Visitors, visitors

What a blessing our barn has already been in its short span of existence! Brian and I have been kicking ourselves for not yet starting a visitor's book for the barn, so we sat down this morning to brainstorm and write down names of people who have come to the barn since its completion. Our brainstorming session came up with 140 visitors since February 1, 2008. That is, 140 different visitors! We were very careful not to count anyone more than once since many people are here frequently or have returned for repeat visits, but I'm sure we'll realize that we've missed some here and there.

Last night we were thrilled to watch our color guard team practice in the barn. They were scheduled to be here last week, but bad winter weather forced us to postpone. Eleven riders on eleven horses were in our facility all at once, performing simple maneuvers...what a treat! In addition to those 11 riders were 21 spectators watching from the sidelines. Our biggest concern was parking for trucks with trailers, but we had no trouble parking 9 cars and 6 trucks with trailers in our parking area. It was a great night!

Last week we hosted a horse health care clinic with our veterinarian for the Rough Riders 4H club. Ice and snow the day before had cancelled school functions and knocked out power for many in the community, so we weren't sure how many to expect for the clinic. We were pleasantly surprised with 35 visitors that night, and everyone enjoyed gleaning from Dr. Lance's knowledge.

We're happy to announce the addition of two students to next week's lesson schedule! God is so good! News of our mission is spreading quickly, and we're so excited to be a part of His great plan for these young lives.