Hey you're late

I woke up this morning to my Microsoft alerts and couldn't figure out why or what day it was! I put that schedule on my calendar, recurring, seven days a week. It had been popping (and dinging) reminders for an hour and a half by the time I realized what was waking me. The donks start saying good morning as soon as they notice the light flip on in the kitchen or when daylight breaks, which ever comes first. They will remind me that it's morning until I come out and feed them. The first one is a "good morning" the following are "Helllllloooooo you might not be hungry yet but we are and guess what? We knocked the water over again and might just dehydrate if you don't get yourself out here verrrrrry soon!" That, of course, is not a quote. They've been moved down to the donkey house so now...

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Lesson day and magic riding dust

I didn't post yesterday, I was oddly tired after my lesson with Sarah. I can't say that it's justified considering we walked and walked and walked in circles, we jogged a minute or five in total but honestly....we walked. We worked on going about turns in the correct manner, this one of my "action items" (I just like saying that when it's not about work!). I say "one of" because in my head I have five hundred of them after a short walk, pretend to jog lesson with Sarah. The biggest one really should be "get out of your head". I don't think it's on Sarah's list of things for me to do but it's sure on mine; if it is she has been gracious enough to not say it like that! When Sarah says it, it comes out as "relax" literally "relax", a lot more gentle then what I do in my head. Sarah asked that...

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Oh those eyes get me every time

Today was a good day; I did not follow my schedule but I am ok with that for today. I did spend the better part of the day being grateful; grateful for the wonderful friends I have in my life, grateful for the life we've created here at the "farm". Kate had the baby today, I found a long lost poem, the farrier came to tend to most everyone's feet and I worked from home...what did I discover? What did I learn? Oh just gobs and gobs of insight came my way today! I guess I will start with, and probably end with, Tex. He rivals any love I've ever felt, just watching him finds me smiling in ways that I haven't smiled since I first saw my son (not that I am comparing my son to a horse!). Tex does inspire the same level of pride and joy every single time I look at him, every time he walks up to...

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Schedules and walking meters that fail

I decided I needed a schedule; I'm far better when I have a schedule and there is far too much to do without one to keep me on track... I made one today; it includes everything but eating, well for me at least. Everyone else has their eating scheduled in but the human in the equation hasn't figured out how she'll work that in! It's not easy being a beginner at anything when you are 41 years old much less a complete change (no matter how welcome) of lifestyle. It's especially difficult when the beginner in question has never really sucked at anything in her life and certainly hasn't had to "be patient" while she learns! Grasping the fact that this will not find me an expert in the short year that it has been still drives me a little insane. Knowing that "expert" is unreachable when you are...

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Isn't he beautiful?

Now let's guess who I am talking about ;-) It was a big day, as expected. Today was my first day at work "disengaged" from the front line support team which for me was kinda hard and I felt pretty darned lost for the better part of the day. I did however do something huge; someone came to me with a question, there was no obvious answer and when that was determined I sent them to someone else instead of diving in and trying to figure it out myself. This may not be huge for some but it's huge for me. Anyway as I drove onto the road that leads to my little paradise I realized just how much I loved coming home. It was a nice comfortable feeling, looking forward to all the things awaiting me, even though some of those things equal wheelbarrows full of crap. I rounded the corner and saw Tex...

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Lazy lazy weekend at the farm

I came home Friday night with a bit of a heavy heart surrounding my job and the changes that are underway so I did what I do; I stayed up at the barn till 10pm, cleaned stalls, arranged halters, fussed over Texas and Patch and talked to the "girls" about my troubles. I sure wish they could talk back sometimes! That being said I think Perris would tell me to shut up, work is nothing compared to someone brushing out your mane and Logan would probably tell me to grow up! I decided to take it easy this weekend, clean carpets and enjoy the horses; I did just that. Well except for me deciding that soaking hay by the barn and dragging four buckets of hay and water to the pasture was a good idea...ummm water weighs a lot more then hay! Lesson learned, soak it and remove it before moving it. I swear...

