A day at the Cross Country

We're back from the horse trials in Tallahassee.  What a performance that was, but first things first.

Joan found my passport!  It's been missing since we returned from Mexico.  Since then, we've looked everywhere, and our hosts [Mel, Ron, and Dan] looked everywhere else.  We packed, unpacked, emptied suitcases, camera and computer bags, did the trunk, under the seats, checked pockets, and then we looked some more.  The last place looked  was in the front of Joan's purse.  I had removed my passport from the back of the purse because I didn't think it was safe enough there...  How it got to the front of her purse is yet another story, one I don't know about.  Whatever...  Now to the main event:

These horse trials were held over three days.  We attended the dressage and walked the cross-country course on Friday, but you already knew that.  We stayed overnight in Tallahassee [Capital of Florida] and attended the cross-country event on Saturday and returned to PCB in time for a late supper.  

Since then, it's been a problem of too many choices: over 2.5 Gigabites of pictures to sort, grocery shopping to be done and a sunny day at the beach to be enjoyed.  Well, you have to eat, no?  And sunny days at the beach is what we came here for, no?  So chosing and preparing photos and writing this blog came last...  Thanks for your indulgence, but wait no longer.

Here is about 2% sample, a bit of a show and tell.  And here's another challenge for the Grandchildren [or anyone else for that matter].  Who can spot the horse doing what the Giraffe in San Diego was doing? [more hints to follow, ... maybe].

So here goes my show and tell about a day at the cross-country event.  On our first day, we walked the course and noticed how narrow some of the jumps were. We also noted that all the jumps were very solid. How about jumping between two solid live oak trees?  See below.

We also noticed that some jumps seemed to be designed just to spook the horses; so how about narrow, not very tall but dark and scary, like the next jump through a Teepee?

Many jumps were grouped together and some were particularily close to each other, like this next one.

Some of the horses got a little sweaty, from whence the expression “Working up a lather”?

Some jumps seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, like in the middle of a field.

Others were near the woods, where everything looked so peaceful.

Many jumps were just before or right after some water like these two, so the horses had to jump down into the  water, or up out of water.

Some jumps were busy with background 'stuff', while others were more peaceful and beautiful.

My favourite picture?  Well, maybe the next one, what do you think?  Still need a hint to find the horse with its tongue sticking  out?  He's just jumped into the water, and there's a red flag on the left of that picture; look harder and let me know if you find him!