Simply Me

New pictures of one of our newer girls...Ethel.

Most of you may remember that we brought home two new girls to our miniature horse herd in April. Back then, they were furry yak looking beasts! Let me give you a reminder of how Ethel looked back then:

 

Well, I finally got her cleaned up enough to take pictures. I had gotten her cleaned up and clipped a month or so ago, but by the time I went to take some pictures, she had gotten all dirty again.  It just didn't fit into the schedule to try again until just a couple of days ago.

Here is our Ethel looking pretty spiffy:

Cannot wait to get her into a show ring next year!

Three down, two more to go!!

Yesterday Sarah and I attended the MDMHA's fourth miniature horse show of the season. The morning started off early and wet. We really expected to get a call during our drive that the show was being cancelled because we were driving through some pretty heavy rain. Eventually though, we drove out of it and arrived to find the grounds dry. The clouds were threatening all morning but nothing came of it. 

With each show, I learn new lessons. Things like:  use disposable gloves when applying black hoof shine!  And if you don't, make sure you have friends who have some gloves for you to wear to cover up the mess you've made of your hands. Thanks Melissa!!!  Also, do NOT spend prep day running multiple long-distance errands that take up the bulk of the day. I just don't have the stamina for that.

We continue to do well...another blue ribbon for our age class and a another yellow third place for the solid color class. I had Sarah "record the moment" after we got home yesterday:

Considering how little I've worked with her, she really did well for me in the ring. It's like she's starting to understand that she needs to "turn it on' when we're in the there.  Once again though, while it is exciting and fun to get these ribbons, going out and spending the day with great horse friends is what I'm finding I enjoy the most. 

We have another show again next week....gulp. Back to back shows is surely going to challenge me!

A simply fabulous Mother's Day

Spending your Mother's Day at a horse show two hours drive away from home is not the ideal way many moms would like to spend their day, but it turned out to be a fantastic day for us. 

First and foremost, we made it there and back safely. I'm not a seasoned trailering driver, so each trip is one that I'm glad to have behind me. I did forget to take the truck out of 4-wheel drive most of the way home (wet field necessitated I turn it on when we were pulling out). I know that's not a great thing to do to your 4-wheel drive vehicle not to mention it really blew out the fuel mileage for this trip, so I'm chalking that one up to lesson learned and will be adding it to my post-show checklist.

Secondly, what better way to spend Mother's Day than with your teenage daughter? Poor thing was exhausted and dozed most of the way home but she was a trooper for putting up with the whole deal. She even managed to seem like she enjoyed herself a bit. 

And after we made it home?  I had a fabulous dinner prepared and waiting for me. Tom made my favorite shrimp dish:  Shrimp Fra Diavlo. Yummy!!! It was absolutely perfect. 

Finally, the cherry on the topping of my special day was this:

We got ribbons! And honest to goodness earned ones this time! The blue ribbon was for the 2-year old mare halter class. Then we moved onto Grand and Grand Reserve mare halter class. The top two horses from each of the 3 mare classes are then shown as a group, so the top two mares of all entered can be chosen. A lovely mare owned by a really sweet lady named Mary Ellen, took the top prize of  Grand Champion for Mares. My heart practically skipped a beat when they called our number and said we had won the second place Grand Reserve Champion for Mares. 

Seriously, I could not have been more shocked. This little bugger of mine has been a total PITA the last few weeks as we worked on how she should behave in the ring. I was seriously going to be happy if she just went into the ring and walked/trotted on command. That would have been a successful day in my book. Sarah said that during our age class Missy stood absolutely perfectly with her feet placement just so. I was so focused on keeping her *still* and stretching her neck with her ears up and forward that I had no idea what her legs were doing! 

All the hard work of the recent weeks, especially yesterday, gave us this result. Much thanks has to go to Tom for doing such a fabulous job helping me take care of our girls every day. And my show companion Sarah for coming along and giving me someone special to share the moment with.

