Well, that's the plan at least! Barrel racing season is in full swing, I've even got a couple double headers booked at my place :)
The barrel patch and the arena are looking good so I have places to practice, I just need to find the time! And the time to get them legged up and keep them that way.
To qualify for Provincial Finals I need 6 jackpots per horse. For our Mini Finals (district finals) I need 3 per horse and 6 separate District 1 jackpots as a rider (ie taking 2 horses to a double header would only count as 2 jackpots for the rider although the rider is entered 4 times) Looks like the clock is ticking!
I have three horses for barrel racing and a two horse trailer so that's a bit of a sticker, I guess I'll have to pick and choose who I think will run best indoors for PF. If possible I'll see if I can hitch a ride for the 3rd horse to MF so I can enter all three. Time will tell I guess.
After having the blahs this winter it's kinda just hit me that the barrel racing bug has bitten again!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Big Guy
*first let me apologize for the poor quality pics,
I just had my phone with me*
As of Monday (yeah, Monday... I'm a bit late posting lol)
Anyway, as of Monday I've now put at least one ride on each of the four saddle broke horses this year. That's not a lot of riding, but considering winter just seemed to finally end that's not too terribly bad.
Monday was Smudge's turn and since I've added all the horses to my "stable" on my phone I weight taped him before I rode. Holy smokes he is
The pic below doesn't do his size justice. And no, I'm not telling you how much the tape said he weighed, but I will say that my guess was DAMN close!
Smudgers was pretty good considering he hasn't been ridden in a.g.e.s. but he does need a few more tune up rides before he can resume being 'the company horse'. And from the sounds of it he is going to be in demand a bit this summer :) He's a pretty nice ride, with his broad back and hip swinging walk you sure feel safe up there. His trot is nice and he's got a great, smooth lope too. But because he's youngish and had all that time off he's also a bit lazy, opinionated and stubborn. Which means that he can get pretty strong when he decides he wants to head for the gate. Or try trotting off when you want to walk. And with that big, thick neck he takes some muscle to convince he needs to listen to the wimpy human on his back lol
Little did he know he was about to be introduced to Mr. Water Hose to spray down his sweat marks and, more importantly, to wash his tail.
Ugh, his poor tail. It was sooo gross. It was so stained it was almost tobacco juice brown/yellow. Ick!! Thanks to some nice "white horse" purple shampoo it is, for the most part, back to silver.
Smudge was great for the tail washing, however when it came time to spray his body down he was a bit of a brat. Until my friend Janelle held some cookies, the way to Smudge's heart is definitely his stomach!
I really think that he's never been hosed down before. Considering his past as a ranch horse that's not too shocking.
I'm going to try to get a decent pic of Smudge to share with y'all. Then you could all take turns guessing his weight... maybe a contest is in order. Hmm.... stayed tuned!
Sunday, May 5, 2013
The end of the never-ending winter!
Finally!!! After a good six months of snow on the ground, winter is over!
Best of all, the ponies are back on pasture! Sure, it's dry, fall grass seeing as the spring grass hasn't even had a chance to grow yet... but between watching the dwindling hay supply after the extra long winter, having the last of the cattle hay buried under a massive snowdrift, and having the hay barn blown in after the last storm (the same storm that buried the cattle hay, and resulting in some ruined hay in the hay barn) it is a HUGE relief just to let them through that gate to the pasture!
I have to admit, it's also nice to let them out to pasture so they can stretch their legs, play and get the sillies out before I get back on them again too! ;)
Which is the plan, starting tomorrow! The arena will need some work before I can ride in there but the barrel patch is usable. Now I need to come up with a game plan to fit riding in around work. I love this "new" job (wow I've been here 8 months!) but the schedule kinda sucks for fitting in horse & outdoor stuff around work and being able to see Pie with his odd schedule. It will happen though!
(despite the jokes about Saskatchewan having 10 months of winter that's not the case, normally)
There's still some snow but for the most part it's melted. There has been some flooding, although thankfully not at our place. Best of all, the ponies are back on pasture! Sure, it's dry, fall grass seeing as the spring grass hasn't even had a chance to grow yet... but between watching the dwindling hay supply after the extra long winter, having the last of the cattle hay buried under a massive snowdrift, and having the hay barn blown in after the last storm (the same storm that buried the cattle hay, and resulting in some ruined hay in the hay barn) it is a HUGE relief just to let them through that gate to the pasture!
