Camp Day 4

Before I start, I'd like to answer a comment that was posted on a previous post asking, "What is a fly bonnet?" I tried to comment and answer back, but for some reason Blogger wouldn't let me, so I'll answer it here. A fly bonnet is used to keep flies out of a horse's ears. I posted a picture so you can see. They're really cute! And my barn has a lot of different colors to choose from. For camp I've been using a dark green one with light green ears.

Annie was way grumpier today than she's been any other day, if that's possible. In the barn, anyway. She wasn't too bad in the ring, except she kicked a horse that was too close to her butt (not too hard though, luckily!). And she only made her angry moaning noise once (which someone said sounded like a seal, which it does). Anyway, grooming was a whole different story. She kept moving away from one wall until she was backed up against the other, making it hard for me to groom her. She also kept bringing her legs up and threatening to kick me and bite me. Needless to say, I was one of the last people to go up to the ring. Which is actually okay with me because I'd rather just take my time.

We started out riding today by playing a game. We again split into our Red and Green Teams, and we again had two bucket on either side of the ring. This time there was a full bucket of water on one barrel and an empty one on the other. We had to take turns filling a cup with water and taking it over to the other side of the ring to dump it in the other bucket. Whoever had the most water in the other bucket when we were done won. My team won again. :) We got to take a victory lap around the ring, which Annie ruined by turning to the middle of the ring again. She really does not like those corners.

After that game we split into groups of three, and each group got a different puzzle. We had to know what pieces were on our puzzle, and then the barn owner mixed up the pieces and put them in different places around the ring. Once she said we could, we split up to find the puzzle pieces. Whichever team had all their pieces back in the puzzle won. Again, my team won! So I got to take another victory lap around the ring, which Annie didn't mess up this time.

The third thing we did wasn't really a game, it was more of a competition. Each team (the same groups of three as the puzzle game) had to stand side by side. Each person on the end got a long piece of a streamer (you know, that roll of tissue paper used at parties? I wasn't sure what to call it...), and the person sandwiched in the middle had to hold the ends of each streamer. Then we had to walk, side by side, around the ring. Whichever team held on to their streamers without breaking them the longest one. Surprise surprise, my team won again! After another victory lap, the others teams took one too, just for fun.

When the other teams were done their victory laps we got to work on jumping some more. Me and one other girl were pulled into the small ring to get some closer instruction with the barn owner. After a couple tries I got Annie to go over some crossrails (the lowest they could go, of course!) and we worked with that for a little bit. Then we headed down to untack, feed the horses, change, and eat lunch. I take so long untacking Annie that by the time I'm done the feeding is pretty much done also.

After lunch was the most anticipated part of today, at least for me. I told you a little about the costume contest before, but today was the day we actually painted our horses and dressed up. Hopefully I will get pictures to show you later, so I won't have to describe it to you. Basically, we painted our horse, got in our outfits, and posed for some pictures. The barn owner took pictures of all the aspects of our design as well, because I think later we might be posting them on a poster board or something.

After our pictures, we are supposed to give our horses a bath to get the paint off, but apparently the horse we picked doesn't like baths, so when one of the people in my group took him to the outside wash stall and started spraying him, he broke one of the cross ties and preceded to gallop up to the house. The girl spraying him actually did manage to get a lot of the paint off Lionel's (our horse's name) one side before he broke loose. I tried to help but most of the time I stayed clear of Lionel (our horse's name) so I wouldn't get run over. When the girl caught Lionel and brought him back, he ran away again before we could tie him up, pulling the lead rope out of the girl's hands in the process. It wasn't her fault, Lionel was just being a pain. Lionel ended up heading towards the driveway that leads out to the highway, but all three of the people in my group ran and blocked him from running that way. When Lionel was caught, they tried a different approach - they put him in the inside wash stall, and closed the barn doors. That got the job done, though when he was put back in his paddock (with some blue paint still on him) he promptly rolled in the dirt, so he is now muddy and blue. That was an entertaining thing to watch!

That pretty much ended our day. We spent about an hour at the neighbor's pool, then hung out in the barn until it was time to leave. I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow, but I hope I get to work on jumping again with Annie. Maybe this time I can prevent her from swerving as much as she did today.