It was a warm and humid Fall day today. Alex and Vicki spent some time at Horse Power Farm working on cross country jumping with Duchess and Dakota. They learned about correctly riding step-ups and step-downs and then did some course work. Ann is great at pinpointing little things that will make a significant improvement and tweaking that without getting bogged down. Duchess was significantly over jumping a jump that frightened her and then challenged Vicki with a few other things, but in the end, they had a good day.
After the lessons, we dropped off the horses at home and then headed out to the West Greenwich Horsemen’s Association Fall Fest. It is a fun potluck dinner and annual awards banquet for the summer hunter pace series.
A part of the Fall Fest is a pumpkin competition. This year, there were 6 entries. Amanda and Vicki both put a lot of time into their entries and tied for 2nd. The voting is silent ballot by all members present. The Pirate Ship won this year.
Groot
Dog
Snowman witch
Pirate Ship
Vicki’s horse pumpkin
Amanda (with a little help from Anna) carriage pumpkin
This year, Alex, Vicki, and Amanda won the Junior division in the series and came home with customized jackets and ribbons almost as big as Amanda.
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.
Last Sunday was the WGHA 2016 Hunter Pace #3. This time, I (Rob) rode on Teddy, Alex rode Mojo, Vicki rode Devil, and Alexis rode Ace. We had a good 12 mile ride that took us 2:16. It was good enough to earn me 6th place and the kids got 5th in the Jr division.
L-R Vicki on Devil, Alexis on Ace, Rob on Teddy, and Alex on Mojo at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
Vicki on Devil at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
Alexis on Ace and Vicki on Devil at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
Alex on Mojo at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
Alexis on Ace at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
Rob on Teddy (not pictured) and Vicki on Devil at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
The view from Teddy’s back
Alex on Mojo at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
Vicki on Devil at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
Enjoying a ride on Teddy at the WGHA Hunter Pace #3
Although it was a little drizzly this morning, we made it out to our last hunter pace of the year. It was at Ayer Mountain Farm and was also our shortest at only 6.5 miles. The kids had a good time and I was the only one who fell off when Misti decided to not object to the first jump, but buck until she threw me. It was definitely a challenging ride on Misti today, but Anna and the kids all had goodd easy rides to wrap up the season.
L-R: Rob on Misti, Vicki on Devil, Anna on Dakota, Alex on Nike
