New phone!

Nathan and I got new phones today as he needed one for his vlogging  (video blogging) that had a forward facing camera/camcorder with 4G for faster uploading. US Cell had BOGO so I got one too! Next will be to test my blogging skill while riding but probably not til spring unless I find a heated indoor to ride in LOL, gloves and cold are not friendly to cell phones.
If I did this right the included photo is of the kids and I testing the new forward facing camera :)

Satin and I

Well Satin and I had a great ride together, just the two of us, at Stephens Forest on 10-7-12!  None of my usual riding buddies were available to ride and I am not a social butterfly around people I don't know so we, well I decided, I am sure Satin would have preferred to say home lol, decided to try it solo! 
It was a great day for a ride, trees and leaves looked beautiful. We saw about 10 deer on our nice ride. We hit trail 15 at the last and really wished I had rode it first because it was a really nice trail but it was getting late so we back tracked instead of riding the whole thing. 
I got some pictures, a short video and I will share the link from my Endomondo sports tracker. Enjoy, we sure did!

Click here for the map >> Endomondo map

See the leaves falling at my camera? ^

:) See the deer?  ^

She is so pretty!! I am so lucky. ^

Wow it looked so pretty!

Fun with Friends

Well I didn't ride a whole lot this summer with a bruised tailbone after Elk Rock and then the terrible heat we had this summer :(  I did get a ride in here and there at home on Satin and even the 4th of July parade in Milo.
Well I am going to just get to the most recent rides which were over Labor Day weekend. On Saturday afternoon I met some friends at Stephens Forest. They were camping that weekend and by the time I got there they had run home to feed real fast so Satin and I went solo on a couple of shorter trails while we were waiting for their return. 

It was overcast that day like it might rain but it didn't and kept nice and cool! 
When they got back, the 3 of us had a nice long ride and I managed to get us off on a deer trail that ended and we got lost but no for long we found the dried creek bed and followed it until we hit the level B dirt road. I was so impressed with Satin some of the stuff we went thru she did great! 
Map of our ride on Saturday Sept. 1st

On Sunday I stayed home and got some things done in the morning and then got Levi out and did some playing around on the barrel and pole pattern, some groundwork over brush and logs and I even made her stand on a upright log lol

Then we had our first solo ride down the road 

and for the most part she did good. About halfway thru our playing around I remembered to turn on the Endomondo so we only have this partial map of our ride lol, we did some cantering up the road and walking back, cantering up the road again and walking back so you will see on that map we went back and forth a few times ;) She got a pretty good workout. 

Then on Monday I picked up my friend Courtney and her mare Lu and we headed to Stephens Forest. I'm thinking Satin is a smidge taller than Lu ;)

We had a great day even tho it got pretty warm. We also found some new trails neither of us had been on before and they were pretty nice trails. 

We had a really great time but our horses were pretty tired and sweaty when we done but they really seemed to enjoy the ride and each other :) Our biggest peeve was all the beer, pop and food wrappers that were along the trails :( Map of our ride on Monday Sept. 3rd

Elk Rock May 18-20th

Wow that was a long hiatus huh? A lot has happened since I last blogged. I will start with Elk Rock and why I haven't written for awhile.
Some friends and I went camping with our families at Elk Rock May 18-20th. I had planned to take Jake, Satin, Levi and Jackie so Marty and the kids could ride with me. Well Miss Satin came up limping a couple days before hand, checked her out and she had an abcess in her foot :( .  Josie rode Jake, I rode Levi and Nate rode Jackie in the morning and Marty rode her in the evening. Levi did great her first day out on the trails. She was leading, following and riding in the middle. We went thru some crazy thick brush on one trail which caused Marty to lose his hat and I have to climb off to retrieve it. Well as I did Marty and Josie rode on!! Now I am thinking what is Levi going to do with them riding off and we are in this thick brush?!
Well to my surprise she did not flinch, holler or get upset and we easily caught them with her long legs lol.

On the 20th Marty and Nate went home to go fishing so Josie and I were going to ride with friends, we had kept it smaller family rides the day before since Levi was green and one of my friends had a green horse as well. Well since both girls did so well the day before we decided to ride together. We were doing great and again we did the lead, middle and follow as its good for horses to learn to ride in different areas of the crowd.
We decided to head back for a bite to eat at lunch and on our way back we saw a young buck just off the trail, like 2 horse lengths away or so! Well as we were riding past and were almost all of us were by the deer decided to leave, when he did, I guess he had some friends that were bedded down in the grass that we couldn't see and it cause a big spook and stampede. 4 of us in our group of 6 came off our horses and 3 of the horses got away. Yep the 2 green ones and Jackie :(  I stayed on the longest trying to pull my big mare up but she was just too big and too strong for me as I didn't have all my core strength back from my December surgery. I am sure if you have kids you will also understand when I say I was freaked out more by the fact that the horse my daughter was on ran past without my daughter on board than I was about my runaway horse. I knew I wasn't going to get this mare stopped and I sure as hell wasn't leaving my daughter back there not knowing if she was ok. So I bailed off my speeding bullet and, I would like to think I did a graceful tuck and roll, but considering the condition I was in afterward I am going to say it wasn't entirely graceful ;)
Well luckily when I "dismounted" I didn't break anything and my phone was right next to me on the ground. I started running back to check on the others, it felt like I was running forever when I met up with them heading my way. I was so happy to see everyone was basically ok, that was when they told me I was bleeding :(  I had a large goose egg and short laceration on my forehead.. as we all know head wounds bleed terribly.
I am going to just say here to shorten this up that one horse made it back to camp, the other 2 we found almost 3 hrs later bogged in the mud behind the park. I was very grateful that day for my friends, the people that helped us look for and find the horses and that none of us were too seriously injured.
I got checked out by the Dr and while no concussion I did have a badly bruised tailbone, bruised shoulder, bruised hip, bruised ribs and a knot on my head.
This kept me from blogging for awhile then my grandmother passed away and one of my uncles passed away and I just let the blog slide a bit. Hopefully I will get back into a routine of writing some as I am riding more now :)

