April 2013

Yes .. we are getting a few days in the 70s before it goes back in the tank ..... but,I just STINK like a horse right now ..... LOL Ice is happy too as is Midge..... Just worked on trying to get him cleaned up a bit today .... will ride him tomorrow dirty or not. hahahaha

ARK, welcome to old age....haha! I could be wrong tho, and then it would be me who is welcomed into the old age category...oh wait, I'm already there...hmmm....isn't Faith the horse, and Gracie the dog....? OK...set me straight here! Someone just put me out of my misery! Old age sucks.
The parade was to celebrate an Ethnic thing for the town of Ballinger TX...but we opted to go to the trails at the SP instead...its closer, and Jessi wants to take Maximus for a lead along, and hubby will ride Rocky to see how he does...there may be a few more going, don't know until we get there and find out.
Those towers sound like they need some very careful handling, so you two be extra careful! Too bad about the old guy tho...I bet if he is coherent at all he'll miss his radios.

CAROL, that's the spirit! Enjoy your ride!

We are having our summer I think! its gonna get into the 80's next few days and then WEd back down to the 70's which is a temp I really enjoy...to be outside working.

Crikey, I just logged on and see that LOADS of FOOPS all had the same notion at the same time!

Just had to butt in and say, when I saw the talk about the Parade... that I was in a Parade last Tuesday. But alas, I wasn't riding, that would have been great fun (I think!) but my job was to carry a sign for TREC Ireland in front of one of our Young Riders, at a parade of all Horse Sports in Ireland, at one of our national race meetings.
It was the opening day of the races and the Parade took place in the Ring where the horses and jockeys parade before they go out to race, so there was a large crowd around, all leaning over the rails and waving and shouting questions, so it took a cool horse to deal with it all, so I'm glad to say our TREC horse and rider did OK.
When our turn came to be called in to the centre, while the commentators told everyone (on TV, yes this was all broadcast on Irish TV) what TREC was all about, Katie and Jack (the horse) stood still like a rock and looked really great. Jack is what we call here a 'coloured horse' (two colours, black and white) and with all their bright yellow reflective tack (which TREC riders and horses wear for safety)they really did look outstanding and a great advertisement for TREC.

CB - my son in TX says it's raining with them right now (it's his birthday, today, we were chatting ) and more rain forecast but all the lakes are still VERY low compared to normal levels.

Ark and CB, Graymare has Faith and Addy.

Carol, is the weather finally letting up a little bit? Since you smell like horse, I'm guessing it was warm enough to enjoy it.

It's been a perfectly gorgeous day all day. The song birds are back and busy getting ready to make more of themselves. For the first time this year, I even got to open the sliding door for a little while. It was nice to sit by the open door and sew. The water level hasn't started to recede yet, but isn't rising anymore.

CB
Oops. I knew that, LOL. You are right, old age has gotten hold of me!...;-)
Have fun on the trail ride!


ELLEN
What are you sewing in that doorway? Do you still love your machine?

CAROL
I am so glad your weather has improved! Is Ice shedding like our horses? We are in the midst of a hair storm here. Where are you going riding?

SILVERDANCER
Bet you had fun! Did they show you on t.v., too? When is your next trek ride? What are the obstacles like?



We spent the day doing more spring chores. Donnie's vacation will be over soon and we have a month's worth of jobs to do.

Yes, I love the machine. It just makes everything sooo easy. I'm making a bib top summer outfit for Little Miss Scarlett. The bib part has a bunny embroidered on it. The attached pants have ruffles that go along the sides and back. Seeing those ruffles waddling along on a little diapered fanny is just sooo cute.

ARK, its alright..I'm right there with ya, its my friends dog who is Gracie! LOL...she lives in OR! Like I said this old age thing sure sucks!

Ellen, sounds like you are having loads of fun with your new machine! Have your hours gone down some at the store now?

SilverD..you lead an interesting life! That sounds like loads of fun! The horse and riders have to wear yellow stuff? We never had to wear any colors...but it sure would make it easier to spot those who had gotten lost! Many a ride on NACMO, we would go looking for riders who got lost and we got search parties together, sometimes nearly dark, we took our flashlights and compasses and worked different areas, we always found our missing man/woman safe and sound, just mad as h8ll! We were only searched for one time...we had all 3 girls with us too...got turned around and off in a whole nother direction! It was dark when we hit the road back to camp, and we ran into folks out looking for us...it was a nice feeling! Jessi was 4, Jaemi 11 and Randi 17...long ride for the little one...but she never complained..and her pony Duece was a trooper too! We all had water and snacks with us, but we saw so many bear tracks we thought we may end up being a bear snack! The next day on the two day ride, we smoked it! came in first place by 3 minutes! LOL
Have fun doing the rides and just enjoy doing them!

Carol, enjoy your ride! I know I will. Well, sweet dreams y'all...gotta feed baby goats and then off to bed.

