Day 3 of 4-H Fair

Horses: Sunday was the first day but was mostly just hauling in horses and some last minute decorating. We watched as one horse refused to load to go home after getting injured on the way there. Not sure why they ever off-loaded him in the first place...

Monday was showmanship. Showmanship is not a riding class - it's a leading your horse on the ground in a pattern class. For the first time ever I saw a horse rear up and flip over in showmanship...wow. Several other horses did other rearing demonstrations with at least 2 or 3 getting hurt bad enough to need to leave but no others were in the show ring.

Today was jumping and dressage. I heard one girl fell off in dressage and dislocated her shoulder but I don't know if it was the horse or the kid at fault. Jumping was oddly uneventful. The worst thing I saw (and I watched almost all of the jumping) was a girl who got entered into a beginner jumper class when she was supposed to be entered in the walk/trot over poles class - and even MORE beginner class. The judge agreed to let her walk it. She did the first 5 little jumps just fine at a walk. The sixth jump her horse actually did a little half jump over. Seventh and eighth jumps were actually real jumps and she ended that last one with the biggest smile on her face!! She did her cool down circle grinning ear to ear and then pulled her horse to a stop. And then her saddle slipped to one side and down she fell to the ground!! Poor kid had just had the ride of her life and everyone was clapping like mad - she probably felt like she was in the Olympics - and then she hits the ground right in front of everyone for something so stupid as a loose girth...

Motocross: Motocross Boy had his first golf lesson today thanks to a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa. Supposedly the Pro really liked him because my boy is NOT afraid to ask questions or let them know what he's thinking. Most kids his age tend to be pretty quiet around adults. Not my kid. Adults are people too!

Homeschooling: I like to think this is because of homeschooling but I saw Equestrian Girl do something today that I couldn't imagine her doing 2 years ago and couldn't imagine any of her public school friends doing even now. She was done assisting the horse show judge today (she was fixing poles if they went down during the jumping) and took her replacement up to the judge and introduced her!