Rain, Rain, Rain, ...

Well we are now on our 7th day of rain. This is where access to an indoor arena would be great!!! But alas, no such luck. No horse training (except for light in-hand work), no riding lessons and no fence building. I scored a big one this week! I leased the adjoining 80 acres to our home! That brings us up to a grand total of 460 acres! Last night we totaled up our remaining cattle herd and with the new calves this year - we own 49 but feed/care for 62 head. Each group must have it's own pasture - big bulls, yearling/two year old bulls, cows, heifers, horses. This takes alot of grazing pasture! Wahoo!!

My daughter began try-outs for her high school cheerleading team yesterday. I'm pretty sure she will make the team (they came to her ( an 8th grader) and asked her to try out). My concern is how many extra-curricular activities can a kid keep up with? Ren is an extremely organized kid, but she still needs time to be a kid. She already has to carry around a planner to schedule her life - 4H Leadership, 4H Equi-Spirit, Butner 4H, training her horse, softball/basketball, and now cheerleading. Her father and I have told her that she really needs to pick her three favorites and give them her all. She has her eye on the prize of college and knows that extra-curricular looks good on college applications. Has anyone faced a similar challenge?

The Kentucky Derby was awesome! I love those come from behind runners and WOW 20 lengths behind to win! The story behind the horse is great too. I swear, if I did not know better, I would think that I was watching a made for T.V. movie - unknown small time trainer and his unspectular horse come to the big show and triumph. Even the race reminded me of the Black Stallion book - the match race where The Black, a horse from nowhere, is waaaayyyy behind but still manages to pull out the victory over the more expensive and favored horses. I would like for him to win the TC, but it is highly unlikely. With the fresh horses that always race in the Belmont, there won't be any TC winners. I can see Kevin Costner playing the trainer in the movie though.