Tagged and Other Stuff!

So I have a couple of things on today's agenda today that I have been meaning to post about all week. (Sheesh...I am starting to sound like a professor...lol!!!)

First...I wanted to post a picture of Bo that Lisa over at the Laughing Orca Ranch drew and sent out to me, along with several other goodies, for my prize that I won for winning a contest on her blog. I should admit here, that I was not the only winner...her cute little chickens "pecked" my name out of a bowl of winners. How cute is that???? And how sweet of Lisa to draw this great likeness of Bo Bo, a horse that she has never even seen? Thanks again, Lisa!!!Second...While I am on the subject of Lisa, I need to do my book tag that she tagged me with earlier this week. Here are the rules: 1) Grab the book that is nearest to where you are sitting. Do NOT grab the coolest book, your favorite book, or an intellectual book...just the closest book! 2) Open it to page 56. 3) Find the fifth sentence. 4) Post the text of the next two to five sentences. 5) Tag five people to do the same. I kind of cheated before I played this tag, in that I removed all of my textbooks from my desk, so I would have to grab an actual "book" book! Sorry!!! So I closed my eyes and randomly reached for a book, and here is what I found: Ethan Frome, a tragic love story by Edith Wharton, that takes place in the 1800's. It also happens to be one of my favorite stories, and it follows the lines of the forbidden love affair theme, such as Bridges of Madison County, The Horse Whisperer, and The English Patient...all excellent movies in my opinion! Here is an excerpt from page 56:

"It was in the early morning stillness, when his muscles were swinging to their familiar task and his lungs expanding with long draughts of mountain air, that Ethan did his clearest thinking. He and Zeena (his wife) had not exchanged a word after the door of their room had closed on them. She had measured out some drops from a medicine bottle on a chair by the bed, and after swallowing them, and wrapping her head in a piece of yellow flannel, had lain down with her face turned away. Ethan undressed hurriedly and blew out the light so that he should not see her when he took his place at her side. As he lay there, he could hear Mattie (his true love) moving about in her room, and her candle, sending its small ray across the landing, drew a scarcely perceptible line under his door."

Lastly...have a safe and happy Halloween you guys!!! Here is one of my favorite pictures that kind of goes along with Halloween. It is a painting by an artist named Rudi Hurzlmeier.Oh...and about that tag!!! Anyone who reads this and wants to play along can!!

For Maia...

One of the blogs that I frequent is written by a young woman named Maia, who also happens to be a fellow social worker...so technically I have one more of school before I can call myself a "social worker," but you get my drift. Maia writes about her large, close-knit, family, her job as a social worker, and about her life in general, and I always enjoy her down to earth writing style.Maia's family consists of biological siblings, and adopted siblings, and somehow, they all seem to get along and make the best out of every situation. Unfortunately, one of Maia's sisters died the other day, after a courageous battle against Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. I won't mention her name, because I have not told Maia that I am writing this post, but just know that she was only 11 years old, and although I did not know her, I felt touched by Maia's love for her sister, and I am deeply sorry that they have all had to go through this. It is never easy when a loved one dies, and no amount of "I'm sorry's" can make the pain go away, but Maia, if you ever happen to read this, I will never forget about your sister, and that is because you have preserved her memory.

A Beary Nice Ride!

