It scares me just how fast the years go by now. It's possible it may snow some tomorrow (Dec 2nd). I'm not expecting much, but I've always tried to ride in the first snow of the season. The last several years I hadn't been able to do that, but this year we might just be able to start back with the old tradition.
The horses are doing pretty well although Lucky seems to have a cold. She has a runny nose and is coughing, so she'll get a little extra time off. They're enjoying all the leisure time of late, and although I'm afraid we might have a bad winter, I hope to ride off an on during the winter so that we all don't go too long without some trail time.
The rest of the month will be busy for me. I'm making 95% of the Christmas gifts I'm giving this year and like usual, I'm waiting until the last minute. I admit that I'm a bad procrastinator.
I hope everyone enjoys their holiday season and has a wonderful Christmas!
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Waiting For Hunting Season To Be Over
I have nothing against hunting. My husband hunts. In fact he got a good sized doe opening day.
It sure does put a crimp in my riding time though. Combine that with all the rain we have had, I haven't ridden in a week.
I HATE mud. Seems like I've said that a lot in this blog.... LOL I just don't remember there being so much rain and muddiness in the past. Not even back in 1993 when we had the bad floods.
Normally, I'd be riding in our obstacle course, but even it's a mud pit. We did take Lucky out to ride up and down the driveway, mainly for pictures, but she was kind of being a pain in the rear so that didn't last too long.
Note to self: Start working the horses individually because they're getting buddy sour.
The horses are probably enjoying the time off.
On another note..... I'm thinking it might be a heck of a winter. We've butchered deer in the past but I don't ever remember seeing a deer with such a thick layer of fat. The hair was thicker than usual too. I guess we'll see soon.......
It sure does put a crimp in my riding time though. Combine that with all the rain we have had, I haven't ridden in a week.
I HATE mud. Seems like I've said that a lot in this blog.... LOL I just don't remember there being so much rain and muddiness in the past. Not even back in 1993 when we had the bad floods.
Normally, I'd be riding in our obstacle course, but even it's a mud pit. We did take Lucky out to ride up and down the driveway, mainly for pictures, but she was kind of being a pain in the rear so that didn't last too long.
Note to self: Start working the horses individually because they're getting buddy sour.
The horses are probably enjoying the time off.
On another note..... I'm thinking it might be a heck of a winter. We've butchered deer in the past but I don't ever remember seeing a deer with such a thick layer of fat. The hair was thicker than usual too. I guess we'll see soon.......
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Majic's Memorial
It's been over two years, but I finally finished Majic's memorial. I tried several times in the past, but I would just get upset, so I would just put it off a little longer.
Finally today, I felt like I could finish it. After all, it's been over two years, and I have another horse that I'm really bonding with. I can do this now.....
I still cried......
Man, I love and miss that horse.....
His slideshow is below. If you'd like to see his full memorial, just visit the "In Memory Of" page at http://www.motrailblazing.com/
Finally today, I felt like I could finish it. After all, it's been over two years, and I have another horse that I'm really bonding with. I can do this now.....
I still cried......
Man, I love and miss that horse.....
His slideshow is below. If you'd like to see his full memorial, just visit the "In Memory Of" page at http://www.motrailblazing.com/
Monday, November 02, 2009
Good Ride Today
We spent some of the day today working on our obstacle course and fixing the ground over the culvert at the back corner of our property so we could ride that part of the trail again.
Shea, Ashley, and our son Jeremy's girlfriend Melanie, all helped me, then took turns riding when the work was done. The ride went great, but we're going to have to work more on water crossings because we had trouble with that each time we came to one. The first time, Ashley had to dismount and "coax" Cassie over, then we could get Lucky and Shadow over. The last water crossing was only about a foot across but pretty boggy. None of them would go over. We had to dismount and lead them over with a lot of difficulty. I was beginning to think that Lucky was never going to go over. We finally got all three over, helped each other remount, and headed home. The horses were tired. It was muddy enough that their legs got a good workout.
Shea was nervous at first. She seldom gets to ride, had never ridden Lucky before, and never rode this long before, but she started to relax and enjoy it. We gaited down the road and Shea really seemed to enjoy that.
We only rode about 1.75 hours. I didn't want to kill Shea on her first ride, she's gonna be sore enough.....
