State Summary

Later, that same week…. After the exciting weekend of the State 4-H Horse Show in Shawnee and making the last day of the ODS/GCC Green Country Classic Dressage Show, I went to Kansas for a couple of days of work. Home to late Thursday night to join my YaYa Sista’s for a social but back early enough to sample some garden goodies including almost to early corn and a tomato/cuc salad. Note to self – balsamic vinegar makes cucumber slices look muddy but tastes great.. hehe

The girls had a great time at the horse show and brought home some ribbons. Alaina and Sunny - 7th Showmanship, 10th in Hunt Seat Equitation, 9th Western Horsemanship and 3rd in Trail (ribbons in 4 of her 6 classes); Ivy and Pico - 4th Hunt Seat Equitation and 7th in Hunter Hack (ribbons in 2 of her 4 classes). Both girls have really improved their riding skills the last few months but competition in the 9-11 age group is fierce. 

Alaina and Sunny really had a wonderful trail pattern and did fairly well in Showmanship and her English classes; western wasn't so smooth but she placed in the horsemanship even though Sunny was excited and broke gait to canter a couple of times. 

Ivy was looking wonderful in her canter departs and pattern practice in warm-up but had a little lead trouble in her classes - I think she is nervous and counter bends which leads to wrong lead.  She did compete in jumping although she was nervous about it so I am proud of her for riding through.

We really enjoyed our volunteer shifts at the dressage show on Sunday and Ivy wants a Hanavarian for her 2-year old project....haha.  After all his time off in re-hab, Splash will have to wait a little longer since a baby shower is prempting my weekly lesson.  So, cross fingers for some riding soon and for Splash to be fully recovered.  YaYa!

How to Torture your Sister

1) invite Sister to come visit for the 4-H State Horse Show

2) load trailer for the show with Sister's Help

3) drive to Shawnee, 66 to 44 to 75 to 40 to trailer tire blowout - change tire with Sister McGyver - continue to Shawnee

4) unload trailer, set up stalls, help girls ride, wash horses, band/braid, feed horses, go to hotel in time for bed

5) back to show grounds, finish trimming, hoof polish, fix hair, etc......

6) show, show, show

7) back to hotel for pizza, pool, bed

8) back to showgrounds for Show, SHow, SHOw, SHOW

9) load trailer

10) backroads to the turnpike, to Claremore, Sister unloads trailer while I collasp on couch, bed

11) wake up and, after a light breakfast, to the CLAREMORE Expo to volunteer at the ODS/GCC dressage show....... 12:30 to 6:00pm.... help take down the arena.... hehehe

12) That should have turned her into a convert.  but... Trisha still doesn't like horses or want to ride.  I guess she loves me.... or my girls.....

And I owe her bigtime.

Mighty Preparations for STATE

My riding is as a standstill since Splash is still in re-hab - he finished his week of bute and is currently taking joint supplements to try to help him mend.  I will try some light riding after we get back from the 4-H State Horse show scheduled for the 19-20.  We will head to Shawnee first thing on Thursday; the girls will compete in English on Friday and Western on Sat.

In anticipation of the State Show, we have been practicing every moment and running between barns for lessons.  Pico is at Patty's in Inola and Sunny is with Dawn DiAmico.  Ivy and Pico are making some great progress with equitation and jumping; Alaina and Sunny are working on Western Pleasure and Showmanship with slow progress and great progress respectively.  They will each get one more lesson before we head to the BIG SHOW.

But the fun thing is that my non-horsey sister has agreed to come with us to the state horse show as my alter mom-ego.  That will be way fun.  Trisha will arrive in Claremore Wed. evening - just in time.  The bad thing is that we will miss most of the Green Country Classic that will be in Claremore at the Expo on Sat. and Sunday but we will volunteer on Sunday afternoon and get a little taste of dressage to cap off our 4-H extravaganza.

Sunday was hot and humid but we fit one last horsey thing in before the weekend was done....  Ruthie came by to hang out and we played a bit with Diez and worked Sister in the round pen.  Then, Ruthie said she was game to ride Sister a bit at walk/trot.  Soooo.... we sadded up and Ruthie mounted up. I was so proud of both Ruthie and Sister.  After a very successful ride in the round pen, Ruthie dismounted and Sister got to eat the good grass for a bit before getting back to her regular pasture. I am starting to see my next dressage prospect and Ivy is seeing her next 4-H horse. 

After all the 4-H frenzy is over -  I am planning of spending the rest of the summer with my yaya sisters riding and sweating and having fun.  Good Plan?

Long Weekend

Life goes on even without internet.... but it is hard. No email or blogging at the Wild Orban Ranch from Thursday night until late afternoon on Monday. So we had to find other activities.

Friday was the last day of school for Claremore kids and Alaina and Sunny went for a lesson with Dawn. They started the lesson without side reins to see how things would go. Sunny was not good - instead of moving forward, he backed into a corner and pretended he could not go forward. Then, with draw reins added and foward motion started, he dropped gait every chance he got. Dawn and Alaina worked on a spur stop last lesson and Sunny took that as an opprotunity to stop or try to stop every three steps. Equitation was resitant too. Ugh. Reverse direction and things went better, but..... Showmanship work was pretty good but Dawn and I plotted to get Sunny over for a tune up ASAP.

Sat. dawned sultry and we headed to Inola for the party lesson w/o my party friends. The girls join me but I didn't get to ride after all because Splash was still off. Sunny and Alaina worked in English and had a pretty good ride. Ivy and Pico tried to work English as well but Pico was such a spook the whole lesson that Ivy didn't want to try to jump. It is always something. But Ivy really handled the spooks well - it was just disheartening to deal with an idiot every single time he passed C or F. It isn't like he never worked in Patty's arena before....

Shipman will have a look at Splash on Thursday afternoon so cross fingers for a quick fix. I hope Splash won't backslide to much with all this time off. Meanwhile, it is a good thing that I have Sister to mess with since I need some kind of horsey project. I have been working Sister in the round pen every couple of days and we are finally getting some voice control. We end with showmanship and Sister is making progress. The only problem is that I am afraid to ride so I have her scheduled for a month with Ron Choat in July.

The rest of the weekend was hot and dry - the predicted rain missed Claremore and we are still dry as a bone. YaYa's have a ride/birthday bash planned for Thursday evening but I will be taking Splash to the vet so will miss riding but I will be there for the Social.... So... C U Soon.