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Busy, busy week here. Today was the opening day of the first horse show of the summer over at Thunderbird; it's one of the really big jumper shows, with people and horses coming from BC, Alberta, and from as far away as California, Oregon and Washington states. It's huge..over 400 horses. It's very exciting, and lots of fun. We're discovering the Jumper shows are a very different feel than the Dressage shows; it seems a lot more friendly and relaxed, less (to put it politely) uptight. Not sure what makes it so different, but it's nice. Part of it is that with jumping, it's obvious whether the horse did well or not; the jumps stay up, or fall down, and that's that. In dressage, it's so much more subjective, as a judged sport, so what I think my horse deserves may be a lot different from what the judge sees. We're getting a big thrill out of being at this show. Goldie is doing the lower heights right now; 0.75 metres, but the course is very twisty and full of distractions, so for a young horse it can be quite challenging. She did super today, the first class of her show; she smoked the course, left all the jumps up, and was second in a class of 27! She was beaten by a pony who did the course in 51.7 seconds compared to Goldie's 52.7. (Jack was so proud, but was heard to mutter, "damned pony, can't beat her!"...the last show we went to Goldie was beaten by a pony by less than a second.) Goldie has a lovely blue ribbon hanging on her stall door this evening, and we're hoping for more.
The classes start at 8 a.m., so I was up at 5:15 this morning so I could get out to Thunderbird by 7:30. It's almost an hour's drive for me, not far from the farm. I'm not a morning person at the best of times, so it was a bit of an effort, but I didn't want to miss it. We were done by 8:30 a.m., and Sue and I had time to wander around the grounds while Jack took Goldie for grass. Then I drove over to the farm so I could help Kelly put the boys out, and clean the stalls. There's so much to do when a horse is showing, and there's so much to do at the farm, so it's all hands on deck. It's hard work, but it's fun! I mean, this is what we do it all for, to have our horses out there, showing and doing what they were born to do. When they do well, it is just so incredibly satisfying.
It's been busy at the farm, too. In preparation for building the new barn, we have to clear the manure pile from behind the old hay barn, and it's a huge job. The contractor who is going to build the new barn has dump trucks and an excavator and was there all day yesterday; they took away I don't know how many loads, and all of a sudden there's flat ground where there used to be a huge manure mountain. It's been building there for about 5 years, so you can imagine how much there was. I would love to save some of the lovely stuff at the bottom of the pile for my garden....it's just beautiful, rich loamy soil now. We have another pile in the field, too. While the men were working yesterday a farmer walked up the drive to ask if he could have some of the manure..we told him to help himself, by all means. It's not like we don't have an endless supply of the stuff. Getting rid of it is a big issue.
We got all the work done and the horses in for dinner by 3p.m. and just in time..I ran out of steam right around then. Driving home I kept yawning and feeling like I really just needed a nap, like I'd been up for hours and hours. Oh, wait, I had been.
Tomorrow morning I get to do it all again. OMG. 5:15 is awfully early.
Got to force myself to go to bed early..not that that's going to be a problem, I'm nodding off already.
At least the weather is co-operating so far. It was a perfect day today, sunny but not hot. There is rain on the way, though, hopefully not a lot. The show goes on, rain or shine.
Keep your fingers crossed for Goldie tomorrow!
The classes start at 8 a.m., so I was up at 5:15 this morning so I could get out to Thunderbird by 7:30. It's almost an hour's drive for me, not far from the farm. I'm not a morning person at the best of times, so it was a bit of an effort, but I didn't want to miss it. We were done by 8:30 a.m., and Sue and I had time to wander around the grounds while Jack took Goldie for grass. Then I drove over to the farm so I could help Kelly put the boys out, and clean the stalls. There's so much to do when a horse is showing, and there's so much to do at the farm, so it's all hands on deck. It's hard work, but it's fun! I mean, this is what we do it all for, to have our horses out there, showing and doing what they were born to do. When they do well, it is just so incredibly satisfying.
It's been busy at the farm, too. In preparation for building the new barn, we have to clear the manure pile from behind the old hay barn, and it's a huge job. The contractor who is going to build the new barn has dump trucks and an excavator and was there all day yesterday; they took away I don't know how many loads, and all of a sudden there's flat ground where there used to be a huge manure mountain. It's been building there for about 5 years, so you can imagine how much there was. I would love to save some of the lovely stuff at the bottom of the pile for my garden....it's just beautiful, rich loamy soil now. We have another pile in the field, too. While the men were working yesterday a farmer walked up the drive to ask if he could have some of the manure..we told him to help himself, by all means. It's not like we don't have an endless supply of the stuff. Getting rid of it is a big issue.
We got all the work done and the horses in for dinner by 3p.m. and just in time..I ran out of steam right around then. Driving home I kept yawning and feeling like I really just needed a nap, like I'd been up for hours and hours. Oh, wait, I had been.
Tomorrow morning I get to do it all again. OMG. 5:15 is awfully early.
Got to force myself to go to bed early..not that that's going to be a problem, I'm nodding off already.
At least the weather is co-operating so far. It was a perfect day today, sunny but not hot. There is rain on the way, though, hopefully not a lot. The show goes on, rain or shine.
Keep your fingers crossed for Goldie tomorrow!
