Horse Camp

Nora completed her week of Horse Camp today. She was attending the Triangle Farms horse camp from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. all week. Today there was a show that the owner put on where each kid exhibited their newly developed talents. Nora rode Nas (short for Manassas) and demonstrated walking and trotting her horse in a circle and figure eight while using her two point and posting stances. Nora was awarded a blue ribbon and has already made plans to buy a horse. She also shared with us that instead of us buying her a car at sixteen, she wants a truck instead so she can haul her horse to shows.

How's it goin?

Posted by Nora.

Today was my first day of horse camp at Triangle Farms. The first thing that happened was a veterinarian came to check the horses. He found out that one of the horses has a sore back right leg and he will come back later this week to check on the horse. There are four other kids at camp with me and we all ate lunch together. After lunch the vet checked the horses' teeth. First he had the horse put their head and nose into a circle shaped clamp to help them hold still. Then he took a file and scrubbed it around in the horses mouth. Next, he took a vibrating drill and removed the pointed parts of the horses teeth so it wouldn't pinch their tongue or cheek when they chewed. We also played with a 38 year old horse named Stormy. Stormy is so old she can hardly move but we are all going to help her this week. We took Stormy into the big riding ring to let her walk and trot. We also took her in between to some of the pastures to mow (eat). The owner of Triangle Farms, Joan, has a puppy named Iris that we are all helping to train as a surprise. Next we rode the horses - I rode Manassis and Amber. After riding we gave the horses showers. We used the sweat scraper which is used after the shower to remove the extra sweat and water that is stuck in their fur so it doesn't hurt the horse later. At the end of the day we played a game while waiting for our parents to come pick us up. It was about horse trivia. When my mommy came to get me, I showed her Manassis and Stormy but Iris wasn't there. I had the best time of my life!!!

Club House & Pool

There is a swimming pool and club house in our neighborhood. It has a decent size pool for older kids and adults to share and a kiddie pool for seven years and younger. You are allowed to bring a cooler in with you for food and beverages so you can spend most the day there if you want to. It is convenient for us and the kids love it.

Equestrian

As some of you already know, Nora is fascinated with horses. She took riding lessons in 2005 when we lived in Moorhead, MN and fell further in love with horses. Today she began her English Riding lessons at the Triangle Farms in North Carolina. The owner of the facility commented that Nora is very good for her age and she could tell Nora had ridden prior. We stopped at Triangle Horse Sports to pick up some ridding pants, boots and a helmet. Holy cow this is going to be expensive! In case you are not aware, the cute little black helmets they wear in contests cost around $380. Needless to say, I believe it will be worth it as she is genuinely committed to this and you are only a kid once.

New York City

Kristi left for New York this morning with her mom Kim. Kim came to Raleigh on Monday, May 28 for a few days. They are meeting Josie and Emily in New York for a vacation. Kristi will be coming back on Monday, June 4. Kristi will post a blog on her travels later and has already uploaded some pictures.

Double Digits

Today Nora turned 10 years old. She did not want a high key celebration and opted for a neighborhood get together at the pool. We met there after school and swam until we were rained out. Pizza and presents followed. She was very happy with how the day turned out and especially liked her gift from mom and dad which was a mobile phone. Yes, we broke down and added a line to our family plan. Nora has filled it with the phone numbers of all her family and some of her friends that have mobile phones. She has already made several calls and you can expect to hear from her soon.

Nearly Famous

I took Nora down to the Triangle Mall this morning so she could wait in line to try out for the television show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? We arrived at 9:40 a.m. and stood in line with hundreds of kids until after 2:00 p.m. We were told that they would register kids up until 2:00 p.m. and then those that were not registered would be sent home and the auditions would continue up to 4:00 p.m. Nora was a trooper and made a new friend while standing in line. This blog does not have a happy ending as we missed the cut off to register by just three kids. If they had allowed three more to register Nora would have had a shot.