Ponderings

Two friends of ours ,who are well known in the Jacksonville horse scene, lost 2 horses to a terrible accident this week. While on their way to a local roping, they were broadsided by a truck that ran a stop sign. I won't go into the details, but from what I've learned, it was a horrific scene that I'm sure they will never forget. The blessing was that no people were seriously injured in what could have been a fatal accident for everyone. It made me think about how I would feel if I lost my two best four legged friends.........and it reminded me that we need to live each day as if it's our last - don't wait until tomorrow. That's what Jane and Wayne do - they were on their way to team rope - something that they are passionate about and very good at.

This is a picture of Stylin, Ringer, me and Dixie taken over a year ago. Ringer has gone on to a new home, living the good life and is now called Ranger. Hug your horses............and your friends.

What Is Your Dream ?

One of our pastors ended his sermon last Sunday with the question..... "What is YOUR dream?" This has been bouncing around in my head since Sunday morning and at first I thought, boy, I must be a loser because I don't have a dream. But this morning, as I was feeding my horses in the dark and Stylin sleepily stuck her tongue in my coffee cup, decided she liked it and went for it again.....I smiled to myself and thought once again just how blessed I am..... I am LIVING my dream.

• I live on 2 acres of land in the city and can keep my horses in my back yard
• I'm married to a kind and gentle man
• My grown daughter calls me everyday and stops by to visit when she can
• Most of my family is nearby and we are close
• I have a wonderful circle of friends
• I have a job (I've worked at the same place for 34 years)
• I serve and worship with a wonderful church family

We may not live "high on the hog", but we have more than we need. Everyday is not perfect but everyday IS a gift. Thanks to Pastor Curran for reminding me!

Yee-Haw!

I got my non summer time riding buddy, Cathy, out on the trails last Sunday......(yes I played hooky from church)...and on my Appy mare Dixie to boot. Us over 50 gals sometimes have a spell when the heat is turned up outside, so I usually try to ride early. Unfortunately, Cathy has an aversion to getting up too early on her days off as well. Well, the stars must have been aligned just right, or she wasn't thinking straight when I called her, but she agreed to go with me and meet some of our friends on the trails in Jennings State Forest. Her horse Busta is recuperating with a bad hoof and she knew Dixie would give her a worry free, training free ride. Everyone was surprised and happy to see her out and about - you'd think she'd been missing for a year! :) We had a great 3-1/2 hour ride; just a couple of banana spiders, very few yellow flies and the cloud cover was perfect for an August morning/afternoon.

Rubber Boots

Hooray for Wal-Mart rubber boots! They go with PJ's, shorts, jeans or just your underwear and sure come in handy when the Florida afternoon thunderstorms cause your horse pen to turn into a quagmire. (Mine aren't these fashionable though.....)

Three of a Kind

I had the opportunity to ride this weekend with my daughter and some friends and what was kind of cool about it was that two of my mare's progeny were riding with us. My daughter rides Stylin's 2000 solid Paint mare and Michele rides Style's 2005 Overo gelding. Michelle S. took a picture of the three of us which turned out well. I'll probably have a nice copy printed and framed.Last weekend I got to serve on Emmaus Women's Walk #62. Boy what a busy but very fulfilling time that was. I got to meet a lot of new people and grow closer to some that I already knew.

Work has been crazy lately as well.... a new aquisition has had our HR department hopping. I had to travel to Portsmouth, VA with our group to do an orientation, then this past week has just been very stressful trying to get everyone in the system. I'll run the first payroll with all the new folks added this Tuesday and we'll see how that goes. Good luck to me!

Shelly's Visit

My middle sister, Shelly, came down from Nashville to visit for a week without any kids. This is the first time in 25 years that she's visited without any kids so we set to work corrupting her right away. 1st thing we did was fix her a glass of wine (her first ever) and get her to relax.

Shelly spent most of the days time shuttling Mom around and visiting with her and spent the nights with Bobby and me. My other sister, Robbin was able to come over and hang out several nights so we could all catch up. Shelly wanted to go on her first trail ride so we loaded up one evening and headed to a park close to home. Unfortunately, right after we pulled up, dark thunderclouds rolled in and the wind picked up, so we only hung around for a little while before heading right back home. Good thing we did, cuz the bottom fell out on our way home. Sunday after church, we all headed out to our cousin Debbie's place between Switzerland and Orangedale and had a wonderful afternoon hanging out by the pool and eating the yummy turkey dinner she cooked for us. Check out the rest of the pictures of the week HERE

Independence Day Weekend

Bobby and I spent some quality time in the back yard on Friday....whew....it was hot! Bobby cleaned off the big garage roof while I did poop patrol in the horse pen then helped rake up the leaves that came off the roof. We set our patio tables and chairs out by the road and they were gone within 30 minutes then we also got rid of an old broken concrete statue and bird bath. We got ourselves cleaned up and presentable and joined some of our church friends for a good, old fashioned 4th of July cookout over in Mandarin. It was a lot of fun to hang out with our friends in a different setting and get to know everyone better. We came on home just before dark to tend to another friend's critters and our own before it got dark. The horses got a little "skeered" when the fireworks began, but nothing was too close and they calmed right down.

This morning I picked up Shelly and Ranger (my old Ringer) and met some other friends at Cary State Forest. (That's him as a baby in my blog header.) He is a strapping 3 year old now and seems to be growing some more. It was their first time off the farm since Shelly bought him earlier in the year. He did really well for her; slogged thru some muddy trails and even crossed a steel grate bridge.

During the ride, while I was running my mouth, Michelle S tells me, "Your bridle came off"....I look down and sure 'nuff Stylin's bosal had slipped off her head and she had then stepped through it and was continuing to walk on. I pulled up on the reins which were now useless and told her to whoa, which she did. Boy, it sure pays to teach your pony that whoa means whoa. I got down, rebridled her and off we went. I love my girl ! Here's a link to more photos of our ride today. PHOTOS