Category Archives: kids

horse, kids

KY Vacation Days 3&4

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Sunday started with Breyerfest 2017.  We had never been to Breyerfest (and I’m not convinced we need to go back, but the girls disagree).  It really is a bunch of kids (and adults) getting together to buy and sell Breyer horses.  The girls found some new Breyer horses they couldn’t live without and had to spend allowance on.  Alex joined in with Vicki, Alexis, and Amanda in hand painting some Stablemates (very small Breyer horses).  Amanda got her face painted, but it only lasted an hour or so before we had to wash it off due to a reaction.

Alexis and Vicki spent almost 2 hours in a tent learning how to make bridles and lead ropes out of tiny beads and sewing thread.  While they did that, we watched some riding and driving demos. Alex and Amanda both took a try on the mechanical bull.  We also watched some “splash dogs” which were dogs jumping into a pool of water for distance.  The dogs loved it.  At one point, Alex got called up to help hold one of the dogs who was very excited about doing his jumps.

Once we had our fill of Breyerfest, we went back to the hotel for a break.  Later, we hiked almost 2 miles to Cold Stone for some ice cream.

On Monday, we had breakfast and hit the road.  We headed South to Mammoth Cave National Park.  The Visitor’s Center is very well put together and we spent almost an hour learning about the history of the park and the caves.  The 405+ miles of mapped cave make Mammoth the largest cave in the world.  There are estimates that another 600 miles remain to be mapped.  We did the “Domes and Dripstones” tour which was very interesting and included both large open areas and unique formations within the caves.

We learned a lot of interesting tidbits during the tour, although Vicki felt it would have been more interesting to just hike and look without the guide talking so much.

We ended the day with some pizza at the hotel and a study session for Alexis and Vicki.  After all, we are here for a competition.  Check-in is tomorrow!

kids

KY Vacation Days 1&2

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We are officially on vacation!  Back in the winter, we told Vicki that if she qualified for Pony Club Championships in Quiz, she could attend Champs and 1 day of Breyerfest.  Well, she did and we are now on our vacation in Lexington, KY to hold up our end of the deal.  We found a gas station with a porta-potti and managed to avoid a crisis, however, traffic was normal (read crappy) and it took a while to get through NY.  In fact, we traveled about 400 miles for the first day on the road and only averaged 41 mph on the roads  – that’s actual cranked car time, not including stops.  Obviously, we encountered a lot accidents, traffic jams, heavy rain, and in general other bad driving conditions.

Since we were not in a rush for our trip, we decided to do something fun each day to break up the driving.  The activity for Day 1 was Hershey PA.  We stopped off and did the “Factory Tour” and “Chocolate Tasting Experience”.  The kids enjoyed it and it wasn’t too bad, although we didn’t buy anything from the exorbitantly priced store.

When we made it to Maryland, we stopped at the rest area and Fireflies were out.  The kids enjoyed a few minutes of chasing them around the grass before climbing back in the car.  Here’s a video Anna took of the kids running around after the Fireflies.

We stopped for the night at almost 10pm at Holiday Inn in Hagerstown, MD. The kids were happy to hit up the pancake machine this morning before we continued on the journey.

West Virginia!

Today’s stop was at the Clay Center in Charleston, WV.  The Clay Center is part of the Blue Star Museum program which gives free entry to military and it has a science center and art museum.  The kids enjoyed exploring the science exhibits and climbing on the 3 story climbing sculpture.  The exhibits were well designed to target kids, interactive, and engaged across the age spectrum.

Vicki was looking forward to the art exhibits, which was only a small area, but satisfied her desire.  Everyone had to choose their favorite piece of art and explain to the family why they chose that one.

After our break, we continued the drive to KY!

 

horse, kids

Playing Catch Up

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Summers are always busy and as the kids get older, that becomes an understatement.  It’s been over a month since we have posted, so I’m going to lump a lot of different happenings from the last 5+ weeks into a single post.

The kids finished up the school year and are ready to move on.  This was the first year back in public Vicki was 1 of 3 6th graders at Griswold Middle School who were tested to skip 7th grade Math.  None of them passed the test with a high enough score to actually skip 7th grade Math, but Vicki was close.  She finished the school year with all A’s.  Alex (who is now 14!) has decided to start his freshman year of high school at Griswold High School in the fall. 

We have been riding a lot. All 3 kids did Pony Club camp. Alex took Dakota, Vicki on Duchess,  and Amanda on Huey. All 3 learned a lot and had fun. Here are some videos from camp.

Amanda and Huey

Alex and Dakota

Vicki and Duchess
We did another hunter pace and in general, things have been busy with horses. Here are a few pictures. 

fitness, kids, Uncategorized

Proud to Du It – Youth Duathlon

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This past weekend, all three kids did their first multi-sport competition.  A short while back, Alex and Vicki joined the Nutmeg Youth Triathlon Team (NYTT).  A Griswold branch of the team was started by the mom of some of the kids in our 4-H Club. They have been doing weekly practices for biking and running (it’s a little cold for open water swimming), while continuing twice a week swim lessons at the YMCA.  Amanda joins in for some biking and running as she can while doing swimming lessons once a week.  Amanda worked very hard to learn to ride without her training wheels to get ready for the first race.

For their first race, the kids participated in the New London Proud to Du It, Youth Duathlon.  Amanda was in the 5-6 yo age group and had to run 1/2 mile, bike 1 mile, run 1/2 mile.  Alex and Vicki were in the 11-13 yo age group and ran 1 mile, biked 4 miles, ran 1 mile.  The starts were staggered by age group and by gender.  All three kids finished and all three had a good time.

horse, kids, running

It’s all Run and Games

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This morning I (Rob) did my 5th half marathon at the Colchester half (all 5 have been there).  In very uncharacteristic weather, it was 60F when we started at 10:00.  I completed the 13.1 miles and 881′ of elevation in 1:58 (9:00 min/mile pace).  Nothing like burning 1800 calories before lunch.

