Another Great "FUN DAY"

Our group of horsey friends got together again at the Woodard's farm to have another Obstacle Fun Day.

Traci and Mike really went all out this time to make the obstacles challenging (and colorful) without totally tearing up their pasture.

After playing with our horses and sweating our butts off, we took a break and ate the food that we all brought, then went back out for a little more saddle time. I had "cruised" Stylin at a canter in Traci's new pen/arena, then walked her around all the obstacles. I had to dismount to work her through several of the obstacles but we never made it through the water hazard with the floaties in it. I did finally get her close enought to sniff it. Afterwards - I took her back through everything mounted.

I'm so glad that I have these friends who have fun together along with helping and encouraging each other. We did have one mishap - Marilyn's Arab, Spirit, got a little too spirited and dumped her. She wound up with a dislocated elbow and our horses got a little more desensitized to a fire truck and rescue.

Here are the rest of the pictures - lots and lots............ PHOTOS

Tennessee Road Trip

Me, Robbin, Mom and Shelly

My sister Robbin and I picked up Mom and headed to Springfield, TN to visit our other sister Shelly for her birthday and to spend Mother's Day together as a family. Now - I won't lie and say that the 11 hour journey was all kittens and butterflies, but it wasn't bad. We went in Robbin's new HHR and stopped about every 2 or 3 hours to stretch and let Mom get the stiffness out.Melinda and Bo

While we were there, we got to catch up with all of Shelly's kids and meet Shelly's boyfriend, Steve. Mom took us all out to dinner at Longhorn's on Shelly's birthday - Saturday - to celebrate all of us girls' birthdays. (We're all May babies) We had a really nice time and I know Mom enjoyed having us all together. Then on Mother's Day, we all went to church together, then Shelly cooked us a full turkey dinner - YUMMM-MEEEE !

Shelly and Vance

Shelly and Allison

We left Mom there to stay with Shelly for a couple of weeks until school lets out for the summer. Then Shelly is bringing her back home to Jacksonville.

May Days

My daughter and I took our dogs to Goldhead State Park for a 3 mile hike. Don't laugh, 3 miles of hills and roots and some deep sand was pretty tough on this ole girl. The trails were very pretty and there were some creek crossings where the dogs could get some water. At one point we saw a little fawn that couldn't have been a week old, walking around and bleating for its mom. That was strange because normally fawns would be lying still, hiding. Even more weird was the little thing saw us and starting walking to us. The dogs scared it and it ran off. Jenny made sure to stop by the ranger's office so they could see if maybe it was abandoned.

After our walk, Jenny and I parted ways and I went on to the Clay County Fairgrounds to see Dennis Reis and his No Dust tour. I've always liked him on RFD TV, but I have to say, I was very disappointed in his "live" demonstrations. He was filming 30 minute segments for his show, then he would talk to the audience afterwards. He had just completed the first TV segment and his question and answer session, when he whips out his DVD package and proceeds to start selling his $1,000 system before we've really seen anything of what he could do. I thought that was a little premature and a backwards kind of selling techinique. But....maybe he was worried that people (like myself) would get a little bored and leave early. I still think he can do great things, but his style and the way he talked to his team turned me off.

Just for fun, I thought you might like to see my crazy cat that thinks he's a dog. He goes out with the dogs in the morning and sometimes he goes in the kennel with them. I had a VERY busy weekend - didn't get any riding in, but along with my Saturday walk and horse watching seminar, we spent some quality time with Mom and our church friends. Here are the rest of the pictures taken over this weekend. PHOTOS

Friends and Horses

I got to take two of my girlfriends from work to meet two more girlfriends for a ride at Black Creek Ravines on Saturday.


Karen got the pleasure of riding my Appy mare, Dixie and Martha got to ride my daughter's mare, Maybe. They both have ridden quite a bit in the past but not recently. They were a good combination with our horses and they really seemed to enjoy themselves.


Chele and Mustang met us for the ride. Chele was riding her mare Dawn, and Michelle was riding Chele's other horse Ranger. (You may remember that Ranger is Stylin's 2005 son) He has grown up to be a nice horse - he'll be 4 next month. That's Ranger on the left.Here's Karen, Martha and I posing. Maybe - the horse in the middle - is Stylin's 2000 daughter. It's really nice to be able to keep up with two of Stylin's progeny. She did have one other filly that was sold by her original owners; we've seen pictures of her, but don't know the people that own her now.

We capped off the ride on this beautiful day with a cold brew - what a way to celebrate life! Good friends and good horses!

Poker Ride and camping at Princess Place

Boy, did we ever have a great time last weekend! Some of us got together to participate in a Poker Ride and then stayed over to ride again the next day. I LOVE Princess Place......it's just so pretty and diverse. Since it's a preserve, there is no hunting and the deer just lollygag around for your viewing pleasure. The only downside to this trip was TICKS ! They attacked people and horses equally - we had to make sure to keep ourselves loaded up with repellent.

This picture is of me and Stylin just horsin around in the afternoon before the dinner bell rang. Some of us high tied our horses and some used portable corrals. The camping is primitive but they do have a bathhouse with hot water, so it's not bad at all.

What made the trip even MORE fun was that my non-horsey sister, Robbin, joined us Saturday afternoon after the poker ride. That's Robb on the left and me on the right. She had a blast sitting around our non-fire with us, telling stories and entertaining my friends. (there is a burn ban so we had to have a pretend fire)

Traci actually won the best hand in the Poker Ride with a prize of $100! Woo-hoo ! We ride for the fun of it, but the money doesn't hurt, right Traci? Here's a picture of Traci and her excellent trail horse, Tucker, who recently won their division in an Trail Obstacle Competition.

Our group this time consisted of me and Robbin, Cathy, Traci and Mike, Mustang, Chele, Liz, Marilyn and her daughter Rachel. We are a diverse group with varying riding skills and styles, but get along tremendously. Here's a picture of a few of us hanging around when some of the others went out for a second ride on Saturday. Also a picture of us doing surgery on Traci's head, where a tick decided to grow roots among her curly golden locks. :-)

To see loads and loads more pictures - GO HERE.

I'm back !

I missed checking on all of my blogger friends during the past 40 days, but I did discover that I don't HAVE to log on every night.

Since I last logged in I've had a colonoscopy....yuck...., participated in a fun day desensitizing our horses at a friend's house, went camping with friends and horses at Coldwater Recreation in the Florida panhandle, celebrated my fifth wedding anniversary with my hubby Bobby and had all my hair cut off. If it had been all one length and a few inches longer I would have donated it to Locks of Love.

Here is a link to the camping trip photos. We had a FABulous time there - wonderful facility and miles and miles of trails! I kept a journal so I could remember what we did, but I haven't typed it up yet. Here are the fun day pics as well....we had a blast playing with our horses! Stylin is still leary of going through flapping tarps and is still scared of bubbles. :-)

Signing off for 40 Days

I'm giving up blogging for the 40 days of Lent. This will be a real exercise in self control for me. I won't be checking on all of my blog buddies nor posting during the Lenten season but look forward to catching up later. I will use the time to read, reflect and interact. In the meantime, you can check out my European vacation blog that I just finished up.

THERE AND BACK AGAIN.

See y'all later !