County Fair Fun

We went to the Fair last week to watch one of my students compete in the Fairest of the Fair competition. She had really tough competition, but brought home the Prettiest Smile! The pageant took like 4 hours....I was melting and a little drunk on funnel cakes and we got pretty loud when she went on stage. After all the hooting and hollering, the judges may have given her something out of fear of being beaten up afterwards! All joking aside, she looked gorgeous, and for kind of a tomboy, really played the part of the pageant diva! Faith, Dwight and Chuck made it back in time to cheer her on, but I sent them to go have fun during all the other divisions. Chuck kept texting me pictures of all their fun, and while I was slightly jealous...it did keep me entertained. Everyone seemed to have a good time, my only disappointment was I really wanted a deep fried marshmallow, but apparently they kept blowing up....so no death by marshmallow for me!

Truck Pull

Dwight Enjoying the Show

The owners of the winning truck let Dwight check it out

He's ready to go!

Faith and Dwight race down the slide

Faith looks a little sick after this one

Dwight didn't know this one went fast ;)

Camp-A-Palooza Part 2

We finished show camp last week and it was a rousing success. I was exhausted after the actual show the last day, but the kids had fun and learned a lot. They all put on awesome performances, I was especially proud of those who had never shown before, and they won some awesome prizes. It was an exciting day: Caitlyn won Barrel Racing even though she'd never done it before. Emily took a fall over fences, but got back on. Our youngest camper, Olivia, took 1st place in walk/trot Equitation. Our High Point Champion was Lora Grace...you go girl! She took on all canter classes...and won most of them!

Practicing Showmanship

Craft Time

Smile Pretty Girls!

Lora Grace won High Point Champion!

We have Horse Camp II this week....our last week of camps! Then I can start working horses again in the morning when it's not over 100 degrees!

Tuna Loves Youtube!

Toothfairy

Dwight got a visit from the Toothfairy! He was worried that since he swallowed his tooth, she wouldn't come; so we wrote her a letter.

Camp-A-Palooza

We have been crazy busy with camps and are currently in the middle of Show Camp. The camp girls are getting ready for their camp show where they will show off their mad riding skills and earn some well-deserved ribbons and trophies. I will update more as soon as it's over with more pics.

Speaking of camps, Faith is at Creative Writing Camp all this week at the University of Tennessee. She seems to be loving it and Grandma and Papa have been nice enough to keep her and make sure she gets there everyday. When camp is over she should have her very own book that she wrote and illustrated!


Horse Camp II next week....last one for the summer! I'll be so glad when they are over! I'm so behind on working horses. With heat indexes at 110 in the afternoon this week, I can't do anything after camp except melt!

Agility Dog!

What started as a fun way to help boost Scout's confidence and give him a job, has completely taken over! Scout is loving it, Trooper is jealous and now trying to do it too! Scout has come such a long way, from being scared of any new object he was introduced to, to ready to take on any new challenge without looking twice. Both of my dogs have rejuvenated their love of training and learning. I have also come back to something I love. I didn't realize how much I seriously missed dog training and am glad I put it back to good use. So now 15-30 minutes of everyday is devoted to training again. We have introduced him to several different jumps of different heights, including solid jumps, spreads, oxers, tire jumps (we use a hoola hoop), and cavalleties. He also has been working on a pause table and dog walk. We have a tunnel on order and need to build the A frame, and find weave poles, but after that it's just working him on his coursing skills and developing control off-leash. Trooper does great off leash, but speed will be his issue. He is so funny....when he was a puppy I tried introducing agility and built him a mini course and he wanted nothing to do with it, but now that Scout is doing it and getting attention, he suddenly decided he wants to do it too! It's funny how competitive they get!

We are going to try to get our first Agility Title this year. Our first competition will be the end of September in Franklin, TN. We will compete in Starters Standard Agility. We may even let Trooper have a go at it too!

Buck

I went and saw the movie Buck the other day, and highly recommend it! It was wonderful, whether you like his training style or not (I was blessed to be able to meet and learn from Ray Hunt on several occasions when I was younger, which is who he learned from, so I'm a big fan) it's just an incredible story and beautifully shot and filmed. It's interesting to hear his stories from when he helped with "The Horse Whisperer". While his story is sad, the movie is very funny yet extremely touching. SPOILER ALERT:  I was also pleasantly surprised to see them show a horse that was so damaged it was beyond help. In fact I've never seen one this dangerous.....ever. I think it's important that people know that sometimes you can't save them all, and it's not worth someone getting seriously hurt or killed! Two thumbs up!

The "Bombproof" Horse

I'm not a believer in the bombproof horse. All horses are capable of being scared, nervous, and frightened. Even the most trained, socialized, and experienced horses may encounter something that they strongly feel may eat them and they should sacrifice their rider and make a run for it. I do however have to give all of our lesson horses and ponies a big round of applause after this weekend. It's 4th of July weekend, and I live in the south....add those together and you get fireworks being set off as early as 10am going until late into the evening. Despite it all, our lessons managed to go smoothly. Not one critter spooked! That's a win in my book!

Everyone have a safe and happy holiday!