From a beautiful weekend to this...

The wind was HORRIBLE yesterday. I was sooo worried about my fencing at home and afraid that it would hit the ground and my dog Libby getting out. She is a Bulldog, so needless to say, I am sure if someone picked her up, I wouldn't have gotten her back. Not in the neighborhood I live in. I paid too much for that dog, but love her more than that. About 4:45pm, David called me and said Libby was still at home and the fence held up to the wind. Whew....I was so glad to see that stupid but loveable dog. She is such a ham.

I have been working Summer every night in the round pen. Trotting, gaiting, cantering, then walking to cool down. We mix it up to keep it different. So she does about two miles during our sessions. I put her surcingle on her and attach my GPS to her so I know we do about two miles in 20 minutes. She is looking good. She has lost her hay belly and her back end is looking good. We have also been doing a lot of in hand backing. I have been told that is good for her stifles as well as her back end. She seems real happy. Especially when we do her carrot stretches. I just want her ready for the Freeze R Burn on the 9th. Tracey and I got another lady named Mary to do it too. So she and I will be newbies together. She has an Arab and I know they will both do fine. With Summer being a "heavy" horse, I just have to work her a little harder to get her in shape for this. Now if I had the will power to do the same for me. Tonight, Summer gets a break, I have to clean her pen, I think they are predicting rain tomorrow so I need to get it done tonight.

Well, better get back to work.

TTFN

Thought for the day:

You are valuable...not because of what you do or what you have done,

but simply because you are.

At least we had a nice weekend...

For having such a sad week, the Lord did bless me with a beautiful weekend. I hope he did the same for others.

Saturday, I rode Summer for about 3 hours. Now I only did about 8miles on her, but for about 1 of those hours, she and I did some trail work in the pasture. I like doing this because it makes her mind work and pay attention to me when I am cutting limbs from a tree and drop them on the ground, she just stands there. What a good girl she is. I know, I know, I say it too much. But I gotta brag about something! (smile)

We came back in, unsaddled and let her out for a bit. Then I talked to the new boarder for a bit and told him if he ever wanted me to take him out and show him the trails I would. He wanted to go right then. So poor Summer got tacked back up and out for another little 2mile round. So she wasn't too mad at me.

Sunday, Tracey and I tacked up and went out. The wind was blowing so Summer and Amira were "up" and a little spooky. But once we got out to the pasture, they settled real quick and were good. We rode almost every trail and even the new one I keep forgetting about, so we did about 5 miles. Then we got back in, untacked and she, June and I headed to Sergeants. Of course I spent too much, as did Tracey. June walked out with only spending $10.00. Then we went out to eat and Tracey treated. It was a very nice day, too bad it was so short.

Update on my cyber friends, Katie's hubby and her dog seem to be doing good after their surgeries. Thank you Lord.
Raylin sent me a beautiful e-card, and I know through her faith in God, her heart is slowly healing. Thank you Lord.

Thought for the day:
With God, every day matters, every person counts.
And that includes you.

Such a sad week...

A cyber friend lost her gorgeous TWH stallion named Merlin. Had she lived closer, Summer would have been in foal to him. He was a coal black stud with multi talents of arena showing, barrel racing, etc...he was something. Then, her husband had to have surgery for his appendix and her dog is going in for surgery too. This sweet lady could use prayers from anyone who reads this.

Then another cyber friend of mine lost her father last night. So sad. There is a story to her and her father, but I won't go into it. Just know, he made his peace with her last week, as I am sure she made her's with him. Also, few days ago, a mare she had in foal to her stallion, aborted the baby. The colt had a birth defect, so the mare knew what she was doing. But it is still such a sad loss. Please say prayers for her too.

Both of these ladies are very sweet and special people. I know they will look to God for strength.

Then my mother called me this morning. My uncle passed away last night. He had bone cancer that could not be stopped. So I send prayers to his children and grandchildren. He was my great-uncle. I was not real close to him as he lived in Lubbock, but I do have good memories of him from when I was a child. He was always kind to me. He was a tall and distingushed man. He liked his pipe and always seemed to be dressed like Ward Cleaver. I don't ever remember him being dressed down.

May he and Raylin's father, rest in peace now. Your battles with sickness are over. I know there is a big, black, beautiful stallion who will gladly carry you to your Father in Heaven.

My friend's Mustang...

*Tracey took a picture of Peppy and here is my big booty on this 14.2 Mustang. What a lot of folks don't know is that Mustangs and Arabs can carry up to 40% of their body weight. Where as most other horses can only comfortably carry 20 to 25%. So I didn't feel bad about getting on him. His momma (Katie) said his name was Peppy Le Pu. Too cute.

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*I am feeling a little better today. The congestion in my chest is trying to break up. Hence, I am coughing a lot.

