I know everyone is waiting out there with baited breathe to hear if anybody got killed last night at the 2nd Annual Hampton Lighted Christmas Parade. I'm happy to report both girls and both horses survived the ordeal and are all doing very well today. OMG! It was SO MUCH FUN!!!! Ok ... here we go --
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Dani and Tory got to the house around 4:15 and Dani went right out to hook up the truck and trailer. Tory stayed inside to keep warm knowing she was going to be freezing her butt off very soon. :o) Russ got home shortly after that around 4:30ish. He pulled out the truck and trailer and started loading the saddles while Dani and Tory pulled Huck and Tess out of the pasture to start brushing them up. I had Dani pop over to Walmart to buy 48 D Batteries for the outfits. While everyone was loading up, I was working on putting the batteries in the outfits ...... um .... CRAP! The packs don't take D Batteries -- they take C Batteries!! OH NO! We need to hurry so we can stop and buy 48 C Batteries!!!! or we won't light up!!! So I yell outside at Russ to hurry it up .... we need to leave a little earlier!! It's now 5pm. Dani pokes her head out of the barn -- I told her we need to leave now so we can get more batteries. She just looked at me .... I thought you only needed 48? I know, I know .... I'm an idiot .... I told you the wrong kind. SO ..... we hurried up and got Huck and Tess loaded up and headed into Hampton. It was 5:15pm. Dani and Tory drove separately and were going to stop at Ace and buy 48 C Batteries real quick and then pop over to the park. In the meantime, Russ and I would saddle the horses and get them ready to go while the girls got the batteries. Well, of course the roads are backed up and everybody's driving like 90 year old grandmas so we don't actually get to the line up area till 5:30 ..... and by the time we get parked and start unloading it's 5:35 ...... we've got 10 minutes to get saddled and mounted. No worries --- Russ and I are pros at this. Russ got Tess off
and tied her up and I started on the leg wraps on her right away. He got Huck off and started saddling him. I looked up and saw he was putting my saddle on Huck ...... NO NO NO! My saddle goes on TESS ...... Dani's saddle goes on HUCK! ......that was the first swear words from Russ that night but other than that ..... he was in a fairly good mood. Not a lot of cussing up till then. I kept putting on the leg wraps ..... man, those things take a LOT of time to put on. Then don't ya hate it when someone wraps them up wrong and you get all the way through the leg only to get to the very end and the velcro is on the INSIDE ??? GOD I HATE THAT!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! Especially when your hands are like icicles and you're trying to hurry!!!! Anyway ...... Russ got everybody saddled before I got done with leg wraps and he started on horse santa hats. How the heck do these things go on the bridle?!!?? I stopped what I was doing to go over and show him how the throatlatch runs through the hat and it slips over one ear. WHAT THE ___ ????!!!! THAT'S STUPID! THAT WON'T WORK! ..... and that was followed by some more cussing but I told him to just figure it out, I had to get my last leg wrapped. (If you look very closely at the pics on the link I attached .... you'll see the horse santa hats are all messed up .... but who cares --- nobody knew. They looked ok. They totally weren't on the bridles right but that's because Russ has no patience. :o) After I got the legs done, the girls had arrived and were trying to figure out how to put the santa capes on. I went around the trailer to help them. In the meantime people were starting to come up to chit chat and ask us where we were from and if we're going to the Garner parade the next night or Clear Lake over the weekend ....... and it was now 5:45 and we were supposed to be mounted and up to the road but we weren't anywhere near ready so I tried to talk but had no time!!! I got the capes on the girls and got their little hats on. I improvised and wound a couple of hair bands around the hats and under their chins so the wind wouldn't blow their hats off while they were riding. Then we started to put the batteries in the batteries packs ......... what the ???? ....... I got the hats done before we left cuz I had found 4 C batteries in the house. When we went to put the batteries in the capes ....... we found that none of the battery packs had backs on them. With the on/off switch. They wouldn't work without the backs. What?!! Oh no!! It is now 5:52 ....... Don't any of the battery packs have backs?? Tory looked at all hers ..... Dani looked at all hers .... nope .... no tops. SH*T!!! Then they started calling us ........ we gotta go!! Parade is almost ready to start!! Ok ....... forget about the lights on the capes --- your hats work so we're going with that. We need to mount up!! So we went back around the trailer and got Tory up on Tess. I stood and held her while Russ got Dani on Huck. Dani brought
