A non-Tiki horsey update

Soooo, as y'all know, I rode the boy Tuesday. Cleaned stalls Wednesday and planned to ride Thursday, but I forgot the saddle at the barn, and plus had a ton of stuff to do before leaving for Statesboro Friday ... and not to mention the fact that the temps barely made it out of the 30's Thursday, so it was ok. Cleaned stalls Friday, and it was about 22 degrees; COLD!!! Glad I've held off on that trace clip.:)

So, in lieu of updating how my horse has stood around the pasture for a week, I'll update my professional horsey life! I started a farm IEA team this year. I WAS the coach for a high school team, but there was a lot of drama, so I let them go on their merry way and formed a team of kids with circumstances that I controlled.

The IEA is the Interschoolastic Equestrian Association, and was formed to give middle and high school kids that don't necessarily own their own horses the opportunity to show for an affordable price. The format is similar to that of college equestrian teams. We unfortunately got started late in the season, so are sort of scrambling here at the end of the season to get qualified for our regional finals. So far, we have 9 points, and we need 12, and there's 3 possible shows left. The problem for us is I only have 1 rider in 2 different divisions, so if they're not there, we get no points for that division. I KNOW the team will be bigger next year, and we'll get started way earlier than this year, but I still want us to at LEAST make the Regional finals, and hopefully the Zone finals. Once we get to Zones, it's only natural that we should make it all the way to Nationals, of course!!

The middle school is qualified. We needed 1 point as of yesterday, and finished 3rd, so we earned ourselves 4 points, thus qualifying. To top things off, the girls WON the show today, so we added an additional 7 points on to our total, but that sadly means nothing. It doesn't matter if you have 12 pts or 40 pts, once you get to Regionals everything resets to zero. So, I have 2 chances left to get my girls qualified (the high schoolers). I know we'll do it. I really enjoy the IEA shows because that's MY thing. My fabulous boss is away at the "A" shows with her fancy shmancy hunters, and I'm coaching my kids on someone else's school horses. I like it that way!:) So, I shall leave with another silly picture of the Tiki pony and hope I get to ride him ... soon!