Just finished the Colchester Half Marathon

After a quick shower and bite to eat, I met Anna and the kids an hour and a half after I finished the race.   They had a trailer load of horses and it was time for Pony Club mounted games practice.  I rode Mojo, Anna rode Dakota, and Amanda rode Huey for the first session.  Then Alex rode Dakota and Vicki rode Devil.  Everyone had a great time, but if this weather continues we will need to body clip some ponies! By the time we got home and unloaded the trailer, everyone was ready for some dinner and a movie.

 

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A slushy ride in the woods

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It’s been a while since we posted.  Angel (aka Jellybean) didn’t end up staying with us.  She had too much anxiety and couldn’t handle being away from Devil, so we are back to our 6 gelding herd.  Of course, we finally got a bunch of snow in Feb.  We went from nothing to about 16″ on the ground in a matter of a few days.  Since then, we have been participating in mounted games practices on weekends, but no really riding much at home.

Today, it was in the mid-50s and the snow was melting away.  Anna has been a little under the weather and Alex bumped his head sledding in the woods, so I went on a short ride with the girls.  While the temperature was great, I hate riding in the slush.  It’s pretty, but I don’t like the horses sliding on ice you can’t see.  It was a short ride, but good to get out.

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Painting Party

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This weekend, Vicki was finally able to have her birthday party (almost 2 weeks after her birthday.  She had a couple of friends join her for a trip to The Drunken Palette in New London where they painted a horse picture (I assisted Amanda a little bit).  After, we returned home for a sleepover.  The girls decorated the birthday cake (Vicki is a stickler for the cake decorations and insists on decorating her own cake) as a group project, played hide-and-go-seek outside in the dark and temps in the 40s, and watched Ernest Goes to Camp.  Instead of actually eating cake last night, they elected to defer birthday cake to breakfast.

endurance, horse, kids

A cold November ride

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Alex has not yet gotten to do an endurance ride and Vicki wants to try a 50 this year.  We have told them both, it requires lots of time on the trails for the horse and rider.  Yesterday, it was in the 60s and gorgeous.  Unfortunately, I spent the day trimming hooves (for others) and didn’t get home until after dark.  This morning, it was in the 30s and windy, but we saddled up anyways.  I rode Mojo, Alex rode Teddy (their first trail ride together) and Vicki rode Devil.  It was very windy so we expected the horses to be spooky and flighty.  We were pleasantly surprised to find they were not  much different from a regular ride.  We did a nice loop into some field that we hadn’t ridden on for a couple of years and then headed up into the main part of the forest.  It was wicked cold on top of the hills and we decided to cut the ride a little short.  We ended up only riding 7 miles in 1.5 hours, but Teddy did great with Alex.

After we got back, Teddy and Devil had both worked up a good sweat, so they got coolers and some stall time with hay and water to warm up and dry off.  An hour later, Devil was lame from what we believe was Tying Up.  For those not familiar, it’s basically muscle cramps.  Hand walking helped some.  We dosed him with electrolytes and did call the vet a little to discuss things with her.  If it hasn’t resolved by morning, we will have her out to see if we are missing something.  In the summer, it’s easy to think about adding salt and keeping horses hydrated, but in the winter, we don’t think about it as much.  I suspect Devil was just a little low on fluids before we started the ride and with his thick winter coat, he sweated enough out to cause a minor problem.

Anna also got to take King out for a short 4 mile ride later in the afternoon, but Amanda elected to spend most of the day inside because she doesn’t have enough (read any) body fat to maintain temperatures when it’s blustery out.

horse, kids, Uncategorized

A momentous ride for the family

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On Sunday morning, there was  a distinct chill in the air, everything was wet from the 3.5+” of rain we received Friday-Saturday, and the wind was blowing steady.  Like many other weekends, everyone was up early and we headed out to the barn to load up horses.  We were headed to the WGHA Ghost Ride at Goddard State Park in RI.  However, this particular Sunday outing was different for 2 important reasons: Amanda got to take Huey on the ride and King was going as well.  Amanda and Huey have been doing a lot of rides from the house and also lessons with Pony Club.  However, until now, Amanda didn’t get to join the family at trail riding events away from home.  They were finally ready to join us on the trails with other riders around.  Last weekend, Alex rode King 4 miles on the trails from home.  King hasn’t left our farm for a ride since the summer of 2014.   He has been combating injury from a tendon strain, Lyme, general arthritis, and more recently, EPM.  In all honesty, after this summer, we thought it was unlikely he would ever go to an organized ride again.

The ride was at Goddard State Park which has 6 miles of bridle paths.  While the trails are open, wide, and scenic, the park is usually crowded.  This weekend we got to share the area with a 5k race being held on the roads of the park.  Alex and King led our group for most of the ride.  Alex describes riding King as “smooth” and “light as a feather” with his floating trot and high energy (but without the spookiness characteristic of the arabs).  I’m sure it also feels different considering King is 8″ taller than Dakota.  Amanda did great controlling Huey.  The temperature definitely sucked the energy out of Amanda faster than normal, so I did put a lead line on Huey for the second half of the 6 mile loop.

While we had the option of doing multiple loops, we elected to stop after 1 successful loop.  Amanda really wants to ride the hunter paces next summer, so she plans to try to ride for longer periods of time.  It is nice for our whole family to be able to ride as a group at the events.