How can I complain??

Sometimes I complain about how much we work during the busy season. I do get tired, the kids get tired, we WISH the ponies would get tired :). The main complaint is not the work but the 10% of society that makes all of our lives miserable.

This event is at a lovely camping resort. We were surrounded by loveliness all day long. All of the kids, all of the people!! All of the nature...oh it was breathtaking!!

Then....it happened when we were all packed up...aching backs...smiles on our faces (ponies ready to go...NOT tired) and she came....on her "lark" Yelling gout to me " Are you the pony lady? YOU!! are you the pony lady" well since I was there with a trailer load of ponies..there was no denying the fact. I smiled and said yes..dreading that she might want us to take the ponies out "for just a minute" so that her junior could have a ride too!! BOY was I wrong...she was HOPPIN' mad!! (AT ME?!) She explained that while she was sleeping away in her campsite, her grandson had stolen away and gotten a pony ride from us...WITHOUT HER PERMISSION!! and maybe she would sue!! (OH MY) I explained to her that that could not be possible since every child has to have money for the ride and I always ask where their parent is.... the little boy in question comes lurking up, ice cream cone in hand. I turned and recognised him immediately as he was not just at our event for a few minutes he was there for several hours (with many questions that needed answers immediately!!) Well, I said to the grandmother, he did have a parent with him, when I asked him he pointed over at a lady who smiled at me and him and gave a hearty wave!! (good enough for me!! ) so I gave him the ride. THAT was not his mother or me says the indignant grandmother!! SO, let me get this straight... grandma loses track of the grandchild for several hours, the kid steals money from somewhere and gets another lady to give him permission to ride... am I supposed to get a birth certificate from each parent? I don't think so!! My only comment to grandma was.... I do my due diligence to ask for the child's parent, you lose track of your kid for several hours...and somehow this is MY fault? No wonder so many people are going out of business and insurance is soooo high. OH MY!!

DINOSAURS!!!

OK HORSE PEOPLE...can your horses work next to those?!! This picture is taken from my cell phone as I was not expecting to need a camera this night at the street fair we were working. Well, a new vendor arrived and they have a dinosaur ride attraction. These dinos stomp thier feet and ROAR and move all around!! She also has zippy rides that look like a small motorcycle with a stuffed animal on it. She was afraid to set up on account that every other time she had worked near the horses they freaked out completely!! No one puts thier animals through the training program that we do and this night it really paid off!! Our ponies didn't care at all!! In fact, they thought they were pretty neat!!

Hard Core Pony Riders here are more Summer Events

Pony Riders UNITE!! We still have several weeks left at Down Town Tuesday Nights on Vernon Street in Roseville. This Friday evening we will be on Plumas Street in Yuba City. The Fourth of July Clebrations will bring us to Lincoln at the Park by the band stand and also in the evening we will be doing HAND GUIDED rides at the fairgrounds in Auburn. Summer Nites in Nevada City is coming up the 15th and the 22nd of July. August 1st and 2nd will have us high atop High Camp at Squaw Valley (that is too much fun!!) At the end of the summer we will be giving FREE pony rides for the Sunday Funday event at Rusch Park.....

PARTY IN THE PARK!!!

This years party in the park in Auburn CA was bigger and better than ever. We were there next to the bounce houses having a great time!! If you missed this event this year you need to mark your calendar for next year as it was a great event for the whole family!!

At Horse Expo

Here we are at Horse Expo...Riley can barely get his head over the stall door that will be his bed for the next three nights. SOOO CUTE!! the other ponies that came couldn't see out at all. They didn't care though as they were ready for bed after all those rides!!

Our arena for rides in the Young Rider Park looked really great!! It was so much fun to see the kids have such a great time at the event!!

Preparing for Horse Expo

When we take on an event as big as Horse Expo at the California State Fairgrounds we take it very seriously and take a lot of time preparing and planning. At this type of event we pull out all of the stops and really put out something great for the kids. Here we all are making all of the obstacles for the ponies to go through. This event would just not go with the typical pony ride carousel, so we build things for the ponies to go over under and through a the event with someone hand guiding them through it...as you can imagine it gets better and better every year. This year we had a bridge with flower boxes on each side, a "noodle wall" that the ponies had to go through, a small gate to open and close, and bright colored poles to walk over. We also had cones and more flowers. Needless to say the children riding the ponies had a great time and it also showcases the training level of our ponies. Even though they are hand guided through the course there were several horse trainers that marveled over the condition and calmness of our ponies.

Shimmer's and the Proposal

Usually Chili gets all of the interesting jobs so Shimmer was very excited when she got to be invited to a very special job. This very romantic and sweet man had Shimmer there to help him propose to his very lovely lady. Their children were all there and it was very sweet... I even shed a tear ( I think Shimmer did too!!)