horsin' around

Yesterday we tried a new outing, to the annual charity horse show not too far from here. The girls' cousin Sydney met us there so she could show the girls a thing or two about horses at one of her old stomping grounds. Pun somewhat intended. Sydney used to compete with her horse in this show and many others over many years, until about a year ago when she gave it all up. I think she was glad to have an excuse to go back and see some old friends (and their riders), especially since she leaves for college in just over a week.

There was plenty of horses jumping and running in plenty of different arenas all around. And there were plenty of people riding around in golf carts, and sipping wine, and wearing over sized designer hats, and looking altogether entirely overdressed given the fact that they were spending a day in a place that, for all it's attempted high-brow fanciness, was ultimately still a place that smelled like hay and horse poop.


We (I) didn't want to pay to sit in the fancy shaded tents with nice tables and centerpieces and drink service in order to watch the shows.

"Can we sit there and watch?" asked Erin.
"Nope," I answered, "That's where the people with table manners sit. No wild monkeys allowed in there."
So we spotted a free haystack instead, which, as Allison pointed out, was not a decision without its own potential concerns. "If the horses get really hungry, they're going to eat our seats!" she worried.

And later Syd took us around to the stables where she met up with some friends and the girls got to pet some of the horses.


Kate was fascinated by a girl washing her riding boots:


So we sat and walked and walked and sat and had lots to see everywhere we went. For quite a while the girls sat with their backs to the arena and simply watched the horses which were walking along a path to or from one arena or another, which were just as interesting as the competition in the rings I suppose.