This 'n That

A couple posts ago ("Umm, excuse me, WTH did the month go?!") Dreaming mentioned she sensed some stress.  Very astute! Between Pie working so much (basically 5 to 7 weeks straight), trying to give the horses enough time, Provincial Finals (beginning of August), District Finals (end of August) and trying to find some missing paperwork so I can step down from the district board with no strings (yeah, our house STILL isn't sorted/organized from our move - which was horribly unorganized) PLUS all the every day stuff... yeah I was (and still to some extent am) feeling stressed.
Then Neighbour Tom came and cut our hay earlier this week.  Thursday he baled it, and it looks really good!  Now we just have to squeeze in the time to get it put away... which means moving and restacking what's left of last year's hay and cleaning out the hay shed, then picking up and putting away the new hay.  We're going to try to get that done, or at least a good dent in it, tomorrow before work.  We'll finish what we have to on Sunday... hopefully it won't be a lot as Sunday is forecast to be H.O.T. and humid.  Plus I was hoping to use Sunday to get my last minute stuff done for finals... pack the trailer, bath the horses, clean boots & brushes, etc etc.  I did get the trailer cleaned out today and new shavings put in, wow did I ever have a bunch of junk in my tack area! 

I've been working Applejack in the arena this week, Voodoo is in better shape so he's had most of the week off.  Today I worked Voodoo and then made a run, about half speed.  It went well so I let him air up and then made a run on him.  Its the first time I've done any barrel work or a run on him since we wiped out July 1st - and it was NICE!  Applejack worked well this week too... I just wish I'd been able to make it to more jackpots.  Its one thing to work at home, a competition run is something else.

Echo is growing like a bad weed!  I swear you can almost see him growing.  I'd show you a pic but SOMEONE (ahem, Tucker!) chewed up my camera cord. 

Friday Funny ~ Coma

After a long and serious operation, Lena ended up in a coma.  Try as they might, the doctors just couldn't bring her out of it.  When her husband Ralph came into the intensive care unit to see her, the doctors gave him the bad news.

"We just can't wake her.  It doesn't look good I'm afraid," the doctor told Ralph in a quiet somber voice.

Ralph looked at Lena and with a soft trembling voice said, "But doctor, she's so young.  She's only 45."

"37," came the weak reply from Lena

Wordless Wednesday ~ A rare moment

Umm, excuse me, WTH did the month go?!

That's what I thought when I noticed the date.  Then I realized that this time next week I'll have run both ponies at their time only's and Provincial Finals will be started! :o
Since its at Prairieland (in Saskatoon) again the boys will be able to spend their nights at home, and so will I.  I'll enjoy sleeping in my own bed and having a real shower but I will miss the camaraderie of camping it out with the girls.
I'm kinda nervous.  I haven't made it to a lot of jackpots this year and have made a few changes with the boys... although going to the right first should help avoid my biggest problem with Voodoo's run last year, the oh so scary "running into the crowd" effect.

(the way the arena is set up at Prairieland the bleachers are on the right hand side 

and right up to the fence, 

which is made of corral panels so its pretty 'open'.  

when you go left first you are pretty much running right AT the crowd for 2nd barrel.  

freaked. Voodoo. OUT.)

Also I haven't been riding as much as I'd like to so the boys aren't in as good of shape as I'd like and I'm not in 'riding shape' either.
This evening I took the quad and mini discer through the arena, man was the ground nice!  Then Kimfer and I rode and did some barrel work.  I only had time to work one horse so I rode Applejack (I rode Voodoo at sorting yesterday).  We only loped the pattern but he went really nice :)
Between work and Greek class tomorrow I won't have time to ride, but I plan to ride the rest of the week.  Plus there's cleaning the truck & trailer, organizing and cleaning tack, getting my wardrobe ready (pretty much the only time I wear my western shirts is at Prov. Finals and District Finals lol), giving the boys a bath and maybe doing some clipping.  Yep it'll be a busy week!
Seeing as I'll be home I hope to find time to do a few posts during finals.  If not there's always Facebook & Twitter :)

Sunday Stills ~ Farm Animals

This week's Sunday Stills challenge: "I konw, this will be a difficult challenge but I’m sure ya’ll can find a few out there somewhere. But for a real challenge find some animals we have not seen yet.:-)"

All these pics are straight out of camera, other than adding the watermark.  They are also from the archives, you can thank Tucker for that... little brat ate my camera cord - again!!
These are from a trip Pie & I took to visit Kimfer at her work (a dairy)

Little note, this pic below of the calves in the calf barn - it was pretty dark in there.  Kimfer couldn't find the lights.  I could 'see' the calves better on my camera than with the naked eye.

And what dairy barn doesn't have a cat, or two or three, to lap up spilled milk?

