Shannon, the Equitation Queen!

Lucky, lucky Shannon! At the Scottsdale show, there was a whole day devoted to Equitation. And it wasn't Sunday! In Utah, Equitation is always on Sunday, so Shannon never gets a chance to ride in them. Equitation classes are when the rider is judged on the quality of her riding. (In regular classes, the judge looks at how the horse does it's job.) Rocko got to wear his special Equitation boots- very handsome!!

Shannon came in 3rd in the Equitation Flat Class- where the rider shows off her skills at the walk, trot and canter. Notice how she has Rocko all collected- his head is down and he's working hard. Believe me when I tell you that she is squeezing him will all the strength of her little legs! (No stirrup work pays off!) You can tell because he is moving out and pointing his toes.
She won a 2nd place ribbon in the Greenway Adult Equitation Challenge, ages 18-35, which was completely awesome!! All those months (years!) of practicing tight turns and trotting fences paid off! There were challenges in this course- a trot fence and a halt. They were awesome!! (Shannon has beautiful Equitation- see her signature "butt in the air" form- the envy of all!)Ya, they cleaned up at this show- it was great to have so many classes to practice, practice, practice!! I'm so proud of both of them.

Small vs. Tall

What do you do when you are a small person and you need to get on your tall horse?

1) Get yourself a chair.2) Stand on the chair.3) Lift your leg up as high as you can.4) Pray, then fling yourself on while your horse walks away.
5) Made it!!

New Hotness!!

I think I mentioned before I left that I was trying to upgrade our barn image. Our usual set-up is a plastic table with 3 legs, horse equipment un-loved on the ground, and garbage lying everywhere. No more- if I can help it! Thanks to my brain-child, the "Barn-Item-Of-The-Month", we are on our way to looking more presentable. Bruce helped build a barn display that Shannon and I set up (late at night, in the dark!) in Scottsdale:Yes, that's the arbor we used at Brian and Lindsey's wedding. Bruce created the most amazing portable, folding wall that I covered with 2 black sheets, sewn together. I also made the sign with our barn logo. It's all attached with zip-ties. Gotta love those zip ties!

Even though out barn didn't have some of the stuff the other barns had, (fountains, satellite dishes, refrigerators and microwaves, couches, Porsches, Jaguars, luxury semis for their multimillion dollars horses), we held our own. Our ribbon display says it all- we cleaned up! Our barn had the most ribbons by far. The next test: seeing if I can inspire the girls who didn't go to Scottsdale to tidy things up and clean up after themselves. Wish me luck!

Yeay For Jesus!

I know, maybe that title sounds a little sacrilegious, but Peter has a tendency to yell this at what he thinks are appropriate times. When he sent this picture from the MTC, I knew just what he was thinking (and probably yelling!) - "Yeay for Jesus!"

Ok, let me tell you how hard it is to be out of town when your son flies off to his mission! After several failed attempts, we were able to talk to Peter on the 15th when we were in Scottsdale. Turned out to be a good thing because Shannon got to talk to him too. As she said later, he was "full of love"- telling us he loved us and loved everyone in the family too. Love, love love! Here are some more pictures he sent from the MTC:

At the temple with his companion, Elder Rollins, from Boise and Elder Robins from Ridge Crest, CA. These 3 elders traveled together to New Zealand.This is classic Peter- posing in what he calls a "Missionary Model" pose. That's my boy!
Pres. Jollife sent this picture via email of all of the new missionaries that arrived on March 15th. You can see Peter and the 2 other MTC elders, and all of the others came from the smaller training center in New Zealand. He fits right in, don't you think?I'm happy he's there and doing good things!

An Explanation...

Sorry about the inconsistency in my postings lately- time has gotten away from me! Between getting Pete ready to leave and then him leaving, and working a lot and getting ready for an out of state horse show, well...you know. Shannon and I leave Saturday for a horse show in Scottsdale. Rocko and 5 other horses from our barn are going, along with their riders, rider's mothers, trainers and other assorted folk. This means 15-20 girls/women thrown together for a week. Picture lots of emotion, drama, fun, stress etc. Kind of like girls camp on steroids, with horses. It will be tons of fun, but Shannon and I have learned over the years to give ourselves lots of space too. I've been working on several big projects for this trip. Call it a crusade, if you will. My goal: upgrade our barn image. Remember that line in Men In Black 2 when Will Smith is showing off the new alien-fighting car? He calls it "New Hotness", and the old car is "Old and Busted"? Well, at horse shows our barn has been Old and Busted for far too long and I'm trying to give it that New Hotness look. I'll let you know how it goes.

An explanation about the picture above- Shannon is not really looking at me while she jumps, even though it looks like it. As soon as she and Rocko land, she is going to make a tight turn to the left to jump another jump. I learned the hard way that, when jumping, you need to be looking where you want to go. Don't look where you don't want to go. Like the ground. Ouch. There's probably a good Young Women's lesson in there somewhere...