New digs

So as not to keep you in suspense for to long I am posting a few outside pictures of the new digs. The weather was gray on Saturday when I took these so no mares and babies this time around. You will get the general idea of the place though.








This is the front view from the road










This is the back of the house, I love all the windows!














This is a side view from the entry









Question for all my donkey owning or knowledgeable Friends out there. Do donkey's shed? Frankie is an all out hair blowing machine and poor Jane does not have one little bit letting loose. Seems to me Candy may have mentioned that I would need to shave her come summer but my poor mucus in crusted brain cannot remember right now.

Today was filled with packing the horse trailer with totes from the basement and boxes I have been busy filling with the not day to day stuff. We plan on heading down Friday and spending two nights there. That's all I got for now folks.

Happy trails......

These are the days of our lives

Crud, I have been away way to long again. I do have good excuses and the first being that I had that damn dreaded flu! I had never had the flu before and I do not want it again.

My life is resembling a soap opera lately, but with me playing all the characters. You know the super mom who conquers everything, the sinister bitch who out maneuvers everyone she can, the victim who is forever drowning in self sorrow and finally the happy go lucky gal that takes it all in stride.

No I have not nipped on to much thera flu medicine. Let me explain.....


No surprise that yes I am the super mom juggling two small fries daily by myself and caring for the two steeds and the farm here. Throw in a bad case of the flu and man it becomes really difficult. I literally did not get out of bed for two days except to potty or feed my kids when necessary, I am so NOT that girl but the body demanded it. I am happy to tell you I am over the worst of the flu and all I have left are the ever present mucus blues. I think I could break the genius book of records for coughing the most times in an hour, hell in a minute.

In the midst of the sickness, we had a foster pet again.





This is "Blue" he is actually a kitten from the same litter as orphan "Annie" the kitten we found that fell through the barn floor last October. Yes, we still have Annie and are keeping her. Blue has been hanging around the horse barn for the last couple of months and we have tried to capture and tame him several times. He was WILD! Then this week he just decided to come up to the garage by the house where Annie lives and join the family. He even let us approach him and pet him eventually.
So, we have gotten him shots and neutered and a bath and he is on the rescue website and currently at the Kitty Condo in the local Petco for some exposure so hopefully he will be adopted.

I am happy to tell you we have a bonafide offer on the house and pray with me that it comes to fruition. I have been packing all unnecessary stuff for a month now and it is starting to look barren in here. Which brings me to the next topic.

As most of you know I have been trying to find a place in Kentucky to live and this week something came available that sounded right. So, against my poor ailing body's wishes I drove down to Georgetown, Ky and looked at a house on Thursday. The realtor thought it would be leased by Friday so I did it. The house was perfect!
Just what we needed. It is an older farm house, completely redone on an acre of land within the confines of Valkyre Stud
farm! A beautiful farm that raises thoroughbreds for race and sale. I did some fancy footwork convincing the realtor why I needed this house. I am happy to tell you that yesterday we signed the lease and it is to be!

The best part of this house is that it is a mere 5 minutes from BFF Susan's house!
That is where Frankie and Jane will be residing. I promise to show you some pictures real soon of the place. My favorite room so far is the kitchen, as I gaze out the bank of back windows I see mares and foals grazing on that Kentucky bluegrass. What a view!

Happy trails....

Still kicking

Hi all,

I know, I know, I have been away to long again....

I have been meaning to blog but just could not get there. I am taking the time to catch you up on things this morning before the day gets away again.

Let's see.....last post was my b day post. hmmmn what's been going on? Well, for my Birthday I rode Frankie out back which led to some pretty undesirable behavior from him when Jane started to bray. You see I put her in the stall this time and he could not see her from where I was riding. Every time she brayed he would answer and try to whirl toward the direction of the barn. This did not make me happy so I decided we would work even harder when he tried these antics. He actually tried a half rear and lunge forward trick. I wasn't to fazed by it just more agitated by the nonsense more than anything. We all survived and ended on a good note. My BFF
Susan sent me these lovely flowers





Amazingly they are still going strong today and adorn my kitchen center island.

I truly cannot remember what I did all last weekend .. sad huh? Well there is a reason for that which I will tell you about soon.

On Sunday, I called Tiffany and checked her status on moving.... there have been some issues with her new house and she informed me it was delayed for two weeks.
Yippee! Oh I know I shouldn't be happy about it but I am. You see I really wanted to go riding with her some more, so we devised a plan for Monday and I called some other friends in Ohio and invited them along. We arranged a babysitter for my two young ins and Tiffany's two sprouts and away we went.