Friday Funny ~ Permission slips

**click to make larger**

Wordless Wednesday

Tucker talks

Hi!  Momma said that I could tells y'all about my day yesterday :)  

but wait jessa minute, that's not me!

Heh heh that's because its Maxie, isn't she purty?  

I gotted to meet her yesterday when we went to Miss Sophie's.  

That's her picture unnerneath... she's lil but she's tough!

Momma tooked me to Auntie Wanda's to meet her grand dog.  

I didn't see the big fuss until I found out Maxie is a Boston too! :)

We sniffed butts and played then sat for some pictures

Boston buddies

Maxie was kinna sad cuz she was missin her momma

but once her momma & dad came to pick her up

she cheered right up.

Max might love her momma as much as I love mine!

 Us plus Miss Sophie (see she really is lil)

Now I didn't want to tell you about how my day started, cuz its kinna embarassing.  

But Momma said she was gonna put the picture up so I might as well tell y'all... 

I jes about gived Momma a heart attack.  

Well at least that's what she says, but she took time to take a picture of it so I dunno. 

But here ya goes.  Me an the other dogs was outside goofing around and, 

well... I tried to run across the pool

(at least that's all Momma needs to know, 

if I was in there actually cuz I fell in... 

well let's not tell her that BOL)

Sunday Stills ~ People

This week's Sunday Stills challenge: 
"This should be a fun challenge.  You can take pics of anything as long as there are people in the pic, the more the better. I know some of you may have a problem with this one as you may live in the sticks but I know we will get some great shots out of this challenge. try not to use archives this week but if you have to…..:-) "

The first two pics are from the Rihanna concert I took my niece to

And this is one of my favourite subjects, a cowboy

Friday Funny ~ if you're a golfer...

Stand proud you noble swinger of clubs and losers of golf balls.

A recent study found the average golfer walks about 900 miles a year.  Another study found golfers drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.  That means, on average, golfers get about 41 miles to the gallon.

Kind of makes you proud.

Almost makes ya feel like a hybrid. ;)

** please visit Shirley's blog to check out her blog auction

to raise some money for MiKael & a chance to win a beautiful piece of art** 

The Thunder Rolled

We had a pretty wicked storm roll through this area Tuesday.  Before I left work I found out we had tornado warnings and when I left they added a thunderstorm warning.  I saw lightening flashing all around as I drove home.  I stopped on the road in front of our place and took this picture of the sky to the west of us. 

I quickly zipped down to the barnyard to check on things there.  The horses were all in the pasture by the arena.  You can see the dark clouds are much higher in the sky and the rest of the sky is fairly light.  This direction is basically south-east of the house and that dark mass kinda spread from the west over the house.  The more east you looked the lighter the sky was.

(it was about 7 pm)

I hadn't been in the house too long when the storm hit.  Lightening would flash and thunder would boom immediately after.  During the worst of it the wind and rain was so bad that I couldn't see the road when I looked out the front door nor the trees and barn light from the backdoor.  I could see the flower pots that are on the side of the house swinging back and forth, the flagpole by the dog kennel was being pushed by the wind so that it was leaning over the kennel.  There was about 10-15 minutes where the thunder boomed continuously.
During a lull I went out to check on things.  There were a lot of branches blown down and scattered around the yard.  The biggest being as thick around as my wrist and about 3 feet long.  LOTS of water, we're pretty sandy and most of that water is still draining so we've got puddles everywhere, which means it rained a LOT.
When we cleaned up Wednesday we found a small tree down and a pine branch about 5 feet long that Pie could barely lift.
Now look at this... see that tarp building on the right, the trailer and the big empty spot?  Well there had been another tarp building there...

You can see the dents on the roof of the shop where the building hit.

And here it is on the other side of the shop.  Yikes. It pretty much lifted up and over.

I took this second picture of that building the next morning.  As you can see the storm picked back up and there was enough wind to move it around some more.

And this is my brand new, used once, announcer's stand. And yes that is its roof to the right. 

Now remember that I said the horses were in the arena pasture?  Yeah so during the lull of the storm I went and tracked down the herd, I didn't want to risk anyone stepping on a nail from that roof and we all know how curious ponies are and how they'd "investigate" once things settle down.
I haltered Applejack & Voodoo (because he's The Boss) and led them back to the pens with everyone else trailing behind.  Of course that was when the lull started to end and the storm picked back up.  Got everyone through the pens and into another pasture and back to the house, by which time I was soaked right through my rain jacket.
The little wire fence and bird netting around my square foot garden were twisted but easily fixed.  For once being a procrastinator paid off, my plants were small enough to survive without damage lol

We got off lucky, I'm very grateful.  A friend a couple miles over was teaching a lesson and got a call to "Get the F out of the arena"  He looked out the doors and saw a couple small twisters tearing through the pasture so he turned all the horses loose and ran for it.
Another friend had the wind and rain blow out the seals on her south facing windows (kitchen and living room) and her front door blew open, yes it was locked, good thing she was home.
Another friend had her sewage back up because so much water got into her septic it just couldn't keep up.
A semi trailer in the town 10 minutes away blew over as did several large trees.  There were also some other small buildings destroyed and lots of crops damaged/destroyed.
We're all lucky and grateful, things could have been a LOT worse.

