Pony Club Quiz Kids- Whiz kids!

Okay, that was a long hiatus from blogging! But, we have not been idle.
I am excited to share some photos from the burgeoning transformation of Salem House. I feel like I have so much to do there, but it helps to catalog what has been done. I will post photos of the kitchen soon. It is mostly done, but does need a refrigerator (I hate to spend the money!) Two of the bedrooms are finished, and the main floor bathroom is demolished... a lot to do there still!


Meanwhile, Huz and Middlest have been to Disney and back with the marching band where they were featured in a parade, and I have spent many hours in the barn- the cold, cold barn- doctoring the hind limbs of Middlest's horse. The week after we lost Pearl, Middlest discovered Chanelle in the early morning, in my horse's stall, with much damage inflicted to her right hind in particular and the gate with which she had tangled on the other side of the paddock. What exactly happened, we'll never know. What we do know is what came next; another early morning call to our Horsevet Hero, Dr. Peter Meuse. I worked on getting her cleaned up and ready to be fixed, but it became apparent it was not going to be an easy job. The first day he sewed up the wound near her tarso-crural joint; at the middle front of her hock, and we injected it with antibiotics, in case the joint capsule was compromised, but the swelling was too great to fix the largest wound down the front inside of her cannon bone. Amazingly, she had missed all the major tendons there and after some wrapping work to get the swelling down, he came back out on a Friday night to close the bigger wound. Just for perspective, I was working too that evening, and arrived home after 10:30 pm to Dr. Meuse still in the barn. Poor guy! But, with diligent care, the sutures came out a few days ago, and now we are working on other issues to see where we get with her rehab. She needs to regrow a lot of skin!  Amazingly, after day 1, she never seemed lame. Thoroughbreds.


And, this past weekend, I was feeling brave enough to leave her in Dr. Meuse and Huz's care and drive my champion children to West Virginia to compete in the Tri-State Region of the United States Pony Club Quiz Competition. This is Middlest's third year competing in Quiz, and Youngest's first Pony Club Competition. It is like "College Bowl" about horses, and a practical examination all rolled into one. It is 12 hours of Pony Club horse questions and hands on knowledge about the sport of horses, and the only Pony Club competition to which you don't bring an actual horse. 
At the end of the day I had two of the top 12 scorers in the entire competition in my family, and 4 of the top 12 in my car. 8 of 9 of our Hunters Run Pony Club competitors qualified to compete in the National Pony Club Championships in Kentucky this summer. That would be 8 of 12 in the region. When I say these kids are good, I mean they're fantastic.

Perfect Plaits: The team gets up early to make sure braids are done just alike- Youngest was spared as the only boy!

The Ladies, and Gent of Team HRPC!

Our Senior D team placed second by a hair. That's Middlest second from the left.

And our scramble team with HRPC and BPC of Junior D's placed second as well!  Youngest is the fella.

My handsome Youngest, beams with pride. He was a high point scorer.

Our 3-man team of Senior C's killed it! They were first by a mile.

But, our Junior D team was the third place team score overall ( 25 teams).

And one of our own, K. Z. had the second highest score of all competitors for the day. (For the second year in a row- YOWZA!)

 

 

 

I am so proud of my Pony Clubbin' kids!