Family Time

Jenny and Joel

We had a really relaxing Christmas Day at our house.  It was low key and enjoyable....we decided to have brunch instead of a traditional Christmas turkey dinner.  I made sausage gravy and biscuits (well...Mary B. made the biscuits- I just baked them) and cheesy hashbrown casserole. My daughter made personal size spinach quiches and my neice Melinda made some pumpkin bread with cranberries.  It was a really nice change of pace.  After opening presents, Bobby and I drove to Gainesville to visit his mom and sister.  Bobby's daughter, Carolle is in town this week also.... its been good to see her again.

We've all got Christmas colds and have been laying around on the couch and taking cough medicine.  The weather has still been getting in the twenties during the night - way too cold for me and it was too cold and wet for me to get a ride in this past weekend.

         

I left work a little early and joined Robbin and Melinda at the Cummer Museum this evening.  Free admission on Tuesdays.  They have a lovely english garden on the river and always have some great art displays.

Robbin, Me and Melinda

We're going camping for New Years at one of our favorite places - McCulley Farms.  Looking forward to checking out Jen and Joel's handiwork on my trailer.  They insulated and put up paneling in the goose neck so I can stay toasty when we camp without electricity.

Christmas Countdown

I had a semi busy weekend taking my mom for some last minute shopping, attended our company "Holiday" party, and got a solo ride in on Sunday afternoon. Everyone is busy or out of town, so Stylin and I ventured off on our own.

My neice, Melinda, came in from Tennessee last night and we had a great time catching up over some bowls of nice, hot chili with my sister and my mom. Melinda will be staying with us until the new year and we're excited to have her back for a little while.

Hope everyone is staying warm where you are - we've had some unseasonably cold weather ourselves here in North Florida. Merry Christmas !!

Oh what fun it is to ride ........

My riding buddies and I had the most fun weekend ever at 7BarL Ranch in Live Oak, Florida. It was our end of the year Cowboy Christmas party and campout. Marilyn planned the whole thing for us and had a schedule laid out including ride out times, eating, partying, gift exchange, fire side sharing, cowboy church and lots of fun games.

This is my daughter Jenny and her mare Maybe competing in a relay race.....can you tell they are both competitive? :-)

Here's Traci and I battling for the ball in our "polo" game.

Susan had special bandanas made for each one of us to commemorate the occasion.

And this is Cory on her Mustang, Rocky

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and check out the plethera of pictures taken by Mustang (Cory's mom), Shelly and Traci at this LINK

American Cowgirl

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a big family reunion type Thanksgiving dinner at a local park. It was so much fun to catch up with our cousins and no one had to have a crowd at their house.

Bobby and I ripped up some old, nasty, stinky carpet from our back porch and hauled it to the dump. Now we need to clean up the concrete floor and paint it. We've been talking about it for ages - it was nice to finally have it done.

I got to ride Saturday and again on Sunday after church. Rode Dixie on Saturday with my friend Cathy, then took Stylin out on Sunday afternoon to meet Mustang and Shelly. Both days were beautiful! I love my friends and my horses!

I bit the bullet and had Stylin shod all the way around today. Her hooves look good and hopefully we'll see an improvement in her toe cracks and being able to ride on different surfaces.

Here's a cute picture of Jen's little mare Maybe.... she loves attention and let me decorate her with this hay string .

November Happenings

I joined my friends for a day ride at one of our favorite places two Saturdays ago. I knew I was going to go out of this the next weekend so didn't want to leave my husband with all the animal chores two weekends in a row. He's too good to me to take advantage of his good nature.

They were staying a River Rise Preserve State Park again and had plans to do the 16 mile Yellow Loop on Friday, so Cathy and I headed down to ride out with them around 11 am. We had perfect weather and a great ride. Some of us split halfway to trot out and met back up before heading back to camp. Here's a link to the pictures that Mustang took of their weekend and the day that I joined them. We have such a good group - we all know each other and our horses and work well together with the whole camping thing.

