Belpre Horseback Show

Today, Sarah and I woke up at 5 am to travel down to Belpre, Ohio for a horseshow. As most of her shows go, we waited until around 2:30 in the afternoon for her to ride. This time she drew a wonderful horse named shifty. He behaved beautifully. After all the riders in her class performed the requirements the girls were asked to line up facing away from the judge so she could see the number on their back. There were 9 riders lined up. The announcer calls Sarah's number and asks her to walk forward. This has never happened before. We didn't know what to think. Sarah thought she was disqualified for some reason. Next the announcer requested all riders to Sarah's left start walking along the fence rail with Sarah. Suddenly all 9 riders started to go. These poor girls were so nervous they couldn't tell their right from their left. The coaches were yelling for them to stop and halt. It was quite amusing. The judge wanted to watch smaller groups so she could better assess their skills. I loved this idea. Anyway, when it was all said and done Sarah got a second place out of nine riders. Yeah!!!
We had a rather exciting day. One of her temamates (who seems to have a ton of bad luck) was going to jump over 2 foot fences. This girl had a great horse and they both looked great on the practice fences, but when she started over the first fence in competition the horse stutter stepped and she leaned to the left and couldn't recover. The stir-up on her left broke free as it is supposed to do and she fell. She landed very hard on the ground and hit the back of her head pretty hard. She wanted to re-ride because she thought it was an equipment malfunction but the judge said no. She was upset but it was for the better considering she hit her head. Thankfully there were 2 physicians to check on her. About an hour later she started to feel weird and lethargic so a squad was called to pick her up. We haven't heard the what the findings were.
Here are some videos from the show.

Computers are Cool!

Had a few extra minutes after lunch today so I thought I would look into how they do those cool photos where everything is black & white except for a few things. Thought it was pretty good for my first attempt even if the computer did do all the work.

(Click on image for larger version)

Cross Country Invitational

Sarah had her first cross country meet last night. We had been questioning whether or not she should run because she has been healing an injured foot. Her heel started to hurt last week again so we put her back into her walking boot and kept her out of cross country practice. Before the meet she was in minimal pain, but after she was in tears from the pain. She ran hard and finished the race but unfortunately this is her last meet for this year because of her heel. She didn't finish as well as she wanted and we didn't get a chance to check her final time. We need to keep her healthy for horseback riding because she has a HB compettion in 2 weeks. Here are some pictures.

New Patio

Well, we finally got our new front patio put in. So far we love it. A few months ago the basement started leaking and we had to rip out one of the walls. We thought it would be just a simple problem of basement waterproofing when in fact it was a soil grading issue outside. Anyway, after many recommendations, we decided that a cement patio would solve all the problems and give me the front porch I have always wanted. Now we have to decide how we are going to decorate our new outdoor space. The last thing to do is to put the basement back together which will be a good winter project. Brian and I have already decided that a condo after retirement is looking fabulous; no home projects. Here are some pictures of our new patio.

Horseback Show

This past Sunday Sarah had her first horseback show of the year. Once again we are faced with much frustration about the season. This is probably the only sport that we can think of where you pay a huge amount to participate and you get little return. Anyway, at the draw (which is a lottery to see what horse you will be riding in the show) Sarah randomly selected "Peter" and her good friend selected "Joey" who just happens to be one of our coaches horses. Sounds fair so far, huh? Sarah and her friend both know Joey very well. Sarah's group had 9 riders in it. That is to say one judge is evaluating all 9 riders at the same time. Sarah's horse was very spirited and difficult to keep under control. She had some difficulty but did a great job at controlling him. By the time Sarah showed it was 3 pm and all the horses were tired and irritated. BTW, we had been thre since 9:30am. We video taped Sarah and she looked great. Both Sarah and her friend made the same mistake and let their horses change gait. It just so happens that the judge only saw Sarah's mistake. When the results came up, we were bewildered. She placed 6th out of nine. Her friend placed first. Sarah was disappointed but happy for her friend. We are all frustrated with the system and chaos of the shows, however Sarah loves her horses so I think we are in it for a while. Here are some pictures of Sarah from the show.

Emily's Birthday

Wow, Emily is 9 years old. I can hardly believe that I have a third grader. Actually she is going on 21. She had some of her friends over on Saturday for a Webkinz party. We made clothes, hats, collars and beds for each webkin. The girls had a blast.

Labor Day Spontaneity

My husband never ceases to surprise me. He is so spontaneous that I have to be on my toes all the time just to keep up. Today is no exception. I sent him to the store for 2 items and what happened next should not have been a surprise to me. He came home with a disposable charcoal grill. How he found this and why our large new gas grill is not sufficient, I do not know. So off we went to Battelle-Darby creek park for a "cook-out". The park was very crowded but we found a little spot for our stuff. Brian lit up the little charcoal grill and got to cooking. About 45 minutes later our hamburgers were finished and we finally got to eat. The girls will remember this experience forever. They enjoyed all the bugs and dirt, not to mention the heat. Thankfully, we had no out of control fires and everyone returned home safely after we did a bit of creeking in the big darby. These pictures should tell it all.