Ride with friends at the Ravines

I got some of my friends of our First Coast Trail Blazers group to take a short ride this morning before the heat set in. Read about our ride and see more pictures HERE. As you can see, I continue to ride Stylin bitless and we love the Cavallo Simple Boots. Since she lives on sand, the boots protect her from the rocks and roots on the trails we ride and she can be barefoot otherwise.

June evening

This is my little frog pond - I used to put bleach in it to keep it clean and pretty, but killed a bunch of tadpoles one time and felt guilty. Now it's home to anything that wants to live in it with the exception of mosquitos.




For those who like spotted butts, here's my girl Dixie - 21 yr old grade Appy. Stylin didn't get her picture tonight - she was busy in the back part of the yard. Look at our grass....that's what a couple of good rains will do.


Here's our little "Mighty Dog" Jesse.



And this is Sarah posing with her summer clip. You can still see the gray undercoat....she's a chow mix and just gets way too furry for Florida summers. She's a wonderful Therapy Dog and loves to visit our local Community Hospice.

Weekend Update

I need to put the fresh batteries I bought into my camera and take some new pictures. I had a great, busy weekend. I took Sarah to the Community Hospice on Ramona Blvd on Friday and we visited the patients there. We haven't been to the Hospice in about 4 months since I had to back off some - had too much on my plate. Sarah loves visiting and is very gentle with the patients. Saturday was spent in a training class for Emmaus - I'll be working a weekend with them in July and am looking forward to it. Saturday was also my nephew JT's 10th birthday and he wanted "breakfast for dinner" at Aunt KD's house. There was bacon, sausage, eggs, grits and waffles for everyone. Sunday was spent first at church, then meeting the farrier back at the house, then a trip to Wal-Mart with Mom. (I just sat in the McDonald's reading my book while she shopped.) The book is a great one - especially for us horse crazy old broads. It's called "Chosen by a Horse" by Susan Richards. It's a memoir and I recommend it; it's got all the horse talk we need along with a lovely story of a 40 something woman facing her past.

Solo Ride

YAY!! I loaded Stylin up on Saturday and we went to Sal Taylor Creek Preserve by ourselves! I had a good talk with myself and realized there is no reason to be afraid to ride alone. I know the trails, I had a phone and best of all I had Stylin. We wound up having a great 2 hour ride exploring some offshoot trails that were mostly in the shade. I had to laugh at myself when we came up on 4 different deer - I'm usually chatting with my riding buddies and miss a lot of the wildlife. :) I had her booted up so there would be no problem if we came across any slag that the State seems fond of putting on the trails, I had my helmet on and Stylin was happy in her homemade bosal. We trotted and cantered quiet a bit and even had a deer running parallel to us about 30 feet away in the woods. Seeing her bounding along with that white flag in the air made me smile. With the hot weather here to stay, I may be doing some more early Saturday morning solo rides since a couple of my riding buddies don't ride during the hot summer.

Memorial Day Weekend

We joined my sister Robbin and her family for a great weekend getaway camping trip at Goldhead State Park...... Without the horses. :) We did what you do when you camp.....sit around and visit, eat, hike the trails, eat, drink a little, eat, tell stories, eat....... you get the picture. The weather was great; it got a little hot in the late afternoon, but the mornings and evenings were perfect. The only downside to the weekend was the creepy little ticks that we had to keep picking off. The trails were well maintained, shaded and not too long for us out of shape campers.

Bobby and I were the only ones in the park camping in a horse trailer - we did get a couple of looks, but no one asked any questions. It worked for us - the A/C felt great for a couple mid day naps. We shared evening meal duties and my daughter Jenny brought us fresh grouper for our Sunday meal. YUM! Here are a bunch of photos that Robbin and I took during the weekend.

Women of Faith

I spent Friday evening and all day Saturday at the Women of Faith conference held at our arena in Jacksonville. This was the first time the conference had come to Jacksonville and they are already planning on returning in 2009. 66 women from our church attended as a group that my sister, Robbin organized. It was my first time at a WOF event and I had a blast! I laughed, I cried, I sang, I danced, I hugged my "sisters" but most of all I came away feeling even closer to and more loved by my Lord. The speakers were very funny and inspiring and the singers were phenomenal.

This and That

The girls have been enjoying an hour on the backyard grass each evening. Even though we don't have a "pasture", the backyard is about 3/4 of an acre which allows them to have some green. If we don't get some regular rain soon, the yard is going to dry to a crisp though.


Ta-Dah ! Here's the finished chicken coop - Bobby did an awesome job !



Now here's a picture of a glad that popped up - I just thought it was pretty in the evening sun.