Then I want to give a heartfelt thanks to all the fabulous people of the Mason Dixon Minature Horse Association  for putting on such a nice show. It is such a smooth, relaxed and fun show. I have met some of the nicest, most helpful people within this organization. So many of the members encouraged me over the past two years.  People like Kathy, Linda, Melissa, Wendy, Kris, and Tammy....so many people who genuinely want to help you. It helps that they are all a little horse crazy (like me!) and find this kind of thing fun. 

If it's not obvious by now, I'll state for the record:  I am over the moon about today. Will we have a repeat performance in two weeks at the next show?  Who knows! I won't count any chickens before they're hatched. If this is the only set of ribbons we get this year, I will call it a successful year and be completley satisfied.

And now....I'll stop gushing like I just won an Oscar or something. It's time to go out and feed the girls dinner.

 

Show Season: Year 2

Boy howdy...this showing business is HARD WORK! I am exhausted and bone weary. And I still have to get to the show tomorrow! It sure will be nice to have the Friday off before a few of the shows going forward. I can try and get all the work done on Friday and gather my strength on Saturday. It's a thought?

For all my show brethern, I thought I'd share a checklist that I made up tonight so I can gather everything together and hit the ground running tomorrow @ 5:30am. If I do this right, you'll be able to download it for yourself if you'd like.

Download Horse Show Checklist

While we're on the subject, let me show you pics from last year's first attempt at showing for us:

 

A weekend for some beautiful girls...both human and equine

Sarah will be thrilled to learn that she's being lumped into this post with one of our horses. Her most common refain these days is:  "My college fund is out in the barn!"

We'll start with our #1 Princess!  Sarah attended her first prom, as a junior with her boyfriend John, who is a senior this year. We were thrilled when we found her dress at Nordstrom Rack. We owe our friend Sandy P. a huge thanks AGAIN for pointing us there. And if you have a fancy shindig to go to and want your hair looking great....then head on down to see Brittany at Kelly's Hair Design in Bel Air. She did a fabulous job for Sarah.

So, who is the other "princess" in our midst today? Her name is Missy. She has a show next Sunday and needed to lose the yak suit in preparation. Here's the results of our first round of clipping this year:

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We have a little more work to do but it's a good start especially when you compare it to the disaster that was last year: 

There'll be some new girls in town...soon

Most of my friends will think I've gone off the deep end. And there's a darn good chance I have. Many will think this is sheer lunacy, considering all the uncertainty in our lives at this time. I respect that line of thinking and am sure their concerns are very valid. Yet, at the mere suggestion by my dear husband, I was ready to jump in to this particular pool again. 

To all  my dear friends who are concerned that this not a very wise choice, even a bad one, I say this:  Thank you for caring that much about me. It means the world to know you do. With that said, please know that I am making a rational decision. There are things that I do keep close to my vest that might make you understand better why this is actually an okay decision for us. I know, I know...me? keep something to myself? The Queen of Over Sharing?  Yes, it's true. 

The other thing you should know is this: Nothing, and I mean nothing has given me as much pleasure and contentment as our horses. I love my husband and children far more than I can ever express and thank God every day for blessing me so abundantly. And still, these horses, these little furry beasts on 4 hooves, they move my heart and soul in a way that is simply indescribable. I might be a bit dramatic to say, but I NEED our horses.  With all the turmoil that we face these days, it is these horses that are keeping me on an even keel. They are my anti-depressant and my Xanax rolled into one. I don't need as much of the pharmocological stuff these days and I think there's a direct correlation that can be attributed to these girls of ours. 

And finally, these horses have been good for my marriage. No, really...dear husband, it's true! We have never communicated better than we have since we got these horses. While he will tell anyone, far and wide, that these are MY horses and he just does what it takes to make me  happy...just come watch him talk about them. Come see how he loves on them when he goes out to feed them. Listen to how he gets when he's watching them run and play out in the field. And how quickly he yells for me to come look so I can enjoy it too. Yeah, he's happy they're here too. Maybe for different reasons than mine, but that's okay.

The family who currently owns them is making a hard decision to do what's best for their family and their horses by giving these two lovlies to us. I'm a firm believer in things that happen for a reason, even the bad things. I believe that things do and don't work out in ways that are meant to be. Wishful thinking? Maybe...but it works for me.

