Barn Party 2014

I'm not sure how many of you have been following for this long and would remember, but back on October 20 of last year Charlie and I participated in our first Spring Hill picnic and games (we had trailered over since I hadn't moved Charlie there yet). It was disastrous. Reading back over my entry from that day (which you can read here) I sounded surprisingly optimistic and happy, but Charlie really was a jerk. He spent most of the time giraffe-style, pirouetting with his head in the air, or standing on two legs.

Not so this year! :) Sunday marked the annual Barn Party and Charlie was an absolute star.

Games are more fun in Western gear

We had a lot more participants this year than last (thank you weather gods for the warmth and sunshine!) and Charlie and I did every single game: Simon Says, Musical Stalls, Egg & Spoon race, you name it. We even tried our hand at barrels and pole bending. Charlie didn't quite get the point of "go fast, then slow down for a quick turn"...it's hard to get that long body around a tiny barrel! But we still had a ton of fun and he didn't give me one ounce of trouble. If anything he was (dare I say it?) lazy!

One of the games involved putting lots of carrot pieces on several barrels and then seeing who, in the fastest time, could make it to all three and allow your horse to eat only two carrots each time. Charlie loves this game. He loved it so much, in fact, that when it came time to try pole bending and he caught sight of the barrel marking the turn at end of the ring he raced right up to it and slammed on the brakes, searching for carrots. His face when he realized there was nothing there must have been priceless. Meanwhile I'm kicking and pulling and telling him "No, Charlie! Move! The poles! The poles!" We didn't win that one. 

Going over the rules. Charlie got bored and started pushing the pole back and forth.

In another game we had to team up and hold a length of toilet paper between two riders and be the last team with an intact strand after a series of Simon Says-type commands. Charlie handled that like a pro and we won easily, even though he was teamed with a very marish mare (she's the cute buckskin). He doesn't care about that stuff. He's like a little kid who thinks the snarling dog is "smiling."

I did switch to my Micklem after a few games so I'd have a bit more brakes

We also won the egg and spoon race which I was sooo happy about. I usually fail miserably at that one, but this time we made it through a canter and everything! Overall, of the 10 or so classes Charlie and I won four.

Everyone had such a wonderful time. Even 28-year-old TB, Prince, brought his A-game and showed everyone how it is done, blowing everyone away with pole bending and barrels. The old guy has still got it :)

Group pic (only missing Cinnamon on the left, couldn't fit everyone in the frame)