April 2014

HA! HONEYMOONERS!!    

ARK, I should have congratulated you on your anniversary in my earlier post. 40 years, you must have been but a baby when you and Donnie married!

I just bought myself a present. I have once again proven that I have no life. My exciting purchase was one of those measuring wheels so I can figure out all the dimensions of my new garage and where it will be located on my property so that I can get the building permit. I also found out I have to get a special variance for the driveway to the new garage, but that's another story. I'll also be able to measure the fence line that I need to replace. Woo Hoo.

Thanks, all!  Donnie and I called our weekend away in S.C. our celebration.  It was very nice down in S.C. over the weekend and I actually enjoyed the camping experience.  

Donnie has loaded Linux into my computer and we are trying to see if I can use it here in place of a failing Windows program.  Soooo, here is a pictorial version of our endurance ride adventure......  

We arrived Friday afternoon at Sandhills State Forest, SC.  Ivan traveled well with Tonto, Lori's mustang, but wasn't thrilled about the stall so much.  The barn was great from our point of view, though!



 We started the 25 mile endurance ride at 8 a.m. the next morning.  Donnie and Lori were my ground crew and got Ivan  there and ready to go on time.  They were also ready for my arrival at the end of the first loop, 15 miles, with lunch for us both and a fresh saddle pad for Ivan.  Ivan and I were glad for the rest!  He ate a bit of alfalfa and messy grain gruel and drank water.  He was actually ready to go when the time was up.  I could have used another hour for a nap!  This photo shows us coming in after 15 miles.  I got off and walked Ivan in the last few hundred yards so his pulse rate would get to the prescribed level before we could leave for the last 10 miles of the ride.

 This is our official ride photo taken during the first loop.  



The last ten miles were really intense.  We traveled faster and did things I would normally not do, but we were going to be late if we didn't hurry.  We hurried hard.  Ivan loved it, he would have galloped the entire way.  I had some terrific pains in my legs and feet and needed to rest a bit more than I got to do, but to finish is to win in that game, so we had to hurry to get there.  We arrived after fast trotting and cantering the last 5 miles with only 14 minutes to get Ivan's pulse down to the required amount.  I rode Ivan in to the finish, walking for me was out of the question!  This photo shows our arrival at the finish line.  Lori and Donnie worked on cooling Ivan off and we pulsed in with the vet with 4 minutes to spare!  The vet handed me my vet card and said Ivan was in good shape.    We now officially have 25 miles of endurance riding completed.

 This is how I looked after the ride.  I don't think I have ever physically worked so hard at anything in my life!  Lori washed Ivan off and he got to walk around nibbling on whatever grass he could find before being put up to rest in his stall.  He was walked around several times all afternoon and evening, and still shows no signs of any discomfort.  

The ride photograher gave Donnie and me a photo portrait as a gift for our anniversary.  This was taken later in the afternoon of the ride.  



We stayed overnight and left Sunday morning for home. Ivan was thrilled to be home with his mares and ran around checking everything out before taking a bite of grass.

Ark, the official photo is really a GOOD one! You should get that enlarged and frame it.
What was your official time for the 25 miles? Or the cut off time? I know so little about it, I don't know what to ask.
You should feel really good about finally getting what you've wanted and worked for so long. You've put in the effort and it's paying off.

Well, fiddle dee dee.  I lost my post…………

ARK,  What a great photo of you & DONNIE.  Ivan looks quite handsome, also………..that's a super 40th anniversary and memory.
BIG CONGRATULATIONS on your first real endurance ride.              Now you're ready to go all over your part of the country and what to expect.  The more you go, the better Ivan will get at being stalled away from home.  So, HAPPY TRAILS!

We had a total of 6 hours to complete the ride.....but, there is a 50 minute wait after the horse pulses down after the 15 mile loop, and the wait doesn't start until the horse reaches it. Ivan pulsed down in ten minutes for both loops. Your ride isn't complete until the vet says your horse is at or below the required heart rate and trots out without any lameness. Our finish time was 5 hours and 56 minutes. Basically, not counting the wait times, we had about 4 1/2 hours to do 25 miles. The experienced endurance riders can do it in half my time. I was thrilled to have Ivan done with 4 minutes to spare!  

