March 2013

Sunny
Congrats on your new truck!!! I am glad to see things looking up for you!

Rick
Glad you are back!

AAACCCKKKK more snow and ice here in PA. It's a winter wonderland. Kill Phil...that groundhog knows NOTHING. tee hee

CB: How bout sending some of your nice weather up to the northeast? We sure could use a little sunshine.

ARK: WOW 70 degrees...how wonderful that must be.

SUNNY: Congrats on the new truck. Nothing like a new ride to cheer a person up. hat colic stuff is really scary stuff. Glad Areion is OK.

INDY APP: Congrats on yours too. Our truck is a beautiful blue. I wanted a red one but ended up with blue instead. That's OK my Cougar is a deep dark red, and she is the one I drive most of the time.

GRAYMARE: Now that is a nice looking stud horse. He & Faith are going to make a super looking foal.

Sorry to hear about HT and his health problems...

My friend left FL on a Carnival Cruise ship. OMG what was she thinking. The ship is Legend and already headed back with mechanical problems. You would NEVER catch me on one of those cruises. I feel bad for her, she was so excited about the cruise.

Have a great day everyone.

Love & prayers for all..

I would go on a cruise anytime! I just don't want to have to swim with the sharks....I could handle being stranded for awhile and soak up the sunshine....they are beutiful ships. I loved my cruise.
sorry about your weather...I'd send sunshine if I could, cuz we have l
ots of it..yessssss! We have learned get things done by 1 p.m. and then take a break..siesta break! a lil snooze in front of the tv...and then do our evening chores about 7....ahhhhh nice!

Sunny and Indy enjoy your new trucks...go out and play!

Later y'all...have a great week!

Hi all!
Just checking in to say Hello.

Had a quick glance through posts and a couple stood out all of a sudden-
Really sorry to hear about HT - I do remember the name (Horsetutor?) from the old Foop forum.
Very sad news indeed.

CB - Happy Birthday - sorry I missed the actual day, but it's not too late to celebrate, again!
(Did you say shrimp? Yummmm, I LOVE shrimp).

My own news in brief...
Zaristo & I have been doing a mix of dressage and TREC, doing OK in both.
But our weather over here has been lousy, so COLD and WET for this time of year. I certainly hate riding in the freezing cold. And the arena for our dressage competition yesterday was a mudbath. I can understand Z getting HIS legs muddy to the top, but tell me HOW did mud get right up my boots to MY knees???!!! And my favourite lucky white britches have a hole in the knee - now, how did that happen?! (no, I didn't fall off, )

Time now to catch up on all the posts here,
Take care all.

TRUDY:
Yep, 70 degrees. But it was only last Saturday. Since then it has been in the 40s. I think it was the weather gods playing mind tricks on us, making us think that spring had actually arrived, then jerking us back into winter. Donnie got snowed on yesterday on his way to work. Let's kill Phil.

I have only been on one cruise, but I did love it! We were on the Norwegian Cruiseline's ship, the Majesty, and we had the best time. I think I would think twice about going on a Carnival Cruise for awhile, at least until they get their act together. I hope your friend is okay.

INDYAPP:
I went to the eye surgeon today and am set up for cataract surgery in May, both eyes! If all goes well, I will be able to not wear glasses except for reading. I can barely wrap my mind around it . I will have the second eye done a week after the first.
The waiting room was packed at the eye doctor's place. I brought the average age down quite a bit. I am sure everyone else there was in their high 70s at least.

GRAYMARE:
The eye surgeon asked if I was on any blood thinners. Nope, not anymore! The timing for that worked out well. He said I could ride the next day after the surgeries, but I don't think I will risk that quite so quickly.

SILVERDANCER:
You and Zaristo must have looked a sight! It is mud season here, too. Ivan could roll in our arena gravel after we have a riding lesson, but no....he leaves the arena and rolls in his favorite mud hole every time. When he turns white it will be even less fun to clean him up.



Did you know there is a comet visible with binoculars out there? Yep, I saw it this evening. It is in the NW skies, I believe. It's the first comet I've seen in years.

I bought Ivan two big dog toys to learn to pick up. We did a little work with them today when he came down to visit me in the barn while the mares were up the hill. He likes to come in and work for snacks. He picked up both toys! He isn't great at it yet, but has the idea anyway. One toy is a Jolly Ball with a rope running thru it and the other is a connected set of three rubber rings. My goal is to get him to pick up anything I drop while riding.

ark that is a great idea! I'm glad you are having the surgery done, you'll love it from what I hear from others that have had it.

Well, I'm on the road again or it could be me and you and a dog named boo...as my great dane pup is mostly white...going to get the Beast.