I want to start out by saying "thank you" to all of you who wished me well. I am feeling somewhat better, but I am still sick, so I am breaking down and taking antibiotics... something I have not done in over six years. I also want to apologize for the large amount of grammatical errors in my previous post. Good grief! I must have been really out of it...lol!!!
Despite not feeling the greatest, I did have a wonderful weekend, and was able to spend a lot of time with family, friends, and out on the trail with Amber, Bo, and Waska. On Friday morning, Amber and I decided to take our two hairy boys for a nice long ride down to one of the local creeks, which originate from a large glacial river (we ended up riding to this river on Sunday, and I will post about it later). We chose the creek ride, because there is really nothing quite as beautiful as riding in the fall, and we knew that we would see our fair share of autumn foliage, in all of its glory, both on the trail down, and then again on a different trail back up. What we didn't count on was this...bear traffic. (Note: These are NOT pictures that I took of the tracks, because there was no way that I was going to get off of my horse. These are just images from the Internet that show you what we saw)Remember how I have said that it is hunting season around here? Well near the start of our ride, just as we were entering into some deep, dark, woods, we were accosted by the smell of rotting meat, because there happened to be several "gut" piles (piles of entrails, and misc. body parts, such as legs and spinal columns), that had been dumped near the entrance, and also further down along, the trail. Let me just interject here that domesticated horses are really quite amazing, because I am sure that in the wild, there is absolutely no way that a herd of horses would go near rotting carcasses, mainly because of what usually lurks around them: predators!Both Bo and Waska have been near gut piles/carcasses before, so we couldn't figure out what was making them so nervous as they trotted, ears pricked and quick to startle, along the trail. That is until I looked down in the mud and noticed the tracks of at least three different bears, ranging from about yearling to large adult, crisscrossing the path in several locations. They were fresh tracks too, as it had just rained the day before. We stopped for a moment so I could point them out to Amber, who had never seen one, and then we continued to trot (while keeping a tight rein!) our way out of the woods, and we didn't stop until we were on a different trail. Some of you know this, and some of you don't, but I have encountered a bear on horseback before, and I do not wish to do so again. It was definitely not my idea of a good time...lol!!


Let me tell you, the nice, wide, open, space under the power lines never looked so inviting, but we saw something unusual out there too. If you don't know me, you might think from reading up above, that I am terrified of bears, and that we never see sign of them on the trail...not true. I have a healthy respect for bears (it is cougars that I am terrified of!), and we see bear scat all over the trails around here, but not bear scat that looks like apple pie...out in the middle of nowhere...which is what we saw out under the power lines. My first thought was that someone was baiting them, which is illegal, and we did find a big pile of apples that had been dumped about one mile SE of the scat, on a different trail, and on our way home. The horses were spooky over there too, and they didn't even bat an eye at the mound of apples. I think that someone left them out to bait the deer, but the bear are eating them as well. Not Bo and Waska!! They hightailed it out of there, and we let them. We have heard from the local gas station that the bears have been unusually aggressive, due to the rotten berry harvest this summer, and that they have been harassing hikers, so we figured that we better just stay away from their food sources for a while, especially since the food sources that we saw were man-made!(I wanted to post the above picture just so my hubby could see that Amber and I were wearing our orange vests. Of course, he can't see me, so he'll have to take my word on it...lol!!!)
Despite running into more bear sign that we cared too, we had a great ride, and Bo was definitely raring to go, as I hoped he would be after having almost two weeks off.
Happy trails to you, and watch out for those bears...lol!!!!

It's A Tongue Thing!

OK, so this past week has been an absolute nightmare. I have been really sick (I never get sick!), and I have had two mid-terms and another paper/project, that we had two days to work on, due in my research class. Because I have had limited time to study and prepare this research project, I have been staying up until midnight and getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning (to study), and I am sure that the lack of sleep has hindered my health as well. Now I know why college kids are always so sick...lol!!!

I had my last mid-term today, so I will be getting some much needed rest, and riding, done over this up and coming weekend. (My venting is now done, so I will move on to other things!)

This afternoon, I was finally able to clean my house, pay some bills, and play with my kids, and I also had a chance to look at some photos from last weekend's football game. While scrolling through the photos, I noticed a pattern emerging, and it involves my son's mouth.

If you look at this picture (you can enlarge it), you will notice that his tongue is out as he is throwing the ball. A phenomenon that we see again...

...and again....

...and again!!!Wait! What is this??? He is placing his tongue in his mouth and assisting a girl from the other team, like the true gentleman that his momma raised him to be. Just as long as he isn't too nice! She is the enemy after all...lol!!!

And not to be outdone, Miss Katie Kate desperately tries to get the attention of the adults off of the field, and onto her!As mentioned, I will be going riding tomorrow, and on Sunday.

On another note...I feel like it has been forever since I last rode, because last week, I had a fever and was unable to go. I hope that Bo is frisky and raring (Thanks Lisa!) to go!!!

