A semi-normal weather forecast

I believe clicking the pics can be considered exercise.

This is the morning meeting of the Silly Hat committee. The committee chairperson, on the left, was pained, peeved, and perturbed when she discovered that two of the committee members have shown up wearing the exact same Silly Hat. This Silly Hat faux pas, and breach of Silly Hat etiquette, rocked the Hunter Jumper world to its core, causing a disturbance in the force and a cancellation of the entire competition.

A little good news on the weather front. After today, the next nine days are supposed to have temperatures in the mid 60s or higher, and nighttime temperatures are supposed to be well into the 40s. And that will be a big improvement on the previous weather conditions I've been dealing with.

I walked over to the Hunter Jumper arenas and took a few more snapshots. I still enjoy watching the horses jump, but my pictures are getting boring. It's hard for me to get a picture with better lighting because these events don't start very early, and there usually over by 3 o'clock or so. And when they do start early it's been so cold outside that it's not fun standing outside watching the event. And unlike everyone else here; I don't have a warm horse to snuggle up to.

I've noticed that I'm putting on weight, and that's not usually what I do during my winter travels. Usually I gain weight during the summer when I'm exposed to more home cooking, and less physical exercise. And I lose that weight during the winter because I eat less and I'm physically active with more things around me to do.

But this winter I'm running out of holes on my leather belt which I've been wearing for about 35 years and never noticed it shrinking like it is now. Other than my belt shrinking which appears to be the problem, I have noticed that since I started my winter travels there have been a lot of days of chilly, rainy, weather and that could be responsible for me not getting out and being more active like I normally would.

So it appears the solution to my problem would be either get out and get more exercise, or get a longer belt..... This is going to require a lot of thought.

Theboondork

I actually saw three men at this event, at least I think it was three, two for sure, but the third could've gone either way.

I like it when people smile when I point a camera that them. I remember long time ago when my oldest son was a competition trap shooter, and my youngest son was a bull rider, I was usually the only one walking around these events with a real camera in my hand. And since all the competitors were on Facebook a lot of them wanted me to take a Facebook picture of them to use as their icon, or avatar, and they always wanted to stick out there tongue for the picture; apparently that was some kind of cool style.... Cool or not, I'm glad that's over.

Most of the pictures I take of the  riders are when they're sitting on their horse waiting to go into the arena. That way, being lost in the moment, there not paying any attention to me, and I can be relatively sure they won't stick out there tongue.

Some of the younger girls like to braid the award ribbons they've won in their hair. The thought is, since part of the judging is based on the rider's appearance, which in the Hunter Jumper world is called "equitation," they figure that the judges will see the ribbons and might be influenced knowing there a champion.

A veteran of many Hunter jumper competitions this rider has developed the infamous  THOUSAND YARD STARE.

Another home away from home for the Hunter Jumper riders. It's just outside the barn where there horses are stabled.