Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Christmas is DONE!

Well, we survived christmas...the weekend was long and too short at the same time.

My thoughts were with the Cummings family as Kelzon has joined horse heaven. Shyla impressed me with her maturity in the difficult situation that it was. And I was glad I was there to offer what little support I was able to.

As far as Christmas joy at our house - it's hard not to have any with a six year old present! When I got back from my now 11th trip to Wisconsin Dells to pick up Bo on early Christmas morning (only 5 more to go!) - Kara was anxiously awaiting us to open gifts. Though Santa was generous - there were not as many gifts under the tree as in some years. Santa has tightened his belt and refuses to charge Christmas any more to the credit card!

Kara stated last night before bed that she had a great Christmas and Bo seems very pleased with his gifts - so what more is needed?! Bo was happy to get an MP3 player, and once I figured the damn thing out, pretty much had that stuck in his ear the rest of the day. Also most of the family has figured out that he loves golf - so Bo has lots and lots of golf balls for Shadow to fetch.

Randy & I had agreed to not exchange presents....though he really didn't keep his end of the deal, taking the kids shopping on Saturday and getting me a few things...which was sweet, but now decidedly lop sided on the gift exchange meter. So, I have a gift card to TSC - so he might have a few new jeans and socks! So romantic....lol...

Monday, December 11, 2006

Killer Rabbits

"Aunt" Shelley gave Kara a rabbit for her birthday. When the rabbit - who is now named Hopscotch - came to reside at our home, he was a loving and friendly bunny.

I went to pick up our sweet rabbit, and risked having both wrists slashed with the the sharp knives coming from those thrashing back legs. Who knew that rabbits can turn into superman in a blink of an eye? Me, who usually has no trouble controlling a 1,000 lb horse had all I could do to hold on onto a stinking rabbit!!!!! What's wrong with the scenario? I will have to sign up for bunny lessons from the Harvey's....sigh.... I did get Hopscotchs home clean - so will have to find out a strategy for next time and take some lessons...ha ha...

Also had Charisma out this weekend - she is slowly settling into her new home. There were a few days of worry that I had bought a physcho horse, but I think she's going to be ok. I had her in the cross ties, cleaned all 4 hooves, saddled and lunged her (there was some bucking but nothing unexpected with the warm day), and left her tied for an hour at the round pen., and all was good.

My sister Jena was out again yesterday and took Sammy out for another trail ride. I think this is going to be good as Jena really can't afford to own a horse, and Sammy really can use getting out of the arena and trail ride...so maybe this will work out for both of us.....though I did holler at her about letting my good lead rope drag on the ground.....that big sister thing just snuck out....he he..... Sometimes I don't think I'll grow out of that.

Many of the boarders were out this weekend enjoying the weather. It was nice seeing everyone out enjoying there horses.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Busy At Work

yesterday, I was busy at work, watching the live feed for the Paint Vegas Show. They were running the Open Gamblers Choice Trail. I tell ya - it was a hoot. They were running a fairly tough course as a timed event. I think they had 3 minutes (hard to tell as I have volume turned down, I was "working") and they assigned each obstacle points - and I think they could do each obstacle 2 times. It was really fun to watch - some of those trainers had a hell of a handle on their horses thats for sure. It was like watching a fast action trail class. I could get into that!

Kara brought home songs to practice for their Kindgarten christmas ditty. I thought I'd share the 12 days of Christmas - the puppy/dog version.... She's adorable singing - but I keep screwing up the song with the original version...ha ha...

Christmas is only 16 days away....scary.... we are putting up the tree and decorations this weekend. As we go thru town on our way home from school - Kara comentates on ALL the houses decorated with lights, and compares it to our boring unlighted residence (cuz Mom's the grinch).....soooo bending to the pressure.......course knowing myself, and if I have to hang lights on the house to appease my spoiled 6 year old, then I'll be hanging lights around the barn. Ha! Of course Randy's idea was to hang lights and tinsel all along the new fence around the drive... Course he doesn't open the electric bill either!

I'm going riding this weekend....even if its bareback around the round pen...I haven't rode in weeks and weeks....

I talked to a Paul Huettl last night about taking lessons for myself... he sounds fun...will have to go try him out.... Also, am on the list to go to the Mark Shaffer clinic and the Ed Wright barrel clinic this summer..... I better start putting paper in my coin jar to help pay for all my wants...hehe....

Thursday, December 07, 2006

I think I like the NBHA photo best - what do you think?


It's been a while................

Ok, I was re-introduced to the "blog" way of life recently....after reading the help menu's - I found my blog page again.... and realized it was over a YEAR ago since my last post....wow...time flys.

In the past year, the farm has really grown - there are now 16 boarding horses here...with 6 horses arriving October 1st. The tack room has shrunk incredibly! We are looking at ways to organize, and will probably build more tack lockers as time allows. I heartily welcome the new owners & horses to our busy lives, and hope they enjoy their horses as much as I do.

It was a sad decision to sell Nemo this fall, especially with all the special time working on his injury all summer. I hope that he has a good caring home. With the sales, I found ourselves down to ownly 2 horses - Gus & Sammy - who at this time, feel they won't ever be sold. We were short a horse for Randy, which as I ususally have no specific reason to search for horses for sale, led me on a frantic (well any excuse will work), search for the right horse on a very limited budget.

Well, to be proud of me, I didn't impulse buy - and didn't buy the first critter I saw... we did settle for a younger horse do to our financial restrictions. We brought Charisma home this past Saturday. We bought her from Chris Corrus in Richfield, WI (yes, actually bought a horse that was residing in Wisconsin) - Chris was the breeder - owning the mare and the stallion. Charisma had never been in a horse trailer before Saturday and loaded like she'd done it a million times. She was very good to unload, though she wasn't all too sure about the landing.. Charisma is having some difficulty settling in, and is very upset about being stalled at night. I'm hoping she works through this, as a future show horse, she will need to learn to be inside more, and the patience of being tied to a trailer for hours.

I have a stall reserved at Kari's (who has an indoor) for February and Charisma will be going to work, and hopefully we will see what's under the hood, so to speak.

I suppose I should go to work - as I'm already at work, and should be doing something more productive....ha ha...

until next time - and lets hope not more than a year from now.