**don't forget to enter the contest/giveaway if you haven't already**

Wordless Wednesday ~ Signs of the times??

501

Waaay back when I started blogging in April 2008 I didn't know that it would come to this.  In fact I wasn't sure how long I'd be around... seems that a lot of bloggers burn out and call it quits. 
But here I am, my previous post was my 500th post!!
Along the way I've met some really great people, and while I may not meet them in person I do still consider them friends.
Besides friendship I've also found support, advice and entertainment.  

To celebrate this landmark I'm holding a giveaway. To enter answer the following in the comments:

1- What is your horse(s) name?

2- What is your favourite colour?

3- What are your hobbies?

4- Is your style bling bling or low-key?

As a bonus, when you comment if you're a follower of my blog you'll get TWO entries :)

Thanks for riding the trails of blogland with me.

Entries close this coming Sunday at midnight... winner will be announced next week.

Growing up :)

Last Friday was farrier day, all the horses get brought in and tied up to wait their turn... well lookie who stood tied up just like the grown up horses:

Odin & Tavi weren't ready to be trimmed, Mr Farrier will be out in two weeks to give them a trim.  Instead they both stood tied for an hour soaking up some patience.
Odin has only been tied fast once before, and that was for some spring grooming.  When I went to untie him he had a hind cocked and was napping.  He had not pulled at all, there was no extra tightness to the knot.
Tavi has been tied fast twice, once for the same spring grooming and the first time was when we trimmed his feet for the first time (that was a bit of a rodeo!)
He also was napping with a cocked foot, and his knot was slack too.
Both boys aren't really being put through much of a kindergarten.  They get caught and led occasionally, brushed, feet trimmed, and touched pretty much every day.  Soon there will be a bit more expected... we'll be doing some trailer loading and light sacking out, more being tied, maybe some ponying and other light groundwork.  I'm pretty much letting them learn to be horses for the most part.  A lot of lunging and such is not when horses are really young is not something I believe in... IMO its hard on them mentally & physically.

Oh and one more important step... the vet will be called to come out and do some 'brain surgery' ;)

Back in the Saddle, Again

Yesterday was team sorting and I managed to ride all 8 of my runs!  I took Voodoo and he seemed to be feeling almost normal. I could tell he was still a bit stiffer and sore than normal but he definitely had his "try" :)
We had some nice runs, even winning the jackpot on our 'hidden' team.

Connor, on the black, was my hidden jackpot partner

The adorable leopard appy is named YOR Pretty Woman, barn name Julia 

(love it!)

I'm glad I went to sorting but it was a soggy day (Mikey we must have got your rain) ;)  It alternated between light, steady rain and hard, steady rain all morning.  Just before lunch break the sun started to peek out, only to be followed by a downpour.
It rained so much that my ballcap was soaked right through, to the point that there were drips coming through; my boots were so soaked that I could feel water squish when I walked.  I had remembered a complete change of clothes, unfortunately I forgot dry footwear lol

I'm feeling a bit sore tonight, but I have appointments with my massage therapist & chiropractor tomorrow.

Voodoo got Absorbine RefreshMint-ed after I untacked him, between that and the rain he was silky soft.  He also has a follow up massage this week.

Sunday Stills ~ The Letter "F"

This week's Sunday Stills challenge: " This can be anything that begins with the letter F, things or places, whatever catches your fancy…. Oh Yeah…No Archives this week….:-)) "
I took all my photos at team sorting today...

Feet

(not sure why I like that photo)

a horse with "Freckles"

(I love that mare) :)

cow number Four

(I had pics of number 5 but they didn't turn out very good)

Faces

(aaawwww, aren't they cute)

Friday Funny ~ Roadside stand

Driving through Southern California, I stopped at a roadside stand that sold fruit, vegetables, and crafts.

As I went to pay I noticed the young woman behind the counter was painting a sign.

"Why the new sign?" I asked.

"My boyfriend didn't approve of the old one," she said.

When I glanced at what hung above the counter, I understood.  It declared, "Local Honey, Dates, Nuts."

Back in the Saddle

SORTA

Sunday I had a double header, barrel racing jackpot scheduled.  The ground was kinda iffy though so after conferring with our district president we decided to make it a qualifier only.  Anyone that needed jackpots to qualify for the provincial finals paid $2 and walked/trotted or loped the pattern.  No times were taken, no payout needed (the $2 went to our club as an 'office fee' to help pay for district finals).

