Happy Halloween!!

Equestrian Girl on the right and her friend on the left.  They were evil cowboys.

Motocross Boy/Man....we aren't sure what he is besides a guy with a broken clavicle.

Horses

This horse stays in all day.  He's very clean and very beautiful and spends all day wishing he could go outside.

These horses are his buddies and go outside all day but spend most of it wanting to come back in.

Rainbow Season at the barn?

A couple of weeks ago we spotted this rainbow as we were leaving the barn.

Last night we caught this one just as it was fading away - you can see how there's not much color towards the top.  Within less than a minute, it was gone.

I never thought of October as "Rainbow Season" but apparently it is at the barn!

Where the Wild Things Live

I love having a decent camera on my cell phone.  It lets you capture pics that you would normally just keep in your brain for a while.  Driving home the other night just before sunset the sky was amazing!  It reminded me of the book, "Where the Wild Things Live".  It was mother nature's very good attempt at a very scary looking sky.

We own a giraffe!

Detroit Sunrise

While I'm not a huge fan of working downtown, I do really enjoy the view.  Being breast cancer awareness month has the whole town in sync.  The RenCen was wrapped in pink ribbons (the very top of the towers) and the BCBSM tower is sporting a giant pink ribbon in LED lights on one side of the building.  Nature cooperated too as you'll see in a minute.

I don't come around to this side of the building much since it looks directly at the other buildings (in the above picture I'm in the second building to the right on the side that faces the first building on the right) but the sunrise reflecting off the towers looked pretty cool.  In an odd stroke of photography fate, the reflection of the ceiling lights and even a lighted doorway also showed up making them look like hovering alien aircraft.

Here's where the sunrise really started to cooperate in painting the town pink.  Gawd it was a gorgeous picture!

And now we have PINK!  You can see the pink ribbon on the BCBSM tower on the far left edge of the picture if you squint.  The sky pretty much steels your focus.

Seconds later some beams burst through the clouds and morning was on its way.

Cedar Point - Halloweekend

Every year Cedar Point opens for weekends in October and has lots of haunted attractions on top of the usual rides.  We picked October 8 and I drove down with Equestrian Girl and her buddy A.  The weather was perfect!  High 70's with NO humidity and that hint of a fall chill in the air.  What we didn't plan on was everyone else thinking it was a PERFECT day to visit Cedar Point.  Our first clue came when we were still about 15 miles away and traffic started CRAWLING.  We were hoping it was construction and not park traffic.  We were wrong.  We had planned on being there around noon. It was closer to 2:00.  We took this picture right after we got there to send to A's mom telling her we finally made it!  They were so excited!

This was later at night - on one of the last rides.  I didn't go on this one.  I'm not big on having my feet dangling when I'm spinning around 100 feet in the air.  

The best part of the night couldn't be photographed - it was in one of the haunted houses - a haunted toy factory actually.  Poor Equestrian Girl got herself so worked up I'm surprised she didn't wet her pants.  At one point a "scary guy" merged in behind them, right in front of me, and was trying to sneak up behind the girls to scare them - and they were hanging on to each other for dear life with their hoods up over their heads.  Since the scary guy couldn't manage to squeeze between them (they thought it was me), he went around to the outside and popped up in A's face!  I was laughing so hard since it still took them a minute to realize it wasn't ME!  Then I was sure they were going to go right through the wall.  Oh my.  I never laughed so hard...

IEA Practice

Earlier this year Eq Girl was invited to be on a Western IEA (Interscholastic Equestrian Association) team.  She will be riding assigned horses in horsemanship and reining.  Since she's the only girl on the team not living in the Findlay, OH area, we went down for a special practice with the coach's kids.  We were a little early so she started on Slipper doing reining with Mark Smith coaching.

After the practice, they had a little talk with the coaches.

This was our first time at Findlay University.  Their western barns and arenas are incredible.  They keep 350 horses in that facility!  Below you can see a stall to the right which is just off the arena (that is to my left in the pic) and ahead you can see some of the 450 tack lockers for students.  The place is huge but also very well kept and clean.  I just can't imagine having that many horses in one place!

