All Blog Posts Tagged 'personal blog' (47)

The Energizer bunny runs loops around the trail trial course

Happily, the weather has cooperated for the 4H trail trial. It was warm and sunny and very little wind. Belle loaded beautifully – I never want to take that for granted. My student’s horse stepped up beside her, and we were down the road at 7 am. The location for these trails is in the Palmdale foothills. I was looking forward to some new sights and to hopefully get a chance to push Belle for a bit of sustained speed. The first set of riders finally headed down the trail at a little after 9 am.… Continue

Added by Monica Whitmer on May 4, 2010 at 1:00am — 1 Comment

A Little Riding - A Little Cleaning

Friday night we had tickets to the rodeo... It was fun except for the second bareback rider got hung up and then under his horse. They said he was okay, but they took him out by stretcher anyway. Those guys are crazy tough.

Saturday morning I had to get more hay. The rain and cool weather has limited the supply. Most farms are just now cutting their second, so I opted for getting more of last year's hay. It looks good.

We rode for about 2 1/2 hours Saturday afternoon. Mostly… Continue

Added by John Harrer on May 3, 2010 at 6:46pm — No Comments

Finally - Problem Loader Solved!

I hate to admit that we have had a problem loader.

Ava, a homebred Half-Arabian mare, has been a problem loader (read refusing to load) since we brought her home from being broke. That was 6 years ago! We've tried making life uncomfortable outside the trailer, we tried blindfolding, we've tried loading her best friend/sister, we've tried waiting patiently for 5 hours, we've tried just about everything but tranquilizer. We were at our wits end - everything else loads willingly…

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Added by Diana on May 2, 2010 at 8:10am — No Comments

And So on and So on and So on....

Thursday April 22

At some point, riding lots of miles starts to feel a little redundant. Today, Robin and I rode around the buttes – we mixed it up a little by going over the steep pass down to Ave Q, then across to…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on May 1, 2010 at 11:53pm — 2 Comments

Ride Like You've Never Been Thrown

Let’s imagine that you’ve strapped yourself to a rocket. Now add muscle, flesh and a brain to that rocket. Seeing as the rocket now has a mind of its own and muscle to control its every whim. What would you say to that?

Maybe you already know where I’m going with this, but saddle up with me for…

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Added by Cheryl Bruder on May 1, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

The Days Are Getting Longer

It's been a busy week, but I was saving Thursday evening for a ride. One of the disadvantages of my job is that I do not get off until 5:30 pm. It's been impossible to get home and ride before darkness falls. Last night I rushed home, changed clothes, got Jessie ready, and was saddled by 6:15.

Our neighbor was out and about and I asked if we could use his arena. He said yes. This was a real treat for us because the rains had the ground packed and it wouldn't be too dusty. We went over… Continue

Added by John Harrer on April 16, 2010 at 2:46pm — No Comments

The Great Motivator (And I'm Not Talking Lombardi Here)

Last weekend the weeds in the garden were up to mid-calf. The alternating rain and sunshine, along with my benign neglect, helped them to thrive. They demanded attention and I knew if I didn't intervene quickly they would soon become a much bigger problem. Add to this that we had the nursery delivering a fifteen foot raywood tree for the front yard and I had to dig a 30" x 30" hole to accommodate it, and the prospect of riding was not looking good.

I decided to use riding as my… Continue

Added by John Harrer on April 1, 2010 at 6:01pm — No Comments