CB ... travel safe ..... hope you don't have any huge glitches this time.

Ark ... have fun with your riding.

Safe travels, CB.

Ark, I hope your eye surgeries go as well as everybody else I've heard of. You'll be so excited with your "new" eyes.

TRUDY sent the following pictorial report:

When Phil heard I was headed his way he took the only honorable course of action....



Punxsutawney Phil, the King of the Groundhogs was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after predicting an early spring.

TRUDY:
I bet there was a line waiting to plug that groundhog! Thanks for sending the Phil update!


CAROL:
I did enjoy my ride today, except for the cold. It never made 30 degrees and the wind was gusting at 30mph. I just about froze. We had snow in the morning, but either the wind blew it away or it melted off in the afternoon, so Lori came and we did our lesson. We went down to our lower hayfield where Ivan went thru his arena trotting lessons. He was fairly hyper, but was controllable, at least.

ELLEN:
Yep, I am looking forward to my new eyes!! I hope it all goes well. Apparently I will be nicely sedated, but not asleep for it. I would rather not watch, personally.

RICK:
Donnie spent the day in South Carolina helping the sister of an Amateur radio friend who died a week ago. Donnie disassembled the fellow's radio gear so she could haul it to Illinois. He had a long day. He saw the aftermath of a pretty horrific multi-vehicle wreck just above Charlotte, NC. There was a medical helicopter sitting in the southbound lanes while Donnie was traveling north and traffic was stopped all the way to Statesville. He thinks there were a couple of people killed. Did you hear of this? That is such a dangerous area to drive in.

ARK...nope, I didn't hear about it. That IS a dangerous area and I could never quite 'relax' going through there unless real late. We would usually go further west to Hickory and then south on US 321 and intersect with I-85 near Gastonia...well below Charlotte. The difference in distance was negligible and time was equal or faster. Ease of driving was MUCH easier than I-77.

Carol's niece lives south of Hickory, NC...about 1 1/2 hr. drive from here. She and her hubby wanted some 'horse apples' to till into their garden. I scraped up my dry lot and took them a 'nice' pile of poop. Truck should have had enough gas to go there and back. It has two. 20 gal tanks and I generally get ~200 miles per tank. (Gauges do NOT work, so I use the trip odometer as a gas gauge). Coughed and sputtered at 162 miles on the trip odometer. I flipped the switch to change tanks and life seemed to be fine. I didn't go 15 miles until it cut off again and left me beside the road 15 miles from home. Carol was NOT home...had to get Charli to come from 45 miles away to get me. Finally got everything home before dark. That is NOT a snoop tale, but it IS the unvarnished truth.

Love to all...Rick

I just read on FaceBook that John passed this morning. He and Candace are now together once again.

Awwwwwww. Dear God, that's sad. May he rest in peace with Candace.

His suffering was relatively brief, and for that I am thankful.

I know the Angels are cheering and that John and Candace are rejoicing but it still is so sad to say goodbye even if it's only online. RIP Horsetutor, you will be remembered.

I guess he wanted to be with Candace......

AWWWWWW we lost another of our Foops. So sad. Rest In Peace HT.

Two little old ladies, Connie & Evelyn were sitting on a park bench outside the local town hall where a flower show was in progress. The short one, Connie, leaned over and said, 'Life is so boring. We never have any fun anymore. For $10.00 I'd take my clothes off and streak through that stupid, boring flower show!'

'You're on!' said Evelyn, holding up a $10.00 bill.

So Connie slowly fumbled her way out of her clothes and, completely naked, streaked (as fast as an old lady can) through the front door of the flower show.

Waiting outside, her friend soon heard a huge commotion inside the hall, followed by loud applause and shrill whistling. Finally, the smiling Connie came through the exit door surrounded by a cheering, clapping crowd.

'What happened?' asked Evelyn.

'I won $1,000 as 1st prize for 'Best Dried Arrangement.. !'

ELLEN:
I thought Evelyn was going to win some kind of bet with someone else for getting Connie to run thru the flower show nekkid . Cute story!


SUNNY:
A while back there was a news story about a house that fell into a sinkhole In Florida and a man who was lost in the house's fall. I never heard if they got that fellow out of the sinkhole. If our news ever carried the follow-up story, I didn't hear it. Do you know how that turned out?


Donnie and I worked all day like mad to get ready for another possible snow event here. Is spring EVER going to arrive this year? We have had below normal temps, with rare occasions of not below normal, for weeks. In case the snow arrives, we did our grocery and feedstore shopping, hay hauling, barn cleaning, firewood delivery and stacking....all today instead spread out over the weekend. It was actually fairly nice this afternoon for a change. I didn't have time to ride Ivan on what will probably be the most decent day of the coming week. I hope the coming snow is a none event.

