Happy Birthday To Me :)

Well it's 49 today... sadly we have to pack up and go home but this whole weekend is always my birthday present to me so it's been good!

I brought the camera along for the elk one last time...




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zovdoX8zeI

Got the girls up earlier than they wanted after dancing late last night... but I wanted one more ride before we headed home. Forgot the camera but we did some loping, took Thorn along and turned him loose, what a blast...

Got safely home and already looking forward to next year!

Had a nice birthday nap, then the girls said they would take us to dinner for my birthday... we were headed for Macayo's with Linz in the Jeep with us, Hilary and boyfriend not quite ready so were going to catch up... halfway down Patton Road got a call from Hilary, the neighbor's house is on fire! I said "Randy GO HOME" and he turned around without a question, as we passed the fire station the doors were going up, meanwhile I am telling Hilary to get out back and make sure the critters are not in the smoke... we beat the fire trucks back to our place, the animals are ok but the wind is blowing the smoke - and the ash and embers - RIGHT TOWARD OUR HOUSE! So we soon had 7 people on hoses watching for possible sparks to start fires in the dry weeds I haven't gotten to yet (and yes I HAVE been working on them, thank God, or it could have been worse) and the FD actually sent a brush truck into our yard with a bigger hose, Linz saw one place start to smoke and pointed it out to him, and he told us that as long as we saw even a wisp of smoke coming from the neighbor's, not to leave, as with this wind all it would take would be one little spark to start things up again... over two hours of this, but thank God everyone here is ok... we are especially thankful that this did not happen just a little later, because we had Thorn locked in a small pen since Jasmine does not know him and was picking at him, and had Hilary not been home to let him out quickly, I don't think he would have survived the smoke inhalation - I watched as we manned the hoses, and that pen was INVISIBLE for well over an hour...

A couple of people thought it was us... and a couple of people razzed me that they thought it was just my birthday cake {eyes rolling}. My Macayo's birthday dinner is status "pending" now...

(Although the neighbors lost their house, they and their dog got out ok. I have since talked to them and the insurance company is being good to them... tough times but they will be alright!)

Mormon Lake - Gymkhana!

The elk were out again this morning but I forgot to grab the camera... then it was breakfast and get ready for the gymkhana... this is always our favorite part of this particular ride!

Lindsey took some shots of me... and I have to say WAHOO I got my confidence back... I try not to show it but since Katie fell a couple years ago at a walk, a full-out run has caused shaky stomack and weak knees and pounding heart... and getting bucked off Luna last summer on this ride didn't help any. Today I pushed Katie through the patterns and let her GO HOME as fast as she wanted with NONE OF THAT!!! The classes I have been taking with Barb have helped so much, and the endurance rides and training...

No particular order on these pictures, just how blogger loaded them... they are portions of 3 separate events.













Luna learned about patience as well as the gymkhana patterns...

Clancy and Cheyenne jumping... love these action shots!!


I did get one still shot of Lindsey and Luna


But mostly I took videos of the girls, so here they are if you have any interest... I would love it if you would at least take the time to check out Linz and Luna doing Barrels... considering this is only Luna's second time in the arena, and the first time was this gymkhana last year... I am thrilled with her first two turns! She went wide on the 3rd barrel because she was trying to run right and go home, and Linz was urging her left toward the barrel... but all in all, I think she is doing fantastic!!! I just may have to get back into the gymkhana game with this mare! I'll be interested to hear from Mikey and from CarrollFarm on this... so here we go:

Linz on Thorn - Extreme Trail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSbwSXN9uTY

Hilary on Destiny - Extreme Trail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af_iZxkdNg8

Linz on Luna - Extreme Trail (can't believe she blew this jump after jumping so well last year {sigh})
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfC7qs8rjNo

Linz on Thorn - Barrels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUKZKXOD5ho

Hilary on Destiy - Barrels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaGmM5rAOkI

Linz in Luna - Barrels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDXUDoXpswE

The club threw in a "new" pattern, 3 barrels and 3 poles placed randomly, each rider can choose to do them in ANY order they wish so long as each item is circled ONE TIME... it was very interesting to watch the different choices and the difference it made in times...
Linz on Thorn - Your Choice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbnXhZDcJUo

Hilary on Destiny - Your Choice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_T0j3ft7e4

Linz on Luna - Your Choice (oops at the end, thought the camera turned off and it didn't sorry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltCNoqlPY2k

Linz on Thorn - Washington Poles (unfortunately NOT Thorn's favorite, quite often he knocks down at least ONE pole...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y0tsz-3GT8

Hilary on Destiny - Washington Poles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yek_7qiHMa0

Linz on Luna - Washington Poles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-wskG_vhBE

What a fun day :)

Mormon Lake - Trail Ride Etc.

Just like at home, I am the only one who can get out of bed early... so everyone else missed this:

Kinda dark under the trees still but if you look close you can see that something has caught the horses' attention...

Can you see what they see?

How about now??? Yup a herd of bull elk...


A little from our trail ride this afternoon... and it RAINED which being from the Valley of the Sun we just LOVED...

Our friend Clancy and his palomino leopard appaloosa mare, Cheyenne


Marguerite and her mare Vanity... who is Luna's half sister! They have the same sire...


And you might want to turn your sound down, I got a little excited about the rain...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P27Zu-7BXA

After the trail ride, Lindsey and Hilary took Luna and Destiny into the arena to play some more... and proud mom (me) had to get some pictures of my four beautiful girls...




















Last but certainly not least, I am loving spending time with my granddog Justin... he's only been with Carol (and Frankie) for about 4 months and already they can't imagine life without him... I miss him but I can't keep them all and he has a fabulous home!
The best part is, it is NOT 110+ degrees up here!!!

And, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Rocket, and Lindsey's Zeus, and Chelsea, Zack and Zoe... they are TWO today!!! Rocket and Zeus got a birthday biscuit from the gal in the lodge office :)

Ready to Roll!

Well neither the truck NOR the trailer are actually finished, we still have quite a bit to do to both... but they are road-ready for this trip!




I'll update the weekend when we get back :)

EDITED to add this adorable picture from the trip up...

As Good As It Gets For Now...

Yup I was late for work this morning... but we got the rest of the tack room wall installed, and the door between the tack room and horse area... of course by the time we got done it was too dark for pictures, and we had to start loading for the trip. So I'll have to catch up at a later date...

Trailer Update...

STILL not done... but we made a lot of progress tonight.

While Randy fabricated door frames for the outside tack room door and the door between the tack room and the horses...


I did a lot of screwing, grinding and painting!




Randy attaching the bar where my bridle hook racks will hang

He also welded in the L bracket to hold the floorboards over the wheel wells...

Then it got dark on us and we had to stop... and we still have so much to do before we leave on Thursday!

Guess I will be late for work tomorrow :(

Donkey Bite Day 5

As you can see, if I am on my feet a lot and don't have time for ice and elevating, it gets pretty swollen...

The good news is, just sleeping all night with my foot level is enough that in the morning it is almost normal...

The bruise is draining into my foot...



The same thing happened when Luna stepped on me back in January...