A Big day out!!!

Today was HUGE!!!

I woke up at about 3.30AM and up at 4.15AM!!!

Way too early....

Went to get Solo in the PITCH BLACK!!!! He decided he wanted to play chasies this morning and wouldnt let us catch him!! Grrr

But we got him with Cimmis help... Food bribary is great with Cimmi!!! LOL

We landed at Manilla before sunrise, about 6.30 or so.

I thought it was a bit hot this morning and it may have been overcast, and as soon as it was light enough to see the sky, you could see how dark it was....

and it rained!!!

But a rainbow came out, so i was going to be short lived!!
and it was, it heated up in no time!!!

There was hundreds of kids at the school day... From schools all over.....

Emelia group, the over 16s, was huge!!!

So she didnt win any ribbons, I mean you cant compete against so many kids that have been riding forever, and Emelia knows that!!!
But she had fun!!!

Here is Solo looking all handsome and watching the rain... I love the light in this photo... Its just as the sun was rising...

Here is the school flag...

Here they are ready to go

Emelia went in the pairs with Sarah..

Then did the bareback FOR THE FIRST TIME after practising all week!!!

Then it was onto the sporting....

As you know, Solo has "Issues" with sporting, but we are slowly retraining him to just not stress and take it easy!! Emelia is so patient with him and each time we do it he gets better and better.

Will all the fierse competition today, Emelia really showed great self control and free will and not be influenced by the other riders and their "Hell at a gate" riding in these events.

Her teacher was so impressed that Emelia took it all very easy to not stress the horse, that she was presented an encouragement award!!!

Emelia was tickled pink!!!

And it was very encourging to Emelia to receive it in recognition for taking the Horses condition into account during such a competitive event...

Solo is a State Sporting horse champion, so this bloke really knows his stuff, but it does kinda stress him out abit now and he would rather not do it. But its seam that thats all the kids can do.. So little by little Solo is getting better and better at the start.

He just walked right upto the barrels and Emelia slow cantered these for the first time in competition..... She & Solo did really well...

Solo still isnt a big fan of bending. Its the one event he continues to rare at the start. But today we fixed that with a head check. He cant gt his head high enough to rare.

So he tried and had a bit of a jump, but then did the event really well, just slow trotting it..

Emelia just walked the Bounce Pony Event, but trotted home..

Emelia is E grade jumping at this stage. The jumps were like A & B grade high.. So she had a bit of a play at the practise jumps to get some confidence and didnt do the jump competiton....

Then that was it..

With her encouragement award, we came home....

Now i have to show you the photo of my handywork....

My reversing!!!
Arnt i clever!!
And we hade like 6 of these little froggies all over our doors last night!! So cute!!
And that was our big day....

This weekend is the WEEK OF SPEED!!!
So we have the DRAGS this weekend!! The boys are so excited!! My brother Gary is beinging his EVO over this weekend to drag and the boys will be on their bikes!!
Im NOT ALLOWED to drag the pink bike as its TOO EMBARRASING apparently!! Hmph!!!
Seeya tomorrow!!