Ark, that man that was swallowed up by the sinkhole was never found, the hole was 60 feet deep and the house was to unstable for the rescuers to go into the hole so he was left there and burried when they tore down the rest of the house and the hole was filled they could not find him everyone in the neighborhood is on alert as there may be more holes so far nothing more has happend there but the future is uncertin and there has been no more news on the story

As many of you know, I had the honor and privilege of going to visit with John Conrad (HT/Horse Tutor/etc.) on Jan 14, 2013 while he was still in the nursing home facility recouperating from his stroke. I made the 4 1/2 oneway trip unannounced and just walked up on him in the hallway. HT instantly knew me and called me by name. We had a good, albeit too short, visit. Like everyone else that has ever had the honor of knowing this man, I was saddened at his passing, but REJOICED in the knowledge that he would once again be able to stand tall and erect with Candace by his side.

Back late in 2007, I stayed / lived with him and Candace and with Candace's mother while I was in the "camper pulling" business based in Bristol, IN. To this day, I get overwhelmed with emotion when I think back on their genuine hospitality and the fact that I was NOT permitted to compensate them for their generosity / hospitality.

As you know, he was a USMC veteran and took his 'duties' as a Marine very seriously. We teased him and called him Colonel. THIS all played into his schtick as a true MALE FOOP.!! It set the standard for the other foolish guys (like me, for instance) to become a part of FOOPLAND.

John was a truck driver at one time, and, as such, traveled over the length and breadth of this nation. I well remember a story he told us about seeing a large cross (out in Texas) while on a long, cross country trip...and the profound effect that sight had on him. John may have been rough, and gruff on the outside, but there was a genuine kindness / tenderness about him that came about and shone by his relationship with the LORD ... especially so after seeing that sight from the window of his big truck.

I 'lifted' the following story from another website I am on occasionally as I could just visualize JOHN CONRAD, USMC Ret. doing something like this. Please read it and reflect on the quality individual our friend truly was. My life has been blessed because of my brief association with John Conrad and his lovely soul-mate / spouse...Candace Brown Conrad.

I love you HT and Sapp!!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cemetery Watchman ..



My friend Kevin and I are volunteers at a National cemetery in Oklahoma and put in a few days a month in a 'slightly larger' uniform.

Today had been a long, long day and I just wanted to get the day over with and go down to Smokey's and have a cold one. Sneaking a look at my watch, I saw the time,16:55. Five minutes to go before the cemetery gates are closed for the day. Full dress was hot in the August sun Oklahoma summertime was as bad as ever--the heat and humidity at the same level--both too high.

I saw the car pull into the drive, '69 or '70 model Cadillac Deville, looked factory-new. It pulled into the parking lot at a snail's pace.. An old woman got out so slow I thought she was paralyzed; she had a cane and a sheaf of flowers--about four or five bunches as best I could tell.



I couldn't help myself. The thought came unwanted, and left a slightly bitter taste: 'She's going to spend an hour, and for this old soldier, my hip hurts like hell and I'm ready to get out of here right now!' But for this day, my duty was to assist anyone coming in.



Kevin would lock the 'In' gate and if I could hurry the old biddy along, we might make it to Smokey's in time.



I broke post attention. My hip made gritty noises when I took the first step and the pain went up a notch. I must have made a real military sight: middle-aged man with a small pot gut and half a limp, in marine full-dress uniform, which had lost its razor crease about thirty minutes after I began the watch at the cemetery.



I stopped in front of her, halfway up the walk. She looked up at me with an old woman's squint.



'Ma'am, may I assist you in any way?'



She took long enough to answer.



'Yes, son. Can you carry these flowers? I seem to be moving a tad slow these days.'



'My pleasure, ma'am.' (Well, it wasn't too much of a lie.)



She looked again. 'Marine, where were you stationed?'



' Vietnam, ma'am.. Ground-pounder. '69 to '71.'



She looked at me closer. 'Wounded in action, I see. Well done, Marine. I'll be as quick as I can.'



I lied a little bigger: 'No hurry, ma'am.'



She smiled and winked at me. 'Son, I'm 85-years-old and I can tell a lie from a long way off.. Let's get this done. Might be the last time I can do this. My name's Joanne Wieserman, and I've a few Marines I'd like to see one more time.'



'Yes, ma 'am. At your service.'



She headed for the World War I section, stopping at a stone. She picked one of the flower bunches out of my arm and laid it on top of the stone. She murmured something I couldn't quite make out.. The name on the marble was Donald S. Davidson, USMC: France1918.



