Horsey day away at Brightside

It's a cloudy gloomy day at the farmette. Yesterday was a temperate 25C and sunny which was ideal for the event in which niece Rachel had entered two of her five horses.

It was a whole day affair at the Brightside Equestrian Centre, just south of Owen Sound, and Sandy and I went for support.

We also put up a wee kiosk to sell the Thorntons' Lady Bank maple syrup and K-bale hay nets for feeding horses. Rachel's friend makes them and she swears by them (she has them both inside and outside the barn). Not only are they good for the horses, they made her chores so much more efficient, it was a 'life-changer'.

Here's Sandy early in the day.

We were right in front of the paddock where most of the action was taking place. So good seats.

Rachel did very well in the competitions. Her buckskin baby Peanut (he's only one) was the champion in the young horse class. She had to lead the wee one through a series of obstacles to demonstrate the skills of both the horse and handler. Which they did with flying colours.

I got a treat by hooking up with one of the centre's felines named Mack.

He's the best looking and friendliest barn cat that I've ever seen. As you can see, he loved the cuddling.

In the afternoon, Rachel rode George, her four-year-old, in four different events. They even wound up winning the final event, the ranch class, which was the toughest. I unfortunately wasn't there to witness it because I had to get home to feed my own livestock (hahahaha).

It was a great day. Here's me being horsey girl by helping wrangle Peanut back to the trailer after his competitions. Not much wrangling involved. He's pretty tame. Vocal - he kept whinnying loudly because he was a bit nervous because it was his first competition - but a very good boy, nevertheless.

Grateful for a great day spent with family, felines and horses. Until next week.

Gratuitous cat photo courtesy of Fred, who can't figure out how to play with the sheep and border collies on the television.