CB, I am working fewer hours - one day a week, in fact. The manager hired 3 more people, so that spreads things out a lot better. The new people are girls in college and wanting the money so they want more hours. One day a week is good.
The manager is having a hip replacement on Monday, and when she is somewhat recovered from that, she's having a knee replacement. So we won't see her for most of the summer. I do hope that those replacements will make her feel better; she's been just miserable for a long long time.

As for getting lost on a ride... Ages and ages ago, I went out for a little Sunday afternoon ride, only intending to be out for two or three hours. Lost track of time and directions and wound up riding for about seven or eight hours. The stable owners were just about ready to start looking. I felt so foolish for doing something so silly.

been trying to get Sunny to tell of our midnight ride....at Baumgardner....

Getting lost or turned around isn't in the least silly, its scary stuff. Luckily we always have enuf water nowadays and snacks with us, and usually a windbreaker at least and always take halter and lead rope in case we have to tie a horse or lead one, and a first aid kit comes in handy too! We have learned over the years to go prepared....and oh yes, some money in case you need to leave a 20 dollar bill in some hunters ice chest that had a pickup, so he could go get more water as we drank a gallon of his when we ran across his camp, remember that Sunny! Oh yeah, we have been lost a time or two....
its not all that much fun!

Had a great ride today, we rode 11 miles and the weather was great so were the horses, Rocky only gave a hop once when he wanted to follow another horse...and Harry popped him with the poppr on the reins...I must remember not to do that! I thought hubby was gonna go but it was over with just one hop and then he settled down again. Can't complain about the weather today, its great!

Clara it would better if you told the story as I got rescued before you did but I will say it was NOT fun it was hot and in the saddle WAY to long I am sure that my horse was never so happy when the hunters took me back to camp to let the others know that clara and the rest were o.k and on the way back it made new meaning to the saying (saddle sore)they didn't get back to camp until way after dark like 10:00p.m or so and the whole thing started when kids or stupid adults thought that it would be funny to shoot the signs or take them out. but we survived and some of us went out the next day for a short ride I don't think that I did it was a long time ago but it was a great weekend and lots of memories

There was becky and dave and their two kids, Jessi and Harry and Dawn and myself. We took water for us, but the family only had one bottle to share (we even asked them if they had lots of water with them in their saddle bags) We were on Iron Mountain Idaho. We were going to try and make a circle and get back to camp that we thought was a 4 hour trip...HAH! We were following our fearless leader (hubby) and when we came to a crossroad on the trail, the signs were missing, and we turned the wrong way...and went for miles and miles, some of those trails were like cow paths too...not something we enjoyed at all. And then we heard the family say they were out of water! Yikes! WE shared what we had with them...as we thought we would be coming to the road shortly back to camp...well, NOPE! We were now on a dirt road, and some hunters came by with their truck and we asked if they would take Dawn back to camp, and they were nice and did that. Hubby led Dawns horse down the trail and we followed! We came across a hunters camp who had a pickup parked next to his tent and we raided his cooler, and left him 20 bucks! So now we had some water at least, we had gotten off and walked the horses several times, found a small spring that they slurped water up from, but we were all afraid of giardia which is rampant up there! And we trudged on, went down another cow path, straight up on the high side, straight down several hundred feet on the low side...I felt like closing my eyes I was so dang dizzy, and then my horse who winged on the front feet overstepped and I thought he was going over! I baled onto loose shale rock and slid under my horses belly, grabbing his legs before I pitched into that canyon! I had to crawl between his front legs to stand, and I decided I was walking the rest of the way down that cowpath! Everyone else got off and walked too, except Harry...as he was leading the extra horse. We finally got to a log road that wound to the river, we had to crawl over a fallen tree, that sucker was huge...the horses had to crawl over it too! Then we remounted and slid about 30 feet down this path to the river, and there was a sheep bridge we had to cross...I was not crossing the river in the dark...so we had to cross on the narrow bridge! But we did it, and when we got to the bank on the other side there was the other campers that were with us, with drinks and our jackets, and crackers etc....and Larry followed us back up the road toward camp...and here comes a truck pulling a rickety noisy trailer behind and my silly horse, Critter, decided he was spooking and jumped to the side of the road and over the edge of the bank, everyone screamed. Larry said he saw our shadow and then we were gone in his headlights....Luck was with me, as he landed on a bank before we fell into that dark river....and I made him crawl back up to the road, and on into camp...where I was shaking so badly I couldn't even eat! I will say the kids were troopers, pretty quiet, and listened well, all 3 teenagers, and the adults said they would never ride with us again! LOL..I sold the stupid horse! He almost killed me twice on that ride, that was enuf! WE had left camp that morning about 8 a.m. and finally got back to camp at around 11 or midnight. We never went back there to camp or ride again! WOW...and I am terrified of high places now and skinny trails...I flat won't do them. Very careful where I ride and with whom I ride, and never again will I follow my hubby when the signs are down, if he says left, we will go right! I was happy we all made it back to camp and our bodies were in one piece other than scrapes and bruises, but our minds were totally blown. I'm not a big drinker, but when someone shoved a beer in my hand I drank it! It took us hours to calm down, and then one of the mares coliced that night and I was up and down with her all night long...she made it, luckily I carry stuff with me...but it was a bad weekend, one I never want to repeat. The trail ride from h*ll!

