Monday, August 31, 2009

I am So Tired!

Today was our first day of school...homeschool that is...and to start things off, we did nothing on school work. Maggie had a doctor's appointment, I had an assessment to do. We had chores to complete. The weather was nice and wanted to ride. I had to do a mega grocery store trip. I have walked over 8000 steps today and it's only 5pm. I'm very tired.



I did manage to save a bunch of money on my groceries though. I have a list through The Grocery Game and it tells me when to use my coupons and what to buy. My first total was $266 which came down to $155 after the coupons and in store savings. I have food for the weekend ride, the potluck and for the household. It takes a little time, but it's worth it.



Now I have food, but don't have to cook dinner. Peter made a turkey that we bought almost a year ago (I found it in the freezer) and we will eat on that this week. Yummo!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Vacation part 3

Spendng time with parents is always a fun part of vacation, but since they have both moved away from Liberty, my hometown, I find I don't get back often enough. So I have been trying to get back to Liberty more often. I wish my friend Susan would come visit me in Texas, but she says that she doesn't like Texas and won't come, so I try to get back to Liberty. Susan has good reason not to travel as her mom is ill and she needs to stay close to home.

Saturday Maggie was to ride in a MOTDRA CTR with our friend Eric Nelson. He has Shagya's and we've known each other through the horses for several years. He rides a beautiful stallion known as Max. He has one of the other horses that Myrna bred as well. Her name is Prima, and she is Deli's half sister. Maggie was to ride Wineglass Rouge and I was going along to deliver Maggie and volunteer.

Motrdra rules are a bit different than Natrc. The pace is faster, the mileage is longer and there is no horsemanship judging. It's very laid back in many ways, but the competition is stiff. In this sport the P&R points are key. The cut off is 44 instead of the 48 that we try to reach in NATRC. As a result there aren't many perfect scores.

Maggie had never ridden that far or fast before and she was one tired puppy. She had a great time riding with Eric and Rouge got second place in junior division. The only points she lost were for a high P&R of 49. She actually has better P&R's on 50's according to Eric.

Her trot was so big that Maggie was a wreck for a couple of days.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Vacation part two

As usual, I start getting busy and don't find time to write. I started to write about my vacation and then my dad and his wife came back from condo shopping and we went out to dinner. My dad is such a serious computer addict (if you read this dad, I apologize...it's just so true) He plays solitaire, checks his stock portfolio. He and his wife have a tiny little office where they sit side by side. Dad on his desktop and Shirley on her lap top. It's very cute. They like each other very much. My dad is very happy.

On Sunday night after riding we went to my dad's house. Being at Dad's is very relaxed. They let us come and go as we please. We do stuff together, but we do stuff with them too. The big excitement for Maggie in Columbia, besides her grandparents, was seeing her old pony Joe Bear. The weather was very rainy while we were in town, so riding was kind of hit and miss, but Maggie had such much getting to play with and ride her pony. He, on the other hand, was really not pleased to have her on him so much. By the third day of riding, he was running away from us when we showed up to ride. But, true to Joe Bear nature, he would come when feed buckets were shaken. Poor little guy just can't help himself.

We stayed at my dad's until Thursday morning, when we had planned to go to Worlds of Fun to swim and ride. There had been a chance of rain all week, so we didn't really want to get wet and cold and decided to wait till Friday to go. We drove to Liberty, got massages and went to see a movie. We just needed to kill time till Susan got off work. Then we went to Red Lobster (always our favorite place) to eat dinner with Susan and her friend Mary.

The weather was so pleasant that we were able to sleep with the windows down at Susan's house all the nights we were there. It was so cool that we decided not to go to Worlds of Fun or Schlitterbahn the next day b/c we knew we'd freeze. We couldn't believe we were worried about being cold in August. Since we were going to the CTR with Eric on Saturday, I knew I needed to buy a jacket or I'd be freezing! It was supposed to be a low of 53 on Friday night. Susan had to work on Friday since the post office had gone back to mandatory 6 days, so I went to Robin's, where Maggie rode one of her horses and we walked. Then we loaded up with her girlfriend, Kelli, and Kelli's daughter and went to a wine shop in Excelsior, owned by yet another HS friend, Daphne. We were treated to a wine tasting and great lunch food and just passed the afternoon. It was four before we all realized how late it had gotten and headed back to Robin's house, just in time for Maggie and I to head to the CTR to meet Eric.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Maggie and Joe

It has rained every day we have been in Missouri. Loving Joe Bear as she does Maggie has ridden every day in spite of the rain. Yesterday she began teaching him the parelli 7 games, which he did not enjoy so much. I think that 33 year old ponies think they should not have to work this hard! Today he ran around away from us when she tried to catch him. He knew work was coming and he wasn't so enthused.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Vacation so far

I left Arlington early on Friday am to head to my mom's house in Nixa, MO. I had planned originally to take horses so that we could ride in some new locations, but after thinking about my 8 mph truck and my 26 mph car, I decided to ditch the extended horsey road trip for another month. We are entering a lot of rides this far and as much as I would have loved to have ridden in new places for 2 weeks, I decided saving the cash for the rides was better...Peter was happy that I did that.

I got to my mom's mid-afternoon where she and Maggie were enjoying a quiet afternoon. Mom taught Maggie to cross stitch and Maggie had finished one picture and started another. Mom was going to make homemade ice cream to take to my brother's house for dinner.