Since Frankie did so well the last trip I decided to try saddle bags on him this trip. The plan was to ride to the small town of Story and have lunch at a quaint little Bed and Breakfast. There are hitching rails for the horses and it is really horse friendly. We met up a pre designated place with Terry and Julie and headed out to Brown Co State Park. It was the gals from Ohio first trip there. We arrived to find just a few trailers parked and proceeded to unload. Of course Frankie did not want to back out of the trailer, Ugh! So another training session on that and we reluctantly let him walk out forward again. Terry brought her three year old buckskin filly Jesse, and Julie brought her paint Scout. Yes, we did have a laugh at how Julie could be Tonto on Scout and I could be the lone ranger on Silver.
We discussed how challenging of riding we wanted to do as there are several ways to get to the town of Story. The girls opted for challenging, Tiffany warned them of my ...er, fondness of the challenge in trail riding. Actually, I was unsure how Frankie would handle the trail I was going to take. There are lots of uphill climbs and some pretty nasty trench/rocks to negotiate. There was nothing to worry about the horses all did a fabulous job and we did arrive at our destination. Only to find......... the B&B was closed! Ugh! we were hungry and really looking forward to a nice lunch.






Tiffany and Terry relaxing on a picnic table lamenting our loss of lunch.






Terry's filly Jesse







One tired little Frankie
Note the hanging head a rear leg cocked, he worked hard.

After a nice rest and water for the horses we saddled up and took the easy route back to camp. We of course had to have another round of backing out of the trailer lessons with Frankie which went well. I think the key is to have him so tired he cannot think about it. We stopped for our late lunch early dinner on the way home and called it a day.

Fun!!

Monday night my oldest awoke me in the wee morning hours to tell me he hurt all over and he had a fever of 102 degrees. Great....
He seemed better by Wed so we packed up and headed to Ky to scope out more houses and schools for the boys since it was their week of spring break. The youngest came down with the hurts and fever Thursday night and was delirious during the night.
A call to Tiffany to warn her and she informed me her littlest was suffering the same and she went to the doctor and he confirmed.... Influenza A. Oh joy! Now I have it and am aching and coughing and running the fever. Hence, I cannot remember what day it is less likey what happened last weekend. I will survive, just mad cause it is a beautiful weekend and I feel crappy. Oh well, now you know the rest of the story.

Happy trails...

The good and the sad

The good is it is my birthday today. I survived another year gone by.
It wasn't the greatest year or the worst just another piece of the puzzle.
That's how I view birthdays, another piece to the puzzle of your life that when complete should make an interesting thing to view.

Looking back through the years it is amazing the changing of ideals and hairstyles and clothes size, but one thing has stayed constant My love of horses. The breeds have changed and so has the riding styles but they are still my passion my life blood from day to day. I am so thankful that God created these beautiful creatures and that I am blessed to be able to have them in my life.


The sad news is the passing of in my opinion one of the greatest horseman in my time and maybe all time, Ray Hunt.







I had the privilege of meeting Ray a few times in my life and also taking a clinic with him some years ago. I was so hoping to do another but alas, it is not to happen now. I loved his philosophy on horses and his timing with them was amazing.
At least his works have been documented and I feel he truly left his mark in this world doing something he truly was passionate about.











God speed my fellow horseman! You will be missed.

Ta Dah.....

Wow!


Today is bigger than I thought!

First let me say this is my 200th post, guess that makes me a blabber mouth!

Second we have a winner!

Thank you all for playing the Birthday game with me. I know on your Birthday you usually get gifts not give, but hey , anyone who knows me knows I am a giver!

Do you want to know who won?


Of course you do!

A great gal who thought her first two choices were best but were already taken
so she chose another and guess what she was right!

MY BIRTHDAY IS FRIDAY THE 13TH !


No, I am not freaked out by this, I was actually born on Friday the 13th at 3:05 in the afternoon. I was 10lbs 2ounces and I was the sixth child and last in my family.
Guess they saved the best for last! Ha....


And our winner is Gecko our down under friend.

Be a sweet and tell me what size your wrist is and if you like any of my cuffs in particular on the website. If not I will custom make you one! I have your address
from the "Annie" trip.

For the rest of you clueless about "Annie" you will have to check out Gecko's blogs
to figure that out.

