Mother's Day 2012

I have no posting for what the kids and I did Mother's Day weekend because their father would not let me see them, despite a court order that says I'm to have them.
I worked Friday evening and planned to pick the kids up Saturday morning. According to their father, if I wasn't there by 6 Friday night then I couldn't have them at all. What a great guy! Apparently, loves and cares for his children so much that he would not let them see their mother on Mother's Day

Jump racing: Iroquois & High Hope

One of the best things about getting my divorce is I'm back to the person I used to be and I've been back in the steeplechase fray, enjoying new and renewed friendships with people in that aspect of racing. So I spent two consecutive weekends jump racing.Here is the Iroquois in Nashville. Weather-wise, it was excellent for racing - overcast, slightly drizzly. And the racing was very good too.
These pictures were taken with my iPhone.

Here is Jonathan Sheppards' Sween Shani making her 3rd in a row bid to win this year's race. She pulled up after a pretty scary jump and was ok. At 12, this is her last year steeplechasing and it was little sad she didn't finish.

Here is Tax Ruling, making HIS try to win the Iroquois for the third year in a row. No horse in history has done it and he was leading up until the 4th or 5th fence from home when Arcadius took over and won.

Unfortunately, and these things happen in racing, Arcadius died suddenly from an aneurysm just minutes after finishing his race.

Here are Nashville's foxhunting hounds. This was a great pack of hounds, perfectly trained (you do not call them "a pack of hounds" but I can't remember the terminology). I soooo want to foxhunt.

Now we move on to High Hope steeplechase in Lexington, Ky., last weekend. A horse I'm obsessed with was running and, come hell or high water, I was going to see that horse run!

Here is Bold Adventure with my old friend Matt McCarron up. Some of these are not my pics but I enhanced them on Instagram.

My iPhone does take some good photos. Bold Adventure and the others take the fence chasing Royale, whom I'd pegged to win and took $5 in a wager with the table behind me. :)

Now we get to High Hope's premier race and there on the far right is my boy: Black Bag, trained by Leslie Falini Young. I knew Leslie back in Camden almost 20 years ago.

Isn't he just the most handsome thing??

Early in the race, I was disheartened. I knew Black Bag was going to run out of steam, particularly when I saw the eventual winner, Rainero, (ridden by Matt) under tight hold the second time under the wire. Rainero has won his last four starts under Matt and so I was happy for Matt - he's only the 9th jump jockey in history to have more than 200 wins.

Now for the highlight of my day! Cooling out Black Bag.

Can you tell I'm smitten?

We walked 12 miles, I'm sure of it. I had sweat pouring down my back. My makeup was washed off from hosing down the horse. It was the BEST time EVER!!

Thank you, Leslie!

Spring Break 2012: back to the rescue

The Daisy got it in her head that she wanted to work with the new baby, Peaches.

And The Boo enjoyed it because he and Peaches are about the same size..

This is actually quite the feat for The Boo, feeding carrots to Bravo, the rescue's "mascot."

Bravo has gotten a bit mouthy though, probably because everyone hand feeds him. I messed with him a bit. "Get your hair out of your eyes, man." I paid to have him gelded many years ago. He apparently doesn't hold it against me.

I love this one of The Daisy, Bravo and Peaches.

The Boo as a pancake

I always ask the kids for pictures and so The Boo drew this one of me, him and Hayes. The Boo,as he said, is the pancake in this picture.

Spring Break 2012: Callaway's butterfly house

My intention was to go to the Atlanta steeplechase then go to Callaway Gardens' butterfly house. Little did I know that Georgia has TWO steeplechase tracks and I went in totally the wrong direction for the race. So ... we went to the butterfly house.
That made the trip totally worth it.
The Daisy was entranced.

The Boo immediately got to trying to catch one.

The Daisy easily caught butterflies and it annoyed the Boo ....

until he was able to get one. And it stayed ...

... and stayed ...

The kids decided to forego the birds of prey demonstration to stay in the butterfly house.

Oh my gosh, I love this face!

Then The Boo got his butterfly catching mojo on and got several. What he did after that?

He would give them to someone who didn't have a butterfly - a girl, an old lady, a couple trying to photograph one in particular. The man said to me that spoke volumes as to the character my son has.

There were lots of big koi in this pond and the tiniest turtle. I tried offering The Daisy $5 to go in the yucky pond and get it but she didn't bite.

Spring Break 2012: putt putt

The kids and I have never played putt-putt and since I've gotten into golf in the last year, I thought this would be a fun outing. They had a BLAST. I mean, I thought it would be fun but didn't know they would think it was THAT much fun!

Of course, I was all serious about it and soon discovered I have no putting game. The Boo and I actually got a hole-in-one on the same hole and The Daisy tried cheating on the next one to say she did. (She's an O'Lear, that's for sure!)

We stopped by Buford Dam to see the mountain goats but couldn't find them. They climbed around and had a generally good time.