D-Rally Clinic and Competition

Leah recently participated in the Pony Club D-Rally. She first went to a clinic to practice the cross country course. The week before the actual competition, Blaze had an abcess in his foot and was very lame. She had to decide if she was going to just not go, or take another horse. She ended up taking Dakota, Julia's pony. He did OK, but was disqualified from the jumping competitions for too many refusals. It was good for him to be exposed to all the chaos of the show (some 60 riders) and all that goes with it. Blaze is doing much better.

Mono Cliffs Park

Arriving back after a 3 hour ride on a VERY hot day.

All 7 of us that went on horses. One of us fell off her horse when he tried to roll in the pond. Take a guess at who.

The two bikers waiting for us to untack the horses. Something you don't have to do with bikes

Waiting for the picnic

Mini Dachshund puppies

Charlotte

Nap time

Wilbur

August Updates

Just a few updates from our family since we haven't blogged for awhile

• NEW PUPPY; we have decided to keep one of Ellie's puppies. Charlotte is a black and tan female and as cute as pie! She is 8 weeks old now and we are working on house training her. We have put Wilbur (her brother) and Ellie up for sale. Charlotte is going to be Hannah's project, which she is very happy about. (Baurers--are you interested in a mini-dachshund???? You guys need a good farm dog to keep the coons away!)
• NEW JOB; Hannah started a new job at the Linwood Corner Store today. She will be working full time until school starts and part time after. She is excited about having some regular hours and having more cash on hand. Time to open up a student bank account and give her the opportunity to manage her money.
• MONO CLIFFS; Sunday afternoon we went with some friends to Mono Cliffs Park near Orangeville. Some of us took horses, while others of us brought our bikes to ride on the trails. (I will let you readers sort out which did which!) There are some really awesome trails that are well groomed for biking, hiking, and horseback riding. The best part about the trails was there were NO BUGS. There are some shallow pond for people/animals to wade in on a hot day, so we took the horse in one of them. A VERY fun day.
• TEDDY; Grandpa Baxter has been helping Leah train Teddy to get him ready to be sold. Leah has been trying to work with him, but is not strong enough to handle some of his antics, such as bolting whenever he is scared. It is great to see them working together and I think Leah will learn a lot.
• SCHOOL; We, Canadians are still enjoying 3 more weeks of summer vacation, while all you Americans are melting in your classrooms. And, August has turned out to be a nice, warm, summery month. Yeah!!!!
• WINDSTAR; Yes we still have the old gray mare. We put her back on the road a few weeks ago. She is a bit rusty and rattles when you drive, but, hey, she has a trailer hitch and can pull the dirtbike trailer when the girls are using the other van for the horse trailer. This old van will be Andrews new wheels come October. Hmmm.. . . . . I wonder if he will have it lowered and put lights on the running boards? :0)
• D RALLY; Leah has her big show coming up this weekend. She will be taking Blaze and will be doing 3 events- dressage, show jumping, and cross country jumping. We will try to post some pictures after we get back.