It was great to see my brother and his wife and kids. My brother made ribs and we had a great dinner. Eric's grill got really hot for some reason though, and melted the lid on his grill. The meat was fine on the inside, but a little black on the outside. Maggie loved being able to play with her cousins as they have a great big yard and they have a lot of equipment. she played baseball and ran around fighting jedi knights with her cousin, Travis. Saturday we had a relaxing day and were able to read and watch TV. Maggie's cousin, Reagan came over to play and then we hung out with mom in the evening and ate her hamburgers, which are always great.

Sunday we headed to Warsaw, MO to ride with my friend, Eric Nelson, at Berry Bend State Park on the horse trails. He was telling me how rocky they were, and I didn't really believe they could be any worse than trails we have in TX, but they were so rocky. At one point, Eric asked me why anyone would ask a horse to go barefoot on trails like those and I confess, I had to agree with him. I have no doubt that Liberty could, but having seen them, I would definitely boot him.

Eric brought his stallion, Max to ride. Maggie rode Rouge, who I rode at the Cedar Creek NATRC ride 3 years ago and I rode Prima, who is Deli's half sister. I had a heck of a time getting on that silly horse. She's a full hand bigger than Liberty and when I adjusted the stirrups to the right position, even standing on the curb I couldn't quite reach the stirrup. She doesn't stand so well, and that didn't help either.

Max and Rouge were ready to run and Prima was at first, but the poor thing just couldn't keep up all the time. We did trot a little in the beginning when it wasn't very rocky. Her trot was so smooth, it felt like she was barely coming off the ground. Deli feels that way when she trots too. I had forgotten how nice it was! Toward the end of the loop, she began to wait and eat and puff and blow and then decide the other two horses were far enough away and go catch up. We came to a water hole and I thought she was going to take me swimming for awhile. But, she was happy to stand in the hole and let me sponge her off. We only did about 8 miles total, but I think it was all she was ready for that day. I was riding in Eric's Tucker. I had always thought they looked so comfortable, but when I got off I found that the top of my hamstrings and my hips hurt so bad that I'm not sure I could ride in that saddle long term. Eric says it's b/c we only walked and that could be, but boy, I'm still sore, even today. Eric invited us to go to KS to a MODTRA ride next Saturday and I think we're going to do it. He has someone else riding Rouge, but Maggie is going to ride Prima and I'm going to volunteer.

I was so impressed by how well behaved they were and how they let us each ride them and didn't even care they'd never seen us before. They were such good ponies, and I had a great day getting to visit with Eric, who I just don't get to see often enough.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Great riding

I thought I should post about my fun day riding at Six O today. Maggie is out of town so I decided to ride a bit with my friends, since I'm usually riding with Maggie and my friends. Robin (same robin as Tracey's story) met me at Six O today with one of her older horses, since Shetan was tired from all the riding at PHR. we did about 20 miles, and tried to go faster than my typical 3.5 mph. I think we averaged 6.5 until the end when we walked in and it brought our average down to about 4.5 Liberty was great all day long. he was always willing go forward, trotted, walked and cantered when I asked. Opened a few gates, and just generally was a good boy. We came in and ate lunch and then headed back out for a second, shorter loop. The second loop, he wanted in the water somewhere badly! We drank out of the bass pond, but I didn't let him go in since I didn't know how squishy the bottom was. Liberty scared me at the stock tank by putting a whole hoof into the stock tank by the windwill, which was no good. I pulled him back very quickly. At the last windmill, he put his hoof on top of the concrete. He loves the water, so I had to get off and lead him up to the water or he would have jumped in.

I also got to ride yesterday at the grasslands with Amy Crane. she has done one NATRC ride, at IT, several years ago. She also did the TTC recently at Cbar. She has a really sweet saddlebred/arab cross named Lexie, who she bought from Leslie Sloan. We mostly walked with a little trotting, but we had a great time. Liberty did take me swimming when we got back to camp...he loves his water. I think Wishi should give him her water wings.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Just waiting

My friend Dee is on her to meet me. We had planed a ride and then water aerobics at the ymca but it looks like it's going to storm. Since I gave Deli to the Flying G Ranch I don't have an extra friend horse anymore and it bums me out but at the same time it is such a relief to know she has a good home. Maggie is gone to my mom's so I planned to let Dee ride Dixie. The poor chubby mare doesn't need to be out of work for two weeks while Maggie and I are gone, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to let her ride. I suppose I could offer Liberty upfor others to ride at some point, but I am not ready to share him yet. While waiting I trimmed his feet. I had forgotten how hard trimming is. The last time they needed a trim I had Tony do it. I am considering calling him for Fiera and Dixie. Liberty is grazing in his halter and lead rope. I am afraid to turn him loose for fear I won't be able to catch him if the storm blows over.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Funny Frankie

With the recent rain the grass has gotten very tall. Frankie won't walk through the tall grass to go to the bathroom. Maggie mowed the front yard today and made a trip through the backyard so he would go. He ran outside on the path and went to the fence and went right away. He was so relieved to be able to walk through the grass without it touching his belly. Funny little dog will jumpinto the water trough and roll in the dirt but doesn't want to walk through the tall, wet grass.