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This summer both our horse loving daughters competed in horse riding competitions. Both are very serious about their love of horse riding sport, and both have purchased and gathered an entirely new riding wardrobe reserved for their competitions.
The girls train hard and still upon occasion, beg for us to purchase each their very own horse. One even offered to bake to raise funds to assist in her own purchase.
We've moved on from that now, finally even the younger one understands although we own land, it is residential property and not for horses.
On this pictorial day shown below, our younger daughter entered her fourth such competition and fared very well.
The one day her father was able to attend, of course it just had to be the day we were under a tornado watch, and then a warning throughout the eventing. Instructions were announced on the loud speaker system on how to deal with such an occurrence. In my own mind, I became concerned with a safety plan, wondering how we could move quickly without possible shelters, how to keep our two neighbors safe, our daughter on a horse, and get my husband moving quickly.
What a crazy day filled with so much intensity from everyone in attendance, all anxious to participate and leave early before the storm was to arrive in the area.
To our surprise, just when we were all finished and ready to make the trek back up to the horse trailers, our daughter's name was called over the loud speaker, and instructed to head over to the winner's circle with her horse to have a professional photo shoot. You see, she was declared the winner of not one, but two championships for having achieved the highest overall points for her equitation riding over the course of four competition summer shows. Her coach was over the moon thrilled, as were we, and I was able to surround the media photographers to capture my very own photos of the celebration below.
After the long drive back to the barn, no tornado ripping around us just yet but radio media warnings everywhere, all the barn competitors worked quickly to get all the horses safe in their stalls. And then, in all the excitement of the day, suddenly everyone wanted a group photo with all their awarded summer ribbons hanging from one of the horse trailors.
Happy kids.
Happy coach.
Happy parents.
Snap! Snap! Snap! ...... And then we all rushed home, safe at last from a worrisome day.
Congratulations everyone !
