Outside Play Practice

The sun was shining so we thought we may have a chance to practice outside today but when we walked into the arena a chair was right smack dab in the way.

 I went to move the chair, tried to lift it up and broke the top off. The chair was frozen so hard into the sand there was no way to remove it from the arena. 

 Needless to say Karin brought the mares inside while I tried to water the arena. That didn't go well, the hose would only reach half way. 

 Practice went well.

 It went so well we decided to head outside to at least try to run through the play in the bigger arena. By this time the sun had been beating down on the sand and it was all of 20 degrees. The arena was still frozen but not slippery.

 These 3 munchkins were excellent help today bringing the pedestal and the umbrella into the arena then back to the indoor once we finished. 

 I took the girls down to the house to reward them with some hot chocolate while Karin and Rebekah brought Valiant out. They were also able to work him in the outdoor arena. 

This afternoon Mark helped move in a couple bales. Valiant's paddock got one and the fatty paddock got the other. That paddock needs to be renamed if we use it for normal size horses. This was the paddock we used for Ribbon and somehow just continue using it for the fat mares.
At 4:15 we picked up mom, drove to Morton, IL, picked up Nancy then drove to the Morton Fellowship hall where the ICC Bradley young group was putting on a benefit dinner.  The meal was delicious. Pictured below is the second course. We had already had a salad and rolls.

We had a choice of 3 different pies for dessert and that was topped with ice cream. The young group sang for our entertainment. Below is just part of one song but the singing was truly beautiful. 

They stopped singing way too soon. We are expecting a snowstorm tonight starting after midnight. Mark worked on the driveways spreading 80 pounds of salt on the thick ice.  It is late now, almost 9:00 pm, Mark has already gone to bed and as soon as this post is done I too will be heading to bed. After working all day in the cold we are exhausted and need to digest that delicious meal.