Brrrrrarn Party!

Yes, I stole that name from Aarene Storms because it was so appropriate!  We had our Cascade Gold Fun Show and Barn Party yesterday.  While it was a beautiful sunny day, it was also a beautiful frigid day, topping out at around 24 degrees.  Now, I know our Midwest and MT and CO friends are laughing a little - 24 degrees?  Don't even need extra socks for that!  But, here in the misty Pacific NW, we're more used to a damp 40ish degrees in the winter.  So, while the sun is welcome (although my kids cry "My eyes, my eyes, the sun burns my eyes" yep, they can be dramatic) we just don't have the tolerance built up for freezing temps.  We get out our layers (and layers until we look like marshmallows), stay inside and build up the fires and well, whine a little.  The horses whine a little too, as the ground is frozen into a rutted mess and their water buckets and tubs have ice on them.  But, the sun is nice!

So, anyway, we had our Barn Party and Fun Show yesterday and had a very good time.  We had lots of yummy food (lots of hot stuff, blew the fuse in the barn, woops), coffee, hot chocolate, etc.  We did our eating and some socializing in the sunshine before moving to the Fun Show portion of our day.

                                              Alice adding to the goodies out to munch on

Our Fun Show was very low key - I took my cues from the very fun Fun Show that Margaret Pomeroy had at her barn about a month ago.  Fun, silly games, not too long, not very high expectations and lots of smiles.  Kay Gurley (who did the organizing for the show at the Pomeroy's) helped me out.  Cindy Balogh did a bang up job of decorating and cleaning all week.  All the stalls have their stockings hung, there were parking stripes in the parking lot and lots of holiday decorations. 

                                                Cindy taking photos of the Fun Show

We did about 2 1/2 hours of games - just enough that everyone got to play, but not enough so that everyone froze.  We did egg on a spoon, musical feed bags, Simon Says, and a trail course.  We had several young horses come out being led, and Sparky and Nadia, Reggie and Julie and Mahri and Keiko did great.  Wendy Ford came with her boy Taz and Alice and Gus made a strategic appearance too.

                                           Nadia and Sparky, along with Cindy, Max, Oliver and Emilie on the rail

                                         Three sons of Astrachan, Ari with Aarene Storms, Danny with Monica Bretherton and Andy with Keiko Young (or Duana, can't tell which lady it is).  Alice and Gus also participated in the Trail Class, but it doesn't look like I have any photos of them.  There are a bunch more photos on Facebook though.

 

                                         After the show, us hardy souls retreated inside for cake and coffee.  We had lost a bunch of our number by then to the biting cold (they just got too cold and headed home, nothing else!) 

Everyone had a fun and festive time!