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*Tracey says it is supposed to be good riding weather this weekend and we really need to go on another conditioning ride. If I can't go somewhere, then I will be hitting the trails in our pasture for at least a 15 mile ride, which means hitting all the trails about 3 times.

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*I did forget to mention that I am the new editor of our R4 NATRC paper. It is called The Roundup. I am excited and nervous about this. I have big plans, I just hope they pan out.

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*TTFN

Sick and tired of being sick and tired...

I am sick yet again. My hubby wants me to go to the doctor. I need to go. I hate going, but I need to go. He pointed out that I have been sick for the last month. Some days are better than others, but it is still sick just the same. If this funky weather would stay one way or the other, it might not be so bad. Then I get to work this morning and hear we have no heat in the building and it will be like that for a week. They hit a gas line in the back drive way. So, a minute to break it and a week to fix it. It is not to bad right now, the office is warm but the hallway and the first floor are cold. By tonight, after this freeze, I am sure it will be cold in my office tomorrow. I have a little heater under my desk, but if I and the investigator that is closest to my desk, uses our heaters at the same time, it blows a wall circut. Did I mention this building is almost 100 years old?

Went to the NATRC R4 convention this weekend. Well, Tracey, Ashley and I went Saturday. I got to visit with folks that I normally don't have time to visit with during a competition. So that was nice. Got to ride a couple of my friends horses since I didn't take my own. That was also nice. I can actually say I rode a Mustang now. I also rode my friends TWH who is about a whole hand taller than Summer. So that is pretty big for me. Summer is 15.3, this boy was about 3 to 4 inches taller, at least it seemed like it to me. We got back to the barn at midnight, so I was good and tired by the time I got home.

Better get back to work.
TTFN

No Iraq for David

We had the talk last night. He will not be going. I need him here and so does our daughter. I couldn't imagine what I would do if something happen to her and he was in another country. Even our daughter told him no. No amount of money is worth him not being here with us. He was okay with it. If we are not happy now with what we have, more money is not going to fix that, it may just make it worse.

I took Summer out last night and gave her a good lunging workout. Now that she is more fit, she has a lot of "go" in her. It was no problem to get her to go 20 times each way in the round pen at a trot. I used to have to really get after her to go that much, now, she just goes. We did some backing up a slight incline in hand last night 5 times to strengthen her stifle and we did our carrot stretches and leg stretches. If we are going to do an LD, we both need to be ready. That is why I am climbing the stairs in our building, to get fit.

TTYL

A good riding weekend. Well, sort of...

I went riding Saturday with Tracey, Anita and Robin. The sun was out and the air was cool so the horses felt good. We did a lot of moving out with a little walking in between. You see, I rode with three Arabs and they have a little more stamina than my poor ol' TWH who has been on vacation for the past 5 weeks. Anyway, Summer kept up pretty good with the others, I was real proud of her. She didn't care if she was in front, middle or in back. She just kept going. We even got some real nice cantering in. She is really learning how to use those legs of hers. She used to feel like you were riding an octopus when she tried to canter, legs going every which way. Well, on our second good canter episode, Summer was in the lead and Anita and Tiny were right behind me, Summer thought she saw a bear and spooked real hard to the left, throwing me out of my seat but not off the horse. However, I saw out of the corner of my eye, something hit the ground. I turned fully around and saw Anita on her back. Apparently, Tiny believed Summer when Summer said she thought she saw a bear and Tiny startled too. But Tiny was a good girl and stood there for Anita to get back up. Luckily Anita wasn't hurt and sat there for a minute to gather her wits then got back on and we rode off again. Of course I felt horrible, had Summer not startled, Tiny wouldn't have startled. I am just glad she wasn't hurt. That first loop was 18 miles, it was great, and other than the "bear", Summer was wonderful.

We got back to the trailers, ate, and visited for awhile, then got back on the horses to do the little 4 mile trail (2 out and 2 back). Well, we took a wrong turn about a mile out. There were ribbons on the trail we turned onto. We all saw them, and all agreed we were on the right trail. There were no ribbons we could see on the actual trail. Anyway, we get to a "fence". It is the thick gauged cable that prevents vehicles from going where they shouldn't. This one was at the end of the cut trail and was only about 2 inches of the ground. We have all asked our horses to go over something like this before. Well, Anita and Robin go over it and Tracey is next with me in the rear. Amira goes over it with all feet, as her right rear hoof starts to go over, it catches the cable. Amira takes another step, now the cable is a little higher up on her leg and she starts to panic and kicks out trying to get free, this only causing the cable to loop around her leg, then the poor thing starts to go down and Tracey bails off so Amira can free herself. When she frees herself, she takes off. This was De-Ja-Vue (sp?). 14 years ago, Fawtal got loose at Benbrook lake and took off. I remembered what we did to keep him with my friends horse and it worked with Amira too. Well, I keep "cookies" in my saddle pack and Amira knows it. So I got off of Summer, took out the bag of cookies and Amira settled and came right over to me. Thank God. I know how Tracey felt watching her baby run loose with paved road around and such, she could have ran anywhere. It happened with Fawtal and Summer and it is a horrible feeling of helplessness. Well, Amira has some wounds, and is limping, but I really believe she will be fine, it could have been so much worse.

