Time to get a little sappy! :)

Ugh, it's Monday! Back to work! But the weekends are great! Get to spend time at home and with Terry (when he gets off work) and the animals. Also, I get to do one of my favorite things and that is give riding lessons! Madelyn is a relatively new student who shows great potential and is riding english! Never sat a horse except those pony ride types until Oct. when she started lessons. She is progressing great for not having a horse to practice on in between lessons! Will is being wonderful for her too! I think he is kind of enjoying this english riding. He gets to go faster and doesn't have to do his slow little jog! :)

I also have 2 new students who finally had their first lesson yesterday despite the cold temps and snow! They braved the weather and travelled all the way from Warsaw, Ohio, about an hour from us just to take a lesson. Katina is the Mom and Erin is the daughter. Katina has ridden before but is wanting to learn how to ride correctly and not just sit on the horses back! And Erin is all of 5 years old and LOVES horses, she also informed her Mom last week that she wants to jump!!! I think we can help her with that when she is ready! :) Both did really well at their first lesson even though it was cut a little short due to cold temps. But we are going to go for it again next weekend!

As some of you already know, my students are not just customers they are also friends who mean the world to me. I do my very best to keep them safe and to teach them everything that I can. If they do decide to show which most do, the ribbons are just icing on the cake, it's to road to get to that point that means the most. I think I get more nervous when one of them is in the ring than when I actually show myself! :)

I'm am really looking forward to continuing this year with those mentioned above plus Kaylee, Olivia, Abby, Jacque and Eva (when she can make it over here from Indiana!). We also will start having a few training horses arriving in the next couple of months! I am SOOOO excited to see Chip again in Feb. and to start working with him for his new owner, Lisa! Then Rachel is brining Dutch back to us in March and they will be going to Equine Affaire this year! And Eva will be bringing her girl Reba to us starting in April and she will be with us until the Buckeye Show in July! I think that will keep us pretty busy for a while! :) I am so thankful to be able to provide these type of services to such wonderful people! God has definately brought these wonderful people in to our lives and I am honored to be able to call each one, friend.

Back at it!

Well Will and I are back at it! Reining that is! ;) We had our first lesson of the year last night with Patrick and Will was wonderful! His Mom is a little rusty, but it's coming back quickly! Rode again tonight! Could not resist since we are having such great temps compared to last week! BRRRRR! I actually saw a 50 degrees on the truck thermometer today! I have a feeling we won't be seeing that again for a while! :)

Well back to Will....I did not have his sliding plates put on when he had his feet done last on purpose, so that is forces me to work on his turn arounds and his flying changes and his neck reining. The sliding stops are way too much fun!!!! So I opted for no plates so I wouldn't be tempted! (I know myself too well). I am really hoping to work really hard with him this year and show at a few reining shows and move up to an actual NRHA santioned class, Rookie Pro. His first outing will be at Green Horse and if that goes really well, I may take the plunge and do his next show at the Rookie Pro level, which means I have to get Will an NRHA license and pay my membership fees. :( But it will be worth it! We'll see if this is in God's plan for us this year! If it is, I know we will achieve these goals!

Too Cold!!!

Whew! -15 degrees this morning when I got in the truck (and that is actual temp, not wind chill). Thankfully the diesel started as I still do not have my car back! GRRRR!!!! They can't figure out what the problem is and this has been going on since mid November!!!!!

All horsies, doggies and kitties seem to be doing ok since they are all in the barn. House doggies are having a harder time of it though when they go out. Little Tess had to go so she ventured off the deck went potty then stood there and looked at me all the while her front paws off the ground like "I can't make it come get me!" of course you know I did! :) Poor little thing, her paws were cold and she was only out there a few minutes!

Our water pump in the barn is frozen, so we have to haul water from the house for 8 of the horses as Will and Yager are at the indoor (which does have working water!). Ugh! I mentioned before about moving south, but wow, I really wouldn't mind it now!!!!

