Vacation at Bar 50

Maggie attended camp at Bar Fifty Ranch last week in Bismarck, Ar and with gas prices so high I decided to give up a week of work and stay here and ride rather than being burdened with driving back and forth twice. (What a hardship!) Liberty has never really traveled alone so it was a bit of a shock to arrive in a mostly empty campground and find himself alone. He called a little but settled down pretty quick and we had a short ride around camp on Sunday. I have never been much for bareback riding but have discovered that my recent weight loss and strength training on our wii fit has really helped my balance and I was more comfortable without a saddle than I have been in the past.

Monday morning I rode out with a nice family from LA and their grandchildren. We rode for about 3.5 hours and Liberty never got tired or footsore. He was super sure footed and did everything I asked, including not running down the hills after the other riders. He still fusses with his head when I would rather he give a little a little more but he is really coming along.

The trails are rocky and technical and i am looking forward to riding again tomorrow. He isn't used to all these hills but is doing great!

I haven't seen Maggie to know if she's having fun but I'm sure she is. Another NATRC person fom OK brought her daughter to camp too. Gail Kimery, who I met at Indian Territory in 2003, brought her daughter, who is just a few months younger than Maggie. Chris was having a great time, but apparently drinks lots of caffeinated sodas...which makes her a little hyper.

On Tuesday, I rode Liberty today and Kim Harrison came and rode Lissa. Yesterday he was tearing up and down the hills and today he was tired. Toward the end of the ride he wanted to go down the hills sideways and almost ran me into a few trees. He's reining great, but when I tried to move him over with my leg he was annoyed. He gives nicely to pressure from he ground. He's better on his left side than right. I think that he needs the chiro out again, but I won't know for sure until next month.

I gave him Wednesday off to give him a rest. Peter and I ran into Hot springs, walked around, read historial land marks, got a massage, ate good food...basically did very little. I was looking for new boots for Liberty, but couldn't find any that fit (I did buy some but had to return them the next day). When I got back on Wednesday Liberty was bored and rested. I got him out and grazed him. I had switched his pen to a slightly larger one b/c it rained over night both Tuesday and Wednesday so I felt like he could use some more space and a dry base to stand in.

Thursday, my agenda was to ride alone. I used to ride alone when I had my first horse, 20 years ago. However, after my shoulder injury, I got nervous of being out alone and I just haven't ridden alone. Kate Love is always encouraging me to get over it so I have been working up to it. At the stc we did our last 7 miles alone and made it but there were other horses around so we weren't alone alone. Today it was just us. I rode down the road out of camp with no problem, but at the first fork in the road he fought with me. I waited, we went on. At the next fork, same thing. We circled a bit,and we backed, and he went on down the hill. Then half way down the rocky hill out of camp he threw a major hissy and before I could get him straightened out he got part way up the hill. So we waited some more. He went the rest of the way down with no more trouble! He wasn't concerned about the footing, he just didn't want to go out of camp all alone.

Our next bit of trauma were all the puddles left from the storms. This horse loves creeks and lakes, but those puddles were going to eat him! I finally found a puddle in a safe place and worked him through it for 15 or 20 minutes till he would go through it straight both directions. We then went down a stretch of trail that reminded me of the bogs at davy crockett and he was really good! Until we got to one that must have had deep erosion on the bottom b/c all of a sudden I'm ankle deep in muddy water. He handled it fine, went straight and later went on through more of those that were not so deep.

We rode about two hours only but it was productive and he really began to listen to me. We came back in as Maggie's group was going up the mountain. He stood quietly for the others to pass him. I was very proud.

I also finally had a chance to play with the heart monitor I bought from Linda Stanford a couple years ago. He recovered pretty quick on all the climbs but continues to run a little high-12-13 after 10 min. He has a resting heart rate of 39. His breathing continues to be quick. What are the best exercises to work on breathing? Some say more canter and others more trot.

The only thing wrong with my time here is not having more NATRC friends here too.

