Frisbee dog!

Chey got a new toy for Christmas from her Aunty and I think it is her new fave toy!

She looooves chasing it down and is even starting to try to catch it in the air, though she has yet to succeed at that.

She is hilarious to watch when she is bringing it back. Most of the time she has it flipped up over her face so I have to wonder how the heck she can see where she's going. It's great.

I love good entertainment for the puppy dog! Anything that keeps her from digging up my tulip bulbs!

A little late, but...

The boyfriend and I decided to more or less ignore V-day this year. It's amazing how much money you can save when you don't buy birthday, Christmas and v-day gifts for each other!

Even though I really, honestly would have been perfectly happy ignoring the whole thing, I am still a girl and I like to get flowers. Since v-day is pretty much the only time I get flowers from the boyfriend, and because of my addiction to macro shots, I did still request flowers for v-day. I couldn't help it. I've been dying for some flowers in the house to take pictures of and just haven't been able to justify buying them for myself.

So when I came home to this bouquet of flowers and a cute/cheesy card I had to smile. Partly because it was cute and I totally appreciated the thought, but mostly because it was a very pretty bouquet with lots of different, fun flowers and colors to take pictures of. I'm sure the boyfriend realized that's why I was so excited too.

I totally went to town taking pics of all the different flowers. I did some experimenting with different settings and lighting. I just plain had fun taking pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. The ones you see here are just a few of my faves.

A new toy

This year, because of our house, the boyfriend and I each ended up getting bigger tax refunds then we had been expecting. In our discussions of just what exactly we would do with that money we batted around ideas that ranged from saving every last penny of it, buying another horse, doing our arena or getting started on our barn and fencing to putting it towards house updating projects and all the other practical, but not all that fun things that are requiring our money and attention.

After much deliberation, we decided a practical, but fun use of the money was to put it towards tractor. It is fun because it's a big new toy, but also practical because with horses and raw property there are plenty of ways for it to make itself useful.

When we bought our house it came with almost 5 acres of mostly wooded land (see pic above). The whole perimeter of the property is fenced, but I wouldn't call it secure horse fencing by any stretch of the imagination. Even if it was at some point, it's old and posts are rotted and the only reason a lot of it is still standing is because it's being held up by the blackberry bushes that have taken it all over. I think the whole length of the perimeter is fenced with barbed wire. Then there is the not-horse-friendly, big square field fencing on part of it. Then there is the t-posts with two rows of 3 foot mesh fencing stacked for a 6 foot fence, held up by tposts for part of it. It's a bit ghetto, to say the least. Actually, it makes me laugh looking at it. It's just silly.

The property was mostly wooded when we got it but we changed that rather quickly and rather in a panic last summer. Since that initial clearing we haven't done a whole lot with it. We have an area cleared and mostly graded for our arena (see pic above), but it needs some cleaning up. The pasture needs lots of grading and we've decided there are a few more trees we would like to take out and lots of brush to clean up.

The pic above is how our property looks right now. If we can get the right implements for the tractor, I think we can make quick work of clearing fence lines and sinking fence posts. We did get the box scraper which is great for grading, so hopefully we can get the pastures cleaned up and seeded soon. I'm also hoping we can get the ground in the "arena" ready so we can bring in some sand soon. I'm excited because the tractor will help us turn the mess above into a picture perfect horse property. Or something. We've certainly got our work cut out for us, but I'm excited to see it all come together and hopefully that will happen much faster now!

A life without horses...

Fugs brought up an interesting topic the other day on her blog. It got me thinking about what I would do and buy with all of the spare time and money not having horses in my life would free up. Wow. They are expensive, high maintenance little buggers!

I started imagining the house we could be in if we didn't have to have the land, barn, arena, pasture, fencing, etc. for horses. Wow. The car I could drive if I didn't have to have my big truck and horse trailer. Wow. The clothes and shoes I could indulge in with the money I now spend on shoes, blankets and tack for the horses. W-O-W! The travelling I could do and vacations I could take with all the money I spend on hauling my horses to and from shows and entry fees, stall fees, arena fees, etc. Amazing.

I thought about all the crafty projects I could do if I didn't have drill practice every week. I thought about all the home improvements I could make if I didn't have horse shows that took up whole weekends. All the books I could read and pictures I could take if I didn't have horses to ride, feed and clean up after all the time. All the travelling, camping and spontaneous road trips we could do if we didn't have to worry about who would feed all the animals while we were gone. And the extra time that I would save just on my commute because I wouldn't have to live out in the boonies!

But then I considered what I'd be missing and all that I'd have to compensate for. First off there is the bill for my therapist that I would have to have. Horses are the best therapy I know of and it would take a whole lot of hours on the couch with a mighty good therapist to make up for that. Then there is the gym membership and/or exercise equipment I'd have to have because horses are my main source of physical activity. Then there is the question of what hobby I might pick up instead. I don't think I could spend that much time on crafts. Possibly quads/dirt bikes, but I'm not sure I could really get hooked on them like I am on horses. I suppose I could pick a sport, but the only one I've ever really enjoyed is volleyball and apparently 5'2" isn't an ideal height for that. I just can't come up with anything that could even come close to filling the void.

