Real Life NATRC skills

Maggie and I rode to the park from our pasture where the horses live today.  It's a little under a mile to get there, but I have a serious phobia about riding on the street so we have never done it.  Today I walked Liberty in hand down the street, which gave us both a nice walk. I found that I walked faster on the ground than we do sometimes with me on him. In the park we made several winding trips on many different trails, but I'm sure we didn't ride many miles. It was challenging terrain however. Several steep, washed out downhills and some places we had to back out of because there was nowhere to go and nowhere to turn around. I even had to dismount and move some debris so we could get through in a few spots. It was actually quite challenging.  On the way home, we found another way out and I managed to keep my nerves of asphalt and city streets under control. I was able to ride all the way home. I discovered that Liberty will sidepass off the rode nicely and he doesn't spook at cars...just people in the bushes and weedeaters, lol.

Long day

I had a great plan for my day. I had one client to see and then the farrier was coming and maggie and I were going to go riding. But then I had to take the suburban to the shop and the afternoon floated by in a stream of lunch and goodwill shopping and them more waiting for the truck. In retrospect we should have worked in a pedicure in the hour we spent waiting in Milt's for the truck.

The news is mixed. The Immediate problem is fixed but we have a couple thousand dollars in repairs for oil leaks to fix over the next six months. Nothing is immediate but it all has to be done. The parts aren't expensive but labor is high. The truck is leaking from the front and rear main seals, the oil pan, the valve cover gaskets, the rear pinion and then a separate repair to the transfer case. Fortunately it's an older truck and my mechanic says he can rebuild it himself rather than sending it to a transmission shop.

I asked the question of whether or not i should just buy a new truck but the realization that I would have to spend a lot money to get a truck nice enough to avoid the repairs I'm going through makes me realize that paid for is better. And I don't have to fix it this minute so I have time to prepare for the inevitable.

The day has been topped off with a repair to a flat trailer tire. End result no work out and no riding. Unless trimming fiera's back feet counts as my work out.

Alice Yovich
Sent from my iPhone

Playing with Ponies

Tonight, I decided to play in the field with the horses. Oly has some serious water issues, and since we had a ton of rain yesterday, I thought it was a good day to practice ponds and water stuff. He started out jumping huge jumps over the water and ended up walking through puddles that frightened him in the beginning. It wasn't perfect, but he was sending through the water by the end of about 20 minutes.  I did it with treats.  Every time he would step in the water, he got a treat. He caught on fast.  And like everything he does, he's so sensible and reasonable.  He never got upset and he was happy to try with the water over and over until he figured out what I wanted. What a good boy. 

Then we went into the pasture and practiced trot out. He was so awesome to jog with. I practiced jogging and stopping and jogging some more.  I finally turned him loose and he jogged and stopped with him, even though he wasn't in a halter or lead rope. It was so cute. He seems to really like being with me and I'm happy b/c I love being with him.

So, then I took Fiera out into the pasture to the same spot to work on the same thing. I know that she is a baby, but she is NOT as reasonable as he is.  She is bossy and witchy when you push her to do something that she doesn't want to do. She is NOT scared of water, but she sure doesn't want to go through it. And when I use a whip, she is not OK with it. She gets mad!  She did finally go through a short, shallow bit of water, but it took a lot of work and she was really pissed.  I took her jogging in the pasture after the training too, and she really moves out.  She is so smart, but I think she uses her intelligence for evil. she's not quite three, so I know part of it is just how old she is, but I'm not sure I'm tough enough to make this work...but I'm going to keep doing the work and pushing her to be the good girl I know that she can be.

Liberty had a free pass tonight. I fed him and groomed him and loved him a lot, but he didn't have to do any work.  I love that horse!

Liberty versus Olympus

So far Liberty is losing the battle. The other day I was riding him and he shied at nothing and I fell off. I'm so tired of falling off that horse. I don't fear falling off of him b/c I have never been hurt and I don't worry about it happening either...maybe that's why it happens so often. I may need to start actually thinking about the possibility that I will fall off. When Liberty is on, he's on. But when he's squirrely...watch out. 

Olympus is scared of everything, but he stops, hesitates, looks and we negotiate.  I will see how this relationship develops, but right now, I'll take Oly over Liberty in the trustworthiness department.

However, Liberty loves to swim and play in the water and Oly so far hasn't decided that the water is a good place. I figure I'll save that for a hot summer day and a safe watering hole.

Help for a soldier

I'm posting this for a friend whose daughter is being deployed to Afghanistan. My friend's name is Claudia and her daughter is Heather.  If anyone wants to send support, please contact me for contact info.

I just heard from Bunny (Heather). She is settled in her base in Afghanistan and all is well. Her address is:
PFC Gaughan(Pitts), Heather
F CO 2-27 IN
FOB Bostick
APO AE 09310

She will let us know what she and her battle buddies will need. Apparently items such as shampoo and bar soap are greatly needed.
Sprite (Claudia Gaughan)

Bettfly

Going to try some new marketing

Alice Yovich

Betterist in:

A day with my daughter

Maggie and I had the most glorious day today. We got up and had breakfast at cracker barrel with Laura and Allyson.  Then we got our haircuts, and now we look fantastic!  I'm thinking of growing my hair out a bit, but I haven't decided for sure as now that I have a good cut from Laura (at Moda Salon in Ft. Worth) We loved the part of town that the new salon is in. It's where there are apartments overhead. I would love to live in a loft like that!

Then we came home so I could eat lunch at home (trying to watch money and calories) and watched some TV. Then we had to meet the hay man. We unrolled 10 bales of hay off the truck and rebuilt the fence so that the hay was protected from the horses. in the process, we opened up part of the fence that I had previously kept cordoned off so that the horses will have more shade when it gets hot. I also tried to put Fiera in the round pen to keep her safe, but eventually turned her out b/c I felt like she might try to jump out. I'm going to work on that later, but I'm afraid she will hurt herself if I leave her in the round pen. She has jumped out of it before when it was an arena.

Then we came home and ate some pork that I had prepared in the crockpot, which was yummy and then we've hung out and watched TV. So, it was just a lovely day.

One funny today...Laura, our stylist, told Maggie that she thought she should keep her hair red. So, we're going to do it again tomorrow. She told us how to just do the roots so she doesn't get too many layers of color on her hair.