Easter Weekend 2015

My sister Robbin and me

Had a really fun weekend visiting, hanging out and eating with "fambly".  Seems all of our gathering involve lots of food!

Went to Van Zant park on Saturday with Mom's side of the family for a picnic and easter egg hunt followed by checking out some property for sale in Melrose/Keystone Heights area.

My cousin Deborah and my mom

Sunday was an early bird church service to celebrate our risen Lord,  a trip to Newberry to visit Bobby's family and then to see Jenny and Joel and his family at Crystal Lake in Keystone.

Total of 300 miles on Bobby's truck this weekend!  Busy but so worth it!

This is my hubby Bobby

Just What I Needed

This is my happy place.  In the woods, on a good horse, with a good friend.  

My friend Cathy took the day off from work and asked me to go riding.  Hell yeah!!

When I went out back to get my horse Stylin this morning, her daughter Maybe volunteered to go instead.  She came right up to the gate and practically stuck her head in the halter.  She has never done that before, so I took her up on it and saddled her up.

Picked up Cathy and her mule Vanna and away we went to a local trail head.  We rode and visited for about 3-1/2 hours.   What a perfect way to spend Good Friday -  communing in God's natural cathedral.

17h mule -  14h horse

Starting Again

I've been inspired to start blogging again if for no other reason, for myself.  As I logged on, I saw that many of my previous posts had broken picture links.   Looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me to repair as much as I can.  Seems that Facebook didn't want to share anymore.  :(

 Sisters -  Shelly, KD, Robbin

The Lord has blessed me so much this past year.  I've been able to earn enough to feed my horses and help my husband with the normal bills.  I've really been learning to let go of worry and allow God to work in my life.  I still get anxious from time to time when I lose a regular cleaning customer, but something always pops up.  I enjoy spending time with the family and am grateful for the time I get to share with Mom who's health is failing.  I get a little more time to spend in my yard and with my animals.  Still getting some riding in here and there.   I've learned to live with less and that was one of my main goals of leaving the corporate world.  

Maybe and Stylin

I spilled some coffee on my laptop a couple of weeks ago and was surprised when it quit working the next day.  ( I really didn't think that the small splash would hurt it.  Duh!)  Luckily for me, the purchase of a ten dollar USB keyboard allows me to keep using it, which is a good thing because of my budget.  Thanks to the computer guy at church for suggesting the fix!

Since I didn't have a job today:  I'm able to work on this rusty, old blog.  I'm getting dinner started early.  I got to visit with my farrier.  I'll be able to go video my friend's mule for sale.  I'll be able to take my dog for a nice, long walk.   I'll just live in the moment and not worry about tomorrow -  Matt 6:24

Tribute to Great Horse

I miss Dixie.. a lot.  We made the decision to help her into the next life on June 24th and I still look for her in our back yard every day.  I won't share the details of her illness, but I am at peace with my decision and treasure the time I got to spend with her on her last day on this earth.

This post is a celebration of the horse that shared so much with me, my family and friends for 15 years of her 27 year life.   Rest in peace Dixie.  1987 - 2014

carrying my friend Cathy

Dixie and me

Teaching a young JT to ride

Carrying my friend Karen

Carrying my sister Shelly

My friend Traci enjoys riding Dixie

Dixie and me

With Cory

With Mustang

Pulling cart with Nana and Jenny

With JT again... a little older

With Stylin, Ringer and me

Dixie and I pony Ringer

Dixie carrying my husband Bobby

Karen having a blast on Dixie

Cathy again on Dixie

Ms. Dixie

With my friend Lisa from New Mexico

Dixie and Stylin at the Blessing of the Animals

Dixie and the girls with Nana

Dixie wears a flower

Bobby riding Dixie

Close to Home

With my new, much, much lower budget, I will have to pick and choose my camping opportunities and have opted to ride close to home most of the time.

My daughter Jenny, my good friends Cathy and Shelly and I went on a ride two weekends ago that was a lot of fun.  We parked at the Jacksonville Equestrian Center, but instead of riding the trails there (they were having an ACTHA event) we crossed SR 228 and rode around on the old Cecil Field Naval Base.  It's now called Cecil Commerce Center and boasts a runway that the Space Shuttles could land on as a backup.  Since there weren't any signs that said "no horses", we took a tour of the perimeter of the golf course, down thru the main street, and ended up at a lake and picnic area.  That was after cruising by the Golf Course Club House where they were having a "Redneck Golf Tournament".  We asked if we could buy a beer, and a couple of good ole boys handed us some cold ones out of their coolers.  :-)

Shelly with a concoction that Cathy made for us with the golf course behind

Cruising down one of the main drags

Enough is Enough

I took my sweet, old, mare Dixie out for a short ride on Saturday and I believe that she told me it was time for her to retire.

She didn't stumble, she didn't refuse, but she felt tired.  I get it old girl,  you are ready to retire and you have earned it.

Dixie brought me back into horse ownership in 1998 and has been such a great teacher, confidence builder, guest horse and babysitter.  She has been semi retired for the last couple of years, but other than taking the occasional child on a backyard tour - I'm officially letting her live out the rest of her years as a lady of leisure.  At 27 years young this year, we're hoping to have her around for a good long while yet.

Thank you, my sweet, sweet girl!  

Clinics - You're Never Too Old to Learn

Life has been busy since I've semi retired.  I'm staying busy doing chores, running errands and cleaning houses.  I did however, take the time to improve my horsemanship education.

In February, I attended the Metta Baxter Driving Clinic held at the University of Florida's Horse Teaching Unit.  It was so much fun!  It was two days of hands on learning; we learned about harnesses and carts, how to harness and put to a cart and actually got to drive as well.  My friend Cathy came home and put her big horse Busta to a cart and he didn't have a problem with it at all.

We drove each other before they let us touch the horses.  :-)  We also got to see the horses that are part of UF's horse program - really nice horses.

Then on the first weekend in April, my friends and I went to a Ron McLoughlin clinic at Silver Sands Bridle Club in Port Orange/New Smyrna Florida.  Ron teaches classical riding techniques based on what he learned from Monte Foreman many years ago.  He runs the Classical Stock Seat School of Arizona and we are fortunate to have him come to Florida 3 to 4 times a year.

It was an intense 3 day weekend of riding, studying and more riding.  I loved the group riding and the special one on one attention that he gave each student and horse.  I came home with some awesome exercises to practice so that I can ask correctly for what I want from my horse.  Stylin was awesome and all of us had a great time and came home feeling that we could become better riders.

I had such a wonderful time learning with my great friends and my wonderful horse.  Life is good and I am blessed!