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Logan's story

Logan is a mare, a very pretty grey Trekanher mare that has given us our share fair of "problems" but we love her anyway. She's Kate's, she will eventually move to the ranch but she's lived here at the farm since last October or November (I can't recall which). We found Logan through a message board, specifically Kate found Logan and we took her home shortly after that. She was a young woman's horse that had gone off to college, her mom could no longer care for Logan so...not sure if you see the theme here ;-) When Logan first came she gave everyone hell, she about kicked Kate in the head once, has broken more walls than anything I've ever seen, broke the chicken coop and generally made enemies with Charlie and Perris both right away. She hurt Charlie once, he was lame for a good three weeks...

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Patchy, the pony we all love

Patchy came to the farm because he was lame and the gentleman that owned him was unable to care for him. He appeared to have an issue with his tendon and couldn't really walk on it well much less be ridden, he had lost a lot of weight and as it turned out had a pretty darned serous worm issue. Patch was put on stall rest for a good while then we built a small paddock for him up by the pump house and then eventually he was able to go out into the pasture with the others. Today he looks fabulous and boy can he move! Watching Patch run is just awe inspiring, I think we should nick name him Speedy Gonzalez! Technically he was brought here to be Tonio's pony but really he's grandma's pony :-) He's a small guy, with a slight build; for once in my life being on the smaller side works to my advantage...

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Big love Texas style

As you might have noticed I am doing my best to introduce you to the magical animals that are helping to shape me into the grown up that even I am proud of. Texas has found me a little speechless but I'll do my level best. Texas belongs to Sarah, the intent is for Tex to belong with me once everything settles with Katie. I seriously can't see giving him up, he is the biggest love I've ever met. He is also hilarious and gorgeous and perfectly content to ride with an old grandma like myself. With him I don't feel I am doing an injustice by not wanting to go to the show rings. I think in Tex I did find the partner I dreamed that Katie would be. Funny how life works out isn't it. He's here at the farm while Katie is at Sarah's and we're taking lessons (bareback) with Sarah every Thursday. We...

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And then there was Katie

I found Katie on Craigslist; I spent gobs of time on Craiglist looking at horses, I suppose I should admit that I still do! In any case that's where I stumbled on Katie's ad, she was gorgeous and I spent nights looking at her picture wishing she were mine. I have seen some pretty darned beautiful horses listed for sale, Katie's picture however seemed to follow me to sleep and throughout the day. I finally contacted the woman who owned Katie, went to see Katie before a lesson and subsequently went about purchasing her. Purchasing her meant boarding her while payments were being made and getting her into training while I continued my lessons, I was anything but experienced and Katie was "green"...It all sounded as if it'd work perfectly right?! Well as things turn out Katie and I weren't the...

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Perris, first love horsey style

Perris...my my has that girl taught me a lot. When I moved to "The Farm" a great friend of mine had her horses here and I quite honestly sat around and just gapped in awe at them, all three of them. There was Easy, Charlie, and Perris when I moved in last Sept (Sept 2009). My experience with horses was limited to one little trail ride I barely remembered at about 14 or 15 and galloping about the playground in elementary school pretending to be on a horse (I was good at it by the way!). I, like every little girl, grew up thinking horses were magical. I did not however have one ounce of experience with actual horses. I grew up in the city for the most part and there is simply no room for horses in the city! When I first met them I was scared, terrified I suppose is more accurate, however...

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Titles & the beginning of the blog

Driving home the other night I was thinking about decisions, how and why we make them; it hit me that I make them according to title which brought to mind just how many titles I have. I am a daughter, a sister, a mom, a grandmother, an aunt, a friend, a "manager/director", and most recently a horse owner. I've been a mom for over half of my life (I just did the math, it works out to be 59.523809523809526%), most every decision I've ever made has centered around being a "mom". Joshua is nearly 25 (Aug 2nd 2010), over the last few years I've had to come to terms with making decisions that did not center around my "mom" title/hat. I did manage to bring in a few distractions so that I didn't have to let go of that "mom" idea I had in my head; taking in "stray people" to take care of, a desperate...

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