I'm baaaack

Finally I am finding the time to get back on my blog.. I know its been some time. First surgery then healing then getting back to work. 
I behaved myself and didn't even attempt to ride horses until the dr gave me the thumbs up to go ahead :)

So I started out slowly just riding my trusty mare Satin. We had some really good rides when the weather was nice. It was really her first time out alone but she did really well and just gets better and better out alone. Trees make her nervous when alone though as you just never know what is going to come out and get us!! ;)  She is even learning that those working Two Eyed Jack bloodlines make her absolutely capable of working O-O, sure was a surprise to her but I knew it all along. ;)  So far she is doing well, learning to pony some, side pass, pivoting on her hindquarters, she is even dragging things now, next I might try my hand throwing the lariat off of her (she might just laugh herself silly as I am definitely no roper! LOL) .. so much for her pampered princess reputation. Maybe one day rollbacks and sliding stops. Hey a girl can dream can't she?? ;)

I have ridden Levi some this spring but just bareback with the halter in the training pen.. she is mostly getting brushed, refreshing some ground work and learning that when I climb on the gate that means its time to side up so I can mount, gonna be awhile before I can belly up on a horse her size because of my abdominal scar (she is 1/4" short of being 16 hh now!!! I know!! What big girl!) so for now its the gate and she does so so willingly that I think she WANTS me to ride (haha) then we will practice at the trailer, regular fences, truck tailgates etc etc etc. 
She is picking up leg cues nicely with our bareback rides and learning to be lighter and more responsive in the rope halter. I am always amazed when someone tells me their horse is light and responsive yet when I get on they don't feel that way to me personally. To me light and responsive means I can ride and steer with one finger (especially at a walk!) and that is what I am working towards with Satin and Levi. Maybe one day I will have them responsive enough to brag about ;)  My goal is to get them where my old gelding Smoke was, BRIDLELESS responsive :D With my limited time in the saddle its going be a long process lol.

Angel has been learning some Clinton Anderson groundwork and is starting to figure it out, its all so new to her but I think she is actually starting to enjoy it because if she does something correctly its means lots of rubbing, scratches and attention, all of which she really likes. I haven't saddled and bridled her yet or done any ground driving but soon I will... right now the 1st 2 rides I was just a passenger as she moves around that pen with just the rope halter and lead, as I am trying to stay out of her face until she picks up squeeze means go and sitting back and down means whoa. She IS small enough I can jump on bareback without any aids (she is only 14.2 hh) or having to belly up lol. It took me a bit to figure out just how to work it out with her because I can't really swing up and on as the twisting motion while propelling myself up is not comfortable on the scar tissue and feels like a pulled muscle, but I will be back to that soon with more healing and when my strength gets even better. 


Apparently I am also becoming a fowl collector lol, guess it runs in the family as my Grandpa Kenny used to always have fowl of some sort :D . I have had my buff orpingtons for awhile now and they are easily my favorites. I also had barred rocks and black austerlorps, while nice big birds they just were not the docile beauties my orpingtons are.  I also now have to very pretty gray chinese crested geese, which my goose is trying to lay but unfortunately her eggs didn't appear to be fertile yet so I replaced them with some duck eggs a friend was gracious enough to send me :) So maybe in about 28 days or so she will be followed by some pekins and some runner duck babies.. that outta be a hoot!!
I also now have 6 light brahmas, 10 americaunas, and 10 polish chicks(5 buff laced and 5 golden laced) that I am raising up. My gosh those polish are a bit funny looking now that their top knots are feathering in. 
I hope to get some buff duckling soon from another friend, some cayuga ducklings from another friend and who knows what else!! I will have to get pics of my funky chickens, geese and horses up soon.

Here I sit still unable to ride

Of course its because I had surgery on Dec 5 to remove part of my pancreas, my spleen and a nodule from my liver. Fun huh?  I am still recovering well,  just not fast enough for me LOL.  Wouldn't you know that I would have surgery on one of the years we have a mild (almost spring like) winter?? 


My horses have been a great therapy for my healing as I go out to pet and brush them on the nice warmer days. They always say " The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a person" and they were right.


I went out and brushed my girls and old Jake last Tuesday (Jan 3rd) and I loved it. I don't know if I have mentioned this before but Satin will side up to anything for me to climb on bareback and you don't know how tempting it was to ask her to do that. I kept telling myself I will only sit there while she grazes or just go for a short walk, BUT I also told myself if you do this and it bothers the incision you will be off them for that much longer. Well I listened to the second voice LOL. So I just had her on the lead and let her graze while I brushed her.


I then put Satin away and got Levi. This girl loves attention no matter what kind, brushing, petting, talking..heck even working on the lunge line.. all she wants is to be WITH you. :)
So I brushed, talked to her and even had her work at the end of the lead for a short bit. I then removed her halter and just stood there with her talking some more and petting. She gave me some of her horsey hugs, kept nuzzling the halter (I really think she wanted it back on!) ,  and absolutely did not want me to leave. She was hanging over the gate looking at me with those puppy dog eyes.  I don't care what anyone says they are NOT "just horses" .  I think it is possible for a horse to love a human and Levi really made me feel missed and loved. :)  


Until next time, everyone enjoy their horse(s) in this beautiful Iowa weather!!