Now that the party is over and the husband and I are over our post-party-hosting hangover (not necessarily the alcoholic sort, more of the oh-thank-god-the-house-doesn’t-need-to-be-clean-anymore variation) it’s back to work at the barn with Foster. He really wasn’t worked much the two weeks between our last show and this past weekend, and I can definitely tell he has lost a little muscle tone.

Sorry Drake, we can’t throw your ball because we are tired

I did forget to mention that we went cross country schooling on Sunday at the lovely course just up the road from us. While Foster started out a little silly, more than likely due to the fact that I was amped up on a giant Red Bull and sitting stiff on his back), he settled down and we tackled some new things. Foster did his first trakehner, jump into water, serious jump downhill, and we worked on moving in between jumps and not just dilly dallying. All a success!

OK, so not this big… it may have been less than 2′ tall…but still…

On the flat, he feels like he has more impulsion and self carriage since I got his hock injected, and we had a great school Tuesday night in which we worked on lots of transitions (and my sitting), and some basic canter work. I hope to repeat that lesson tonight and add in some more lateral work that we haven’t schooled in a while. Tomorrow we jump, and will be focusing on getting our confidence back and tackling bigger fences again, in the 3’3″ ish department.

Besides all that, the fair is in town! We went last night with our fabulous neighbors, and had a great time. Nothing beats eating ridiculous fried food (fried mac-n-cheese not your thing? what about the fried brownie sundae?) for one night a year and not feeling guilty about it. My one requirement each year is fried oreos (yum!) and the husband demands everything be covered in chili. Our neighbors were even braver, and sampled (and finished!) the Krispy Kreme burger, a delightful sandwich of questionable meat product served with a slice of cheese and pickles between two glazed doughnuts. I’m told it was shamefully good.

We smile extra hard when we think it may be the last picture we ever take

We also rode the most terrifyingly fast ferris wheel (seriously, scared to death!), marveled at the livestock (the one place I get to use my Animal Science knowledge, naming all the cows and explaining to people that some goats are meant for meat), and gazed upon the biggest pumpkins I have ever seen. I don’t know about you guys, but those things start to look gross to me after they reach 200 lbs! The biggest pumpkin there could be carved into a playhouse for small children and was 799 lbs. Wow!

$11,000 for a pig? Think of how many horses you could buy with that!

All in all a great week, and we are looking forward to our next Horse Trial this weekend. Ali is making the bold move up to Novice, and my goal is to get around the Beginner Novice course without getting lost clean and clear. Then in a few weeks I would like to move up to Novice at a Combined Training show not too far away. Fingers crossed!