Happy Memorial Day.  I am enjoying some time at home with Ally, Jordyn and friends, who all came down to the farm today.  Lauren has been working hard re-painting jumps.  Scot came to drag the arena yesterday and things are starting to look nice around here.  We got the new jump course set up last night based upon an article in Practical Horseman Magazine. 

Lauren took young, four-year old Feather through the gymnastic course of jumps designed to help the horse understand how to jump and how to maneuver through a course.  It was her first time.  It was my first time to see Feather jump more than one jump in succession.  With horses and jumping, they have to be a good combination of athletic and agile.  They also have to have what is called “scope” to get over the bigger jumps.  Lauren was jumping Feather over the barrel jump which was about 2’6″.  The barrels themselves measure a little over 3’3″.  So when I caught them in this picture, I was more than a little excited.  It appears Feather has “scope” as she is clearly two feet over the barrels.  We could have a winner on our hands!  So, the Feather dream continues.  If she continues to jump this well…it could be the start of something amazing for us.

Dream come true? Feather is flying.

Caroline and Arianna brought their horses down this morning and we enjoyed the clear day and good riding.  Jordyn and Abby saddled up Mr. Kid and Mickey but were quickly bored and off playing in the sand pile.  Ally was kind enough to watch the little ones while the rest of us took a ride out to the corn field.  As we rode down the dirt road between the corn fields, it was like being in canyon of corn.  The horses (and all of us) got quite a work-out as we cantered the long roads of corn.  The corn is so high it literally swallows us all from sight. 

Riding the corn roads.

I am grateful for friends, my family and warm days of summer.  I remember on this Memorial Day weekend those that are riding along with us in heaven.