Since its my place and I would be here anyway I let everyone else go before me and thank goodness that was the case!  For starters I could barely get my leg high enough to get on Applejack, it took me 3 or 4 tries to get mounted.  Then when we went to take our turn he went to lope to first and it hurt so bad... I had to make him walk the pattern.

Now I know he should go whatever speed I ask him to, but he's a smart boy and knows his job.  He'll walk, trot, lope, whatever when we're just practicing.  But if its a competition, no way.  If I try to hold him back then he gets frustrated.  Being that we were the last to go, and it was super hot out, almost everyone had gone so he seemed to think it was just practice.

I've gone to the chiro, and I'm still stiff and sore, I haven't ridden since Sunday.  Monday I have massage & chiro scheduled.

Voodoo was worked on today.  He had lots of body soreness and had a couple spots where he was out.  He's getting worked on again next week, but we've been given the okay to ride as long as he's feeling up to it... now if I can get on! lol

Not Part of the Plan...

... or My Biggest Barrel Racing Fear Comes True.

July 1st is Canada Day up here.  Our district puts on a big Canada Day jackpot, its a double header and happens to take place at my neighbour's place the next road over from us.
I happened to need two more jackpots on Applejack to qualify for finals so I took both boys with me and entered them.  What a turnout!  About 60 entered in the Open, have to admit I'm not sure how many Youth were entered.  A good turnout at our jackpots is usually 20-30 Open.
I was up first on Voodoo, not first of the jackpot (I was actually 23 or something) just first of my two boys; and was feeling pretty good about our chances.  He ran in really nicely, loped in the gate and hit his stride right when we got to the timers.  1st and 2nd barrel were pretty nice, our run was looking good and then it happened... as we finished our turn on 3rd and went to power out for home Voodoo went down.

Everyone has different fears, and with horses you may have different fears for different situations... in barrel racing this has always been my biggest fear: for my horse to go down with me.  As it was happening it almost seemed like slow motion.
I remember thinking "huh, and to think I was nervous to run Appy today"  I also let go of my reins so that Voodoo had his head and I didn't interfere with his attempts to save himself or get back up, some people may disagree with that but I KNEW there was NO way I'd be getting up with him when he got back to his feet.
As I was hitting the ground I took the primary impact on my hip.  As soon as my hip slammed the ground I kinda lifted my upper body so that I didn't whack my head on the ground and I looked over at Voodoo.  I have to admit that seeing him as he finished crashing into the ground kinda made me a bit sick.
I saw him start to gather himself to get back up, which was good because when he was completely down he was on my leg and all I could think was "please don't break my leg!"  As soon as he was up enough that my stirrup was clearing the ground I kicked my foot out and skooched backwards so that I didn't get hung up or stepped on and then I was flat on my back.
It all happened so fast and yet before I could start to get up Mr Tim and another man were there to check on me.  I managed to get to my feet on my own but it hurt a LOT, especially in my hip.  The guy that came over with Mr Tim knew first aid so he checked me over, thank goodness nothing was broken.  While they were checking me out Kimfer came running and Brenda loped up on her horse (pretty sure someone else rode up too but I'm not sure who)  
My friend JT thought that Voodoo shouldered 3rd really bad and his legs just kinda went out from under him.  Mr Tim said that he saw Voodoo's back legs cross each other as he went to dig in and he tripped himself.  Guess without a video we'll never know for sure...
I found out after that my friend Melly's boyfriend Shaun walked Voodoo out for me to check him out and calm him down (thanks again Shaun!) and Brenda took him back to the trailer to tie him up for me (thanks Brenda)
I tried to keep walking to help ease the pain, but I could only walk for a few minutes before I needed a break.  It was a balance of don't walk too much but don't rest too much either.  I realized I wouldn't be able to run Applejack because I was starting to get flares of pain across my back and shoulders and in my neck, so I ended up scratching both his runs and Voodoo's other run.
I am SO grateful that neither I nor Voodoo was hurt worse, I'm sure we'll both be sore for a few days though.  Now that its all over what ticks me off most is that 1) I didn't get Applejack qualified (although I have a jackpot Sunday so maybe he'll be yet) and 2) that I was having such a good run when this happened.... why couldn't it have been on a run where we hit a barrel or were just having a crap run! lol
Although I'm really tired as I write this and looking forward to sleep I am not looking forward to how much I'll probably hurt tomorrow.

Friday Funny ~ Making faces

Finding one of her students making faces at others on the playground, Ms. Smith stopped to gently reprove the child.

Smiling sweetly, the Sunday school teacher said, Johnny, when I was a child, I was told that if I made an ugly face it would freeze and I would stay like that."

Johnny looked up and replied, "Well Ms. Smith, you can't say you weren't warned."

Proud!

 

I'm proud to be Canadian. 

and today we celebrate

Canada Day!

Happy 144th birthday Canada!