NTASHA Horse Show - Part 1

We planned to leave for Dallas at 9am on Friday morning. It started to rain at 8:30am and by 9 the rain was sheeting from West to East. My phone rang. It was Kelli. "I am on my way but the fastest I can drive is 20 miles per hour because of this rain!"

I told her to take her time and be careful. I had already packed the trailer and truck minus Heaven and Earth (Oliver) and 1 trunk that would have to be put into the trailer after him. All week it had rained making practice rides out of the question. I felt badly as some days the only exercise Oliver got was me walking him up and down the barn isle.

Kelli drove up the drive and pulled her car up to the end of the drive beside my little car. Dawned in a rain jacket, I was dry from the waist up but my jeans were soaked. We greeted each other and I helped get her bags into the truck. We loaded Oliver, then the last trunk and started down the drive.

It continued to rain 2 hours into the trip and even after that it was extremely over cast. The temperature dropped quickly from 80 to 55. Thankfully by the time we pulled into the Las Colinas show grounds, the clouds did not seem so heavy and low.

We checked in, got our stall assignments and started to unload. It was about 3pm. Although we did get a corner stall assignment, it was on the backside of the arena where little to no people would see the stall drapes I had worked so hard to make. I wondered if I would have been placed in a more visible location if the 2 other ladies could have come with us as they had planned.

"Oh well, we can just put up a modified version of what I made. It will be good for me to learn how to do it anyway!" I told Kelli.

Oliver peeking out of his stall.



















A view of our small 2 stall area. I brought my favorite Adirondack chairs.



















Only 1 piece of the decorative stall toppers that I made. You can also see the custom made sandblasted farm sign that my Daddy had commissioned for me when we bought our farm. He is the one who thought up the farm name! Equus Villa is Latin for Horse Home



















..and a small stall name plate I made for Oliver with his registered name on it.

A few things did not turn out the way I had hoped...the stall assignments, a broken pot I was going to use for the beautiful flowers you see and we had a slight mud issue..inside and out of the stalls...but nothing was going to dampen this for me. I was so excited, I could barely breathe!

..to be continued..