the red steps around to help her get on. Huck was being a buttman and was all wired out ..... even while we were saddling and I was wrapping his legs he was dancing around. Tess is awesome ..... she didn't care what was going on. I think I'm going to like that horse a LOT. :o) Anyway .... you guessed it ...... when Dani went to swing on Huck the battery packs from the lights clinked and clanked together and spooked him and Dani hadn't hardly gotten her butt in the saddle when he lunged forward on top of Russ then took another jump sideways and was right overtop of the red plastic steps then he reared backwards and freaked out cuz the steps were underneath him and he clanked them then he whirled and started running up the hill behind the trailer with Dani still on top and her cape caught under her leg that wasn't in the stirrup yet. I'll tell you what -- Sheena, if you're reading this ...... those riding lessons are paying off. That girl can stick!! She grabbed those reins and pulled him around on that hill and walked him out with his tail in the air snorting and blowing the whole time. Russ, Tory, and I were all standing there holding our breathe thinking ..... oh no .... this is not gonna end good. I'm already trying to figure out where Huck's going to be running to after he dumps Dani off ...... but nope. All the worrying was for nothing. Dani sat up there and didn't budge. She got him back down the hill to Russ and he slowly pulled the lights and her cape out from under her leg. Tory's eyes were really big -- you could tell she was a tad bit worried. I told her ---No worries. Dani's a pro. She's fine. You're fine. You'll both be fine. BREATHE. It's FINE. RELAX. :o) Then Dani asked if we would walk a little bit with them just to make sure everything was going to be ok. Sure ...... we're right there for you guys. I took Huck and Russ took Tess and we headed out to the road. The parade was underway. We got them to the road but Huck was still being squirrely and Tory wasn't 100% sure of Tess yet either. Russ and I walked with them across the bridge and up to the corner. Then Russ told me to stop ...... he'd keep going. I stopped on the corner. He continued with them another block and then turned around ....... in the meantime, I looked back at how far we had walked already and thought ...... well, crap ...... I just as well keep going cuz I'm only a few
blocks to the bank parking lot where we're loading up at and then I can get more pics. So after standing for about 5 minutes and resting, I started walking again and met Russ on the way back. He just yelled at me ..... what are you doing?!! Your leg is going to be trashed!! You can't walk this far!! Ok ... whatever ..... I think it was so cold I was numb ...... so I told him I'm gonna keep going and keep an eye on the girls while he goes back and gets the truck. So I kept walking. He said he got back to the truck ....... doors were all open .... tack door on the trailer was wide open. Truck was still running. Yeah, it's a good thing we live in Hampton. :o) He said he didn't think he'd be walking so far away with the girls in the parade and was thinking he'd go right back to the truck and then move it up to the bank to load up as soon as they left. That's why he left the truck running ....... even though he didn't realize that all us girls had left all the doors wide open on it with our blackberries sitting there and the GPS thing and both Dani and Tory's purses and not to mention all our other crap ....... just inviting everybody to COME STEAL ME. :o) BUT ANYWAY ..... back to the parade. This year it was longer .... the girls got to the courthouse and turned east instead of west and went around the block out to Hwy 3 (yep, they actually blocked off one block of Hwy 3 !! That's impressive!!! :o) Then they wound back down the block north again and that was the end. I was waiting over by the bank and eventually here they came ...... Tess was in the lead (which is odd cuz usually Huck is always in the lead. She's going to be a natural at parades. She seemed to be having a lot of fun. I don't think her ears were back too awful much the whole way. She was just amazed at everything happening around her. :o) I clicked a bunch more pics as the girls rode towards me and then I yelled at them to get off before they went into the bank parking lot cuz it was really slick in there!! So they stopped and started dismounting right in the middle of the road ---- NO NO NO!! Not in the middle of the road!! The big firetruck with Santa was coming as well as a line of other cars. I thought -- OH NO! Dani is gonna be halfway off and Huck's gonna take off again when the firetruck goes by him with Santa ringing his bell --- but no worries ..... now Huck knew what was going on and he stood while the firetruck
drove right beside him almost touching him. He didn't care. Finally Russ got the girls off the road and we started to load up. I had to put the camera away and help get everybody untacked and unwrapped. We got everybody loaded up within 5 minutes of the girls dismounting and were on the road home. Yeah -- we've done that a time or two. We're good at getting the heck outta dodge when everything is over. Got back in the truck. I had a terrible headache. My leg was really hurting and was way swollen clear out over the top of my boot. I was so worked up about the girls getting hurt I was nauseous. -- and I was chilled through and through. The girls were frozen to the bone. Everybody was really hungry. It was
6:40pm. --but we all had the biggest smiles on our faces and we talked all through supper about how much fun that was ..... and next year we should dress Russ up like one of those big reindeer mascots. I can get one of those costumes from my Halloween online stores ...... YEAH! ....and he can throw candy!! .....and next year I'll ride Gato with the girls and do the spanish walk down main street ....... YEAH!! Click here for pics of the parade --
http://www.knrarabians.com/2009_christmas.htm I don't care how much pain and suffering we all went through .... we have one heck of a fun story to tell everybody for years about participating in the 2009 Hampton Lighted Christmas Parade. :o)
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Ok ..... tonight is Russ's company Christmas Party so I need to start getting ready for that. See ya all -- and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!
Hey Gold Star Fans!! We need your help!!!! Click into http://www.ahtimes.com/ and then click on the READER'S CHOICE AWARDS link and go in and vote for your favorites. When you get to Question #29 - Type in "IOWA GOLD STAR FUTURITY SHOW" as your pick for the 2009 Horse Show of the Year!! Let's show everybody that Iowa ROCKS!!! We know how to put on one heck of a show here in --- THE HEARTLAND OF AMERICA!!!! :o)
