Pretty Ponies on Parade

My friend Shar asked if I (and a few other friends) wanted to participate in the Christmas parade put on by her little community (smaller than a small town, bigger than a neighborhood).  The theme of the parade is Toyland, so we were originally each going to go as toys--her as Raggedy Ann, and me as Gumby (Arya's a pretty good twin to Pokey).  But then she suggested bedecking our horses as My Little Ponies, which sounded like too much fun, so we shopped at dollar stores and Joann's, and got together with plenty of time before the parade to get the horses ready.

Arya in back, Jill holding Goodwin's tail while Shar looked for her zip ties.

Willow in back, and Jaxon in front.  Both have a ways to go before they're ready for the parade!

Turns out Goodwin looks great in gold!

And Arya's beautiful in purple!

Arya wasn't too sure about having curly gift ribbons dangling from her forelock, but after a little shaking to see if she could get them loose, she figured they weren't too bad and was fine with them the rest of the day.  The mane and tail ribbons never bothered her at all.  Pretty sure this is her first time being decorated, so she did great!!

Jill still has a ways to go on Willow

But Romina's getting Jaxon quite well decorated!  She has red and yellow tack, so took that color scheme a ways further, like I did with Arya and purple.

Goodwin doesn't look very amused...

But Shar loves it!

We went down to the staging area and got into place for the parade.  We were number three--after the grand marshal and before a "hot wheels" car.  Shar chose this spot instead of one directly in front of the fire engines (that do turn on their sirens, honk their horns, and flash their lights, so good choice!).

The float in front of us held quite a cast of toys and nursery rhyme characters.  There are some toy soldiers, Jack and Jill and their cute kiddo dressed as a puppy or bear or something, Mother Goose, and some other characters...they all had awesome costumes.

And, of course, Santa!

Color guard at the very front of the parade

When the float in front of us turned their music on, Goodwin got VERY interested

When we started off, Arya (who had been uber calm up to this point) got very animated.  Not sure whether it was the hubbub or taking her away from her grazing break, but she was prancing around and trying to push me off the road (like she was trying to get to food, but who knows).  I tried circling her, and she didn't respect my space very much the first time or two, but luckily the car behind us did and she settled in just before we got to the spectators.  We got a few oohs and aahs from spectators, and I let a couple little girls pet Arya, and she was an angel.  We got some after-parade photos of our pretty ponies:

Goodwin and Shar, and our ribbon for first place in the category Pets and Horses (I'm pretty sure we were the only entry, but hey, it's a ribbon!)

Jaxon and Romina

Arya and me (too bad her eyes were closed)

Willow and Jill.  That hat/scarf/gloves multi-purpose and multi-function garment was awesome!

We all had a great time, the weather wasn't too cold (and the parade route had thawed, even though Shar's house was still frozen solid), and the horses were well-behaved.  First parade for all of them, I believe!