Update Day 6!

Good news!  Almost a week and both Dixie and Brody are doing better.  Brody's wound had started to become infected, so some of the stitches were removed and the wound flushed out...nasty business, but he will feel so much better now!  Dixie is on water therapy now for her wounds and that dead muscle is sloughing out of the big wound.  We still have bone exposed on her foreleg which might need to be shaved, but the wound is clean and not infected, so we are waiting a week or so to see how things go.  Dixie has dropped a lot of weight, so we now are feeding Omegatin as she turned up her nose at the Health-E Oil.  Gunnar is not nearly so fussy, so he gets the oil to put some pounds back on.

Both families now have houses to move in; no more hotel living....yay!

Items have started to arrive and we are thrilled  and excited as everything comes in - Lizzie, Michael, Breanna and Ashley can't wait to have their own belongings to take/bring to lessons and/or meetings!  Again, thank you one and all!

Bridget

Tornado Relief Contact

Thank you so much for all the outpouring of concern and promises of items coming for our PC families! We appreciate you! If you have questions about what to send, please call Bridget at 319.504.7671 or email at bryson.bridget@gmail.com. The address for shipments is:
32110 Westbrook Street
Cedar Falls IA 50613
Right now we are regrouping as boxes and deliveries come in - thank you to Hunter Oaks Riding Center, the first box of goodies to come to my house! If you would like to send money, please make everything out to Silver Bits Pony Club; we have opened a relief fund and those monies will be used towards horse care and vet bills.....eventually, hopefully towards filling in the needs that we can't fill through items that we give or have sent. If you would like to specify how you want the money spent, please don't hesitate to let me know!
Thank you for putting the smiles back on these wonderful PC kids' faces.

Bridget

Tornado Update

Sunday, 5pm shortly after our Silver Bits mounted meeting and cookout, right after everyone got home, the tornado hit us...and hit us hard. Two of our special families lost everything. Breanna and Ashley H. lost their home and their ponies. Of the family horses, Knight is in perfect health, Gunnar has a nasty puncture wound on his neck and gash in his belly and Dixie is badly injured....numerous wounds, nasty gash in her near fore and large open area on her hindquarters. Lizzie and Michael and sibling Nicky lost two of the family horses and Brody is badly injured and still suffering from shock. Patches just happened to be visiting at the Brysons and is unharmed.
As I write this it is day 5 and we are all hanging in there. The outpouring of love and wishes of help from the horse community and especially Pony Club members from around the country is overwhelming. Every message, note and email is being saved for the families to read over when they are ready. Brody is inching his way towards feeling better. Dixie seems well in herself although it seems that she shouldn't even be standing. She is losing a lot of weight and we are doing all that we can to keep her eating and to get that weight back on.
Breanna, Ashley and family have been given a house to live in temporarily, Lizzie and Michael's family are still living in a hotel room and are searching for something to live in as the house gets rebuilt.
We thank you...each and every one of you...for the love and support. I can't tell you how proud I am of our Silver Bits team as everyone has stepped forward, donated, helped, made calls and done everything they can to help our two familes in need.

Finally!

The good weather is finally here! Lots of sunshine, ready for our first 'real' mounted meeting of the year at Centennial tomorrow!
We have 8 kids 'signed up' to attend, so you will be split into two groups of four. One group will have some polocrosse practise, the other will be able to do some begining quadrille - a ton of fun and something that we will be working on at our camp!
Since I have been bad at updating our blog, here is the latest!
Success at our clinic! 12 kids participated and all had a BLAST! Congratulations to Rabia O. and Kallie H., our respective first and second place winners in the skills test, and then to Ben and Jordan who finished third and fourth, leading the SBPC kids!
Games Rally at Hoosier Horse Park followed the next weekend, with Steph's team, the Seed Spitters coming fourth both overall and in HM, and with Ben's team, the Racing Stripes, covering themselves in glory by winning both ribbons; much to their delight (and with 2 boys on the team, much fist pumping too!).
The fun continues with our mounted meeting this weekend and then our Polocrosse team, Silver Bullets, representing us in June at PoloX Rally - Steph, McKenzie, Ben and Breanna (SM) will be doing their best; and having a blast!
Watch out for TRPC Camp information (emailed out yesterday), our camp plans starting, parades, more mounted meetings, practices and more! Check out the updated calendar and be ready to PLAY!

Bridget