Playday Success and Thank You

The playday was a success! And it’ll definitely be a yearly event (just earlier in the year)!! We had a great time and I learned a few things about what works and doesn’t work. We’ll probably skip a silent auction (although that went over pretty well) and just do a concession stand (closer to the arena)! I’m learning!!

I want to thank Larry and Freida Fossum and the Cowboy Way Church for letting us use their arena. I know it’s a lot of work to get everything set up to do a playday and they did a fantastic job working the arena up as best they could even though we had rain in the morning. I know everyone enjoyed the facilities. I want to thank Stacy Albers for helping get everything set up with the playday and figuring out what games to play. She pretty well took over and got all the games set up each time. I want to thank the Parker Saddle Club for letting us use their timer/eye (and Tanya for running the timer).  I want to thank all those that donated to the silent auction, bake sale, and concession stand and for those that donated their time to get everything set up. I couldn’t have done it without you. And I want to thank everyone who participated in the playday and bought items on the bake sale and silent auction. The rough count shows that we brought in about $600.00. I was ecstatic when Mike said how much. That will help with the hay bill for sure!

Thank you everyone for visiting with the Sanctuary horses (and for not poking fun of me or the horses for the amount of cockleburs that are in their manes and tails). I promise, it’s high on my priority list to get all those burs out. It’s a daunting task at times when I know they’ll get more in their manes and tails the next time they go out to pasture or roll. Maybe after it dries up a bit we can tackle the cocklebur bushes and get them disked under (at least in the drylot). It does bother me so thanks for not mentioning it or at least being sympathetic when seeing all the burs! We’ve been fighting those darn cockleburs for years now and it seems it’s a losing battle.

Everyone’s donations and participation humbles me. I struggle to ask for help; we try to be self-sufficient so asking for help is very difficult. But everyone’s willingness to help my cause is very awe-inspiring.  I am overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and am so grateful that I am left speechless.

At the end of the day on Saturday, I was exhausted. It was a happy exhausted. All the hard work of getting everything figured out and set up paid off while I watched people play in the mud with their horses. It amazes and humbles me that people were willing to come out to support us. I couldn’t ask for a better support group. I loved watching everyone participate in the games and loved watching everyone’s expressions during the events.

On a side note, I was able to take pictures after the camera landed in the mud but we do have to get a new camera. It no longer wants to work. The poor thing has been beaten too much over the last few horse activities and landing in the mud puddle was the final straw. I did get some good pictures and will post them to the blog when I get a chance.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for your support and generosity. I am eternally grateful.