first horse show, etc

Our planned first horse show of the season was a bust.

J., E., and I woke up at 5am Saturday and drove down to Cleveland, TN (about 90 minutes away) to meet our trainer and get ready for J.'s first day showing her new, medium pony. They were just going to do a few pleasure and under saddle (meaning, no jumping) classes at this first show, because Sloan - the pony - is a baby and he has never been away from our barn to scary showgrounds. This was supposed to be his chance to just get familiar with things.

Unfortunately, he somehow got a stone in his foot, so he developed a painful bruise and was too lame to ride for the whole weekend. J., was disappointed, but very mature and upbeat about it. She decided to stay at the show for the weekend with a friend so she could help out the other kids from our barn, socialize with other horsey kids, and watch the show.

So E., and I came back to Knoxville to try to make his Saturday afternoon soccer game, which ended up being rained out anyway. J. is still at the show Sunday afternoon and I will pick her up when she hitches a ride back to Knoxville with her friend's family later this afternoon.

And poor H. has been sick with strep all weekend. He spent Friday night with his grandparents, being coddled and petted as only grandparents can do for a sick grandson, then he came home yesterday afternoon and was sort of under the weather all afternoon and evening. This afternoon he seems to have regained all the energy he'd lost in being sick for the past 4 or 5 days, and now he is bouncing off the walls. It doesn't help that it's 40 degrees and raining, so he's stuck in the house.