Then there is everything that horses have taught and continue to teach me. That is just priceless. There is no way to compensate for that. None. They have taught me to be responsible for my own actions, the way no one and nothing else could. To do what I can to make things work and to find different ways to accomplish something if it's not working the first way. To pay attention to details or slight changes, such as a limp or change in condition. To be considerate of others feelings. To be responsible for another living creature and not take that responsibility lightly. How to be a graceful winner and loser (many more lessons on gracefully losing!) Patience. Kindness. Gentleness. Firmness. Fair discipline. Bravery. Humbleness. Humility. That food is a highlight of any day. That you can earn a friend for life if you know the right place to scratch. That you can scar a good friend with just a moment of losing your temper. I could go on and on.

Bottom line is growing up with horses has made me who I am today and I like me. I would not trade that for all the Jimmy Choo's, Gucci, Prada, trips to France, spare time or Mercedes in the world. Mind you this was just me day dreaming. I'm not saying I could actually, really afford trips to France, Jimmy Choo's, Gucci, etc. if I didn't have horses. It's all hypothetically speaking.

Besides all that, I would not have met the boyfriend if neither of us had horses in our lives. That would be a sad, sad thing!

Number Two!

I feel the need to gloat a little bit. I'm sure it'll come back to bite me in the arse eventually, but right now I'm really excited because I got ride number two on Mister last night!

Obviously it isn't his second ride ever and it's not even my second ride on him ever, but since I want to more or less re-start him and see what happens, I'm counting it as ride number two.

It was a really great ride. Nothing particularly special, but I feel like it was a bit of a break thru for us. I'm feeling more confident on him and I think he is respecting me a bit more. I felt like he was really trying to learn last night. He was giving to the bit more, though he's still a massive head tosser with the tiniest bit of pressure, and he was starting to bend around my leg a little bit. It seemed like he was almost understanding me trying to pick up his shoulder too, though that could just be my imagination.

He was feeling pretty good yesterday (translation: he was being a total nut) so I lunged for quite a while before I got on and he still did a couple little cow kicks, but instead of having heart failure and totally freezing up when he did that I just disciplined him and got on with the ride. I even loped him after the cow kicks. Wohoo!

I'm still debating whether Mister is really, super smart or really dumb and very lucky. I really can't tell and I'm not sure which one to hope for either. He sure is a pain in the rear, but he's growing on me. I think I kinda like him.

Bummer!

Well, we didn't continue our deja vu with sorting, but we still did alright. Well, the boyfriend did. Which makes twice in one weekend that he's beat me now. He came in 2nd with 9 cows, and 3rd with 7 cows. He and Sugar were on fire this weekend! They did really well.

I did better then last time, I got 6 cows twice, but it wasn't good enough to win this time. Oh well, still improved. And my first run with the boyfriend that got 6 cows did have us leading it for a little while.

All in all it was a fun day and I am learning and getting better. For only my second time ever sorting I think I'm doing pretty good. I also feel like a couple things clicked with me this time. Like how sitting in the gate you can just tip your horses head a little bit and peel a couple unwanted cows off that are coming with the right cow. That was kinda fun! Midori did pretty well, I think she's enjoying it too.

Deju vu...sorta

Not to brag or anything (because you know I would never do anything like that), but for the second show in a row, the boyfriend and I came home with 1st and 2nd place in the beginning reining class. We were pretty darn surprised! Not only because this time there wasn't snow and ice on the ground keeping a lot of people home so we actually had a class of 9 people, but also because the 1st place isn't mine, it's the boyfriend's. It's the first time he's ever beat me.

Honestly, I was pretty darn proud of him! I'm not just saying that to sound like a gracious loser either. He did really good! He had a really good pattern and deserved it. I am really happy for him! I watched him from the in gate and when he finished I was hooting and hollering at him, totally embarrassed him. hehe He got his lead changes, he had nice circles, he had a good stop and back, the whole thing was a vast improvement over some of their other patterns. Especially considering he hadn't ridden Sugar at all since the last show, 4 weeks ago. And he was a little tipsy.

He wasn't even going to come to the show since he hadn't ridden at all, but I dared him to do it with some whiskey in him, mostly so he'd just relax and not fight with his horse, and he won't ever turn down a dare that involves whiskey. :-) So he had whiskey for breakfast and was all relaxed when he went in. Probably started a bad trend there, but it was still really funny that he won.

I will say that we were both pretty shocked when we heard his name for 1st place though. We were walking up to the office when they announced the top 3 placings. They said my name for 2nd and I was happy about that, but certainly would have liked 1st. I felt like I had a really good pattern, but I was first to go in the class so I wasn't holding my breath. Then they sort of paused and said 1st place, paused again and said the boyfriends name. We both looked at eachother and went, huh?!? No way! Then I slugged him in the shoulder and said "you beat me! I can't believe you beat me!" We got into the office and asked the lady if we had really just heard that right and she grinned really big.

So we got our ribbons, our jackpots and the boyfriend got to pick out his crystal trophy. There were champagne flutes, little bowls, candle stick holders and bud vases, the usual assortment of little crystal things and then there was a whiskey bottle. Nothing special, certainly not expensive, but it was a whiskey bottle so the boyfriend grabbed that, saying it was just too appropriate. Then the whole rest of the day he just kept saying, I can't believe I won! hehe It was great!

Since it was such a big class and the people that were at the top of the standings for the series weren't there again, we might actually be leading the standings now. Or atleast close to it. I need to go check that out today. Who'da thunk?!?

So off to sorting this afternoon. Wish us luck!