Hope that you all have a happy Friday...I will be back! :0

In True Halloween Spirit....

It appears I have been "ghosted" by the lovely girl (I am sorry but "woman" sounds so grown-up!) behind All Horse Stuff, and I believe her real name is Kaci (correct spelling?). If you haven't already, head on over and check her blog out. She has some great stories, beautiful pictures, and a couple of lovely horses. :)
In Ghosting it Forward, creator Steve Cantor keeps the tradition of ghosting (slipping over to your neighbor's house and leaving them some type of goody), alive by asking that you slip over to someones blog and "ghost" them, similar to the idea of paying it forward.

There are a few rules to this game, and they are that you:
1) Include a link to the original Ghosting it Forward site.
2)Come up with your own ghostly image to pass along.
3) Tag, or "ghost" three other people/blogs (let them know they have been ghosted).
So, here is my ghostly image that I am "ghosting" along.... ...and I am ghosting it forward to some people/blogs who are new to me. They are: 1) gnh over at the "Natural Horsemanship" blog, who is possibly my only male reader, and happens to be a physicist and horseman!!!! He writes with a flair and lives in my favorite state(New Mexico!), so please go check him out. 2) Gail over at the "At the Farm "blog, who lives on her family's farm in Arkansas and writes about her daily life there (she has a Halflinger, and lots of cute, little goatleys!). 3) C-ingspots over at "C-ingspots!" How cute is that name??? She is a newcomer to the whole blogosphere, and she is doing a pretty good job of it so far...she just needs to get that camera already...lol!!!

Happy Halloween you guys, and have fun Ghosting it Forward!!

Warning!!!!

Warning....this post is not family oriented or related to horses in any way!

Meg, over at Luchese to Louis Vuitton, dared us gals to bare...I mean show...our alter-egos by picking out a costume that we would like to... ahem...wear for Halloween.

Well of course, being the mixed up girl that I am, I couldn't decide between naughty or nice, so I picked out four costumes and asked my husband which one he liked the best...lol!!!

Would he like me to dress as a naughty police officer...... as a sexy football girl...

...as a cute little Fraulein...

...or as a dirty Alice in Wonderland???? Well he liked the German girl/Fraulein costume, but I am leaning towards Alice in Wonderland, or the naughty police officer. See what I mean by completely opposite and mixed up? LOL!!!

Of course, I would never wear anything like these costumes now, but it is still fun to pretend!

The final part of Meg's challenge is to change your profile picture over to whichever costume that you pick, so I will have to hurry up and decide who I want to be!

It Has Started...

Imaging hauling your horses up to a popular trail head and having a nice, enjoyable trail ride, only to return to find two, well cared for, recently shod, QH's, tied to your trailer. Sound unbelievable? Well it happened to the friend of one of my husbands co-workers this past week.
(Note: It was not the horses in the picture below. They belong to one of Trailblazer Martha's friends, and would not be abandoned by their owner...a two time Extreme Mustang Makeover winner)Thankfully the man has a large pasture and was able to take the horses home with him (I am not sure what he plans to do with them yet), but can you imagine???!!! On that same note, Amber and her friend Kristina took Waska to the house of one of Kristina's friends, to expose him to cows (she wants to try some sorting and penning on him), and the friend, who has a large pasture on a well traveled road, said that they woke up one morning with a half wild, approximately two year old, buckskin filly in it. Last I heard, they were still unable to catch her, but were feeding her. And this is only October folks!

Unfortunately things like this are going to keep happening, with our economy in shambles and hay, at least around here, going for around $25/bale. I also know that a lot of the rescue organizations are at maximum capacity, and in need of more donations (readFugly's blog and watch the nightly news), and I have no idea what is going to happen to the hundreds of horses out there that no one can afford to take care of. This conversation could go on and on, so I will end it here, but as a responsible horse owner, I am worried about the future of "the horse."
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I wanted to get back on and say that Brown Eyed Cowgirls and Mrs. Mom have done some great posts in the recent past about this issue as well!!! Gotta give credit where credit is due! :)
The reason I mention Fugly and the news, is that Fugly is local, so a lot of the organizations that she talks about, also happen to be on my nightly news.