Our New Addiction

This year on our great new showing adventures we have decided to give reined cow horse a try.

Well, the boyfriend decided he wanted to do the reined cow horse shows, mostly so he could do something and not compete against me. I decided that if we were going to be spending gas money to haul all the way there and for hotels and stuff anyways, I would rather just bring my horse along, pay a bit of extra money and have myself some fun with it too!

And boy howdy is it FUN!!! The boyfriend is going down the fence, having done his first fence run ever in his life exactly two weeks before the first show. I figured since he had wanted to get away from competing with me I would just stick to the boxing classes this year, see how that went.

I guess I should give a little background on what cow horse actually is. There are three parts to it:

1. Herd work - basically cutting, taking a single cow out of the herd and keeping it out of the herd.

2. Dry work - basically a reining pattern, though cow horse patterns are condensed a bit.

3. Cow work - which also has 3 parts, boxing - keeping the cow on the end of the arena to show you can control it, going down the fence - pushing the cow down the long side of the arena and turning it at least once each direction, and then circling the cow - turning the cow at least 360 degrees each direction.

In my boxing class I only do the boxing part, not the fence run or circling. The cow work can get pretty crazy. I've done lots of boxing at shows and practice, so I've got that down. The rest of the work is often done at a full on gallop, balls to the wall, down the fence, inches from the cow who is (in theory) on the fence, with a quick dive around the front of the cow into the fence to get it stopped and turned. Then you have to launch back out to the side of the cow, keep it on the wall and run past it again for another turn.

Can you imagine what an adrenaline rush that is? Sha! Just a bit of adrenaline!

And then you get to circle! It's very exciting to watch and quite the rush to ride. I have done it a few times at clinics (read about that here and here) and it is just a blast! I'm itching to go down the fence, can you tell?

Anyways, the whole weekend was pretty darn fun. The shows are amazingly laid back, every one is super duper friendly and helpful and it's just darn good times. We had our second show of the season this past weekend and my last run, late Sunday night, was just a kick in the pants. I have no clue why, Midori was being a bit of a spooky dink, but I was laughing so hard at my silly horse that by the time I did my last stop on the dry work I paused and went...huh...I sure hope that was the pattern! I hadn't even really thought about it. lol

The boyfriend was nice enough to video it, even though he got distracted a couple of times and forgot to move the camera. I just have to post it because I had so much fun on it. We nailed our flying lead changes. And we even got some pretty nice stops in! For us. Remember, Midori was pretty much a drill pony up until about 8 months ago. I think our run is pretty impressive for lessons and one month of training! We've come a long, long ways! Still have a loooooong ways to go, but we're making progress so I can't complain!

Please note the scary, horse eating monster behind the gate that she is spooking at. You can see it when we walk in, the yellow thing poking up over the tarp. It was pouring rain and the cow guys were in full rain gear and hiding by the gate trying to stay out of the weather when they could. Apparently they were scaring a lot of the horses. Midori decided she wanted nothing to do with that whole end of the arena and I had to push pretty hard to get her down there the whole pattern and we bounced around a bit, but I guess that was probably part of why I had so much fun. I do love a good challenge with her!

Also, please note the nice shot of her fabulous ass after we finish our dry work and walk over to get our cow. Midori has a great ass, I've always loved it!

Our dry work score was a 68 and our cow work was a 70, total 138. Not fabulous scores in the grand scheme of things, but I was thrilled with them.

Goodbye Old Friend

I need to say another goodbye. This one to a very good old friend of mine...my old horse trailer.

I had this trailer for almost 6 years. It treated me pretty good, always got me where I needed to go and put up with a lot of crap. heh crap...get it?

Anyways, it was the first trailer I ever hauled, my first experience hauling a horse, my first big adult purchase. I have so many great memories with this trailer and before I said good bye to it I had to document all of it's...ummm..."character". Each bump and bruise, dent and scratch, a different memory.

Like this one...

A nice big ol' dent right on the nose. It happened the first time I tried to park it in my soft dirt, 90 degrees off of a narrow driveway parking spot after I got my trailer brakes hooked up. I wasn't used to having trailer brakes and didn't realize that they would lock up very easily on the soft dirt. I jack knifed it. Oops! The boyfriend had installed the brake box for me, so it's kind of a sweet memory. The first truck improvement of our relationship.

Then there are these chew marks...

The first time I pulled in to the boyfriend's mom's pasture to turn my trailer around after one of our first rides together and one of her other horses decided to visit the horses in the trailer and chewed on it. Kinda pissed me off at the time, it was one of the first scratches in my trailer, but I laugh about it now. Just adds character.

Then there was the front wall...

Oh, that darn front wall. As you can tell, many a horse fought with that wall. No clue what the issue was but my Midori was the only horse that EVER hauled quietly against that wall. I had a few horses come out bruised and bloody from fighting with that wall. It was annoying.

And this divider...

