A court decision hangs over the their heads, yet Saturday was a day of fun for Emily, 11, and her parents Amie and Tim Maples at Petrack Park's McCullough Arena as they joined other families for a day of Gymkhana.

The sport consists of timed games for horse riders and is also called O-Mok-See, a Native American phrase meaning games on horseback.

Emily was riding Passion. The mare is "pushing 30 years old," according to Tim, and was purchased from Shiloh Horse Rescue in Sandy Valley, Caif. "The first time we brought Passion out here, she got so tired. She was pooped," said Tim.

"She came up and rested her head on my shoulder. But she's stronger now. She loves to run out here. She's obviously done this before. Passion's purpose now is Emily. They are pretty much inseparable."

Amie said daughter Emily rides bareback out in their backyard. "She's definitely Emily's horse," said Amie, "but she's a sweet horse with all of us."

Tonto, the family's gelding, was also at the arena area. He was anxious to get in on the action, snorting and whinnying while Emily was riding Passion in the warm-up area.

"He's somewhere around 15 to 18 years old," said Tim. "He's used to riding trails because he was on a dude ranch. He is kind of head shy. If you get around his ears, he thinks he's going to get smacked, even though we've never done that.

"When we first got Tonto, his name was some kind of thing like Ed. Emily wanted to call him Apache at first, but when I asked him if he wanted to be called Tonto, he came up to me and nodded his head."

Tim said Tonto had been moved many times before they owned him.

"He's bonded with Passion now. He doesn't like to be without her. You can see how he calms down when Emily brings Passion over here. The horses get along great, but Passion's first priority is Emily."

Emily has only been riding for a couple of years. "Her big sister is a soccer player and at first Emily wanted to do that too, but it turned out that she loves to ride," Tim said.

"Passion is leg-trained, which means Emily can steer the horse using her legs. Having an older horse means you have to learn what they know. That's what Emily is doing. She's learning."

Tim said Emily rides both horses in their backyard. "If you don't ride a horse, it will get barn sour. There's no chance of that at our place," said Tim. "In the backyard, Emily just has fun with the horses. She loves it and so do the horses. She rides them backwards and they just play."

"It's just amazing, watching some of these kids out here. My hat goes off to them," Tim said while watching one youngster fall from a horse while maneuvering around a barrel.

"You just get up and keep going," he said, turning his thoughts to his family's legal problems.

"I just want all this to be done. This was totally uncalled for. It's stupid and it's wrong," Maples declared. "We bought that property to have horses. We were told it was horse property.

"I can't compete by throwing money at an attorney. But I am not backing down."