I have to admit, it's also nice to let them out to pasture so they can stretch their legs, play and get the sillies out before I get back on them again too! ;)
Which is the plan, starting tomorrow! The arena will need some work before I can ride in there but the barrel patch is usable. Now I need to come up with a game plan to fit riding in around work. I love this "new" job (wow I've been here 8 months!) but the schedule kinda sucks for fitting in horse & outdoor stuff around work and being able to see Pie with his odd schedule. It will happen though!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Wordless Wednesday ~ Camo dog
**ok, almost wordless... just apologizing for the pic quality, cellphone at a distance**
Monday, April 8, 2013
It's back!
Sadly I don't mean Spring, still looks a lot like winter out there.
No, what's back is the creeping crud. Thursday Pie woke up with that hellacious cough he gets and a raspy voice. Being that any kind of cold or cold like thing Pie gets is cause for concern I called his doc and booked an appointment for Tuesday afternoon (which was the soonest we could get in) Then we both went to work but he called me and told me his dad sent him home. Which is good but shocking.
More surprising is that Friday he didn't go in at all. In addition to the cough and sounding like The Godfather he was also experiencing shortness of breath. Saturday I ran him in to see a doctor at a minor emergency clinic. After checking Pie over and getting a pretty detailed history Pie was sent home with prescriptions for a few different medicines and lots of rest, including vocal rest which literally made me "LOL" as Pie is quite a chatterbox!
I was so glad I had taken him in! Saturday night/Sunday morning Pie coughed so hard a few times that he blacked out. That was scary. Made scarier because I has to work Sunday and leave him home alone. I left him with a set of strict instructions (if you have a coughing spell SIT down so you don't fall down, NO going downstairs, NO showering, NO going outside, and you MUST answer the phone!) I called him on a regular basis from work to make sure he was ok and had my friend Scott on standby in case Pie didn't answer. I also left a colourful array of PostIts all over the house with our land location number in case they had to call for help.
Today he still feels like crap but to me he sounds a very teeny bit better, so hopefully the meds are kicking in. Unfortunately I woke up with a sore, raspy throat and a hoarse, whispery voice. At least I've got today and tomorrow off... I plan to rest as much as possible, other than chores the only thing I've really GOT to do is run in to the doctor with Pie tomorrow.
Y'all know how worried I get when he's sick, and with his history it's not a shock. Please keep him in your thoughts & prayers.
No, what's back is the creeping crud. Thursday Pie woke up with that hellacious cough he gets and a raspy voice. Being that any kind of cold or cold like thing Pie gets is cause for concern I called his doc and booked an appointment for Tuesday afternoon (which was the soonest we could get in) Then we both went to work but he called me and told me his dad sent him home. Which is good but shocking.
More surprising is that Friday he didn't go in at all. In addition to the cough and sounding like The Godfather he was also experiencing shortness of breath. Saturday I ran him in to see a doctor at a minor emergency clinic. After checking Pie over and getting a pretty detailed history Pie was sent home with prescriptions for a few different medicines and lots of rest, including vocal rest which literally made me "LOL" as Pie is quite a chatterbox!
I was so glad I had taken him in! Saturday night/Sunday morning Pie coughed so hard a few times that he blacked out. That was scary. Made scarier because I has to work Sunday and leave him home alone. I left him with a set of strict instructions (if you have a coughing spell SIT down so you don't fall down, NO going downstairs, NO showering, NO going outside, and you MUST answer the phone!) I called him on a regular basis from work to make sure he was ok and had my friend Scott on standby in case Pie didn't answer. I also left a colourful array of PostIts all over the house with our land location number in case they had to call for help.
Today he still feels like crap but to me he sounds a very teeny bit better, so hopefully the meds are kicking in. Unfortunately I woke up with a sore, raspy throat and a hoarse, whispery voice. At least I've got today and tomorrow off... I plan to rest as much as possible, other than chores the only thing I've really GOT to do is run in to the doctor with Pie tomorrow.
Y'all know how worried I get when he's sick, and with his history it's not a shock. Please keep him in your thoughts & prayers.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Maybe it's per year??
