2009 Battle of the Barns is another success!

The Horsemen have been sponsoring Battle of the Barns for over 11 years- the actual count is thirteen (the first two years were just our Barn and another in friendly competition). We decided to sponsor Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center and make it our beneficiary. We couldn’t have chosen a better Center. The kids are great, and the directors are helpful and caring. Their founder Judy Lazarus told me the MHA has raised over $13,000 dollars for them!

We didn't have any one to carry the flags on horseback this year, but some of our members made do by carrying them in on foot! And no matter what, when you hear the strains of the Star Spangled Banner wafting over the arena, you know it doesen't matter how the flag got there. It's enough that we are blessed with having the flag flying in the breeze.

This year the Theme was Disney so we had a lot of Pirates, but also Peter Pan,Wendy, Nanny, Snow White, Harem girls, Mouseketeers, an Evil Sorcerer, Seven Dwarves, a crocodile, Skelton horses and of course Prince Charming! As a matter of fact we had the most amounts of youngsters showing in the whole history of the BOB.

Our youngest one was eight and rode an adorable pony. He had a definite advantage when it came to the race where you had to lower a plastic pail on a string into a bucket of water, and then carry the pail across the arena to a dry pail and pour the water in. Any Ping Pong balls you captured were considered as bonus points. This little guy just leaned over a little, scooped out the water and the balls and trotted over to the bucket and dumped them in, nary spilling a drop! Needless to say his team won that event!

We had vendors, authors, a great raffle with over 40 prizes to win and a wonderful Ball-tip sandwich plate for lunch.

And as always- I consider any event as successful if everyone has a good time, learns something and no one gets hurt. I think this was one of the most successful BOB’s ever.