An update, to move the grouchy post down!

Just a warning – this post is probably going to be all over the place…as I don’t have much to say on any one topic! ;-)  I also wanted to push down the grumpy whiny post!

I think my show season is done for this year. There are some fairs I could go to, but I think I just want to work on my riding at home and save up a bit of money. I have three things I want to save a bit of money for in the short term:

1. A mini shopping trip to PA with my family (DONE! Had fun, found some nice new clothes for the fall!)
2. Building some trail obstacles (more on that later);
3. And more importantly, I’m going to Congress in October!!! Woo-hoo! (That’s a big AQHA show in Columbus, OH, for those of you not into the QH scene… )

I was invited to go with my coach and two other ladies that I got to know this summer. I am pretty excited to go – mostly for the shopping – I can admit it! It will neat to be at such a big horse event and the gals I’m going with are pretty fun. I may have already started a shopping list! It will be fun to get some stuff that isn’t available here, or would cost me a fortune in shipping.

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A couple of weeks ago, I rigged up a little display in the barn for my ribbons. I still had two of Rusty’s old shoes, so I pounded the clips down a bit and spray-painted them John Deere green. I like green and that paint was sitting around, so why not? ;-) I bought a 6ft piece of fine chain from the hardware store and voilà! A ribbon display!

 

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What? I have to work?

My coach’s hubby came over today with his tractor to pull some sand off my ring - it was just too deep!  He didn't charge me anything either, which almost made me cry. They are such nice people and they know how much I appreciate the help.

In the end, we almost doubled the width of the ring. It is about 120' x 120'  now! I need some barrels or jumps or something, lol.  Or, I could almost set up a trail course on the one side and leave it there.

It is really hard to deal with workers and explain the type of sand you need for horseback riding. Not too deep, but not too shallow. Sand that won’t pack too much but isn’t too loose or too coarse or too fine. What??? Umm, right, ok. My sand is almost like beach sand and in hindsight I should have had the guys bring me a sample before dumping it all in the ring. I can work with it though, so that is the good news. I may have to have a load of a different type of sand brought in next year to mix with the stuff I have. I guess it is still a work in progress at this point!

A pretty nice panorama!  It was a beautiful day today...even if it was cool.

I also finally hauled all of my poles and jumps standards to the ring. We even Macgyver’d two harrows for the ring – one is an old piece of chain link fence and the other is made of pallets! I set up a small section of temporary fence to keep the horses away from it, since the ring is inside my larger pasture. I will fence of the riding ring eventually, but for now it is all open.

I have some plans this fall to build some trail obstacles, but I’ll save that for another post when I can get some pictures of my handy-work!