Just popping in to say HI! (and some news at the bottom)

First – Prophecy has been settling in well to his retirement life and pasture with 2 mares, and showing his fearlessness asking for scratches even when there is a giant tractor around 🙂  And the missing GG muzzle has been found!  It did end up in the neighbor’s field somehow, but I didn’t see it when walking it a while back. 

In the past month we’ve had Skyler’s first horse show (lead-line class) and lots of activity around the ending of the school year on the 7th!

While she wasn’t always looking to be having a good time, she said she did and wants to do more! I think we are going to have to get her ready for a “Pre-Short-stirrup” Walk/Trot Class this fall!

Asher experienced his first VA SOL (standards of learning) testing this year and did well, and Skyler made huge leaps and bounds in the last quarter of school in her reading skills!

My latest trailer renovations include the ‘Bucket of Buckets’ being hung, and saddle blankets added to pad the walls where tack hits.  I’m keeping the saddle in the house, or the stand would be back there too.  Doug is still working on my nose boxes for storage in the LQ area and my battery is awaiting installation to make the LQ roof vent fan work – and hopefully the cowboy shower too!

                     

As to why my nose boxes aren’t done yet… Well, Doug has been working for nearly two months renovating the Sunroom after we returned from spring break (when we had the floor redone)!  The walls needed a lot of touch up work before he could paint, and of course nothing goes smoothly 😏 It did get done in time for a grandparent visit to get the guest room re-usable!

Doug also made this gaming table

Aside from working on my trailer, I’ve been out test riding horses to consider as my next partner… An Arab, a QH, and 3 more Off the Track Standardbreds.  It isn’t easy to pick that next partner with all I’ve gone through.  This time around the hunt has been way different than before! It’s a balancing act of trying not to be too critical while making sure the personality match is right, all the while adhering to a budget.

I also got to go volunteer at Old Dominion last weekend. I realized it has been 3 years since I had been – when I competed and completed with Tesla on the 30.  I got really good at taking pulses, and heard how different horses can be in trying to find that heartbeat – some were super easy, others very quiet and with them twitching flies away and wanting to itch their faces so badly it was at times not easy!
I gave up sleeping about 515am Saturday, sneaking out of a friend’s RV that I got to stay in Fri night and headed out for breakfast and chatting before my first assignment at Bird Haven at 645am.  I had fun with the ladies up there and doing P&R for the 100milers 1st vet check, mainly being a scribe of in/out times from pulsing. Then I stayed on alone with Dawn H doing the Pulse checks for 25s while she scribed for me.   Once all the 25s were in Bonnie S & I moved on to Laurel Run VC#2.  That was a short stop for me as they had enough folks up there so I grabbed a sandwich for lunch and headed over to my last stop, VC#3 at Bucktail.  For this one we were actually in WVa – winding roads getting there too!  We had a storm while out there and it was overall worrisome as so many riders had not come in when we got down to 45min before the vet check “closed.” I headed home from there and then watched the FB updates on the rest of the 100.  I wish I could have stayed to the finish, but was not to be this year.  Next year I hope to be back and riding a horse again too!

Tesla & me @ OD 30 2015

So I guess the biggest news would be that I had a PPE done on “Sleek N Wow” up in PA!  He is an 11 yr old Standardbred, was on the track nearly 7 years racing (trotter) and retired sound in Sept 2017.  He has a goofy type of personality and was extremely level headed as we bush-wacked our way back to a trail on my visit earlier this month. I hugged his neck many a times ducking in and out of trees, we crossed water, and he has a great trot for me to work with.  Now to work on when to pick him up! 😃

Pic of us in the big creek when I visited PA

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Arabs too, but there is just something about a Standie and their presence. Athletic yet “chill” if that is the right word to put to it?!