Oh the divider! Had a few horses get stuck in the front stall when the middle horse leaned on this divider and it got stuck closed. That was always fun. And then there was my friend's horse who decided to get stuck up on it. That's right...Up. On. It. That was really good times.

Then there was the branch that fell on it during a wind storm and took out all of these lights...

And the fender that Sugar loved to chew on any time we left her tied for any length of time...

And Sugar's tie spot that she would immediately chew on when she was unloaded...

And the kick marks from my nice little mare any time a horse was loaded in behind her. Made it an interesting game since she was the only one that would haul quietly up front.

And the little tack room that held an amazing amount of crap in a reasonably organized fashion...

Though it may not sound like it, it really was a good little trailer for me for a long, long time. So many good memories with it...trail rides, a trip to the ocean, drill practices and meets, good times with friends and many, many opportunities that I wouldn't have had without it. It was a great little trailer!

But something tells me I'm not going to miss it too much...

Oh ya! Hello, new Logan!

Howdy!

Oh my goodness, it's been entirely too long since I blogged last! So many blog-worthy things have happened in the last month and a half, but I just have not had the time or the motivation to blog about any of them. Very sad! I'll get caught up on all of it one of these days. I hope!

One of the more note worthy things that has happened was this impulse buy...

We have talked about getting another dog off and on for a while, but never really pursued it. Then one day we were just finishing up a bunch of errands and on our way home we just happened to pass a "Puppies for sale" sign. The boyfriend saw it, said the puppies looked pretty cute and suggested we go look. I kept right on driving. For a little bit. I did eventually turn around. After all, what does just looking hurt? lol

Obviously, the "just looking" didn't work out so well. And we came home with this little guy...

Born January 1st

Border Collie and Australian Cattle Dog (Heeler) mix

Absolutely freaking adorable

We have finally decided on the name Cletus for him. His full name is Cletus D. Pooper, but don't tell the boyfriend that. He hates that I all him Pooper. And the D stands for Dude, my other nickname for him.

The parents weren't onsite, but we were told that both mom and dad were small-ish for their breeds. We figured he'd probably be about Cheyanne's height, but probably a little bulkier. But do you see the size of his legs and paws? I'm having my doubts on that!

I finally got inspired to get my camera out today and got all of these pics of him. He was quite the sport, posing pretty for the camera! :-)

I just love his eyes. When we got him they were this really cool almost purpleish gray. Now they are a really rich chocolate brown.

And he has the cutest little bum!

And I wish so, so much that the darn wheel barrow wasn't in the background of this shot! I love him peeking out from behind the tree, but that blue kinda ruins it. Bummer!

Hope you all are having a wonderful spring!

Another burning question...Shoes!

Since I've actually been sticking to a routine of cardio and strength training workouts for a couple weeks now, and have every intention of continuing that routine, I have decided that I desperately need new shoes. The shoes I have now are probably a good 8 or 10 years old. Not that they've been used much on those years, but they have seen better days and my feet are sore after running in them. They don't provide much support for my fairly high arch and the last time I ran I felt the beginnings of blisters on my big toes. Not so much fun!

Plus, I'm always looking for excuses to buy new shoes. :-)

The thing is...I have absolutely no clue where to start. I want something comfy and am willing to spend some dough for a real quality shoe. But what shoes are quality? My current shoes are Asics, which did treat me pretty good for a while. I know Nikes and Adidas can get expensive, but are they still quality? Is there some other brand that you love and would highly recommend? A certain style or feature I should look for? Something you hate and think I should avoid like the plague?

While I am mostly concerned with the comfort and functionality of the shoe, I can't hate the color or style either. Since I'm pretty darn picky I have a hard time finding the right style/color/comfort/durability/functionality combo.

I got some pretty good input on the last "burning question" about mascara, so I thought I'd pick your brains some more and see what we come up with.

What gets you going?

Another burning question...What motivates you to get going (and keep going) on your fitness goals?

I've tried here and there to get in better shape in the past few years, but have just never found the proper motivation/reward system. I'm not in bad shape, which is probably part of my lack of dedication to the issue, but I know I could be in better shape. I'm not over weight, but my strength and stamina are severely lacking. As is brought to my attention at every lesson I take with my horse. My trainer makes fun of me, big time. And I don't blame her one little bit. I'd make fun of me too, probably have made fun of people doing similar pathetic kicks in the past. I know I'm pathetic, I just don't have the strength in my legs to do much about it! And usually run out of breath trying.

Despite my weaknesses, Midori was still coming along in leaps and bounds. Her spins were getting more correct, we had a decently reliable flying lead change, her stops were getting better, we had switched to a bridle and were doing really well one handed. I was very pleased!

I was still considering getting a new horse though because Midori just wasn't where she needed to be so I could go play with the big kids this year. After some considering the situation and talking to my trainer about my options and Midori's potential, I decided that putting her in training for a month was my best option. She has potential and the trainer was confident that she could at least get her to a point that I could be competitive at the entry level, which is what I planned to do anyways. So off to training Midori went.