Horsemanship at Sapphire

One of Equestrian Girl's favorite classes is Horsemanship. This class has the team doing a pattern which is judged mostly on the rider's equitation but also on the accuracy of the pattern itself.  Horse and rider both must look perfect in their execution of the pattern.

Equestrian Girl takes this very seriously.  This isn't a smiling pleasure class.

 I love that you can see her giving a little smooch sound to Stanley.

 And the slightest hint of a smile as they come around the last turn to finish!

A New Old Vest

The new trend in western show clothes is an old trend - vests.  This time around though, they are sparkly, blingy affairs.  Equestrian Girl really wanted a vest and had admired one covered in sequins worn by a young amateur we know.  Mom to the rescue!  And I did not put my limited sewing skills to use either.  I just dug in my closet and voila!  Old is new again!  This was actually a very fancy formal affair top I had worn with flowing palazzo pants many years ago for a formal event.  It was very fitted with cut in shoulders and zipped up the back with a tiny mock turtleneck that scratched like hell.  I wore it once.

Equestrian Girl spotted it and thought it was beautiful.  Pulled it on BACKWARDS over a black blouse and she had her sequin vest!  She got many compliments and we were both just cracking up over it.

Even in the horrible lighting of this arena, it sparkled.

Look at that confidence!  It must have been the good luck from my top...

 Later, Equestrian Girl's friend A showed up with her mom to watch for a while.  They'd never been to a horse show.  They brought home made "fingers" to support the team!

I loved the above picture but all those extra people in the background were kind of distracting. Horse shows are crowded places.  So a friend did some creative editing for me and came up with the attached!!  Isn't it fantastic??

2011 Sapphire Show at Mason

Every once in a while you take a picture you just really like but can't quite explain why.  This is one of those.  Equestrian Girl was set up with Stanley to start their showmanship pattern waiting for the judge to give the nod.  Can't really see either of their faces very well - but I like this picture.

They had a great pattern - started strong and with confidence.

 Sometimes Stanley does silly things like sneezing or shaking.  He was good for this pattern.

Except here.  Where he decided to stick out his tongue at the judges.

But ever the professional, Eq Girl finished just as strong as she started with a 1st under one judge.

Later, changed into English clothes, I caught Eq Girl having a chat with her "show sister" Sheri.

Then they spotted me taking their pictures and had to turn hammy.

So they demonstrated their "hand bump" good luck thing they do before classes.

Then Equestrian Girl went in and won her class and was all smiles.  The end.

More fall racing

Its interesting to me how sometimes it appears that Motocross Boy/Man is out there all alone racing and other times it's such a battle between the bikes.  Here he looks like he's out having a nice cruise by himself.

Having fun just taking jumps and riding on a beautifully crisp fall day.

Then all of a sudden he's battling to pass or keep his place with another rider.

Or two or three.

He can take the same turn alone, with two, or now three guys all fighting to move ahead.

And then he's back to flying through the sky on his own again.

And fighting for position again.

Or just flying past his mommy so fast that he blurs my pictures...

New friends...

I made a new friend.  His name is Bugsby.  

Fall Racing at Polka Dots

When I left to drive up to Midland to watch Motocross Boy/Man race, I hadn't realized that the colors were changing.  Actually, they were NOT change in Whitmore Lake.  But in Midland...yep.  It was September 9th.

The most exciting part of any motocross race is the start and sometimes the finish depending on how close it is.  But the start is always good because there is always a whole bunch of riders all fighting to get around a rather narrow corner into the "hole shot" first.  This person usually leads the race for a while at least.

At the starting gate with Dad giving instructions.

And they are off!

Motocross Boy/Man is taking it wide on the outside opening to simply speed around the rest.

Still on the outside but the pack is spreading out as the more cautious riders hang back.

Not going to make it this time - it was a good line up.

Notice all that fall color?  I bet it's really beautiful now - a month later.