Today was a sad day as we had to leave the warmth of HITS for the cold of Connecticut and of course the kids had to return to school.

Becca rode in the morning in the Medium Green Pony Hunter Class and Audrey rode in the Grand Prix ring again in Lead Line. I don’t have any results as HITS has not updated the website as of this morning. Becca pinned 6th and 8th over fences and Audrey added another blue ribbon to her collection.

Everyone left by noon to fly North except Robin and the Mazzaferro family who stayed until Monday. Harpur and I had a typical flight home on Southwest. Boarded for our non-stop flight to Hartford, which they announced would now land in Baltimore (but only for a few minutes). We land in Baltimore and were told to change planes – but since Southwest has no boarding passes, they have to check everyone’s photo id before boarding (77 passengers!). Next we are told are departure is delayed by 45 mintues waiting for connecting passengers as this is the last flight to Hartford. An hour later 2 (count them 2) people arrive and we are now ready to leave. The best part is we land in Hartford and head to baggage claim to claim our 1 bag. We wait and wait – no bag. I head over to the Southwest baggage service office to make a lost bag claim -and there is my bag. It came in on an earlier flight says the service manager. Huh? How come the people couldn’t come in on an earlier flight? No answer….we finally arrive home around midnight – lots of snow and ice…wish we were still at HITS!

We all awoke to the sound of rain, and lots of it. HITS was a awash in water and mud today. Becca had the worst of it as she was first to show at 8am. The sun broke out later in the day and slowly dried up the water and mud, but everyone had to slosh around in the rings today.

Becca started the day in Maiden Equitation. She was 1st, 1st, 1st over fences and 2nd in the flat. This meant that she was Champion! Congratulations Becca!

Becca also rode April Showers in the Medium Green Pony Hunters and pinned 6th in the model, 6th in the confirmation and 4th over fences.

Harpur was up next in the Novice Equitation, this was a step up from last weeks Maiden Equitation because the rules state once you earn a blue ribbon in a Maiden Equitation Class you have to move up. So this week she was in Novice Equitation jumping 2′9″. She pinned 1st, 2nd and 3rd over fences and a 4th in the flat. She was pinned the Novice Equitation Champion. Last week she was Reserve Champion in the Maiden Equitation, this week Champion in Novice Equitation – Congratulations Hapur and Huey!

Video of Harpur’s blue ribbon class:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2pYNhVEvh8]

Victoria rode in the very competitive Limit Equitation (3′), she did not pin, but laid down some very nice courses while cantering around in the mud.

We have a chance to watch some of the adults show today including Valerie and Faith being coached by Sally. Faith is the cleanest horse in our barn – see how she shines!

I finally caught Sally in a photo – unfortunately she’s holding an ice pack as she had a nasty bee sting on her arm, but she continued on coaching and riding. Thank you Sally for letting the kids and parents tag along with the Adults for two weeks and thank you for your support and awesome logistics. Our horses and kids were well take care of!

Sunday is our last day in Ocala – Becca is the only one showing, wrapping up her classes in Medium Green Pony Hunter, oh and yes Audrey will go after another blue in the Lead Line class.