Who am I?

I think that it would be fun to spotlight a few faces from our barn- since it is my idea I will go first. My name is Megan Dawson, and I am 23 years old. I have been married for a little over a year and a half. I have been riding for about 10 years when we got our first horse named Copper. Copper is a cute sorrel tobiano gelding that I rode for 4H. He has also been our steady lesson horse until this year, when arthritis in his left knee has practially crippled him. Right now I work for Brigham Young University, which is nice to have a steady job and benefite, but I do miss fooling around with the horses all day. I would like to get into some more lessons and am interested in getting involved with Hunter/Jumpers but I have most of my experience in Western performance. I enjoy reining and have been working on my Western Pleasure skills. My sister and I are leaders for a 4H club (the Sunfire Ranch Riders) and we coach youth in POA shows. It has been fun to watch our kids learn, grow and progress. I am really proud of them and all that they have accomplished. We have many kids that are training their own horses and have done really well. We also have two of our kids participating in the Utah State 4H Individual Horse Show this weekend...Good Luck to Maddy and Brinkley!

TRAIL RIDE

These are some pics from our trail ride that was Rachel's last in Utah. It started out being a trail ride for two, but we ended up taking five horses in a four horse trailer (on of the plus sides of owning POA's- highly compact) It was a fun ride up Dimple Dale- such a fun place to go because the scenery is varied as well as the terrain. Nice easy slopes and a few up and downs, as well as water crossings. We are planning a 4H trail ride up there on September 27.
Shaylie and Brittany decided to come in a spur of the moment, not actually wearing riding clothes chance. We outfitted them with boots and they rode in leggings, a skirt and a pair of shorts- very stylish ;) Lucky we didn't do any really heavy riding.
The wheat in the field was very inviting to the small spotted ponies.
There is a great spot on the top of the trail that has bark chips and is fairly wide- perfect for impromtu gallops. Rachel and Tess enjoyed having the rest of us eat their dust on the way back.

Fall is in the air

I really enjoy the weather between blazing hot summer and frigid cold winter. There is a bit of a nip in the air- perfect day for riding. The only problem is that the days are starting to get shorter...

So I just stumbled across the ability to post pictures on the blog- not exactly sure of how to format, etc. but will be experimenting as I go. I figured that I out to start out with an intro of the family behind Sunfire Ranch. Backrow is Chops Dawson (my husband, hiding behind my head) and my dad Rich. Then the middle row is me (Megan) Richard, Carly and ChiChi, Max and Monty. My mom, Dorothy is being choked by myself and Devin, the youngest is in the front.

Gotta love a line up for the little kids