Halloween at the Horse Park

There's been so much going on this past month that I'd have loved to blog about (and some I still will, like the felting class I took in Michigan), but time has made it nearly impossible. The month ended on a great note with a ride at the Kentucky Horse Park which was a fundraiser for Central Kentucky Riding for Hope (CKRH).

Four of us decided to dress ourselves and our horses up in costume for the ride... as is usually the case with Halloween, planning and getting ready was the fun part! Mirian loved the idea of being a vampire and making her horse, Gringo, a victim and thus a vampire, too.So, how do you make fangs for a horse? Mirian sewed and stuffed some white fabric and painted blood on the tips, hanging them from Gringo's halter with safety pins. Realistic, maybe not but funny? YES!
Of course she had fangs, too.
She also decided to put mascara on her horse... Gringo is almost as long-suffering as our cat Sushi when it comes to being dressed up! He had his mane and tale painted pink, and had fake blood applied around his face.Our friend Martha rode my horse Sunday, and painted a broomstick on him to go along with her witch costume.
MB was a skeleton, and her horse wore the mask.
I rode Paul's horse Strawberry- she was a spider web (with a few captured flies painted on her rump) and I went as a spider. I had to abandon my extraneous legs when she started jumping around with excitement in an open cornfield and the legs were thumping on her, and I was afraid that the spider web was doing nothing to help me stick in the saddle! We rode through harvested fields and beside old barns, then back onto the beautiful horse park grounds.
It was the first time we'd ever gotten to ride our own horses over the beautiful cross country course, and we had a new appreciation for the height and breadth of the huge fences!We had our lunch on one of the jumps, and of course enjoyed a bit of red to celebrate the gorgeous fall day.

A Kentucky Favorite

The person who put together this slideshow describes the song as " a love song to a place, a home, a way of life and the people you know" I agree.

This time of year, I often find myself humming "My Old Kentucky Home". It's not only because of the great pre-Derby tradition (which normally brings tears to my eyes), but about another springtime tradition, the one that brought me to Kentucky in the first place.The Rolex Kentucky 3-Day Event, especially the Saturday Cross Country day, is one of my favorite spring events. I first attended this when it was the World 3-Day Event in 1978. I was a horse-crazy Ohio girl, and my parents brought another horsey friend and I to Lexington for it. I had also been to Keeneland Race Track the year or two before, and the seeds were planted in my soul for a future life in Kentucky on that trip.
Watching horse and rider negotiate the huge fences is exilherating, and I find myself holding my breath as they near the giant obstacles at a full gallop, with raw determination showing clearly on their faces.Yes, it is a dangerous sport (though many measures have been put into place to make it safer for horse and rider, as there have been fatalities in the past), and there is an occasional crash.The very first horse we watched negotiating The Head of the Lake series of water jumps hit a solid-looking log and it made a sharp cracking sound. Fortunately, the log was made of styrofoam and after being checked okay, the horse and rider did the entire series over and went on safely. They replaced the log with a spare, and we noticed 5 more spares on reserve!There is a lot of artistry and creativity that goes into the fence designs, as well as engineering for safety and challenge- it's a beautiful sight to see and to feel the hooves pounding since you're so close to the action.I love it, and although I wish I was closer to my family in Ohio I'll never regret moving to The Bluegrass State.