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| Mississippi! It. Was. So. Flat. You could see for miles. |
We arrived in Robinsonville, Mississippi Monday evening, after a 14 hour road trip. To pass the time, we watched the 6-hour version of Pride & Prejudice, studied furiously, and discussed falling off horses. We finally arrived at our hotel to discover the other NC people had arrived before us and just left for supper. So, after checking in and unloading the van, we decided to goof off a little with some horse-y charades. And sorta forced Ruthy to give her presentation on moon blindness. ;)
Lindsay, our coach, decided to start practice at 10am Tuesday morning and we worked on ID's, team problems, veterinary terms, etc. Later that afternoon after studying for hours...and hours...and hours...our eyes kinda started to glaze over and we decided this was going to have to get more interesting. So....someone suggested a relay race up and down the hall. Lindsay wrote down questions, and we began our hippology relay. That was fun. Just sayin.
Tuesday evening we decided to go in search of somewhere to eat. Did I mention we were in the middle of nowhere? Well, that's not really true. We were in the middle of "Casino-land," to quote Ruthy.
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| See?! |
There was nowhere to eat, other than a Wendy's at a gas station. And acres and acres of cotton, millet, and corn.
So, we take off to find a WalMart and somewhere to eat. After we had been traveling for 5-10 minutes, Harlie calls. (It's 7:55, at this point) "Uh...does Lindsay know there's a coaches meeting at 8?". Uh, no. Lindsay didn't know. We turn around and head back to the hotel...so we think. HA! Nope. We kinda got lost. Lindsay eventually made it back to the hotel though, and after dropping her off we continued searching for the WalMart. We found it...and that's a story in itself. :)
Wednesday morning came bright and early...the first day of competition. Butterflies galore. Everybody did ID's first, and they were really straightforward, for which we were grateful. The next element was stations, which did not go so well, so I thought. ::sigh:: Thirdly, we had team problems. We'd been practicing those a lot, because we're really bad at them. (: There are three, one prepared and two impromptu. The first we were given 10 minutes to confer and then we had to present it. It went fairly well, so on we went to our first impromptu. There were several different pieces of equipment on a table, and we had 7 minutes total to decide what the items were, who was saying what, and then present it to the judge. There were a couple of things we weren't exactly sure what they were, so we made "educated guesses"...Kendall was brilliant. Haha (: The judge was really sweet...complimented us on our guesses (;)), told us what they *really* were, and said she like the way we presented it. Moving along to our final problem...there were four Breyer horses, each of which had a tag explaining their injuries. This problem was impromptu as well, so we discussed how to treat them and decided who was saying what. Well...we have a certain order we usually stand in, cause some of us are better openers/middle people/closers than others. So, we started to present and the judge says "Uh, the horses are supposed to be in their order of severity. We shuffle the horses around, least to most severe, and begin again. "Uh...in order from most to least severe," says the judge. We start to shuffle the horses around again, then just decide it would be easier if *we* just moved. After finally achieving the correct order, we began our presentation. And we talked so fast. I had just barely finished my last sentence when the timer went off. Barely. It was great. The judge said we were phenomenal (: We felt soooo much better after team problems, especially after the Disaster we knew as stations. Our final element was the test, which also went fairly well. After a quick lunch break, we went back to watch the horse bowl competition. NC won... :)
We ate at The Mexican Grille for supper that night, which was another adventure. (: Chips and salsa went down fast at our table. Hahaha... (:
Anywayss....we get back to the hotel a little before 9, which was good, cause we were supposed to have judging practice with Dr. Bob Mowrey at 9. (: We had a crash course in reining, and I learned a lot. (I'm really bad at judging, so I can use all the help I can get...)
Judging didn't start til 8:30, but Thursday was another bright and early morning because a few people from the hippology teams had presentations that morning and we wanted to watch. Ruthy's was on moon blindness and Carson and Bradley's was on fly prevention/treatment, and both of their presentations were fantastic!
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| Carson and Bradley - "When Flies Attack!" |
We barely made it to the showgrounds in time for judging....not that they would've started without us anyway. (: Hippo kids judge four classes, and this year ours were Stock Type Geldings, Hunter in Hand, USEF Hunter Under Saddle and Western Pleasure. Not even a reining class. ::sigh:: Oh well. Judging was...not so great, for me, at least. During the HUS class, two horses picked up the wrong lead in the canter and one of them even bucked...and I missed all three things. Ha. I placed the "bucking horse" first. ::shakes head::
Thursday afternoon we went back to the showgrounds and watched breakaway roping (: \
After that was over, we headed back to the hotel and crashed for a couple hours before the Parade of States and the Awards Ceremony later that evening.
Horse Bowl...
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| Harlie - 1st, Elizabeth - 4th, Taylor - 8th, Bradley - 9th, and Coy :) {Placings are individual awards, the team won} |
Team Presentations...
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| Carson and Bradley won!!!! :) |
Ruthy won individual presentations, but I don't have a picture...Sorry, Trunk Monkey (:
Finally, after awards for Horse Bowl, Team and Individual Presentations, Public Speaking, and all the judging events, they begin hippology!!
Test & ID's...
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| Allie - 9th, MJ, Yours Truly - 3rd, and Kendall! Our team placed 3rd (: {Kendall participated in judging, too...and did well...so she had a gazillion ribbons} |
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| The other NC team won (: Ruthy, Harlie - 1st, Carson - IthinksheplacedbutIdon'trememberwhat, and Coy! |
Stations....
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| Surprised? YES!!! Team - 4th Allie, MJ, me - 5th, and Kendall (: |
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| They won...again (: Ruthy - 6th (?), Carson - 3rd, Harlie -1st, and Coy |
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| But the other NC team won! Ruthy - 3rd, Carson, Harlie -1st, and Coy -7th |
Team Problems...
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| SECOND PLACE!!! We finally beat the other NC team in something :P |
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| They got fourth (: |
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| My team was third overall, and the other NC team won! Harlie was 1st, Ruthy 5th, Carson 7th, and Yours Truly 8th! And yes, I am aware of the fact that I am shorter than everyone else. :) |
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| Haha..everybody doesn't fit in the picture (: |
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| Oh my word...I just realized we made a pattern :D |
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| And this HUGE barge went by...approximately 2x longer than my house. |
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| MJ and The Sign :) |
** {Most} Photos by Michelle Cavalieri (:
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