But that still left the issue of my being a weanie. I certainly didn't want to waste that money on training because I couldn't kick and I could definitely see Midori flipping me the hoof after her experiences with the trainer, who has about 10 inches and probably 60 pounds on me. Not to mention riding horses all day 6 days a week. So I decided to put myself "in training" as well. But I knew I needed to figure out some sort of reward/motivation and way of tracking my workouts so I could see what I was accomplishing.

This is what I came up with...

Gold stars. And ya know what? It's working! My goal is a minimum of 3 gold stars a week, totaling 12 for the month of February. So far I'm doing pretty darn good.

It is so satisfying and fun (in a totally pathetic, easily amused kinda way) to get done with my workout and go stick a star on the calendar. The calendar is in the kitchen so I see it often and it's a really good feeling to walk by and see lots of gold stars...

Yes, that is a Twilight calendar. Surprised? I didn't think so.

Anywho, at the end of the month if I stick to it and reach my goal I plan to reward myself with...something. I haven't quite decided what yet, but I'm leaning towards a mini shopping spree. I do love me some new clothes!

Besides the gold stars and looming shopping spree, the best reward that is surprising me at just two weeks in, is a visible improvement in the muscle tone of my legs. Definitely helps the motivation factor! And my stamina at my lessons. My trainer didn't even tease me at my last lesson! I even got my horse to grunt a time or two when I kicked her after she was naughty. Wohoo!

I think I'm liking this gold star thing! Hopefully I can stick with it for a while!

What gets you motivated? Do you post SI swimsuit models on the fridge and treadmill? Hang the bikini that you WILL get into this year where you see it all the time? Do you just have super duper self control and can stay motivated without little tricks?

A Burning Question

I have a question for you ladies out there. And I suppose guys too, I don't want to discriminate, but probably (hopefully?) mostly ladies.

I have recently decided that I need to explore the realm of mascara a bit. I have no clue what brought it on as I've been a Maybelline Full N' Soft girl for years and I'm certainly not dissatisfied with it.

I think I just feel the need to make sure that there isn't anything better out there.

In doing some research on the subject I noticed something. Have you really looked at the price of makeup lately? $7-$12 for mascara at the drugstore? Wow. I would really like to know what exactly costs that much. I suppose someone needs to pay Drew Barrymore and Queen Latifah.

Anyways, where was I...oh yes, so once I got over the prices, I started looking around at the different mascaras. Full n' Soft, Long n' Lush, Volume Express, Volume Shocking, Voluminous, Lashblast, Lash Discovery, Great Lash, Define-A-Lash, Lash Out...wow. Where to even start?!

There are the different brush styles...maybe I'd go that direction. This is the Full N' Soft brush that I've been using.

It's great. I've always thought it was the way to go. I have no idea why though. So I picked a different type of brush. Something more like this...

Wow! HUGE difference! I think the mascara was Volume Express (also by Maybelline). My lashes are longer and thicker, for sure. Only problem is, unless I carefully brush and separate them, they look a little like this...

Yikes! I only wear a smudged/smokey look charcoal eye liner with Very Black mascara, no eye shadow, so if I have tarantula eyelashes, it stands out a bit.

So I like the longer and thicker eye lashes part, but not having to be so careful and take the time to brush it. I have to have waterproof mascara.

So my burning question to all of you is...what mascara do you use? Do you have a tried and true? Something you hated? Suggestions on brushes to look for? Any tips or tricks? Anything at all?

Sunday Stills Challenge - Moods and Emotions

Well howdy strangers! Long time no see! I have a confession to make...I haven't even picked up my camera in months. Months! I'm not sure exactly why, but I didn't even realize how long it had been since I really took some pictures until I picked up my camera Friday night with this SSC in mind. It felt weird in my hand and that made me very sad.

But I'm back! And hoping it's a regularly back thang, not hit and miss. I really want to challenge myself to take better pictures and learn more about my camera this year.

On to the Sunday Stills Challenge this week, which is Moods and Emotions. "This challenge is for you to get a shot that enables a response in the person who views your pic not one that is your personal emotion. For example if I see a pic of a tranqual stream or a sunrise I feel mellow, If I see a pic of a doggie smiles or a horse doing his rolling in dirt thing It makes me smile, you get the idea."

This is definitely a challenge, but I know my pets always evoke some sort of emotion in me (good and bad, lol) and May Belle (aka: Chunk, Fatty, Tubby, Chubs...she's a little....um...rotund) was a happy and willing subject for me. Each of these pictures makes me feel a little different, what do they do for you?

Chunk stretching out of her little ball to glare at me and the camera.

Chunk on her back. You might think she's all sprawled out sleeping, but no...the dog is on the ground just out of the frame and she's teasing her.

Bath time!

*YAWN*

And here we have poor, pathetic Cheyanne cuddling with her substitute kitty, the hedgehog, because the kitties are playing outside and she is stuck in the house. If that doesn't make you stick out your lower lip and feel bad for her, I don't know what will. :-)

That's all for this week! Hope to see you all again next week!