Wake Up Grateful

I have a CD by Templeton Thompson titled "Girls and Horses".  The last track on it is the song "Wake Up Grateful".  I did wake up grateful today for the friends and acquaintances that have made their way in to my daughter's life over the past year - especially this summer.  Without them, Hennessy's injury, diagnosis and prognosis would be so much harder than it already is for her to handle.  Thank you to the bloggers who have expressed their support, thoughts, and prayers over the past week.  Sometime next month, we will have Henny euthanized.  Until then, Lex continues to groom, talk to, and hug him.  He gets turned out in a small pasture each day with Cheers, our other TB, and just gets to be a horse.

One of the things I am most grateful for in Lex's life is her new part time job that a trainer she met this past summer offered to her.  This trainer has already talked with Lex about a working student position, after she has completed her high school courses in October.  It is a dressage barn - the trainer gives lessons and trains horses for their owners.  Lex spent this past weekend on the property, staying in the apartment on the grounds, and worked.  We went to visit her yesterday and watch her ride - a lovely Fresian mare.  The trainer/owner wants Lex to ride the Fresian and another horse on a regular basis.  Lex can take lessons as she has time also.  This is a great opportunity for her to work on her dressage, receive excellent instruction, earn money, and further her education.  It is a beautiful, clean, well organized and run business.

Lex even got a change to compete at CAF on Saturday, spur of the moment.  She was to compete Beginner Novice on one of the trainer's horses - combined training and event derby.  Unfortunately, the horse slipped in warm up, after the first dressage test.  They did not realize until after they completed their 2nd test that a back shoe had shifted and a side clip had embedded in his foot.  So, they pulled him out of the competition before their jump round.

Some pics I took when we visited on Saturday:

Fell in love with this little filly!  She is so sweet :)

This Llama just made me laugh every time I looked at it!

Going out to ride Riva this afternoon.  We had some very good rides last week.  We worked on trot poles in the outdoor arena on Friday afternoon - had not done that for months...it was fun and Riva liked doing something different, I think.