As mentioned in my last post, we have been leasing Lilly... this has resulted in spending about 4 evenings a week at the farm, and then usually Saturday as well. The daughter has been making great progress with her jumping and has started entering some shows away from the farm. I had to get a crash course on saddles so we could find the two she would need. Long flap, forward flap, close contact, adjustable gullet, deep seat... these were all terms I had to learn in this endevor, including a lot of driving around to tack shops, testing saddles, and then returning them to try another... phew.. that is done! We now have a Bates Caprilli Dressage saddle, and a Collegiate Convertible Diploma saddle for jumping. I even learned how to change the gullets so they would fit Lilly.
The next adventure starts this Friday... Lilly's owner has told us that she is going to need to sell Lilly, and while we do love this horse.. she's a bit small for my daughter longterm, so rather than purchase her ourselves, we are going to start looking for another horse. We plan to drive to Virginia on Friday (only about 90 minutes with luck) to look at a few potential replacements.
As for all the stuff that has happened since February, here are a few photos and links. :-)
May 10 - Mother's Day - a beautiful day at AM's. The Dad's cooked quite a feast for the seven mother's in attendance. See - http://byrtlesgirl.blogspot.com/2009/05/mothers-day-2009.html
May 4 - Annual Golf Tournament - Two years now that AM and I have known each other.. it keeps getting better all the time! So is her golf game, she made some great shots! She played through a pretty lousy golfing day in the rain. I am a very lucky fellow to have this wonderful woman in my life! Anne posted a bit about the golf day on her blog - http://anneshouse.blogspot.com/2009/05/fore.html
May 3 - Horse Trials at Equilibrium - The first horse trials show for my daughter and Lilly. It was a miserable rainy day, but a good learning experience!
April 30 - Schooling show at Iron Bridge - getting experience with cross country courses at the farms that will be having horse trials later in the season. AM and I went to the "Symphony with a Twist" in Baltimore that night, last one.. the series is being discontinued. Next year it will be called "Off the Cuff" and a slightly different format.
March 29 - Went to see my daughter's friend ride in a horse show at the Prince George's Equestrian Center. She won grand champion. It was a muddy mess after several days of rain, but a sunny day for the show.
March 19-22 - Memphis Trip - attended the ASIS&T conference. AM came along and did some sightseeing while I was in the meetings. It was a geekfest.. which I sort of fit in with ;-) It was nice to see Memphis again, I lived there when I was young, just starting school. AM has a nice description - http://handywoman.blogspot.com/2009/03/if-youve-never-been-to-memphis-you.html
That's a few highlights. I have also been enjoying AM's kids events, chorus concerts, lacrosse games, her oldest was in a production of "All Shook Up", which was very entertaining. I am lucky to have the company of such talented and entertaining kids... mine included! ;-)
I hope to get a chance to get out and read some other blogs and post some comments, but when you work with computers all day (and part of the night lately), you really want a break from reading and typing.
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and are looking forward to the summer vacations coming soon :-)
Oh and have to add this... it's too cute. See how puzzled kittens get with computers that don't have a mouse!
