By Dan Roark [More pictures can be found on the New Hope Facebook page. But I wanted to highlight the work Susan did to set up the games and facilitate the events.]
Despite the rain the latter part of the week before, the sun shone bright for Family Fun Day on Saturday, May 18, which was re-scheduled from April 27. And, boy, did it shine bright. But so did the smiles on everyone’s faces. The games Susan had set up in the arena for the riders included barrels, pole bending, equitation, lariette, loony barrels, and 
dragon rescue. She also set up games for the parents and family in the upper pasture viewing area as shown in the first two pictures. For some reason, I did not get a picture of the full arena setup, but the pictures show the different events.
The most interesting part of the day was also attributed to Susan. Olivia, the girl (as opposed to Olivia, the horse), and her family showed up late. So that when Olivia was doing her events, she didn’t have an opponent in the flag race or a companion in equitation. Since all the horses had been put up, and rather than tack-up another horse,
Susan brought out the stick horses. Torunn, instructor-in-training, was the first to volunteer to be the “competition” against Olivia in the flag race. Kyrie and Tucker rounded out the team that would run relay to take the three flags to the third pole.
Susan instructed the girls to stall, stumble, or otherwise delay in the spirit of competition. Everyone had fun, but Olivia won. Smiles and laughter abounded both in and out of the arena.
Ride on and ride for hope.
Venmo @NewHopeEquineAssistedTherapy
Awesome job Susan and Toruun!!