She turned away and made a straight line for the World War II section, stopping at one stone. I saw a tear slowly tracking its way down her cheek. She put a bunch on a stone; the name was Stephen X.Davidson, USMC, 1943.



She went up the row a ways and laid another bunch on a stone, StanleyJ. Wieserman, USMC, 1944..



She paused for a second and more tears flowed. 'Two more, son, and we'll be done'



I almost didn't say anything, but, 'Yes, ma'am. Take your time.'



She looked confused.. 'Where's the Vietnam section, son? I seem to have lost my way.'



I pointed with my chin. 'That way, ma'am.'



'Oh!' she chuckled quietly. 'Son, me and old age ain't too friendly.'



She headed down the walk I'd pointed at. She stopped at a couple of stones before she found the ones she wanted. She placed a bunch on Larry Wieserman, USMC, 1968, and the last on Darrel Wieserman, USMC, 1970. She stood there and murmured a few words I still couldn't make out and more tears flowed.



'OK, son, I'm finished. Get me back to my car and you can go home.'

Yes, ma'am. If I may ask, were those your kinfolk?'



She paused. 'Yes, Donald Davidson was my father,Stephen was my uncle, Stanley was my husband,Larry and Darrel were our sons. All killed in action, all Marines.'



She stopped! Whether she had finished, or couldn't finish, I don't know. She made her way to her car, slowly and painfully.

I waited for a polite distance to come between us and then double-timed it over to Kevin, waiting by the car.

'Get to the 'Out' gate quick.. I have something I've got to do.'





Kevin started to say something, but saw the look I gave him. He broke the rules to get us there down the service road fast. We beat her. She hadn't made it around the rotunda yet.



'Kevin, stand at attention next to the gatepost. Follow my lead.' I humped it across the drive to the other post



When the Cadillac came puttering around from the hedges and began the short straight traverse to the gate, I called in my best gunny's voice: 'TehenHut! Present Haaaarms!'



I have to hand it to Kevin; he never blinked an eye--full dress attention and a salute that would make his DI proud.

She drove through that gate with two old worn-out soldiers giving her a send-off she deserved, for service rendered to her country, and for knowing duty, honor and sacrifice far beyond the realm of most.



I am not sure, but I think I saw a salute returned from that Cadillac.



Instead of 'The End,' just think of 'Taps.'



As a final thought on my part, let me share a favorite prayer: 'Lord, keep our servicemen and women safe, whether they serve at home or overseas. Hold them in your loving hands and protect them as they protect us.'



Let's all keep those currently serving and those who have gone before in our thoughts. They are the reason for the many freedoms we enjoy.

'In God We Trust.'

Sorry about your monitor; it made mine blurry too!



If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under!

You are required to pass this on NOW!!

very nice Rick, Im sure HT appreciated your visit and your words now. I do.

Ive been away for a few days, and wasn't prepared to read this this morning.....am soooo sorry. HUGS and HUMS for his family.

Well done, Rick.

RICK that is a very fitting tribute to John. The other side of John was that he presented himself as a true Cowboy. This was especially fun to watch as Candace was All Things Dressage. Here is a poem that when I read it I thought of John. I sent it to his family in tribute.



The Cowboy Way

Old Cowpoke, you are gone now
You've taken your last ride
You saddled up and rode away
Across the Great Divide

We hope you found an easy trail
With water, grass and sun
With shelter when you need it
And a place to hang your gun

And a place of peace and stillness
Away from pain and strife
And other things that troubled you
A good part of your life

You've shed the heavy cloak of life
You're standing straight and tall
We'll stay here and take care of things
And we'll miss you, one and all

We won't forget you, cowboy
That's not the cowboy way
Something will remind us
As we do things day by day

A thought will make us chuckle
About something long gone by
Of things that made us laugh like fools
Or things that made us cry

We hope you left an easy trail
For us to take some day
Just leave a horse at the Rainbow Bridge
When we journey up that way

So, peace be with you, Pardner
Just go enjoy the ride
And know some day we'll meet again
Across the Great Divide.

Winter just hangs on and on. I'll be sooooo glad for something that looks like spring. And that's all I have to say.

Rick and Indyapp

Those were very sweet tributes to HT. Thank you for posting them.


Ellen
We keep getting snow which partially melts into mud then more snow is added again. It is slick and sloppy. More snow expected today. I am soooooo over winter. We may get 50s by the weekend.... I hope. Our pasture never gets dried enough for the heavy bucket truck to come into it and lift our internet connection tower into place except for last Saturday when the truck owner went out of town fishing......sigh....

Trudy
Got your photo...will post tonight!