A good day for a parade

On the May long weekend, Faith again participated in the Parade of Horses at an historic site near my parents' farm. I'm not sure if Faith or my dad was more excited about it. The main idea of the parade is to show off various breeds of horses to the crowds that attend the event. People can get up close to the horses, talk to the owners, and see the horses in action in a show ring.

This year, 13 breeds were on display, including my dad's Morgan horse, Suzie. Faith's job was to ride Suzie in the show ring. They prepped Suzie and did some practice runs around the site, figuring out along the way that one stirrup was about 30 cms longer than the other! After they got this all fixed up, they were ready to go.

Faith rode western this time (different saddle for the non-horse lovers), and was completely at home in the ring. Dad had to lead her around the ring according to the rules...if you're under 12, you have to be on a lead line. The whole fan-damn-ily showed up to watch on the gorgeous day. And I took about a million pictures. I was so darn proud of her.

We couldn't stick around for the whole parade, because, as usual on our trips to my parents', it was a jam-packed schedule. But, we did get to see my brother's friend, Kyle, bring in a gorgeous pair of horses he's been training:

The owner of the horses rode with him in the ring (and yes, Kyle took this BIG setup through a very crowded site and made it look easy):

And they did some fancy tricks...

The mist in the background was a little strange though. We were next to Lake Erie, and it was a clear, blue day when we showed up. But, over the course of half an hour, a thick mist formed on the lake and rolled into the site. It was like the setup to a bad horror movie. But the eery mist was no match for the sun, and the show carried on.