Now, I am going to respond to some comments from the last few posts.

Lets all get one thing straight here. Frankie is NOT white! He is a Perlino
and he has a white blaze on his face to further prove he is not white. Not a sore spot with me just more of a running joke here at home. Hubby says he does not like white horses and I keep telling him Frankie is not white!

I really ,really owe Mike Craig a whole lot of thanks for convincing me that this fella was the "one" for me and my family. If you go back and read earlier posts you will see I was uneasy about buying a young horse, not so much his color. So thank you Mike you were right and really do have a gift of matching people with horses.

He really isn't clean. Somehow those photos really make him look bright when in fact he is green and yellow and really smelly. I was thinking of bathing him today if it gets as warm as they say it is going to. If you look back at the trail riding post pictures you can actually see the manure stains on his butt that I cannot scrub off.

I truly am happy with him and see a long and healthy relationship for both of us ahead. Thanks for riding along.

Happy trails........

A tease but I'll take it

The weather she is teasing me, it has been in the 60's and supposed to be 70 again tomorrow then plummet back to the 40's. ugh! I know this happens every March, has my whole life even in sunny Fl the weather stunk in March. I happen to know because my B day falls this month any guesses which day? Hmnn. ... how bout a contest!
Great idea, I will award one of my cowgirl bracelets to the one who guesses correctly or comes the closest. No fair family or BFF Susan or Tiffany you guys know already. I will tell you it has not happened yet but pretty soon.

Today I rode the Frankster again, just out by my pond out back. It actually is the only spot I have to ride except for the empty fields but since they were in corn last year they are all stubby and gross for riding. He was the complete gent again and I tried some new stuff with him. I walked him over ground poles today, he tripped and was clumsy at first but got the hang of it with time. We also tried the rope gate today, we were not to successful with this. It wasn't that he was scared of it or anything he just doesn't know how to move his hindquarters on cue.
Well, that is my next project. We have been working on it on the ground now to implement it on his back. My trusty little riding instructor snapped some photos of me today. Not to bad for a five year old!







He loves to take pictures actually and does a better job than me sometimes!








I think I need to teach him about the zoom lens next.








All in all a good day on the Frankie and lots of stuff to work on.Can you see little Jane following us inside the fence? Hope to ride again tomorrow before the weather changes but might be raining, time will tell.

Happy trails....

Tales from the trails..

We did it! We went out and had our first bonafide trail ride today!

Let me just say Frankie was a rock star! Nothing fazed the boy, he just went right on like he has done this his whole life. I am lovin him more each day. I honestly could not have asked him for one thing better today. This was also a bittersweet day because it is probably the last time I trail ride with good friend Tiffany at Brown County. Tiffany and family are moving in just a few short weeks to Detroit area where her hubby landed a great job, can't blame them for hopping on it and going with the flow. Details....

Tiffany arrived at 8 am , we decided earlier to take her trailer since it was hooked up already and she lives just a mile from me. Her trailer is a nice new Keifer that is a two horse straight load with ramps in rear and a walk out side ramp. I must admit I was nervous to see what Frankie would do on a ramp given our last trailering experience. This is one area Frankie is not to experienced in, he has only been hauled three times before today. We dropped the rear ramp and to my surprise he walked right up it with no apprehension. We tied him in and started the 40 min drive out to Brown County. Upon arrival there was no one at the guard shack, Yea
that means we ride free today! Hey every little bit helps these days. There were a few trailers scattered about but it was pretty empty. We tried to unload Frankie out the back ramp. He started but he would freeze up and I swear we thought he would sit down more than once. We decided to unload him out the side ramp, he did this wonderfully. Frankie was nervous and did let out some really high pitched whinnies that sounded like he was a weanling. We did a quick grooming and saddled up we were headed out by 9:15.

Here are Frankie and Cisco getting to know one another








We decided we would try the easier of the two sides of the trails being that it was Frankie's first ride and it is less hilly and less rocky on the "A" side. We headed out on trail "A" and we were off. The first test was to cross the main road and head past the log shelter house. The only thing he looked at sideways was the speed limit sign but nothing more than a side glance. The trails were still leaf covered and a little mushy but not to bad. Frankie strolled along relaxed and alert but very mannerly. We crossed over a large culvert pipe and he did not even booger at it, then came the first water crossing. It was a small incline down to a small steam, I was surprised to see it was flowing. I must say he wasn't to sure about the mud preceding the stream but he went where I directed him with no problem. He was very curious to sniff and investigate the water but crossed with no issues.

