We were excited yesterday to have Ben and Candace come for a ride...and getting engaged!
The sun was warm, the scenery splendid...

I tried as best as I could to take a picture of every horse I saw on my trip...but my camera not always co-operating...
After the fox hunt we visited the rest of the stallions I hadn't photographed yet...and then we rode some more!

Before leaving on my trip Sabina asked if I wanted to go on a hunt...oh my...how did I get so lucky!
We loaded 2 Akhal-Teke mares in the trailer and went to the meet. Informal dress for the cubing season, perfect for me!

The mares , Sabine rode Zara, and I rode Suleyka, were perfectly behaved and a joy to ride.
The country side was gorgeous, the sun came out...

Since I was all the way across country, it would have been a shame not to go to Virginia and visit Shenandoah farm owned by Phil Case. Phil has a large herd of Akhal-Teke horses and he houses Adam Dixon's horses too.
I was in heaven! Sabina works for Phil, and took the time to show each horse, and then saddle up and ride, then let me ride too! Sabine has done an amazing job training the young stallions!

Saturday was meeting day, but Sunday we got to see more horses...
First we went to Terri's place, then I got a ride with Rod Hunt to his farm.
Tiffany and her mom took me out for a ride, I got to ride Dakota, now named Ivan, and a full brother to our mare Sheherezad.

We trotted and cantered trough the country side, so pretty and it turned out sunny too! I felt very fortunate, Ivan was a delight to ride.

We had our ATAA meeting all day Saturday and the banquet and awards that night. And the auction.
The awards were very nice, drawings of horses by a Montana artist put on a coffee cup and plaques for the various disciplines. Nice embroidered saddle pads and logo coffee cups that where hot items.

Last Friday I flew to Minnesota for the ATAA conference. I met Pat at the airport in Seattle and our flight left at 12.30 midnight to arrive in Minneapolis at 5.30 am,...no thanks to me not paying attention to am/pm while purchasing a ticket.
But...it all worked out well. We drove to Pat's mom's house for a nap, got up at 10am. I had printed our directions to the Sweiss's sisters hoping to see their AT'sd and cross country course, but they had an event going and only one AT mare left who was competing, so we drove to where the filming for the Horse Flick was, looked at the horses there, then visited Reeny's farm.

Reeny sent m these pictures of her horses, since I only had my pocket camera, and would not have done her herd justice!
We then drove to the conference hotel just in time for the board meeting.