What the heck? I'm not sure why, but for some reason tonight I just had the thought to try to upload a pic and it seems to have worked!
So maybe that photo limit is a per year thing?
(could I have really posted that many photos in a year!?)
Anyhow, here's the pic I loaded... and an idea of the snow we got during that storm. ALL the pens have these HUGE drifts, except for the cow pen of course!
Here Lefta, Odin and Applejack are surveying their snow wall. Don't worry, they do have some actual room in their pen too. I think the only reason they went in this little tunnel like area is that I had been in there and they were being snoopy ;)
Can we all say "slow melt please"?
So maybe that photo limit is a per year thing?
(could I have really posted that many photos in a year!?)
Anyhow, here's the pic I loaded... and an idea of the snow we got during that storm. ALL the pens have these HUGE drifts, except for the cow pen of course!
Here Lefta, Odin and Applejack are surveying their snow wall. Don't worry, they do have some actual room in their pen too. I think the only reason they went in this little tunnel like area is that I had been in there and they were being snoopy ;)
Can we all say "slow melt please"?
*keep in mind, Appy is about 15.1-15.2*
Friday, March 22, 2013
Friday Funny ~ It's No Joke
Well, no joke unless you like Mother Nature's sense of humour. The regularly scheduled Friday Funny has been postponed to bring y'all up to date on our welcome to Spring.
Wednesday, the first day of spring, most of Saskatchewan was greeted with a heckuva blizzard. Almost all the highways in the province were closed or flagged as "travel not recommended". There are tons of images on Facebook and in the news of stranded motorists and highways that are covered in huge drifts of snow.
Pie and I both managed to make it home, although our trucks didn't.
I left work a little early (8:30pm) and was home by 10, after walking the last 1/2 mile. Yep, that close to home and my poor little Chevy just couldn't make it through the last drift! And that hour and a half drive? That normally takes me about 30-40 minutes.
At 10:30 Pie called told me he was leaving work, I told him I didn't think he'd make it and that I had a great room for him at the hotel (the penthouse!) But he insisted on coming home. I told him that the first two grid roads from the highway were in no shape to try (one had a Suburban or Suburban type truck half buried when I tried it!) I told him his best bet was to go to Delisle (the next town past ours) and take the blacktop to our grid, with a warning that from that second grid (with the buried truck) the highway was worse than it was from Saskatoon to Vanscoy (and that part wasn't great).
On the blacktop he'd need to go slow and watch for drifts and then on our road he'd have to watch for where my truck was stranded in the road.
**side note** Although the highway was icy, visibility sucked and there were some drifts I've driven on worse. The worst part of that night was that it was also SUPER windy. There were a few times that I actually, literally got blown into the other lane :o
While waiting for Pie I was texting back and forth with my friend Scott. Around midnight I got a call from Pie saying that he had almost made it but got stuck in the ditch. I messaged Scott about Pie's situation and that I was going to walk out and meet him with some warmer things (he has a bit of stuff in his truck but nowhere near what he should, and yes we have argued about that)
I bundled up, zipped my cell into my arm pocket and started trekking. You know you really love someone when you leave your warm, cozy house to walk into a blizzard for them! Not to worry friends, despite the storm the visibility on our road was good so it wasn't completely crazy to walk. Not a pleasant stroll though, when you walked into the wind (which was toward home) it felt like the snow was sandblasting you!
Walking along I could hear my phone start whistling in my pocket (incoming text) and after a few whistles it started to chirp (crickets, incoming phone call). Being bundled up I couldn't easily grab it so I ignored it. Not too far from home I met up with Pie and gave him some warmer stuff then headed for home. Turns out those texts & calls were from Scott, wondering where Pie was and if we needed help. He even went looking for him, what a friend!
Thursday we tried to get my truck out with my friend Janelle's Jeep & our tractor but it wasn't happening. We also had to dig the hay barn free to do chores. Today we finally managed to get both trucks free, thanks to Janelle's husband Joey and their big bad ass truck (Joey had it at work on Thursday) and Pie's tractor, which had to re-clear the huge drift in front of my truck.
The photos we took don't do the situation justice, unless you have a point of reference. Janelle took on one her cell of my standing on a drift next to Joey's truck. The truck is on the road where Pie had cleared the snow and I'm on about 4' of snow next to the truck, not sinking in at all! Those drifts were like cement!