This past weekend, I joined 9 other ladies from our church for a retreat at Mepkin Abbey in Monck's Corner, SC . We were allowed to join the Brothers in worship and song, along with taking meals with them. They live, work and worship in harmony on this beautiful old plantation. It was an eye opening experience to see how dedicated they are to constant prayer. We began our day at 3 am and ended it at 8 pm. I became much closer to the ladies on our retreat and enjoyed a relaxing and peaceful weekend. The property is open to the public to walk the gardens and enjoy the view along the Cooper River. Guests are just asked to repect the monks living and working areas. You can read about their work at the link above. I walked quite a bit, enjoying the gardens and visited an old African American cemetary. Most of my friends enjoyed walking their Labyrinth thru a meadow with tall grasses which took about 40 minutes to complete. This photo was taken by one of the ladies as she walked through the labyrinth.

Tried Something New

Stylin and I doing our first CRI

Some friends, my daughter and I went to a distance riding clinic in September put on by Florida Horsemen's Association. We learned from everybody there and did a 10 mile mock CTR, then did a 17 mile ride the next day. What a lot of fun and everyone was so helpful! Don't think I want to do 50 or 100 miles, but I'm thinking about doing a limited distance of 25 miles. Something new for Stylin and me to do.

Beautiful trail through the woods

Our riding/camping season is here....temperatures are down and everyone is ready to ride! We started our camping season off with a 4 day weekend at River Rise Preserve in High Springs, FL. They have a wonderful set up and nicely marked trails. Next weekend away is scheduled for Dec 5th at 7BarL Ranch in Live Oak, FL.

Maxx

We recently got a new dog.... a cute little Papillon named Maxx. His former owner is elderly and broke her hip and couldn't keep him anymore. He's fit in real well with our other dogs but we're having to introduce him slowly to the cats and horses.

So Long,Farewell, Alverderzein, Goodbye......

I'm taking a sabbatical from blogging and my daily reading of other's blogs. I've been doing this for 5 years now and I feel that it is interfering with my home and work life. Don't know if it will be forever or just for a while, but I have had a lot of fun getting to know my blogger friends and wish you all well. I won't have your blog postings delivered to me daily any longer, but I will check in from time to time. See ya !

What is that?

This touching video was sent to me by my sister and really struck a nerve. You may have already seen it on Facebook or elsewhere, but I felt compelled to share it on my blog as well. Enjoy....

Jonesing to Ride

I am sure missing my ride fix..... but all for good reasons.

My sister Shelly and her son Bo came down from Springfield, Tennessee for spring break and visited for a week, so I didn't get a ride in last weekend. I did get some good quality family time in though and family DOES come first. Shelly took Mom back home with her yesterday and Robbin and I will go pick her up on Mother's Day weekend.

Bus driver Bobby

This weekend, Bobby and I visited the Florida United Methodist Children's Home in Enterprise, FL. Bobby drove one of the church buses and I came along. They have a wonderful ministry there for children who have had abandonment, abuse, or other issues and a beautiful campus.

Beautiful stained glass in chapel

The children sang for us and showed us their cottages.

Each cottage of 6 to 8 children has house parents who try to make the group living as close to a home environment as possible. I came back very blessed and knowing that our dollars are sponsoring a very worthy cause.

Boxed picnic lunch under the largest tent ever!

We didn't have to decide where to eat after lunch today after church since Robbin bought us tickets to the church spaghetti dinner.

No spaghetti sauce on my shirt :-)

I was hoping to get a short ride in today after church, but the weather didn't cooperate. Since it's going to rain all day, I've donned my jammies and am going to pull out my new director's cut of Aliens and enjoy. I got the Alien quadrilogy for Christmas and just watched the director's cut of the first one, Alien, last night.


