A Day in the Life ...

I actually turned down an offer to go riding this morning - I just couldn't bear getting up so early today and had some chores to do since I had to work yesterday. I slept in till about 7:30 and then didn't even get dressed until 9:00. It felt good to do nothing....( I know - I was supposed to do chores!)

Went grocery shopping then picked up Mom to take her to Hobby Lobby with me. My sister and I took a free drawing class there today. We really didn't learn a whole lot - it was geared towards beginners - but we look forward to some painting classes later.

I got a bonus buy today at the Dollar Tree - a really good horse book -"Everyday Trail Riding" by Eliza R.L. McGraw. I've never found any horse books there before and there was just the one copy. It has a lot of common sense stuff for beginners and interesting items for someone like me whose been trail riding for years along with great photographs.

I'm babysitting my "granddog" Millie this weekend and she's such a good girl. She's the greybeard in the picture below. We were sitting on the front porch enjoying a small breeze. The other two are Sarah and Jesse.

Bobby cooked dinner for us, I took a 20 minute nap and then walked the dogs in the neighborhood for about 30 minutes. When we got back , I pulled Stylin out of the pen and rode her for a little while in the back yard. I was going to have Bobby take a video of us but the camera's batteries were dead so he snapped a picture with my phone. I love to ride bareback at home and usually don't bother with a bridle, but always use a saddle and almost always use a bridle when we trail ride. Also, you'll see my lovely grey and brown hair when I ride at home but it'll be smashed under my helmet when I'm on the trail. :-)

Fed up the girls, snapped a few more phone camera pics (my arm isn't quite long enough for self portraits of me and Style), gathered the 2 eggs for today and came in for the evening. What a great day - I'm blessed!

Rusty and Dixie on the Fourth of July

This is Rusty...he's a 4 yr old Quarter Horse. He's a handsome and very calm guy.

Here's Traci on Rusty - he's her husband's horse that she's putting some hours on.

And this is me on my good ole girl, Dixie.

We had a decent 2 hour ride starting at 8:30 am. (we'll have to start earlier next time - it was pretty ding dang hot by 10:30) While we were walking down one trail with ditches on each side, I caught sight of a critter that I thought might be a small gator. We stopped, backed up a little, and saw that it was a humongous cottonmouth. He just sat there, semi coiled with his head raised out of the water, showing his light colored throat. He wasn't leaving his cool spot for the likes of us. It did make us leary of splashing through any murky water for the rest of the ride. I left my camera in the truck so I took the ride pictures with my cell phone....not too bad for a cheesy cell phone camera.

After getting home and cleaned up, I made my yummy shrimp dip, then Bobby and I went to some friends' house to enjoy an Independence Day get together with the traditional hamburgers and hot dogs. I even got my big behind in the pool !

Happy Independence Day from KD and Becky !

Sunny Saturday

Another scorcher....but Stylin and I went for a ride anyway. We hit the trails at 9:00 and rode for 2 hours. Then we stopped at an old friend's barn to visit on the way home. She said we can come ride in her arena anytime, so I may just start going there early in the morning when I'm riding alone. This picture is Style, hot and sweaty after our ride when she noticed the cows in the field next to us.

My hibiscus is doing well......I bought a new pot and soil for it today and will replant it tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

Mustang Adoption in Town

I talked my sister and nephew into going to look around at the BLM adoption that was at the Clay County Fairgrounds today and tomorrow. I thought is was to be by a bid process, but all they did was take your application and you chose a horse for $25.00. TWENTY-FIVE dollars !!!! It made me a little sick thinking about the possibly uninformed people that would be taking home an animal. I hope and pray for the best for these animals and the people who adopted. The flyer had indicated that today was preview day and tomorrow was adoption day, but they were sending them out as fast as folks could hand over their money and application.

I realize that most people there knew what they were getting into and were knowledgable about the challenges they will face with these horses. There were several very nice looking animals - mostly the older ones. The yearlings and 2 year olds were kind of puny looking.

I'm glad that these animals will have a chance at a new life and I wish those who adopted today good luck. I don't consider myself a sentimentalist - I'm even for culling the herds rather than let them starve - but it still made me sad. Here are the rest of the photos I took.

Here's a video of one guy that was scared and did NOT want to be haltered or handled.

Solo Trail Ride

I didn't have any plans this morning, so I slept in til 8, then as I was out feeding the girls, decided to go ahead and load Stylin up for a short trail ride. Not many of my friends want to ride right now in the heat and I didn't call the girls that might have braved the heat and bugs because it was so last minute.

We just went to a local ranch that is about 15 minutes away and rode the trails in and around the ranch. I didn't go into Jennings State Forest very far as the bugs seemed to be bad in there. I picked a switch to keep the bugs off Style's head and ears.

I shadowed a group that was riding rental horses for about 15 minutes then branched off on the trails to enjoy the solitude and a little shade. We stayed out for just over an hour then loaded up and went home. Another successful solo ride - I could really start enjoying this.

35 Years and Counting

 

I was recognized today for 35 years of service with W&O Supply, Inc.! We had a nice luncheon to recognize about 15 different service awards, but I am the longest tenured employee in the whole company. Who woulda thunk it? This picture is of me and our President & CEO, Jack Guidry. I got flowers, a certificate and a fat check! I even got to make an impromtu speech in front of our whole Jacksonville location of about 65 employees and didn't stutter once.

Bareback

Rode Stylin bareback tonight in the back yard.....didn't get a video, but this is what we were doing a lot of....cantering, cantering, cantering.....she's getting slower and smoother every time. (this is from last summer)

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