We managed to get Pie's truck too, thanks again to Joey. I hadn't known exactly where he went in the ditch and when I saw how far he had to walk... he was about 3 or 4 miles from home!
Needless to say neither Pie nor I went to work Thursday. Tonight Pie got to work a bit late but I didn't go, it was too late by the time we got the trucks out and mine needs to sit in the garage with the snow & ice melting away from around the engine.
Some people may think a snow day is fun, but in reality it means so much more work. Even the simplest chores take longer. Thursday we did the bare minimum, which normally would take about 15 minutes. Instead it took between an hour & a half to two hours! I'm looking forward to going to work Sunday! lol
Wednesday, the first day of spring, most of Saskatchewan was greeted with a heckuva blizzard. Almost all the highways in the province were closed or flagged as "travel not recommended". There are tons of images on Facebook and in the news of stranded motorists and highways that are covered in huge drifts of snow.
Pie and I both managed to make it home, although our trucks didn't.
I left work a little early (8:30pm) and was home by 10, after walking the last 1/2 mile. Yep, that close to home and my poor little Chevy just couldn't make it through the last drift! And that hour and a half drive? That normally takes me about 30-40 minutes.
At 10:30 Pie called told me he was leaving work, I told him I didn't think he'd make it and that I had a great room for him at the hotel (the penthouse!) But he insisted on coming home. I told him that the first two grid roads from the highway were in no shape to try (one had a Suburban or Suburban type truck half buried when I tried it!) I told him his best bet was to go to Delisle (the next town past ours) and take the blacktop to our grid, with a warning that from that second grid (with the buried truck) the highway was worse than it was from Saskatoon to Vanscoy (and that part wasn't great).
On the blacktop he'd need to go slow and watch for drifts and then on our road he'd have to watch for where my truck was stranded in the road.
**side note** Although the highway was icy, visibility sucked and there were some drifts I've driven on worse. The worst part of that night was that it was also SUPER windy. There were a few times that I actually, literally got blown into the other lane :o
While waiting for Pie I was texting back and forth with my friend Scott. Around midnight I got a call from Pie saying that he had almost made it but got stuck in the ditch. I messaged Scott about Pie's situation and that I was going to walk out and meet him with some warmer things (he has a bit of stuff in his truck but nowhere near what he should, and yes we have argued about that)
I bundled up, zipped my cell into my arm pocket and started trekking. You know you really love someone when you leave your warm, cozy house to walk into a blizzard for them! Not to worry friends, despite the storm the visibility on our road was good so it wasn't completely crazy to walk. Not a pleasant stroll though, when you walked into the wind (which was toward home) it felt like the snow was sandblasting you!
Walking along I could hear my phone start whistling in my pocket (incoming text) and after a few whistles it started to chirp (crickets, incoming phone call). Being bundled up I couldn't easily grab it so I ignored it. Not too far from home I met up with Pie and gave him some warmer stuff then headed for home. Turns out those texts & calls were from Scott, wondering where Pie was and if we needed help. He even went looking for him, what a friend!
Thursday we tried to get my truck out with my friend Janelle's Jeep & our tractor but it wasn't happening. We also had to dig the hay barn free to do chores. Today we finally managed to get both trucks free, thanks to Janelle's husband Joey and their big bad ass truck (Joey had it at work on Thursday) and Pie's tractor, which had to re-clear the huge drift in front of my truck.
The photos we took don't do the situation justice, unless you have a point of reference. Janelle took on one her cell of my standing on a drift next to Joey's truck. The truck is on the road where Pie had cleared the snow and I'm on about 4' of snow next to the truck, not sinking in at all! Those drifts were like cement!
We managed to get Pie's truck too, thanks again to Joey. I hadn't known exactly where he went in the ditch and when I saw how far he had to walk... he was about 3 or 4 miles from home!
Needless to say neither Pie nor I went to work Thursday. Tonight Pie got to work a bit late but I didn't go, it was too late by the time we got the trucks out and mine needs to sit in the garage with the snow & ice melting away from around the engine.
Some people may think a snow day is fun, but in reality it means so much more work. Even the simplest chores take longer. Thursday we did the bare minimum, which normally would take about 15 minutes. Instead it took between an hour & a half to two hours! I'm looking forward to going to work Sunday! lol
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