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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D'oh!

I was just sitting here at my computer after a belly full of steamed broccoli, snow peas and chicken, reading through my blog buddies posts for today. I started thinking about whether I'd let the horses out of their stalls after feeding them and it occurred to me that I didn't feed them at all! Duh ! I had let them out in the yard to eat grass while I took Sarah for a walk at 7 pm and forgot to put them up. So out I go at 10:15 pm to put them in their paddock and feed them. They didn't mind - they got 2 bonus hours on grass! I hope I'm not the only one who has "moments" like that.