Where Did the Heat Go?!

        It was great while it lasted, the 70-80 degree temps we had up until two days ago. Now its back to turtlenecks and a rain jacket for the next few days. We actually need the rain. Its amazing how fast the ground dries even after torrential downpours. The good news ... I can catch up on the blog!
       The weather was perfect, if not a tad too hot, for 3 days at Jumping Branch. I set up my trailer with cards & posters and had moderate sales but a lot of interest and positive reactions. A brisk wind kept me busy policing the posters on flimsy easels as they spent more time tipping over than staying upright. Duct tape is a wonderful thing! Many thanks to Lucy's mom Michele for "manning the booth" for me on Sunday, this was hopefully the beginning of a beautiful business relationship.

     With respect to our team of competitors, all had good/decent dressage tests. Emily on Tahd breezed around the training XC course as did Lucy & Bouncer. Lucy's personal goal was to make the time, which she did. Polly and Matty had a brief bobble on the novice course, but finished up smiling (as usual). They had a lovely stadium round and finished with yet another face-wide grin.

      

  Emily and Tahd tackled their SJ course in good form but had a couple of rails down that dropped them out of the ribbons.

  The B-Eventing Gold Star for this event went to Lucy & Bouncer who finished fifth on their dressage score. Michele & George were present to enjoy their daughter's success which made it all the sweeter AND it was Lucy's birthday on Saturday!

        

  Horse people are generally dog people which means more card material for me. I can't recall ever seeing this many different dog breeds at an event before, Jack Russels and Goldens being the norm. There were also a couple of puppies who were brought to the event in hopes of finding a permanent home. Both were rescued from ditches somewhere in the county. One of the puppies nearly made it in the Cheney's suitcase for the flight back to Maine, but Michele lost out to a group of young girls who work for Kim Severson. It occurred to me that anyone feeling the need to toss unwanted puppies out the car window, should just bring them to a horse event... they would be adopted in minutes.

  Another event down... on to the next, such is life this time of year in Aiken, so we were off to Sporting Days Farm H.T. on Wednesday. Another good day for the B-Event team represented by Emily riding Doug, Polly on Matty, and Babette competing both Dexter (owned by Heidi Beaumont) and Oliver (sponsored by yours truly). The Gold Star went to Oliver this time, finishing second on his dressage score!  For the sake of brevity, here's the digest version:

  Looking ahead (3 more weeks!)... my husband Kevin arrives Wed. night! some of the B-Event team heads to Pine Top next weekend... the Aiken Triple Crown starts today with flat races at the track, steeplechase then polo to follow the next two weekends. I may have one chance to ride Irish in a combined test soon.. anyone want to take photos of us?!!