Nice, quiet evening with my Summer and getting ready for the DTC.

Well, since the darkness comes at 6pm now, not much riding gets done during the week. I could ride around the barnyard, but I love the trails better. And with the early darkness, I get a little lazy and just want to go home and veg with my family. So...instead of riding or vegging with the family, I ground work Summer in our lit round pen. Doing some exertions of speed to help with her wind. As that is what we do in the sorting pens when we are hauling butt after a calf. She pants worse than most of the stock horses and it seems it takes her longer to stop panting. So, we need to work on that at home. Once we are done in the round pen she goes on the hot walker to cool down. While she is doing that, I am cleaning her pen and feeding all the ponies on "pony row". That is where Summer, Amira and Gypsy live as there are more ponies on the lane than there are regular sized horses.

After I put Summer back in her pen, she got a nice grooming. The full treatment. A brushing with all three different brushes, hard, medium and soft. Then a mane and tail brushing. A face brushing. Hooves picked. And a spraying with Mosquito Halt. She didn't know what to think that I didn't saddle her up for a ride after that grooming. I need to do that every night. I did that with Fawtal and we had a much closer bond than Summer and I do. Summer and I are a good team (or so I'm told), but we are not close like Fawtal and I were. Maybe it is a gender thing as he was a gelding and she is a mare. Who knows. But I do know that grooming is good bonding time with your horse, so I will be doing it much more often and without expecting her to work afterwards every time.

Last night after our routine that I have started as stated above. I got my cart out that I am taking to the Driven Trail Challenge this weekend and washed it. Tonight it gets a new coat of paint so by Friday it will be good and dry for me to load into my SUV.

I think this might be the one big thing I am getting tired of the most about doing any type of competitive trail anything. The packing of the truck and trailer, and the trying to not forget anything. That is the most time consuming and racking of the brain thing that there is. Meaning, probably more stressful than the actual competition its self! LOL At least for me.

But this weekend will be fun. Seeing folks I haven't seen for months and trying something new and praying that it works so we can have more of them.

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

Thanksgiving...

Well, here it is again. I will get up tomorrow, like I do every Thanksgiving, and start the turkey. No matter where we have our holiday meal, I am in charge of the turkey. But that's okay, I really don't mind.

We are going to my parent's house tomorrow and I think it will be nice. My father just retired and this will be his first Thanksgiving at home in quite awhile. I figured I would take a couple of movies and when it's time to feed the horses tomorrow evening, we could all go as a family. My parents have never met my horses. I know, weird huh?

Growing up, I always wanted a horse. My entire family is horse free. So my parents always wondered where I got this obsession from. And of course, they always said no. So I told them, when I get married, I will have a horse. Fawtal was my 3 year anniversary gift from David. And I have had horses ever since. When we moved back to TX from CA, (David was in the Army), my parents tried to talk me into getting rid of Fawtal, he's expensive was their arguement. My arguement was, (FYI, they both smoked) let's see how much you spend on cigarettes compaired to my expense on Fawtal. When I did it, they never said another word.

Anyway, back on subject, I will take them out there to see all the horses and ponies. I think my dad will enjoy it. He never owned horses but he is a country boy at heart. Now if I could just get him on Summer, that would be a Kodak moment for me.

Friday (day after Thanksgiving) my friend Tracey and I are going back to the ranch we rode at this past weekend for some hill work. This ranch is where we are holding the Christmas ride and where Summer and Adriane will be competing. Tracey will also be competing on her Arab mare, Amira. Then Saturday, the ride managers Liz, Alanna and myself will be going back out there to decorate for the ride. Whew, thank goodness this ranch isn't too far from my house. I don't know I could afford the gas if it was too far away.

Anyway, now I am just rambling.

Whoever reads this, have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

Tammy and the herd

Fawtal, my best guy...

Well, I haven't talked about this to anyone, but November 10th, 2007, Fawtal, my best horse ever, has been gone a year. A year ago last Saturday, I found him dead in his stall. It was like losing a family member. I can't believe it has already been a year.

November 10th, 2006, a Friday. I go out to my barn which is 5 miles from my house, at 5:30 am to feed Fawtal and Summer their breakfast. I walk in the barn and notice something odd, Fawtal is not looking at me, he is not even standing up. I walk to his stall and saw him laying there. He has probably been gone for about 4 hours.

I lost it. I absolutely lost it. I was screaming and crying, hitting the walls of the barn. He was my first horse. He had been in our family for 15 years. I called my friends, Mark and Liz, and my husband David. Liz came straight out, Mark was out of town so called his wife Melinda, another dear friend of mine. He had her bring me a huge tarp to cover Fawtal up with. David took off work and our daughter, Amanda, was 15 at the time, took off school. She was devastated. She had never known life without that horse.

I was blessed that this day was my payday. I had Pine Hill Pet and Horse Cemetary come and get him. I paid for a private burial. He is in Bowie, TX with his own grave marker. It is a very nice place.

When they showed up about 3:30pm to pick him up, I was told that I might not want to be there when they got him out of his stall. I knew what that meant. That they may have had to break his legs to get him out. David would not allow that. David is not a horse person by any means, but he knows what my babies mean to me. He and another boarder, Ron, took the stall apart. They took down an entire wall so that Fawtal's body would not be harmed. The guy who came for him was so gentle and so nice. He treated me like this was a family member he was taking away. He was gentle with me and seemed sincerely sorry for my loss.

Well, we left for a couple of hours after he left with Fawtal. My daughter and I went back out that evening to take care of Summer. I knew I had to clean Fawtal's stall, but was going to wait till the next day. I didn't know if I could handle doing it that day. When we got back to the barn, I couldn't help but go to his stall. The stall wall had been put back up and the stall had been completely stripped and cleaned out! I couldn't imagine who was so thoughtful enough to do this for me. Don't get me wrong, we have some great boarders, but who did this for me so I wouldn't have to? I found out the next day it was Julie and Ron. Ron had put the wall back up and he and Julie stripped it for me. So the next day, I brought photos of all the years I had Fawtal, and all his ribbons from shows in California and a wreath. I made him a memorial and left it in his stall for 3 days.

Fawtal was a handsome 15.1 grey Arabian gelding. He was retired due to arthritus in his shoulder, he was 24.

Fawtal now waits for me at the rainbow bridge, running with the Lord's herd.