Next weekend is Bobby's and my 6 anniversary so we'll head down to St. Augustine and stay in a B&B Saturday night. Should be relaxing and a nice reminder of our honeymoon. Maybe Stylin and I can get out for a ride next Friday. :-)

Mystery Ride

Stylin ready for bed

We had a great time this past weekend at the Rodeheaver's Boys Ranch in Palatka. A local group called the S.H.A.D.O. Riders put on their annual Mystery Ride and this year the theme was nursery rhymes.

Tucker helps Stylin "jump on the bed"

There were obstacles along the 7 mile trail; Billy Goats Gruff had some live goats and a wooden bridge obstacle. The Three Little Pigs had hay, sticks, painted piggies and a wolf trying to blow the brick house down. The Mad Hatter served us tea on horseback. Five Little Monkeys had a mattress for our horses to jump on. I think there were 10 different obstacles - we had a blast!

Our buddy Cathy brought Busta but wasn't able to ride him this weekend - she has to have corrective surgery on some discs due to a couple of hard landings. She kept the party going during the evening for us but we missed having her along on our rides.

Busta has the place to himself.

The next day, we rode along the Florida Cross Florida Barge Canal down to the Rodman Dam before packing up and heading home.

Here are a pile of pictures that Mustang took of our fun.... PHOTOS and the rest of PHOTOS that I took.

PRICELESS....

My good ole 23 year old Appy mare, Dixie, takes another person on their inaugural trail ride. This time it was my nephew Julian, who has ridden her in my yard for years, but this was his first venture away from the farm. You can't put a price on a horse like this.

A Step Backward ...

I had shoes put on Stylin's front hooves 2 days ago after she was barefoot for about 3 years. She has had some persistent toe cracks for well over a year that my Natural Hoof Practitioner nor I were able to resolve. They run vertically about a full inch up the front of both front hooves. I've had her on hoof supplement for about 10-11 months, I treated her with the recommended Lysol solution, shaped her hooves, beveled the toes...did everything I knew to do. I used good hoof boots to protect her feet, but the cracks continue.

I really do prefer to keep her barefoot, so hopefully we can get the cracks grown out and get her back to barefoot.

SUPERSTAR !

Said while doing a deep knee bend and both arms up in the air! I'm so tickled........ The Ride America manager of the Paint Horse Journal contacted me a few months ago to get some information on trail riding in Florida and of course I obliged and sent her some photos. I just got a copy of the March issue a couple of days ago and guess who's featured in the trail riding section..... that's right.....c'est moi avec mon cheval. Me and Stylin baby! Well....it's not all me, there is a gentleman from Florida who also contributed - but how cool is it to see your name and photo in a national nagmag? If you subscribe to the Paint Horse Journal the trail section starts on page 90. If not, here's a LINK to a copy of the article.

Charity Ride and Camping

Cathy, Mustang, Shelly and I camped at the Florida Horse Park to participate in the Horses for Hospice Charity Ride benefitting Hospice of Marion County. We got there on Friday before lunch and stayed until Sunday afternoon enjoying the park and the Greenway Trails.

Cathy on Busta and Mustang on Linc

We rode for a couple of hours Friday afternoon just exploring close trails and the beautiful park itself. We got to play around on their cross country field and obstacles. Of course we didn't do any jumping but did climb up and down a hill and practiced stepping off and back up some drop offs.

Volunteer Sheriff's Posse

Saturday morning was the charity ride and it looked as if there were well over a hundred riders participating. Another riding buddy, Susan and 3 of her friends joined us early in the morning to do the charity ride and camp with us. After a very short group ride, we enjoyed a catered bar-b-que lunch and instead of hanging around for the demonstrations and festivities, we headed out from the park over the Landbride Trail and almost to the 49th St trailhead and back. I guess we rode for about 3-1/2 hours through some really nice trails with switchbacks and lots of hills. Stylin got a little amped up when her friends got out of sight which is not like her. I'll be putting her back in the snaffle for a little while so that I can work her properly on the trail when she isn't focused.

