August update

Another month gone. Summer has passed far too quickly.  We got a lot of rain this month and August was cooler than normal which meant we did not spend as much time at the pool as we would have liked to.

Sophia volunteered at the county fair with her 4-H group. She worked in the petting zoo portion mainly with the chicks and ducklings. She was great.  She held the animals while people petted them. She was polite to all the kids (and adults) that came by.

Sophia and Navajo competed in the MOHSS again. They worked well together. She took home two second places, three third and one fourth place. Her friends even convinced her to put in braids and ribbons in for the show. They did this for their coach, Catherine. Perhaps the ribbons brought them all good luck.  I tripped over a fence at the beginning of the show. I got three pretty deep puncture wounds. No fun.  I went to urgent care after the show where they cleaned them out (ouch) and bandaged it up.  Could have been worse.

We got together for the day with some of Sophia's China sisters.  The family from Maine did not make it down, another family got sick. So four of the six families were together for some bowling and dinner. The kids had a blast playing together.

Sophia competed in a jumper night at the barn. One class was a no-whining class. The parents had to ride with a glass filled with wine. The person who ended up with the most wine in their glass at the end of the night won a basket of wine. Steve competed and did a great job. He didn't win but had a blast. Navajo is such a good horse.

We attended a Girl Scout event for the solar eclipse. They had fun activities and we saw the eclipse through our glasses.  It was very cool.

Sophia worked very hard all summer at pony pal camp. She earned "pony bucks" which buy her lessons. She is such a hard worker. She was awarded the volunteer of the summer award for all her work. The instructor said she is always attentive, finds stuff to do during down time, engages the campers and has a positive attitude. We are so proud of her. She was one of three volunteers who one this award. Pretty impressive!

Her long time coach and instructor, Angel is moving away. We will miss her so much. She has been working with Sophia for years. Over the last year they had a semi-private weekly lesson with Angel. She is going to be missed. 

One of Sophia's favorite horses, Maverick, got sick in August. They weren't sure if he was going to make it. But Maverick is a fighter. He came through and will now be enjoying retirement.  Maverick was one of the two horses which caught an equine herpes virus in 2005 but lived. At least five horse died from the virus. We are told that he leaned against his stall and slowly moved about never laying down. If a horse with the virus laid down they could not get back to a standing position. He fought then and went on to be a beloved school horse. He taught so many children how to ride. Sophia showed with him for about a year. He is an amazing horse. So glad he pulled through again.

Until next month.