Some of you may be shocked to hear me say that I have a healthy fear/respect for horses that are under saddle. On the ground, I am an uber-confident Boss Mare...just ask anyone who knows me...lol!!! And though I have seen horrendous accidents involving horses and people on the ground, they did not leave a mark on my psyche like one particular accident under saddle did. 
Silly thing about this accident was that I did not witness the actual accident, but I did witness the aftermath, and that did some damage. Back when I was an invincible 17 year old, who rode horses with wild abandon, my mother and youngest sister were injured in a senseless accident that really didn't even have anything to do with the horse that they were on, and I think that is why it freaked me out so bad....it made me realize that even though the horse did nothing to hurt them, they got hurt anyway.
One minute your fine and the next minute your in critical care or dead. Could that happen to you while your walking down the street?? It could, but not likely.
Back to the accident....My mom went out on a lone trail ride, as she often did back then, and had my little sister (who was two at the time) placed in front of her in the saddle. She was riding her spooky but trusty mare, Jewel, when they went around a corner that they had been on millions of times, and found that some nasty blackberry vines had fallen down into the trail-right at their height.
They had ridden right into them, and they were scratching big gouges in my sisters cheek, and tangling into Jewel's mane. Jen (my little sister) started to panic and cry, and Jewel started to become agitated and wanted to move around (my mom had stopped her to try and get the thorns out of my sister). My mom made one of those quick, split second decisions, and decided that rather than stay on Jewel's back with Jen, she would grab Jen and slide off to the ground; thus saving them all from an imminent disaster. Or so she thought.....
What my mom hadn't banked on, was that the weight of my sister (she pulled her on top of her), would throw her landing off, and she landed on some medium sized rocks, without her hands to break her fall. Long story short, she landed on her side and her face, and she ended up with several broken ribs, a punctured lung, a huge laceration that ran from her temple to the middle of her cheek, and multiple facial bone fractures. She was in the hospital for days and had to undergo many surgeries to repair her face.She did her motherly duty though...Jen escaped with only scratches on her cheek from those darn blackberries. And during the whole thing, Jewel just stood there!
Immediately after the accident, My mom (well all of us!!) took a lot of flak for keeping Jewel. When people heard about what happened, they all thought that Jewel did it, and said that there was no way that my mom could have gotten hurt that bad from choosing to fall off...but she did. And that is what freaked me out on some subconscious level.
There is one more event (well not really an event, but a horse!)that made me realize how fragile we are, but that will have to wait until next time. It is also important to know that I did not truly become aware of my mortality until I had kidlets. Before them, I took a lot more chances with various horses that I will not do now.(Warning: For those of you who have read my comments on other blogs, the rest of this will be sort of be repetitious) I have always preferred steadfast, trustworthy, and loyal horses for my own personal mounts, and even back then, I refused to ride an unstable horse. I had/have seen to many people get hurt and there was/is no way that I was/is going to become one of them.
This being said, I like a horse that is all of the above things, and yet still maintains its own mind. I don't mind a little naughtiness, just as long as it doesn't become a chronic problem. I also like well trained horses that are responsive and know what I am asking of them. In my opinion, old or current show horses make some of the best trail horses, because they understand how to move off of your leg, and a horse that moves off of pressure is priceless on the trail...trust me, I know...lol!!!So enough about horses for now....I wanted to thank you all for your kind words about my blog slump!!! As I said in my comment to all of you, I was kind of hoping you would yell at me and tell me to "shut up, toughen up, and blog!!!" LOL!!!
I have also seen that some of you have passed on some awards to me, and I promise to get those up soon. I do not have any classes until next Thursday, so I should have plenty of time to relax...and to blog. Well, hope you have a great Superbowl Sunday! Me??? I am hitting the trails with Amber. See you soon!!
So...I was sitting here on the computer, needlessly searching for places to go and things to see, when I remembered all of YOU!!! That's right, you heard me. I know that a lot of you live in the PNW, and in BC (and there are others who have lived here, but have moved elsewhere!!) so I thought that I would ask you guys for recommendations.
... And, I was pleasantly surprised when my hubby mentioned that a dude ranch would be fun. He used to ride with me, but hasn't had a horse in years...maybe one day???? (PS-The horse in the picture below is not one that I know. He/she just popped up when I googled "dude ranch." Nice looking little pony, don't you think???)
So lets here it!!!! Where should we go????
Then there are phone calls to make, emails to answer, and favorite tv show premieres to watch (Lost is back on!!!). Needless to say, I have been getting to bed around midnight, and getting up around 6:00. Craziness, I tell you!!! I also know that many of you live like this all of the time, but I don't, and I don't like it!!! Then...last week and part of this week, I have had sick kidlets, and I am talking about vomiting, not snotty noses. Oh, and dentist appointments, and doctor appointments, and....I know...get a hold of myself, right???LOL!!!
At one point during the ride, Amber, who had on layers of clothing as well, decided to get off and walk a bit. She was hoping that it would warm her up, but it actually made her feet ache worse, because they were so cold. (If you look closely at Bo's ears(below), you can see that he was asking me why I didn't haul my fat a@# off of his back and walk...lol!!!!) 
You never realize just how many spiderwebs and cobwebs are floating around in the woods, until they are frozen, or until you are the first person to ride through a trail...lol!!! Sometimes we take dibs on who has to be first, and thus gets to be covered in webs and spiders.
On to part two of this mixed up post..... (or not so mixed up post, depending how you look at it!) I have a minor obsession with Mexican food, and I love, love, love ,pico de gallo. I have been buying freshly made pico de gallo by the tubful at the grocery store, but after watching my sister, Jen, (who also happens to be a sous chef) make her own the other day, I decided to do the same. 
So I chopped and I sliced, and I sliced and I chopped, and this was the end result.....
...And let me be the first to tell you that is is delicious!!! I had it for my snack, and for dinner!!! I love it so much that I just eat it by the spoonful...teeheehee!!! Is there such thing as eating too much pico de gallo??? I hope not!!! And eating it by the spoonful isn't bad for you right??? It's made out of vegetables...lol!!! (I am awfully giggly tonight, aren't I??) 
Okay...now I feel guilty that I didn't nominate anyone for the "Lemonade Stand Award!!" I have officially been guilted into passing it on (wink, wink!!). I think the reason that I always hesitate to pass awards/tags on, is that a lot of people don't accept them. It may be because they can be time consuming, or it may be that they just don't want to deal with awards/tags (that's not the reason that they blog), but either way, I respect their decision. That being said, I will pass this along to 10 blogs that I read on a regular basis (why does it have to be just 10??), and they can accept the award or politely decline it...no pressure okay??? 
Well that wasn't so bad now, was it??? LOL!!! All this talk of lemons and summer has got me thinking about another one of my favorite lemon beverages.....teeheehee!!! 
