opener show to do some fences with Monty. Birchtown's new second arena is up and running so it was nice to be able to wait inside to take your turn. The judge was Wendy Chapot, who I believe is frank's daughter, or at least a close relative. I knew things were looking up when she placed Monty second only to Trudy and Thunder in his flat class. The We did Working Hunter and he put in the round of his life and took third to Trudy again. I was thrilled with him and had a really relaxing afternoon. Showing Monty is always a blast because there's no stress...he's just an angel!

We need water! The hunter pace hits 90 degrees!

Amy, Angie and I had a great time at the hunter pace at Bucks County Horse Park. The course was almost eight miles and baking hot, and we ended up on our knees drinking from a stream halfway through! The horses were great (Itty and Azi have the Arabian trait of being imervious to heat!) and Rusty got to jump a ton of cross country fences, including some of the bigger ones. The heatwave continues, and today found me shampooing Doc outside his stall here at the house. When he was all clean and cool I turned him loose to graze for a minute while I went to get the scissors to give him his Spring haircut. When I came out of the house there he was rolling in the newly rototilled garden!!! Of course when I approached him he took off round the garden and dropped and rolled again, before spotting an escape route and galloping off through the brush in the lower field into the woods (there's no fence, and we back onto thousands of acres of private land!). I could hear him crashing around and sure enough, he came thundering back up through the garden, leaving huge footprints before stopping on the lawn to graze. I finally managed to catch him and found myself caked in dirt as the sweating, mud covered brat shook himself all over me!