Shea, Ashley, and our son Jeremy's girlfriend Melanie, all helped me, then took turns riding when the work was done. The ride went great, but we're going to have to work more on water crossings because we had trouble with that each time we came to one. The first time, Ashley had to dismount and "coax" Cassie over, then we could get Lucky and Shadow over. The last water crossing was only about a foot across but pretty boggy. None of them would go over. We had to dismount and lead them over with a lot of difficulty. I was beginning to think that Lucky was never going to go over. We finally got all three over, helped each other remount, and headed home. The horses were tired. It was muddy enough that their legs got a good workout.
Shea was nervous at first. She seldom gets to ride, had never ridden Lucky before, and never rode this long before, but she started to relax and enjoy it. We gaited down the road and Shea really seemed to enjoy that.
We only rode about 1.75 hours. I didn't want to kill Shea on her first ride, she's gonna be sore enough.....
Friday, October 30, 2009
Rain Rain Go Away!!!
I never really thought about just how much the weather makes a difference in our riding life. Too hot, too cold, too wet, rain, storms, wind, severe weather, flooding. Man, when you think about it, it's amazing we get to ride as often as we do. Most of the ways it affects us is obvious, like temperature extremes or storms, but I've never thought about the more subtle ways it affects us. Like, even though it might not be raining at my house, the roads on the way to a trail may be flooded if they had a lot of rain there. It could be a beautiful temperate month, but if there were severe storms in the spring, trails might be closed for a long time because of the damage. Yeah, I know it's all pretty obvious, I just started pondering it more while looking out at the torrential rains today and wondering how long it'll be before things will dry out and how much damage to the trails it will cause. Of course, I shouldn't really be so frustrated, another weather phenomenon - the unusually cool summer, helped me ride more this year than I had ridden in years.
LOL, I can't believe I'm writing about the weather.....
I've gotten a huge amount of work done on my website the last couple of weeks. It's truely becoming a life's work for me that I'm very proud of. I hope people find it interesting and helpful.
Full riding season is over for me this year, but I hope to get some riding in during the winter between the hectic holidays and the weather. The down time however, will allow me to work more on my websites and blog more often. Stay tuned.....
LOL, I can't believe I'm writing about the weather.....
I've gotten a huge amount of work done on my website the last couple of weeks. It's truely becoming a life's work for me that I'm very proud of. I hope people find it interesting and helpful.
Full riding season is over for me this year, but I hope to get some riding in during the winter between the hectic holidays and the weather. The down time however, will allow me to work more on my websites and blog more often. Stay tuned.....
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Interesting Ride Yesterday
It was a great day for a ride yesterday, and an incident happened that made me trust my horse even more.... but reminded me that accidents can happen anywhere at anytime to anyone.
I was leading on my horse Shadow, my nephew Sean was next riding Lucky, and my niece Taylor was riding drag on Cassie. All three horses are doing great, however this year I think Lucky has decided to try and see what she can get by with. About halfway through our ride, she either got one heck of an itch or decided to see if she could get Sean and the saddle off of her. She started rubbing herself against a tree and Sean couldn't get her off of it. There were 3 problems with this situation: 1. She was pinning and crushing Sean's leg against the tree. 2. Sean is a fair rider but doesn't know enough to figure out how to handle something like that if kicking her doesn't work. 3. She was rubbing against a standing dead tree.
When I heard him yelling at her, I stopped and turned around. He was kicking her with his right leg (the left one was pinned) and pulling her head away. I was trying to get his attention to get him to try something else, such as backing her or slapping her on the rump because his cues were, not only NOT helping, but possibly encouraging her to stay there. Course, in his excitement he couldn't hear or comprehend what I was saying.
About that time, I noticed the tree was long dead and swaying a lot. That's when it occurred to me to get VERY worried. Before I could do anything else we all heard a loud CRACK! One last sway of the tree and the top gave way half way up, luckily falling to the opposite side as Sean and Lucky were on. Whomp! the tree loudly crashed down. That finally got Lucky off the tree as she spooked, scooting forward a few feet.
After getting over my heart attack at the thought of my nephew and horse getting crushed, I realized that my horse barely reacted to the crash of the tree, just jumping forward maybe half a stride and that's about it. Cassie didn't really react at all, not even a jump. Lucky, while contributing to it, wasn't totally to blame because Sean didn't know how to handle the situation. When the tree fell, she didn't do anymore than lung forward a few feet.
Of course, it scared the heck out of Sean. Even though he kept complaining that his leg hurt, as soon as I was sure it wasn't seriously injured, I made him continue the ride until he calmed down. Aside from being bruised, he's fine.
