No Riding Weekend

Alas, for me, no riding this weekend. But, plenty of horsey activities. Luckily, I managed a YaYa ride at Glenbrook on Wednesday evening - we had a lovely ride on a beautiful evening. I used a western low-port bit on Splash to work on neck-reining at the walk in the mucky WOR arena on Tuesday and followed up with the same bit on Wednesday. Splash seems to be getting the hang of it - especially when he wants to go the way I am turning.

But, while I was socializing and snacking with my friends, Splash was NOT eating hay at the trailer. He also didn't go for his food when we got home. So, I went to check on him after unloading the truck and found him ROLLING in his stall - food untouched. So we walked and Splash was not pushy or interested in GRASS! He was not sweaty, kicking/biting at his sides and didn't seem distressed, just depressed. We walked some more and I considered calling the VET. Since the phone was inside, I put him back in the stall and ran inside for the phone and to let Steve know what was up. Back at the stall, Splash was rolling again. Steve walked him some more while I went in search of one (of my 2) stethoscopes and found the thermometer...... several more searches later... stethoscope found... gut sounds on one side only.... Before calling the vet, I tried to take a temperature.... to dry to insert so more searching for Vaseline.... 100.1 Splash seems a little perkier and took a halfhearted bite of grass so we walked some more.... In the round pen, we walked (ok Splash stumbled) over cavaletti poles. Splash seemed to perk up a bit more, more walking and then..... Grass looked green again and I let him hand-grass for a while and then took him back to the stall and he started eating his feed. We checked on him several more times and he was munching hay. Whew. Late night but all is well.

Friday evening, the girls and I went to Stillwater for the 4-H/FFA State Horse Judging Competition at OSU - we went to dinner, they practiced halter reasons and chatted with friends at the hotel. Then, Saturday they competed from 9:00am to after 3:00 judging/placing 8 classes and giving 1 set of reasons. Both the junior and senior teams were Reserve Champions; Senior Emily P high overall individual, and Junior Heather High placings individual. All four seniors and 3 juniors placed top-10 in placings, reasons and overall. Very exciting since all the juniors are first time Judges. Juniors placed 2nd in Placings and 3rd in Reasons for a 2nd place Overall; Alaina tied with a girl named Alexis (from another county) 8th Individual Reasons, 9th Individual Placing for 9th place Individual Overall.

We even got to see Kale briefly when he came to the awards ceremony.

Then, without time for horse- washing preparations, we had a 4-H point show on Sunday. We arrived early and did minimal clipping and leg-wash.

	Ivy	Alaina
Showmanship	/	6
Hunter Under Saddle	1	2
Hunt Seat Eq	2	1
Hunter Hack	3	1
West. Pleasure	4	2
West. Horsemanship	3	5
Trail	4	2
Barrels	4	/
Poles	4	/
Stakes	5	6

So, will the party lesson be back next weekend?  Alas, not for me since the girls will be competing at the Metro-Lakes Conference Track meet in Talequah next Saturday.  Perhaps a YaYa ride on Wednesday will happen?  A girl can dream.