Looking outside you wouldn't know it was so cold, as it is bright and sunny and looks beautiful! But just step outside and you freeze! I know the horses would LOVE to get out and stretch their legs as they have been in for 2 days, but it is just too cold! Maybe tomorrow....when we have a heat wave and hit in the low 20's! :)

First Ride on Yager!

Well it's official! I have FINALLY taken my first ride on Yager last night! I knew when I purchased him that he had only been ridden a handful of times and mainly in a western saddle and side pull with no bit. So getting him to the indoor for a couple of weeks was on my list of things to do, so that I could try him out and see just what he knows. He was not too thrilled about having a bridle with a bit on, especially an english with the tighter caveson! But he adapted well. Then comes the english saddle (a postage stamp compared to what he was used to). I did lunge him the day before with the saddle and last night with the saddle and bridle. Since he was pretty sane during the lunge session I decided it was time to go for it! Terry was there for safety purposes and held him while I mounted. Yager did not want to move at first, after figuring out he was not going to be totally stupid if I thumped his sides a little, he decided it was a good idea to move on when asked! His head was in my face the whole time (I'm figuring since he was not used to a bit) but he was responsive to turning right and left and to stopping (always a good thing!). We definately have a lot of work ahead of us, but he is so sweet and really wants to please. I dismounted last night and patted him and he immediately put his head on my chest and wanted his neck rubbed and ears scratched! I really LOVE my new horsey!

It's funny though, I worked Yager first then Terry was getting cold, so no time to work Will, but when I went in to feed Will he was a little standoffish! I think he was jealous! So I paid some extra attention to my Haffie boy too! He came around. He will get out tonight for a jaunt in the arena to stretch his legs since it will be too cold to ride anyone! BRRRRR! Should be able to start riding again this weekend! (Hopefully sooner if the weathermen are wrong! )

My gripe of the day!

Uhg! How I do hate driving in bad weather!!! Work is normally a 25-30 minute commute but today it was 1 hour! Too many drives of the past couple weeks have been like this, be it ice/rain mix or snow! Plus for this week, I'm having to trek over to the indoor where Will and Yager are now since the owner is on vacation and I am taking care of all the horses AM & PM! So I left home this morning at 7, went and fed, headed for work and did not get to work until 8:45.

Moving south is looking mighty nice about now! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the changes of season but I hate having to drive in all of this! If I didn't have to drive in it I would be just fine!Praise God that neither Terry nor I have had any issues and have always made it safely to our destinations, but I still don't have to like it! :(

Show Names for Yager

Ok, I have some new ideas for a show name for Yager! Thanks Barb for 2 of them!!!! (I did shorten them a little though). :)

Bring it On (self explanatory)
Time After Time (like...he will always jump his fences....time after time!) :)

And Terry's favorite: Thirty Days

Any addtional thoughts?

Long time no post!

Has been a LONG time since my last post. The Christmas season and the New Year have come and gone! Both were wonderful but busy times and very Blessed times! Actually got to sit down and relax a little on New Year's! :) Remember in my last post I said I was wanting a new big horse? Well he now stands in our barn! Yeah! His name is Yager (not too fond of it but he responds so I guess it will stay) but I am looking for a fancier show name for him! Any ideas?

Yager (see photo) is a 16 hand tall appy/tb cross! He is such a doll, but Terry and him are not seeing eye to eye! Boy does that remind me of Terry and my old TB, Lucky's relationship! :) Terry thinks I should name him Thirty Days (which I am actually considering) since he gave him 30 days to shape up or he was gone! :) Yeah right!

All the animals are great and trying to keep warm even though it has been not too bad for Ohio! I'll probably regret that statement! :)

Will and Yager move to an indoor arena this week. Will is going to be used for lessons and Yager is just there for a couple of weeks to see just how much he knows! I will start up reining lessons again with Patrick in the next couple weeks and hopefully are going to show some NRHA shows this year in the Green Horse and we are shooting for the Rookie Pro division! Keep you fingers crossed for us!

God has been so gracious to Terry and I with blessing us with a home, plenty of "kids" (the animals) to watch over, great friends, health and a wonderful church family! We are very blessed! It amazes me, how he always provides no matter what!

Hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!