So, on Thursday, we will bringing two more miniature horses home to join our little herd. These two girls are 1/2 sisters to our girl Baby. One is even built very much like Baby and has the same left blue eye/right brown eye combination. Their names are Lucy and Ethel. There is serious debate over whether Ethel will remain Ethel. Lily seems a better choice. Definitely rolls off the tongue easier and that's important while training. Yet...and don't tell the dear daughter this...I'm starting to see the fun it may be to keep it the way it is. Time will tell.

I only have one semi-decent shot of Lucy:

And here is a couple views of Ethel:

Ethel has two blue eyes. She has 1/2 a white face and 1/2 a black face. And as confusing as it may be to some, these girls are black and white, not brown and white. I can't wait to get them cleaned up!

My next pair of shoes

 

Want a pair for yourself? Click here.

She's my "heart horse"

(forgive me while I "wax poetic" for a moment  )

I really work hard to never show favoritism with my kids, mainly because I love 'em both so much that I couldn't ever pick one over the other.

When it comes to our horses and dogs though, I allow myself a little leeway. Our miniature Dachshund is my "heart dog". There's just something that little extra special about her that I can't explain.

And the same goes for one of our yearlings. Well, she's closer to being a two yr old now, I guess. Baby is just a little something special that grabs my heart practically every time I go out to the barn to be with them. Sure, Izzy will always be special as our "first." Missy is our "princess" pony with the finer bone structure and gorgeous light color mane and tail to go along with her gorgeous silver bay coat. Cha Cha? Well she's a gorgeous girl but such a diva!

Then there's Baby. She's low man on the herd's totem pole. She doesn't let that get her down though. She has no problem getting what she needs and she's not afraid to push the others around in order to have some fun. She's our clown too. Our pasture sentry...no cat dares to come in there while she's around! She's not terribly vocal, I think it's because she knows she has the silliest sounding whinny in the bunch. But she's the first one to come greet me in the morning. 

This is a shot from last July. It was early in the morning after I had fed them. I love these kind of mornings. It is so peaceful and quiet. I love the sense of calm I have when I spend my time with my girls. 

How did I live so long without them?

Random Stuff Saturday

After taking off two full weeks from work, going back can be tough! I was relieved to find there were no major problems waiting for me when I logged in on Monday. The good news is that I made it through the week and can now breathe deep and enjoy the weekend.

What else has been going on? I've been reading, editing photos, ordering photos, stepping through the Library of Memories (LOM) materials that I've been working through for 3 years (!), watching some favorite movies and trying to sleep. Not sleeping soundly with some regularity is starting to be bothersome!

With regard to the photos, I found this awesome image of Izzy from last summer that I had previously passed by: 

I love how it really highlights what a strong and beautiful head she has. It's not the "dishy" style that is currently popular in the miniature horse world (click here to see some wonderful examples of what I mean: CLICK HERE). Still, I like it.

On Wednesday night, I stumbled across one of my all time favorite movies:  Mr. Holland's Opus.  I discovered this movie in the 90's when I joined Columbia Record's VCR club. It was was one of my "12 FREE!" movies for joining. LOL! If you've never seen it, you owe it to yourself to find it. If you've ever had a teacher in your life who was something beyond a little special, this one is for you. If you love music, this one is for you. Find the soundtrack, you'll love it too!  CLICK HERE to read a good synopsis of the movie.  Here's the original trailer from 1995:

 

Last night, we watched one of my favorite movies from 2010:  How to Train Your Dragon. Again, if you didn't see this last year, get yourself to the Red Box or Blockbuster kiosk, put it in your Netflix Queue or find it on your cable's on demand listing. I took Casey to see this expecting to not like it one bit. Expecting to take a nap during most  of it. And like Transformers and Iron Man before it, I *loved* it from the start. With it's wonderful story, great comedic moments, adorable dragons (!) and heart warming characters, you can't help but enjoy it. And if anyone knows where I can find a plush Toothless, please let me know!

 

I enjoyed this again so much last night that I'm going to actually buy a copy to keep.

That's it for today. I think!

 

Merry Christmas Eve! - Entry #10

The horses wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas too!

This is Cha Cha and Missy wondering what the heck is taking their dinner so long!