Bobby and I went camping with friends over the Labor Day Weekend at McCulley Farms and had a great time as usual. Since Dixie is living at JW STables for a while, Bobby didn't have a horse to ride which suited him just fine... he likes hanging out at camp and cooking for us. Yay ! I took Stylin and Ringer and planned on letting Cathy ride Ringer but he came up lame Friday and didn't get better. (a week later when he was still limping the vet checked him out and found that he abcessed on his left rear hoof and had just blew out through his heel bulbs. He's still lame today, but healing) Anyway we had a bunch of good rides and you can see the pictures HERE

We had a new friend visit our little farm last Saturday. We met David on our bus tour of the Southwest and found that he lives in our city so thought that it would be fun to go get him once a month for visits. He seemed to enjoy himself and especially liked the horses and dogs.

Our Girl Dixie has a new Lease

Dixie has been leased once before for six months to a nice 15 year old girl. That was 3-1/2 years ago, but the other day we got a call from a good friend asking us if we would lease Dixie to a 12 year old girl and her mom. We went to meet her and it was mutually agreed to lease her on a month to month basis. The girl Haley fell in love with her and Dixie will be a great horse for her to learn on. This picture is Natalie, the mom who promises to love and treat Dixie as her own. Dixie is a 20 year old, been there done that unregistered Appy. She's always been the one to teach new riders and be the backup horse for us and our friends when their horse is lame or out of commission. The best thing is she is just down the street about 2 miles and we can pop in anytime to check on her. This is a win-win situation for everyone.

Saturday Morning Ride

I met Charlotte and Kate for 2-1/2 hour ride in Jennings Forest this morning. I haven't ridden with them in AGES and it was nice to catch up with them. Charlotte was riding her new mare Coco and Kate was riding her little mare Morgan. ( I know...3 mares together , but everyone behaved). We started out at 8:00am to try to beat the heat. It didn't work, but it wasn't too bad and the bugs were out there but not horrible. Any time I get to ride is good. Here's some more pictures of the ride. PHOTOS

Keystone Heights Ride

Jenny invited me to Keystone to ride and swim in the lake. I skipped church, loaded the ponies and drove the hour to her place. Of course we picked the hottest day so far this summer, but we had a really good time.

Sisters Riding

Shelly & I had fun in the back yard today riding the ponies. Shelly did real well riding Stylin - I rode Ringer, and Bo was playing on Dixie. I had Bobby and Shelly take a bunch of pics of me and Style so I can send it in to APHA for our 1000 hour trail riding award. (I'm the helmet head)

Canyonlands Tour

Bobby and I just got back from a 7 day vacation in the Canyonlands. We flew out to Denver, then caught a tour bus for stops at Arches National Park, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon ending up in Las Vegas. The scenery was breathtaking and we made some new friends . I could have skipped Las Vegas - it was way too loud ! Here are some pictures of our trip..... we'd definitely go back to the Colorado Plateau. PHOTOS

Here's a portrait I did a few years ago.... I always liked this one. As you can see - I took some liberties; like changing Alan's ear position and skipping the plaid pattern on Monica's shirt. She had this done for her mom. If I had it to do over - I'd detail and shade Monica's face a lot better.