Susan on Apache and Curtis on Chester

After a fun evening of story telling and adult beverages by the campfire, we woke up early Sunday and packed our gear and horses and drove down to the Shangrila trailhead which is only about 15 minutes away by vehicle and would take more time than we had to ride to and back. We really like the Shangrila trails - there is a lot of variety - single track trails, wide sandy ones and the ability to challenge your pony and yourself working around trees and a little hill climbing. After another 3-1/2 hour ride, we all packed up for home - tired and happy.

Shelly and Dawn

Here are the rest of my pictures and here are the ones that Mustang and Susan took.

Me - yapping about something.

Movie Night

I forgot to post that Saturday night I went by myself to see Avatar. My husband isn't a big sci-fi or fantasy fan but I have been from my teen years. So I popped some corn, filled a bottle of water and went to the local mall theater. My daughter and another friend talked me into seeing it at the IMAX in 3D and I am glad I did! I won't write a review - there are plenty out there - but will say that I think I have a new favorite movie. I sat there grinning like a fool right by myself and got sucked right in. If you have any inkling to go see it, do it before it leaves the big screen.

Week in Review

Well I stuck with my resolution of last week.... I got on the eliptical each morning for 30 minutes before work and got out of bed each morning without hitting the snooze once. Did not exercise Friday, but was on the run all day long. It was a cool rainy day and I was able to meet my new care receiver and visit an elderly couple at the retirement home then hang out with my mom and get some chores done. I left the house at 8:30 am and got back home at 6:30 - a full day.

Mr. Skinner is such a sweetheart!

I met Mustang and her daughter Cory for a short ride on Saturday. I took Dixie out and we rode for almost 3 hours at the Ravines. Aren't Cory and Beauty just the cutest? Here's some more photos of them.... notice the Valentine artwork? Beauty's isn't as noticeable, but she had plenty of glitter and paint on her rear end too.

Cory posing with Beauty

Today for Valentine's day, Bobby and I skipped church services, picked up my mom, then picked up some KFC and we all went to visit Bobby's mom in Newberry. We had a great visit and on the way home we stopped by to see a home that was redone by "Extreme Home Makeover".

Jenny took her mare out for a 16 mile loop at Jennings State Forest today - her last opportunity to get a training ride in before she takes off for the Florida Cracker Trail Ride next Friday evening. She's getting very excited now and getting her stuff ready to go.

Oh NO ..... Yes You Canvas !

Oh NO! - I know I've been gaining my weight back , but there's nothing like a photo to bring it on home. I went to look at a horse for sale for an on line friend of mine on Friday. Of course when I got on the horse I had a picture taken so I could send it to my friend..... Oh my word....is that really me up there? My jeans look like they are about to burst.

Anyway, after checking out the horse, Mom and I had lunch with Traci and Mike Woodard at a new bar-b-que restaurant in Middleburg then spent the rest of the day shopping and messing around. Traci "hammed" it up in front of the restaurant.


Saturday I got to ride with friends from the Jacksonville Equestrian Center to Pope Duval Park. We rode for about 5 hours including our lunch stop. Poor Cathy got slung off of Busta pretty hard when he spooked and just missed getting totally dumped into a big muddy puddle. As it was, she hit her noggin pretty hard and got mud in her face, nose and mouth. Thank goodness she was wearing a helmet! You can see additional pictures that our friend Mustang took here.Saturday nite was spent with my work friends, Karen , Martha and Maria, a friend of Karen's and my sister Robbin at a really cool place called Yes You Canvas. It's a studio where you go and paint a picture to take home. We took wine and snacks, had a really good time and all came home with a picture to hang on our wall.

Sunday after church I decided to start early with my Lenten commitment for this year. No more PROCRASTINATION and started by doing 30 minutes on the eliptical before I started puttering around for the rest of the afternoon.I'm hoping that by the end of Lent I will have created some good new habits at home and work by not procrastinating. I have always churned out piles of good work when I have a deadline looming but I want to create good work consistently. Wish me luck!