The Event

My Mom and I made the 3 hour trip up north on Friday to witness "The Event" and all I can say is WOW!! Rebecca Farms is an absolutely gorgeous place to be. As far as the eye could see were rolling hills, green grass and AMAZING jumps. The eye candy was by far the many many beeeeeautiful horses being ridden, being lead around, being jumped and doing dressage. It was just simply amazing. I can't wait to go back and hope that I can be so lucky next year. And as usual, I took LOTS of pictures. 250 to be exact. BUT I'll just show you a few =) Don't want to bore you or anything!!

Onto the show...

This is the second jump in the Training Level cross country course.

I'm not sure what number the jump above and below in the next two photos was, but it was somewhere in the middle.

What a handsome horse the above one is. He looks like an Irish Draft of some kind. Very steady...

A water jump! How fun!!

This jump was like a table. Not only was it about 5 feet tall, it was about 4 feet across!! Holy Moly!!

The above horse has a cute, curly mane. She must have competed in dressage before she ran this course =)

I love this appy! What a pretty jumper it was too!

I love this angle. I was enjoying getting the really close, close-ups.

A tail flip!

Oh, I just LOVED this big gray horse. His name had the word Granite in it. I think he is an Irish Draft as well. So steady and such a careful jumper he was.

I love this angle. I got some of my best shots here!

I believe the above horse's name was "In It To Win It". Love it!!

Here was the dressage. Such pretty horses. These same horses were the ones jumping the cross country course. In a three day event, dressage, cross country jumping and stadium jumping are all done by the same horse and rider. It's quite a test of athletic ability and communication.

I hope you enjoyed the photo show! If you live close by, you NEED to go to Rebecca Farms when they have "The Event" next year. Beautiful!!

Riding!

Today Mom and I rode our boys! About 6 weeks ago, Mom got a big, handsome, white, Missouri Fox Trotter gelding. He hadn't been fed enough and one could see all his ribs and hip bones... poor boy. Here are a few photos of him when we got him;


And here are the photos from today! We don't believe he has been ridden in about 4 years. He was pretty good! It felt a lot like riding a young, green horse. He has the most amazing walk. WOW!!



He has been out on green grass or in his pen with hay 24/7. He has just started getting grain about 2 weeks ago. I think he is looking wonderful!

AND I rode Destino! He did great, just as I thought he would. He didn't understand walking off without a little help. It's the cutest thing seeing a 1,000 pound horse needing to follow a 4 foot tall, 8 year old boy =) So cute!!

So that was our day on the farm! Pretty exciting =)

Back to the Woods!

We made it back to the woods yesterday! We had a blast up there. The boys and Hubby played on the Fitness Trail and Destino and I hiked and hiked.

We played lots of games. I haven't had a chance to play with Destino for a few weeks, so we had a little re-fresher course. He did great!

This time Angus came along. He was such a good little dog. He was either just behind Destino or trotting the trail in front of me. When I would stop to jump Destino over downed trees, or just play a game with him, Angus would sit down and watch from a safe distance away. He's such a smart little guy!

We saw quail, pigeons, deer, people walking on the trail and a few other horses. Destino took it all in stride. When Angus flushed the quail, my heart jumped into my throat at all the racket, but Destino didn't even miss a stride. And he wasn't so focused on eating either. He spent more time looking around at the scenery. It was a great day!

Onto the pictures...

Here's the trail we chose. It looks a lot like the other one we hike in the photo, but the terrain is different. On this trail you actually have to climb =) It's good for both Destino and myself...

Here is the beginning of our hike. Look at me up there!! Destino is so grown up =) I get on him off and on through out the hike. Each time he doesn't seem to mind it a bit.

Here's a picture of him on the trail.

And hereeee's Angus! He is such a fun little hiking buddy. He's just so happy all the time.

And here we are again! This is at the end of the hike. He was so good here that I actually walked him around in a circle!! I tried to get Craig to help direct him across the parking lot, but he wouldn't so I hopped off. I *think* we could have done it but don't want to until I KNOW we can =)

The End!