That would have been some ride. Woudln't have wanted to be along on that one.

That was quite an adventure! Glad you all made it back alive and I wasn't with you, LOL.
I don't like riding on rocks and cliffs.....yikes....

Rainy day here. We may go to a movie instead of working our fingers to the bone like we've done all week. Donnie goes back to work tomorrow.

good for you Ark, that is what time off means taking time for yourselves to have some fun and relaxation enjoy whatever you do

ARK, I don't do well with skinny cowpaths and drop offs anymore....I just can't do them! That mountain ride just scared me to death, and I won't and don't take chances anymore at all. I like small hills and shallow water crossings, and lots of goodies in my saddle bags! I love safe trails now!

Well, today is getting quite warm. We filled up the huge tubs we have for the dogs, and they took turns diving into them and rolling around cooling off! I don't have one big enuf for the danes yet, so they just get sprayed down, so do the horses and of course they go roll, but that's all in keeping them cooler I guess. Now someone needs to hose me down!

Oh my gosh am I pooped. Just got home and the important stuff put away, including Tiberius. The clinic was great. I couldn't have asked for any better response than what T gave. It was his first trailer ride by himself and while he was nervous he wasn't a nervous wreck. We were in the colt starting group which was worked with in the mornings. First morning all the colts (6) were flagged, worked on ground exercises and saddled and then flagged again. The second morning started with the saddles on and were flagged again, a little more ground work and then all turned loose to run around the big areana to get the bucks out before being mounted. We then all entered the round pen and worked on stop and go, left and right. Day three started out like day two but less time on ground work. Flagging was done while mounted in the round pen. More work on start and stop, left and right and then added trot to the mix. Then we took it all out into the big areana and continued. Day four started in the big areana, no round pen. Worked on more controlled turns, stepping over ground poles, walking between two ground poles placed closely together, a little bit of leg yielding and moving haunches and shoulders independently of each other. T. didn't do the trotting in the round pen with all the other horses in there at the same time very well, but when we had more open space in the big areana he figured it out and even gaited for me. I was really excited about that. All in all it was a great experience for both T and me. This has been an annual clinic for quite a few years. If he comes again next year, I think I will just go to watch so I can take notes. There was so much information that I hope I retain just a portion of all that I did and heard. There was someone there taking pictures of everyone and everything that was going on who is going to send me pictures that she took of Tiberius. As soon as I get them I will post them although I don't expect them until later in the week at the earliest. Now I have to finish some laundry and then I'm going to bed. My legs feel like noodles. I am pooped.

Indy, it sounds like you had a ball and came home with a horse you can start riding for real.

Hurray INDYAPP and Tiberious!!! You really accomplished a lot! Was Tiberious calm with all that going on? Was he happy to see his home friends? What is next for his training?

RICK
Did you disappear?

SUNNY
We went to see "Oblivian". It was pretty good.

Indy, but such a nice state of pooped! sounds great for you and T! Proud of ya both! Keep up the good work!

Time for Derby---?????




Was it cb or ellen had winner last year----This year one ol guy has 7 entry's--

Those derby horses in my opinion are beautiful --not an ornery one in the bunch-- horses give it all, . Well dogs do too, I never have gotten over a good dog or good horse!



Well, Verginia makes the bestes strawberry pie

Gosh is it Derby time already, OL MAN? I havn't heard anything on it yet...but we don't get thelocal news here at all....just CNN,but havn't heard about it coming up! I agree, a good horse or a good dog is very hard to replace! Those horses get a lot of attentin fromm the time they are young, and they get pampered before and after races with massages, icing of legs, and grooming...they usually get pretty good care.

It is in the low 90's here today...whewwwwww..

I did my dishes early this morning, and vacuumed, and mopped my lil kitchen area...and I've been vegging the rest of the day. We let the dogs out for a long run....I'm being a slug!

It wasn't me who picked the Derby winner. I had to work and didn't even know who was running. I WILL NOT BE WORKING ON SATURDAY, AND I WILL BE PLANTED IN FRONT OF MY TV AT POST TIME!!!

I missed it last year...and may miss it this year..riding Saturday with some new folks we met, and babysitting for the GD's on Saturday night I think. JOey and Jessi has a firemans' ball to go to. Joey is a firefighter trainer on the base.

It's time to change the thread. Go to:

https://horsefriends.forumotion.com/t20-may-2013#2360

Or go to Basket and click on "May 2013".

See you there!