Cowgirl goes to congress

I spent a glorious weekend at the Quarter Horse Congress!

Hubby and I escaped Friday morning and returned home on Sunday. BFF Susan was good enough to watch the little hell yuns for us, it was the first time away from them together.

Friday the weather was raining and cool but Saturday brought sunshine and pleasant temps. We did some window shopping on Friday and enjoyed a very delicious dinner out together before we returned to the show grounds to watch the freestyle reining competition. For those of you unfamiliar with freestyle reining, it is where the exhibitor creates their own pattern to their choice of music and they usually dress in costume as well. The contestants were very creative in the song choice and costumes. Several of them did patterns to the wizard of oz complete with flying monkeys! My favorite was a fella dressed in a fake belly that did his pattern to the song I'm to Sexy! It was hilarious.

Saturday it was time for serious shopping. Once again I had to do the dreaded boot shopping. I say dreaded because my feet have high insteps and it is not easy finding a boot to get into. After trying on close to 40 pair of boots I finally decided on a pair of Ariats. I mean to tell ya, the fact that they have purple tops did not faze me by this point.

I also invested in a turnout sheet for Frankie, although I have several in my tack trunk nothing would fit the boy. So....... I invested in another. We chose an emerald green one with Burgundy trim, midwieght and waterproof. Good thing as tonight it is supposed to rain and be a high of 49 tomorrow. Ugh!

I found some other little things like brushes and a cow hair coolie holder for my beverages. There was lots of bling there. So much that it hurt my eyes!! I did enjoy looking at the horse trailers and comparing interiors and such. My hub was in truck heaven! I did of course take a visit to puppy row although I loved the little Cairn terrier I would never buy a puppy!

Sunday we viewed some of the halter classes but it was like watching paint dry so we called it a day and headed home. Fun, Fun , Fun a very nice getaway!

Remember me??

Hi All! Has it really been this long since my last post?? Where does the time go? To say things have been busy around here would be an understatement. As I was catching up on reading blogs tonight I see that I am not the only one being swamped by life. I really don't even know where to begin with updating you on my crazy life.


Here's a sampling of what's been going on. My oldest joined the cub scouts which equated into me being roped into assistant den leader. Oh, a job I am relishing NOT! Since he is a Tiger cub he must have a partner do all the scouting stuff with him. Since hubby travels and cannot be counted on for jack #### guess who gets to do it. I spent a weekend camped in a tent surrounded by 300 6-12year old boys who made copious amounts of noise until all hours!! I hate sleeping in a tent! My body was screaming by Saturday afternoon, this is why I have a living quarter horse trailer!! We did manage some fun and he earned his totem and belt loops for archery and BB guns. Oh yeah, I said BB guns.....


I have managed to sneak in some rides on the Frank here and there, no trail riding but some schooling stuff. I hauled him to a county horse park 25 minutes from the farm. It has four arenas and an indoor. He remembered all his lessons from the spring although I have not had him in an arena since May. I am seriously thinking of sending Frankie back to Cory for the early part of the winter to finish his training. I really want to show next year and I don't have the place to school him and I really won't have the time to do it because.......


I took a full time job at United States Equestrian Federation (USEF)at the Kentucky Horse Park! Yep, it is official I started on Monday the 28th. I will be working in the Finance dept, my official title will be remittance processing representative (fancy name for accounts receivable). The benefits are great and it is 20 minutes from the house. It will be quite a change for all of us around here. I am still doing my horse show office business as well and had a show this past weekend in Indiana and another the end of the month in Ky.

I am a busy girl. Much more news but I will save some for later.

Happy trails.....

A few of my favorite books...

Not long ago my pony cousin Pony Girl did a post about books she had found while thrift shopping. It got me to thinking if I still had my copy of Black Beauty so I went looking. Indeed! I do have it, it is not as old as her copy but it is an oldie and still in good shape.






I have several other old horsey books as well. I am a junk collector ya know.
This one has a plain faded orange cover which makes me think it must have had a cover page at one time. It is titled Golden Lady and written by Eleanor Brown.
My copy is dated 1946. It has some lovely little illustrations throughout the book.




The opening page is written like this "In memory of my mother, a gallant woman"
Who couldn't read a book with an opening like that. Here is the title page.









And one of the illustrations of the book







But true to my cowgirl spirit is my all time favorite book, Smoky The Cow horse.
Ever read it? You should. It is true cowboy western tradition complete with a great ending. It is written by Will James and my copy is a beautiful aged blue and it great shape. My copy was published in 1926. Check this out.








Here are some of the illustrations in the book.









What are some of your favorite horse books?