CHP

Hello all the people of the world! I welcome you all the language of English as it is the only one I know how to speak so you're stuck with it if you want to read this blog. If you don't, then be off with you!! I don't have time for non-committal people filling up my stats on who looks at this thing, and yes to some surprise from some of you, some people do actually look at my blog.

So I'm back from the Colorado Horse Park (CHP) and it was a lot of fun. It's a really big neat place. There should be some good pictures that I took while there if you want to get a look see. Just click on the word here. It was cool because it was a fairly big show as there were some two star competitors which means people almost good enough to make it to the Olympics were there. I got to watch their show jumping round which was awesome but missed their cross country which would've been really awesome! Some of those fences are HUGE!!! It would be so fun and cool to be able to jump that stuff some day :) *sigh* Someday.....The cool jumping pictures are at the end of the album if you're interested. Also pictures of me will be coming once they are loaded online.

Scout and I didn't do as well this show as we did in our last competition. Our dressage test did not go as well as it did in the pouring rain at Spring Gulch. The heat affected us both differently than the rain, go figure ;) We ended up with a 38.3 which is ok but not awesome. Cross country was a lot of fun but he was pretty strong and fast thru most of the course. The slowest you could finish the course was 6.19 mins and the fastest was 4.55 mins. There are approx min markers on the course to help you get a feel for if you are coming in too fast or too slow because if you're not in between the two times you get penalized and get points added to your dressage score. You want a lower score like in golf. Anyway at fence ten you were suppose to have been on the course for 3 mins but when I checked my watch it said 1.41 mins! That's WAY WAY too fast and after that fence I was able to get him to pay attention to me better and we were able to slow way down and make a good time of 5.30 or something like that. We also didn't get any refusals or anything so we went double clear. We also went double clear in stadium tho I felt like a retard because I wasn't able to get Scout to give me the right cantar lead which plays a part, for me right now, in turning corners. This is something I also am working on. He was a good boy tho and we ended up 8th out of 22 people which isn't too bad for a second outing.

I do have a show coming up June 22-24 up in Ogden at the Golden Spike Arena if anyone is interested. It should be a good basic show. Very nice.

Other news, I found out information about my host family that I'll be staying with while I'm in Aussieland. Their names are Andrew and Maureen Harris are both between the ages of 50-70. They've had over 25 kids stay at their house and the last three interned at UWW and loved it there. They have a two bedroom villa with large backyard and the backyard has pegola and entertainment area. There is also a large dining and kitchen with very large lounge area. It is in a private setting and the home is close to TAFE and walking distance to beach and shops with a bus stop directly outside the home. They work in Aged Care facility and own a toy poodle named Bunnie. They enjoy walking on beach, BBQ with friends, and enjoy reading books. Additional costs include arranging connection to the internet and locked home phone for international calls - can use for local calls. I will get my own bedroom and bathroom along with cooked meals. They are ballroom dancers and this is a picture she sent to me of them.

For those of you who didn't know what a pegola was click here. I didn't know what it was either and had to google it. Man, I don't know what you old people did without google. Seriously is super useful. Anywho, they seem like real nice people and I'm excited to meet them. It should be a pretty good place and they sound pretty chill about everything so I'm hoping they didn't have 25 interns that suffered immensely and that I'll be their 26 victim. They seem really nice to I don't think I really have to worry about it that much. Super cool man, oh man, oh manny!!

We are off to Lake Powell on Wednesday after Shay gives her speech thing for finishing her last year of elementary. Crazy that my littlest sister is going to junior high!!! That makes me feel old!! I can't imagine how the rest of you old fogies feel ;) 

The only other news I have is that Band of Horses will be playing at the twilight concert series this summer! TOTALLY RAD!! Look at the rest of the lineup.    

                        

There are some Band of Horses songs if you want to check them out. That's it for now folks!!!