more fair pictures

Anna winning 5th place in "Egg in Spoon" contest.

Alex competing in flags - Bubba is not a contesting horse, but she had fun trying. It is always fun to try to go as fast as you can, scary but fun. I think she may of won a ribbon in this event because all the really fast horses dropped the flag (slow and steady wins the race!).

She looks so beautiful in her English riding attire and Bubba is just as beautiful! They make a good team! Should we buy him?

A long week at fair!!!!!!! Maria was actually only with us 2 days but it was very tiring sitting around all day waiting for them to show. I looked over and she was asleep! Maybe it was more boring than tiring for her. She actually loves horses and I think she will follow in the girls footsteps and become a rider.

So where do we go from here? Our lease on Bubba is about up. I might be able to renew it and continue on with the girls training on him. He is such a good horse. Everyone at fair loved him and wanted to ride him. I really trust my girls on him. He rarely gets spooked and has bonded a lot with Alex. His big advantage is his jumping... boy can he jump! Since this is Alex's thing, I think sticking with Bubba might be the best thing. The owner has offered for us to buy him for a VERY good price. But with that comes the vet bills, farrier bills, etc.. I do not think we are in a position to do any more than we are doing. We have also been offered a different horse. A friend has one that she is keeping at her barn and would like Alex to have it. She would help us out with the bills as long as we feed it. Sounds like a good deal, but that means leaving our trainer, and no indoor arena to train at. Plus the horse is a little "green" meaning he needs some work to be show quality. Alex is very intrigued to take on this horse and work with it, but I do not know if I trust her to jump him. So we will see where the world of horses take us. All I do know is that God has always provided opportunities within our budget for my girls to ride. I know he will continue to do so in the future... God is good!

Back to Business

We are back from the county fair!

Let's make one thing clear.... I AM NOT A COUNTY GIRL! Never in a million years did I ever expect to be spending a week at the fair from sun up to sun down! I am a "city" girl or at least a suburban girl! Well, I did survive with only a few laughs from my fellow barn moms.

On July 17th we unloaded our "leased" horse into it's new home for the week. One thing was clear we did not have all the supplies needed to show for the week. Luckily we have great people in our 4H group who loaned us everything (wheel barrow, pitch fork, saddle rack, tack box, hooks, black hoof polish, spray paint (yes you paint the horses legs and polish it's hoofs black), riding gloves, etc.). But considering the horse is not really ours we did pretty good. It is amazing the STUFF you need to show a horse. Talk about some money tied up in a "recreational sport"! You can imagine the cost just to own the horse, but add all that other STUFF to it and it is quite the investment. Some of the mom's work one or two jobs just to pay for the horse! SAD. I am lucky to have a daughter who knows our limitations and respects what we can do. She is very appreciative to be given the chance to lease a horse and show it.

So Alex and Anna spent the rest of the week showing in all different classes, from your typical equitation classes to your fun "ride a buck" classes. Alex pretty much did all English classes she could, where Anna stuck to just the simple fun classes. They both came home with lots of ribbons to be proud of. Alex also participated in Musical Freestyle, which is where the rider puts together a routine to music. If you ever want to come watch a horse show this is the one! It is amazing the costumes these kids come up with and it is very entertaining. Alex put her routine to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock'n Roll". It really got the crowd involved and singing! Got to love the oldie but goodie songs! She had a lot of skills packed into her routine including 3 jumps, which Bubba did great at! She competed against 3 others and one girls did the song "Mickey" (remember... "oh Mickey you're so fine, you're so fine, you blow my mind"). Who does not love that song. And her costume was Mickey mouse and her horse was dressed as Minnie! It was so adorable. I did not see her routine, but she did take first place and Alex took second. We were still very proud of her and a lot of people came up to her and told her she did great!

So we had a lot of fun and the girls made some new friends. But I am glad to be home and getting back to a normal routine. Now it is time to start planning for our school year!

Spring has Sprung!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I posted last. Wow time really does fly by! I am actually having mega computer problems. So here is what has been happening in the glorious days of May. (spring is my favorite time - love it when God's beautiful creation comes alive!)

My precious baby, Maria. Her curls really start to SPRING when it gets hot!

Olivia at swim lessons. She improved so much! She actually dove off the diving board and swam to the edge all by herself! She even learned how to do free style and breath to the side. Maybe I will have a swimmer after all to follow in my footsteps.

Of course there were the horse shows. The last 3 pics were taken at the All American Youth Horse show at the Ohio State Fairgrounds. Alex showed in 4 classes in the very large coliseum. It was quite the experience for her and I was very proud of the way she road and jumped! Didn't place but still did well considering she has only ridden BUBBA for 4 months and was competing in the 14-18 age group!

This was taken at a fun show in Lancaster. Alex took home a few first places and had a lot of fun with all the girls at the barn!

This is typical of Mercedes. She loves to lay her head down on you. She is always coming up and placing her chin on my leg wanting affection. This time however, she was just resting on top of Olivia. I think they stayed like this for at least a half an hour!

The cutest bubble bee and butterfly ever! Maria, Olivia and Anna were in a play at church, called Noah Fluedde. All the kids at church were animals and the costumes were great. Anna was a horse of course! They did not have big parts in the play (adults played all the people) but the show was done exceptionally well and my girls had fun being a part of it!



I know no pictures of Curt. Well, it is baseball season so I will post some soon. Curt is doing great on his Indians rec. team. Bill is coaching Anna's softball team (quite the challenge since most have never played ball before). Both Curt and Anna pitch so it keeps me stressed! Olivia is playing Tball for the first time, that is always entertaining! She loves it though! Of course Alex spends 5 out of 7 days at the barn. So you can imagine what I do most of my days... drive kids around and watch them do all their activities. One day they will all be gone and I have no idea what we will do with all that spare time... except do it all over again with the grandkids!