Snow Cone Flavors

I have a goal for my summer. It's to eat as many different kinds of snow cones as possible before summer is over. So far I have had the following flavors:

Blue Raspberry
Tangerine
Dream cicle
cherry cola
grape cola
pina colada
Jamaica me Crazy (a combination of Pina Colada and Raspberry)
Ocean Brisk (lime, coconut, pina colada)
Tiger's blood (strawberry, coconut)
Kiwi
Lime
Margarita
The Sour Special (Lime, Lemon, Margarita and pink Lemonade)
Sour Apple
Pickle Juice
Rootbeer
DR. Pepper

OK, well, I have not had a whole snow cones in all these flavors. These are all that I have eaten and all the things I have tried. It's been hot and snow cones are yummy. TO minimize the caloric impact of my snow cone adventure, I have been ordering small snow cones and ordering them with light syrup. A snow cone is such a nice way to finish the day.

So far, my two favorites are Kiwi and Cherry Cola. I think Cherry Cola is my favorite. Amazingly pickle juice was pretty yummy, but I couldn't eat an entire snow cone with pickle juice poured over it.

Speaking of weight...I'm down 5.3 pounds from when we bought our WII 36 days ago.

Maggie swimming with Doc

Maggie has been attending camp in Aledo this week at Ironstar Farm. She has had so much fun. I heard Monday that they were going to have a surprise today, but since it was a surprise I didn't know about it ahead of time. Maggie has grown to really like all the Parelli games and is now wanting to get her Parelli level 1 certificate. I have never been a huge fan of Parelli, but I admit that his followers really seem to enjoy him, so I'm willing to give it a try.

Camp is keeping her busy every day and she is active. The other thing keeping us all active is the new Wii. I have lost 1.8 pounds since Sunday (could be normal fluctuation, so we'll see) and Maggie has lost 1 pound. Tomorrow am we're going to get up and do 15 minutes on the Wii and the treadmill and then switch so we get 30 minutes of exercise in first thing in the am. My abs and side muscles are so sore. One of the games at which I really stink is a hoola hoop game...I am just terrible. I can only spin about 30 times before I lose the hoops and they crash. Peter is currently the king at 303 spins. The other game that I keep practicing is a game where you have to keep good balance while a team of soccer players kicks balls at you. You have to head the balls and dodge the shoes and panda heads. You lose a point for every shoe that hits you and lose 3 points for every panda head. You gain a point for every ball you butt. It's hard b/c the panda heads look a lot like the balls as they come flying toward you. I've been surprised how little control I have over parts of my balance. I also am very sore in many of my deep muscles. There are also aerobic games and strength and yoga games. It's really so much fun. My goal is to log 30 minutes every day.

Maggie is looking forward to going to see my mom next week. She is going to go to Silver Dollar City and a couple water parks...I guess that means that Peter and I get the Wii all to ourselves.

New Job/no horses/fun Wii

I'm not sure what order to go in here, so I'll just start rambling...starting from the most recent to the oldest...This is like in a TV show when they show you a teaser and then say "24 hours earlier" only backwards.

Tonight we went back to the pub and played Irish music. I discovered that I could actually play between 30-50% of the notes if I closed my eyes and didn't try to pretend that I could read the notes off the page. Bless my piano teachers' hearts...I just never learned to play well by ear. But, a good time was had by all. I think we'll go back next week. Tuesday night IS date night for us.

Today I didn't get to check on my horses, but Cat and Maggie took care of them. I won't get out there tomorrow till late in the evening either. Work all day and then massages after.

Speaking of work...I love my new job. It's not too hard, the people are nice and I like being able to work in a slower paced, laid back atmosphere. One of my residents has now challenged me to find some songs I Never heard of before...downloading them now while I blog. Tomorrow I'm not sure what we'll do, but hopefully they will be well entertained. I am having to shift gears from kids to adults, but it keeps me going.

The Wii is just too cool. I got up this am and worked out for 20 minutes doing strength, balance and aerobic training. It weighs me and gives me a fitness test. I was a 46 for my Wii age the first time I did it. I think it was b/c I didn't really get the instructions. Today I was a 31, which means I got 15 years younger in just a day. I am amazed how it tracks my balance...I have always thought I was pretty balanced. People tell me I am balanced in the saddle all the time, but it's just not true. I stand on my right foot and I put my weight too far back. When Wii says that I am balanced I feel like I am leaning forward. I keep trying to play this game where you butt soccer balls with your head....I end up getting socked in the head with shoes and panda bears. It's really hard. It's supposed to work core muscles. I love it b/c if i skip a day (i missed yesterday) it scolds you.