Sadly, this is their last day with me, so I intend to make sure we ride again. Got to get him back in the saddle. It's been a rough year for him. Up until this year he never had anything scary happen to him. His summer memories will include a fall and the feeling that he isn't always in control. All young riders have a turning point. Either they love horses enough to be crazy and stick with it no matter what, or something causes them to lose interest. Usually that's either something scary happening, becoming a driver, or a boyfriend/girlfriend comes along.
I was leading on my horse Shadow, my nephew Sean was next riding Lucky, and my niece Taylor was riding drag on Cassie. All three horses are doing great, however this year I think Lucky has decided to try and see what she can get by with. About halfway through our ride, she either got one heck of an itch or decided to see if she could get Sean and the saddle off of her. She started rubbing herself against a tree and Sean couldn't get her off of it. There were 3 problems with this situation: 1. She was pinning and crushing Sean's leg against the tree. 2. Sean is a fair rider but doesn't know enough to figure out how to handle something like that if kicking her doesn't work. 3. She was rubbing against a standing dead tree.
When I heard him yelling at her, I stopped and turned around. He was kicking her with his right leg (the left one was pinned) and pulling her head away. I was trying to get his attention to get him to try something else, such as backing her or slapping her on the rump because his cues were, not only NOT helping, but possibly encouraging her to stay there. Course, in his excitement he couldn't hear or comprehend what I was saying.
About that time, I noticed the tree was long dead and swaying a lot. That's when it occurred to me to get VERY worried. Before I could do anything else we all heard a loud CRACK! One last sway of the tree and the top gave way half way up, luckily falling to the opposite side as Sean and Lucky were on. Whomp! the tree loudly crashed down. That finally got Lucky off the tree as she spooked, scooting forward a few feet.
After getting over my heart attack at the thought of my nephew and horse getting crushed, I realized that my horse barely reacted to the crash of the tree, just jumping forward maybe half a stride and that's about it. Cassie didn't really react at all, not even a jump. Lucky, while contributing to it, wasn't totally to blame because Sean didn't know how to handle the situation. When the tree fell, she didn't do anymore than lung forward a few feet.
Of course, it scared the heck out of Sean. Even though he kept complaining that his leg hurt, as soon as I was sure it wasn't seriously injured, I made him continue the ride until he calmed down. Aside from being bruised, he's fine.
Sadly, this is their last day with me, so I intend to make sure we ride again. Got to get him back in the saddle. It's been a rough year for him. Up until this year he never had anything scary happen to him. His summer memories will include a fall and the feeling that he isn't always in control. All young riders have a turning point. Either they love horses enough to be crazy and stick with it no matter what, or something causes them to lose interest. Usually that's either something scary happening, becoming a driver, or a boyfriend/girlfriend comes along.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
I Can't Believe It's August Already
Time is just flying by, but I guess it's a good thing because I'm having fun. I've been riding quite a lot the last several weeks. I've had a niece or a nephew here every day to ride with since the beginning of July. I can always count on them to ride with me. The only thing I'm still missing is riding time with Hank. He's actually managed to ride with me a few times, but not nearly as much as I'd like.
I'm really beginning to feel comfortable with all three horses now. It sure felt like it took forever to feel that way. I never knew how hard it would be to find another horse that I could trust after Majic died. Confidence and trust were never an issue in the past. I guess I'm just getting more timid in my old age...... LOL I kinda miss that 20/30something girl who wasn't afraid of anything.....
Lalita and I are supposed to meet this Saturday for another ride. Not sure yet where we are going.
On a business note: I'm working on a new edition of the book and hope to have it finished in time for the new year. I am also revamping and moving my website. It's an overwhelming endeavor, but I hope to have it done before the end of the year. Once I have it finished, the motrailblazing.com address will be offline for about a week while it's being transferred. My plan is to have it offline during the slower part of winter. Thanks in advance to everyone with their patience while I get the website moved.
I'm really beginning to feel comfortable with all three horses now. It sure felt like it took forever to feel that way. I never knew how hard it would be to find another horse that I could trust after Majic died. Confidence and trust were never an issue in the past. I guess I'm just getting more timid in my old age...... LOL I kinda miss that 20/30something girl who wasn't afraid of anything.....
Lalita and I are supposed to meet this Saturday for another ride. Not sure yet where we are going.
On a business note: I'm working on a new edition of the book and hope to have it finished in time for the new year. I am also revamping and moving my website. It's an overwhelming endeavor, but I hope to have it done before the end of the year. Once I have it finished, the motrailblazing.com address will be offline for about a week while it's being transferred. My plan is to have it offline during the slower part of winter. Thanks in advance to everyone with their patience while I get the website moved.
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