and so we begin.....

most of ya'all know that i grew up participating in our local 4H club, and showing at the county fair. you know....."back in the good 'ol days"..... :) i, however, never showed these stubborn little animals!!!! SHEEP! this is olivia's 2nd love now.....(besides the horses) i think we have officially jumped on the "sheep wagon"! our good friends, addam & jill carmony and their kids, are HUGE cattle people. but a couple of years ago, they too ventured out and tried their skills at the whole sheep showing thing! their two little showers, cole and alexis, both are just good showman when it comes to showing.....well....pretty much ANYTHING! they both have wonderful God given skill to being showman and are helping olivia along the way!
so some how, they roped us into buying a sheep for olivia to show in a few of the open shows! :) (it's all their fault) there is this circuit called the indiana club lamb circuit (or i think that's the right name) but there are shows ALL over the state of indiana, and there is a point system that allows kids to win all sorts of different awards. we aren't involved in the point system just yet.....we are just getting are "feet wet" for a little while!!!
but anyway, olivia has taken to the sheep amazingly well! for as little as she is, and timid, she handles them very well!!! now i know i'm a bit biased......but she seems to have those natural showmanship skills! throughout the month of june, she showed at greenfield, richmond, connersville, and rushville, open shows for the circuit. she did very well, and we had several people comment on how they think she "has it". meaning, that natural showing ability. this was her first year, and in one of the shows, she made the top 5 cut for showmanship. this is a huge accomplishment not only for being her first year, but her age as well! drew and i had soooooo much fun watching her and are very proud of her!!!
alexis and cole both did very well also! alexis won champion showman at a couple different shows, and cole got reserve champion! good job kids!
another exitement for this whole sheep thing, was in the actual 4H show, alexis's sheep won Grand Champion in the rush county fair!!!!! how exciting!! congratulations guys! the carmony's showed olivia's sheep in the 4H show, and it got reserve champion in it's class! so what a fun and exciting sheep year!!!!

horse'in around.......

nothing cuter than a little butt w/ "wrangler" written on it!!! hee hee

well we started the adventure of "4H" this year! well, not "real" 4H, but mini-4H, or "cloverbuds". the kids are allowed to choose 1 project, and as you can tell by the pics, horses were olivia's 1st choice! not sure we have a future in showing horses, but in this particular horse project, the kids didn't have to own a horse. they pair you up w/ another family who kinda "mentors" you. basically they let the kids borrow the horse for free and help teach a few little things. we had the Stone family and they were always willing let olivia have fun on "becky" the horse. olivia says she loves horses MORE than her sheep! oh yeah....as i'm sure most of you know, olivia got her very own sheep to show this year. i'll post more about that later. anyway, i doubt we will be pursuing a 4H horse, but just letting her ride a horse 1 x week for about a month straight, plus "show" a horse, was worth just seeing the joy it brought to olivia's face! life couldn't have gotten any better! unless we bought her own of course! ha! the girl w/ olivia is one of her good friends devan draper! you've seen her before on my blog; she showed in the horse and pony show also; and she too has found a new love in her life!!!!!! she is getting the privilege of taking horse riding lessons! she does a wonderful job, and she is definitely an animal lover!!!

her beautiful bun and butterfly was compliments of aunt pam and cousin jenny!!! they graciously came over and did her hair for the horse show! jenny and pam know just TINY bit about showing horses!!!! lol they both were very very good showman and won many many awards and trophies throughout the years!! thank you pam and jenny!!!