The urge to move

There's more than one way to skin a cat, but there's only one way to click a pic.

Yesterday the weather was so perfect, I should've known it couldn't last. I can hear my solar panels whining about the lack of sunshine, and my batteries begging to be fed.

The Vail Pride Days and the Tucson Winter classic Hunter jumper contests are over. But the place doesn't seem dead like it normally does when the big events are finished because it appears the Hunter Jumpers are sticking around for the next horse event, which is the Saguaro Classic Horse Show, which will be another Hunter jumper competition, which starts next Wednesday.

That's also the day my stay at the Pima County Fairgrounds ends, but since I want to see the Quilt Fiesta, which starts Friday, I'm going to pay for a few more days so I can take some pictures of the incredible quilts that I saw last year.

I've been here a long time and have the urge to move on. And if it weren't for the quilt show, I would leave on the 22nd, even though I still don't know where I want to go. And since my destination depends on the weather and whether or not there's a Super-Bloom of flowers, I don't know when or how I will figure out where to go.

I keep hoping New Mexico will warm up because I can live a lot cheaper in New Mexico, but everywhere in New Mexico I look at on the Internet is colder than it is in Arizona.

Theboondork

Proper position for jumping, or just sleeping on your horse.

This girl has to be at least somewhat embarrassed. Walking around like this would be okay,  but she's competing.

I don't know how old this girl is, but she looks too young to even be making a decision to compete in a dangerous sport like this.

And speaking of a dangerous sport. When I saw this woman sprawled out on the emergency golf cart with a nurse working on her, I figure she had fainted from the stress of the competition.....

Boy was I wrong!! I don't know what actually happened to her but I find it hard to believe that falling off a horse in this fluffy dirt that's on the floor of the arenas would've injured her like this.

Now she could have been thrown off the horse and hit part of the jump like the poles or the decorations, or worse yet, she could have been kicked in the face by a horse. Whatever it was, it would surprise me if her nose wasn't broken.

I've mentioned before about the danger of these competition horses whether it's Hunter jumpers or barrel racers, especially for folks that aren't exactly spring chickens anymore, and this lady has some wrinkles, and her husband whose holding her hand has all gray hair, so maybe she should reconsider her choice of hobbies.

These horses are twitchy, easily spooked and can be very aggressive, qualities like that does not make a competition horse easy to deal with, which is why it bothers me so much to see really young kids, or older people involved in horse competitions.