April Catchup: BIG Plans!

So basically, it's been forever since I've last posted. That doesn't mean that nothing's been going on, however. In fact, I've been too busy to keep up with myself!

I stayed on campus during Spring Weekend and hung out at the barn. I went trail riding with Anne Marie on Simon and Lauren on Bentley, and we took the long trail, the one that dead ends. Since Bentley was part of the group (he's still in training), all we did was walk. But it was very nice and relaxing. We ended up riding for an hour and a half on that very trail, and the weather was bright and sunny and much too hot for arena work. But under the cover of the thick forest, it was cool with slits of warm sunshine puncturing the few openings the leaves permitted. I can't recall a better trail ride.

One day, the barn group met and was joined by Ms. Wilson. I had been thinking the plan was to ride a little, but the turn our group conversation took changed those plans for the better. Ms. Wilson revealed her strong desire to get the Equestrian program motivated and modified. Liz took notes on all of our ideas, which included building some cross country jumps for the back pasture and a horse "playground", an idea Kelly "Parelli" presented for horse amusement that doubled as ground work.

But our greatest idea was to host a show for the first time in ages. Ms. Wilson knew this older woman named Gay who had recently celebrated her 70th birthday, and we decided the show should be in her honor. Unfortunately, that would mean the show would only include English riding, but I'm still happy to help our Equestrian program get known better by the students here.

The show ultimately has been intended for May 17th; before, we'd almost placed it on Prom weekend, and gosh, what a pathetic turnout we would've had!

The rest of the day after that conversation set us to work loading all the jump standards and poles stored in the old barn onto the back of Ms. Wilson's pickup and unloading everything in the arena. The next night, Ms. Wilson drove us to Lowe's to get red, blue, yellow, and white paint as well as brushes. We had dinner at IHOP that night, and I got made fun of for fancy rats (don't ask) and my reaction to the crude jokes some of the girls were making; this is a typical thing down at the barn.

The day after that, we spent at least a good four hours painting standards and poles. Occasionally, a few clouds would cover the sun and sprinkle on us, in which case we had to move our supplies under the little roof over the side door of the barn. We got most of the work done, but we still at least have the four flowerbox jumps to decorate; I bought fake flowers at Family Dollar to replace the weather-worn flowers that have been on those boxes for ages.

In the meantime, we're all very excited about this show and have already made an announcement in convocation about it. We're allowing anyone who has ever participated in the Equestrian program to enter the show on whatever horse they wish, so long as the horses don't get overloaded.

Anyway, there is much more to catch up on still! I will see to it hopefully after math class today.