Sounds like his natural Arab stamina is showing up well. You'll enjoy it more next time, and probably do better.

Beautiful pics ARK. Congratulations.

ARK: A BIG congrats on your 40th anniversary and the endurance ride. WAY TO GO..Ivan did great and so did you.

Super photo of you & Donnie & Ivan on your 40th.

We are all so proud of you.  

HUGE SMILE coming from here Ark. You should have a fun summer.

Woohoo on ride and anniversary. still trying to figure things out   

Congratulations, ARK, on all counts: 6 hours, 3 days' camping, 25 miles, 40 years -- and 20 pounds, too! You look positively skinny! And Ivan, in that "official" photo, looks stunning. "Handsome is as handsome does," my mother always said, and I think Ivan's stellar performance shines through. What a guy! I am in love. And I hope you are giving yourself sixty kinds of back-pats for the very long way along you've brought him. What an accomplishment! And how exciting to think of all that now lies ahead. I am sitting here in my office chair up-and-down posting, I am so vicariously savoring and pleased for you. Great job, and thanks for all the sharing. I love the pics and the narrative.   

Thanks, too, to all for the birthday greetings -- and for the commiserations about teeth. The big upper molar came out without incident yesterday, but I think he thought he might have problems with the lower cuspid (bicuspid?) and so has me going back again next week for that. I think the truth is that dentists see me as a cash cow that they plan on milking just as long as she stands still... I am sure that I've helped pay for more than a few boats and trips to Aruba...I who spend hours in supermarket aisles trying to decide which beans are cheapest...    

Took the computer in last Thursday to have gurus use the old hard drive to retrieve e-mail folders, and discovered on Sunday that, while the old In and Sent files were back, the address book still was NOT. I was ready to kill. But, rather than lose another day and more bucks driving to take it back, I decided to comb the messages for addresses myself, and that's what I've been doing. Slow process, but I'm getting there -- and may, for some, end up having to resort to that ancient device, the land-line telephone.   

Hey, all, I activated my Ruckus, the small scooter, on Monday!!! Warm temps and rains had driven away almost all our snows, fast, last week, and that day the temp shot up almost to 70. Boy did that scooter wind-on-the-face feel GREAT! Alas, cold weather has returned, and we woke up to an inch of hard, crunchy snow everywhere again this morning. Now, at mid-day, the sun is slowly sucking it away. Hope lives...      

GRAYMARE - If warm milk doesn't work, try chamomile tea. It's unsettling to have you go off the deep end like that.    

Thanks very much, fellow friends! I appreciate your posts! I am very happy with Ivan's progress, I well remember that scared 3 year old, just gelded, unhappy guy who wouldn't let anyone touch him. He really has been a great project, although Donnie says I should stop whittling my own horses and let others do it now. That is one reason Lori is training Areion....which actually suits me fine. I don't think anyone would have taken the time I have with Ivan and he was headed towards a bad end before I got him. He is a horse that had to be trained slow and have things proven to him that it wasn't going to hurt him or eat him. Even Lori doesn't appreciate the fine line I've walked with Ivan on occasion and why I sometimes cut him some slack. He's a sensative soul...  ...but he is so much more trusting of me and even let others help out with the vetting in the other day without freaking out. That's something he would have done a year ago. He had people crawling all over him while I sat collapsed in a heap at the ride and did just fine.

I had lots of complements on how pretty he was, which made me happy. Apparently others like dapples, too, and were surprised he still had his at his age. Most fade sooner. I also heard several folks mention how well he moved and how well he was built for endurance. For an Arab, he is a stout guy. One lady did ask why he was so fat   , I don't think she had ever heard of grass like we have here. There was slim pickings for grass there. He'll lose the fat if we start riding much like we did on Saturday.

The most memorable part of the ride for me was that hill with the deep sandy path zigzagging between trees that Ivan took one look at and flew up it, not getting near enough to a tree for my stirrups or knees to touch. He is power-packed and amazingly strong. He was just so darn good, although I have a large blister on my ring finger from trying to keep him a bit slower than he wanted to go.

