On Thursday, we packed up and drove to Castle Rock, CO for the Four Corners Horseshoeing Contest. For anyone who's unfamiliar with what it is my husband does all day, this'll give you a pretty good idea:
Though he doesn't work on huge draft horses everyday or make every shoe from scratch, he does do most of the forging and shoeing stuff daily. This contest was a great way for him to practice and identify things he needs to do to improve his skill in different areas. The Draft Horse competition was just one of several he entered and was a team event. His brother, Pete, and a friend, Jacob (they had to call each other by last names to avoid confusion) worked together to shoe the draft horse. This was actually their second draft horse. Jake said that when they started, he and Pete were totally in the zone making the shoe. Jacob was doing the trimming of the feet and apparently was being stepped on and dragged around by this ginormous animal. By the time Jake & Pete had what they called a "beautiful" shoe almost complete, Jacob asked if they could PLEASE have another animal to work on. Jake felt so bad because he'd been so focused on forging that he hadn't noticed Jacob's situation at all. So they got a new horse and had to start all over. It's hard work, and I think that starting out so strong sortof drained them. For the contest, they only have to shoe one front and one hind of one side of the horse. So they completed that. But then, because of an uneven number of teams competing, there wasn't anyone to finish the other side of the horse. So they went ahead and did that too. Needless to say, the poor guys were pooped by the end!
The team at the very end of the contest - after cleaning up and shining the newly shod draft horse hooves. l to r: Jake, Jacob, Peter
The kids were thrilled to have the huge arena to play in and quickly found a few little friends to run around with. Though I have to say, they spent the majority of the time chasing each other and laughing. It makes me so glad that they are each other's best friend right now and I hope that they stay that way!
Saturday night was the banquet, auction and awards ceremony. Because of a late start that morning, everything got put behind and the banquet didn't even start until 9:00 p.m.! After chowing down on yummy BBQ pork, (it was pretty cool and I wish I'd taken a picture of the WHOLE roast pig - apple in its mouth and all) we headed back to the hotel and crashed around 10:30. I'm glad we didn't try to stay for the rest of the evening - other farrier friends we talked to Sunday morning during breakfast remarked that the auction went way late and awards didn't begin until midnight. But we're glad we went. It was a fun experience and a great little getaway.
Though he doesn't work on huge draft horses everyday or make every shoe from scratch, he does do most of the forging and shoeing stuff daily. This contest was a great way for him to practice and identify things he needs to do to improve his skill in different areas. The Draft Horse competition was just one of several he entered and was a team event. His brother, Pete, and a friend, Jacob (they had to call each other by last names to avoid confusion) worked together to shoe the draft horse. This was actually their second draft horse. Jake said that when they started, he and Pete were totally in the zone making the shoe. Jacob was doing the trimming of the feet and apparently was being stepped on and dragged around by this ginormous animal. By the time Jake & Pete had what they called a "beautiful" shoe almost complete, Jacob asked if they could PLEASE have another animal to work on. Jake felt so bad because he'd been so focused on forging that he hadn't noticed Jacob's situation at all. So they got a new horse and had to start all over. It's hard work, and I think that starting out so strong sortof drained them. For the contest, they only have to shoe one front and one hind of one side of the horse. So they completed that. But then, because of an uneven number of teams competing, there wasn't anyone to finish the other side of the horse. So they went ahead and did that too. Needless to say, the poor guys were pooped by the end!
The team at the very end of the contest - after cleaning up and shining the newly shod draft horse hooves. l to r: Jake, Jacob, Peter
The kids were thrilled to have the huge arena to play in and quickly found a few little friends to run around with. Though I have to say, they spent the majority of the time chasing each other and laughing. It makes me so glad that they are each other's best friend right now and I hope that they stay that way!
Caroline & Clayton running around. I think they were pretending that Caroline was a puppy that had stolen Clayton's hat.
Sadly, (Okay, so sortof not) I only attended Saturday's team event. Friday, my sister-in-law Sarah & I took the kids on a shopping spree to the outlet mall in Castle Rock. We hit all the kids stores (OshKosh, Carters, Gymboree, The Children's Place) and got some hot deals on some cute stuff. We also hit Target & Kohls (since our little boony town doesn't have those) and I have to say, I scored even better there than at the outlets! So the kids are outiftted for the summer, my Bath & Body Works stuff is replenished for the year and I even got me some new maternity capris & shorts for the last 10 (YES, TEN!!!) hot summer weeks of this pregnancy!
Tuckered out. I love that they fell asleep with those little heads together - they're so sweet!
Sophie modeling her new sunglasses.
The kids did great shopping and found some great ways to entertain themselves and each other. Their favorite was hiding in the clothes rack and then popping out to scare one another, which had me and the sales associates in most stores in stitches. But my favorite was Clayton's boogie at The Children's Place. He was sporting a white girls' Easter hat from the 99 cent bin and his dance reminds me of Rowan Atkinson's (of Mr. Bean fame) moves from the movie "Johnny English" (if you haven't seen it, it is hilarious!) They kids finally tuckered out after lunch and that's when I hit the mommy stores. It was pretty nice!
Saturday night was the banquet, auction and awards ceremony. Because of a late start that morning, everything got put behind and the banquet didn't even start until 9:00 p.m.! After chowing down on yummy BBQ pork, (it was pretty cool and I wish I'd taken a picture of the WHOLE roast pig - apple in its mouth and all) we headed back to the hotel and crashed around 10:30. I'm glad we didn't try to stay for the rest of the evening - other farrier friends we talked to Sunday morning during breakfast remarked that the auction went way late and awards didn't begin until midnight. But we're glad we went. It was a fun experience and a great little getaway.
Clayton was pretty excited about the orange & grape pop at the banquet!
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