Other than our two accidents, the horses were actually on their best behavior. Other than acting like a horse every now and then (slight spooking due to wind), they were really good.

Sunday we just rode around the barn yard for a couple of miles. I wanted Summer to loosen her muscles after her previous days work out. I put her out next to a colt and they ran and played through the fence, so I knew she felt pretty good if she felt like playing.

As for today, I get a phone call from my husband who says he found a job. I didn't know he was looking. He could go to Iraq as a mechanic on a military base for $30,000 a month. Yes, that's what I said, $30,000 a month. He would be there a year and bring home, tax free, $360,000. I was so upset. I hated when we were apart while he was in the Army. We are older now and more settled, I really don't think I could handle not having him around. I know what he is thinking. We could buy the property and house we want right now and still have money left over. But I just don't know what I would do not having him around. I actually started crying just thinking about it. Money is nice, but it isn't everything. However, I have always supported him in his decisions, so we will talk more tonight.

TTFN

An okay week...

This has been an okay week. I did get a little riding in Wed and Thur night. Tracey and I did a couple of miles each night around the barnyard. Summer didn't think it was fair since Tracey has two horses and I only have her, hence, she had to work both nights and Tracey's girls only got one night each.

We are supposed to go riding at Benbrook tomorrow. A conditioning ride. Summer has been on a break for the month of December so now needs to get back to work and earn her oats. I am wanting to go ahead and do an endurance ride on her. It is just a 25 miler, so they call it an LD (limited distance). I think it will be fun, but I am sure Summer will have other thoughts on that. This one is called Freez 'R Burn and is held at the LBJ Grasslands, so at least we kinda know the trails.

I am real proud of Summer. She has never been one to like to side pass to the right. Well, these past two nights we have worked on that from the saddle, and both times I have gotten her to take a couple of steps to the right. They weren't as pretty as the ones she takes to the left, but she gave effort and did it. I hate arena work, but I know I need to do it if I am going to have to train her to do little things like sidepassing to the right.

TTFN

Warm weekend

Had a nice weekend. Too short as usual.

I had shoes put on Summer this Saturday. Even the farrier noticed she has gained weight. So both of us need to cut back. When I rode her yesterday, I had to lower her girth on the off side by about 2 inches. Yes, she has gotten a little pudgy on her time off. Plus she forged a little yesterday when I rode her, which means she is out of shape. Slowly but surely we will both get in shape though.

I pulled myself from both of the March CTRs. With gas prices the way they are going, I just am not sure if I will make them. If I can go, I will enter at the last minute, I am sure they won't mind. Wall Street predicts that gas could go to $200 a barrel by the end of this year. Of course that is a long shot, but long shots come in too sometime. No body will be doing any CTRs if that is the case. Could you imagine gas at $6.00 a gallon for regular unleaded. No way.

June, Ron and I went to Sergeant's Western Wear and I only spent $12.00. I was so proud of me, but I think I am finally tired of having too much stuff for one horse. I swear, Summer has about 10 halters and lead ropes. It is time to stop and start spending that money other places.

Well, I am rambling now,

TTFN

Happy New Year!

We had a good New Year's Eve. We went to our friend's house(The Martin family) as usual. Ate good, drank a little and just had a good time.

David and I went and bought hay yesterday, thank goodness that is over for at least a couple of month's.

We took our friend's out yesterday for a birthday dinner. We took Tom (birthday boy), Nancy, Holly and Rylan out to Chili's. The service was horrible! I had to go get a tea pitcher and refill our tea, then Holly and David ran out of soda. We got our food and those two sat for about 10 minutes with no drink. I grabbed their glasses and went to the bar and had them refilled myself. It was horrible. Thank goodness we got our food when it was hot, that was about the only thing good about the ordeal. Needless to say, our server did not get tip. I used to be a server and we usually tip very well, but not yesterday.

I started my New's Years resolution today. Loose weight. I turned 39 last month, so by next December I want to be a skinny 40 year old. I am tired of being tired. I am also tired of shopping in the big girl section and tired of not liking to have my picture taken. And if I do have pictures taken, I throw half of them away. Not cool.

I am also going to start going back to church. My daughter wants to go back to a Methodist church that we used to attend. It is a nice church and the folks are wonderful.

So my two things are to cleans my body of fat, and restore my soul with God.

Wishing everyone a blessed and prosperous New Year!