Frankie's first water crossing













By this time I am proud as can be of this fella, nothing is fazing him.
I even turned him around and recrossed the stream without Cisco and he did it with no hesitation. Since he was doing so well we decided to take a smaller trail off into the woods that would be a little more challenging. We veered off on trail "1"
it is a 1.5 mile trail thru the valley and back up to trail "A". We did some log crossovers from snags that had fallen and again he gave it no thought and just kept on. We did climb some pretty steep hills and he was just as happy leading or following Cisco, although Cisco does walk much faster than him which resulted in this view alot today











We rode trail "A" for a while and then took trail "J" back down toward the camp. Trail "J" is a 3.2 mile trail that starts at the top of the ridge then runs back down to horse camp. Frankie was very careful picking his way down some slippery slopes covered in leaves, makes me thankful I pulled his shoes off last month.
We decided it was just to nice to quit riding so we thought we would try the "B" side a little. Things were going so nice I got even braver and had Frankie cross this concrete bridge to the other side









The bridge gave us no issues so we continued on toward trail "B" we took the middle of three ways to get up to "B" . The hill we climbed has an elevation of 604 feet, needless to say Frankie and Cisco were a little winded when we got up there. After a short rest to catch their breath we took a short ride on "B" and veered off to back down to camp about a 1 mile loop. We did encounter two men on horseback who were nice enough to take this picture of us.
















When we returned to the trailer we found lots of others had joined us in riding today although we only saw the one group of riders while we were out there. I decided to school Frankie on loading and unloading a little. I had him step up on the ramp with two feet then off again after a short while I had him loading and unloading down the ramp. YES! lots of progress in a day. We loaded up Cisco and were on our way. We agreed that the horses couldn't have been better and that it was the perfect day!

I sure will miss riding with miss Tiffany, she is a great gal to travel with and a joy to spend time with. Hopefully we can make a horse trip once a year together, that is the plan.

Hope you all are having stellar weekends like me!

Happy trails.....

All good intentions

I did have all good intentions of riding my dear Frankie yesterday. But.....
life got in the way as usual. By the time I got out there to give him some of my undivided attention it was plenty warm but also plenty windy. The wind was blowing about 30-35 miles per hour yesterday, so even the 55 degrees felt still chilly.

Here is what Frankie and Jane thought about it






These two were running around like crazies. Jane braying the whole time it was hysterical.

Along with the warmth also comes the mud. This is what my beautiful pearl colored boy looks like now.



















What? Why are you staring at me like that Mom??




Look at this kids, Frankie actually has a white blaze on his face that you can see.
Proving to all of these dang people around here who keep saying he is a white horse.




















So I did not ride but I did do lots of ground work with Frankie and we worked on moving our shoulder away from pressure and our hip as well. We worked on backing up and squaring up as well. Today I am hooking up the trailer and after I ride I am going to practice one step in and backing out of the trailer so we do not have a repeat of the last episode.

But the big news is...........

Tomorrow Frankie is going on his first trail ride! The weather is supposed to be in the 70's and I just can't wait! I am hauling him to Brown County State Park to day ride with some girl friends. Hopefully he will be a good boy and impress me on the trail. Anxious to see how he is in the woods. Stay tuned for the results!

Happy trails......

It happens......

This song by Sugarland probably describes my life best right about now.
Sorry for the absence I have been terribly busy, depressed, excited and now neutral.
Since the convention I have been swamped with Ranch horse doings and meetings and trying to get ready for our first show in May. I say "our" meaning the club not Frankie and I. Sad to say I have not been on him since I brought him home. The weather as of late has been cold, or cold wet or just plain gross. This week is shaping up nicely and I am riding today and the rest of the week come hell or high water.

The depressed part was of course the parting with my boy Tank. I want to let you all know I appreciate your kind words for me. I also want to let you know he is doing fabulous with Ms. Linda. She has ridden him bareback already and promises pictures for me to share with you soon. I know he is in a great place and I am feeling better about it every day.

The excited part was the thought of getting my judges card and a really cool job at the horse park. I felt pretty good about both of those, unfortunately I only got an apprentice judges card and the job at the horse park did not pan out. Sigh.......

I am OK with all of it. Must mean something bigger and better is going to come along. I did get a judging job for May here locally for an open show and am looking forward to that.

Well now you are caught up and I promise to not go away for so long next time!

Happy trails......