Today I feel like I am on the downward slide of total muscle soreness. I still can't reach my toes and have to bend over holding onto something to pick up my shoes, but I am not walking around like a zombie anymore. Monday and Tuesday were kind of bad, I had to have Donnie pull me into our bed, I couldn't get up onto it  . I feel like I'll live today!

INDYAPP:
Congrats on your new gadget! Sounds like a fun one. Donnie is a gadget fiend, too, he can't resist them. Good luck with the fencing....sounds like a job to me.

BEECH:
You are too kind! I am the slowest horse trainer and riding student around, but inch by inch, I eventually get where I want to go. I surprised Donnie by actually finishing the ride on time, he thought I would come in an hour overtime....and I would have if that lady hadn't pushed me on and Ivan wasn't so determined to run to get there. The weather was so great, it was like a mini-vacation.

CAROL:
Where are you these days?

ELLEN:
I have a small print of the ride photo, but may get it printed larger. I do like it. If you'd like to see the other photos of the ride, go to: http://beckypearman.smugmug.com/ and click on the Sandhills Spring Fling ride. I am in the 25 mile distance towards the bottom of the photos.


Lori is coming tomorrow, but probably only Areion will get a lesson. I don't know if I can get on Ivan yet, he won't miss it if he doesn't get a ride. The nice thing about him lately is that he doesn't need constant riding to remember his job when we do ride. Areion hasn't had a lesson in two weeks, so she will definitely get one. I'd like to have her ready to ride comfortably by the end of the summer.

Ark, she got three good pictures of you. As far as looks, Ivan can hold his own with the best of them.

Or as surprising as popping a M & M in your mouth and finding out it's a Skittles. (True story)

The office is closed today in honor of Good Friday. So I'm having a leasurely morning. Cats let me sleep in a whole half hour.

While the horses were eating their grain I checked on the frozen manure pile that was keeping me from opening the big barn door and found out it has finally thawed out enough to shovel it away from and open the door. Why is it that horses find the WORST place possible to create their poop piles? For some reason this winter they decided that they just had to poop right up next to the barn door over and over again. I guess I should be happy they do it in the same place. It does make for easier clean up when its all in one place.

Now that I can open the barn doors I'll see about putting the battery back in the tractor for the summer and pulling the horse trailer out of the barn. I also have to restring the electric fence now that the post I set last week has had a week to settle into place. Necessary odds and ends chores for me this weekend.

I'm also waiting on UPS to deliver my measuring wheel so I can get measurements for a building permit. ETA for delivery was yesterday.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter if I don't make it back in before then.

Happy Easter weekend, everyone!

I mowed the grass today. The start of 6 months of mowing. Wild onions were getting tall, now they look like grass. We have grape hyacinths and tulips blooming. It is such a late spring.

Our horse trailer is actually parked in the garage for the first time in its 17 year old life this evening. Donnie is going to repair the side doors and needs to keep them dry. It is a Brenderup trailer and is repaired in much the same way as a fiberglass boat using epoxy. There is a big storm system heading our way tonight and he needs those doors dry tomorrow.

RICK:
I bet you are getting rain tonight. I am so glad it didn't happen last weekend! BTW, that's how I use a scale.....  

I hope everyone has a great Easter with family and friends

I am sending wishes for all to have a blessed Easter……………..

God bless.  Prayers to/for ALL.

Happy easter sweettt dreamssss

Happy Easter everyone. He is Risen...

You should have seen the sunrise this morning. WOW it was beautiful..Sunrise service at church should be amazing this morning. What a fitting sunrise for Easter morning.

We spent yesterday afternoon with my grandson Aaron, our Easter miracle kid, he drove up form Pittsburgh to spend the weekend with Stacy (his dad).

Have a wonderful Easter day.

Love & prayers...

This is a day the Lord has made.  Rejoice and be glad in it!

It's a beautiful Easter morning here too.  Two-doors-over neighbors (back from Florida) go to the same church I do, so we were there together this morning.  

Happy Easter, Everybody!

MISS LAURIE'S Easter cake...baked for her by her hubby, Chef Jesse: