Member Blogs

Well like most of you out there I have been so busy with life lately that I don't do much looking on the ol PC cause all I can think of is getting some much needed rest.  However I am happy to say that Felix sold, one less worry, Jess is 27 and doing well even if all his teeth are falling out.  He is really happy that Felix is gone as he now gets Clem the donkey all to himself.  Clem is not at all theartening to Jess so we are no longer having injuries caused by Jess panicking and running blindly into things.  Now don't get me wrong, Jess can see perfectly well, just not when he is scared that something is going to hurt him so he ends up hurting himself instead.  I really do understand now when someone says that they reacted in a 'blind panic' having seen it for my self.

Dillon and I have begun a new adventure in trail riding.  He is learning fast but he still gets a bit excited sometimes and misbehaves.  We have joined ACTHA and done a few rides with them which has been a lot of fun.  We actually won the first one we went on but I think that was beginners luck!  Dillon is beginning to learn that I WILL be able to get on him no matter how much he moves, new places make it hard to stand still so much to see you know!  We have also done a Longhorn Cattle drive and a Wild West Show.  He was pretty leary of the longhorns at first but finally decided that their tails make great fly whisks for you face.  The only thing that really rattled him at the Wild West show was the Stagecoach that he thought was a bomb on wheels.  Guess it's a bit unnerving to have it coming straight at you at a high rate of speed too.  They are really noisy, don't know how those old west passengers survived days of travel in one.  Very tough people I guess.

Went on another trail ride yesterday with 41 other people.  We started out rounding up stray cattle and horses then got to have a really nice ride to the top of a big hill in the Osage.  You could see forever out there.  Had steep hills to climb and timber to wind thru as well as amazing views and large pasture land.  Dillon actually stood stock still for me to mount.  We didn't have to do as much walking around in large circles while we were waiting for the ride to start, actually got to chat with a few people before we had to move again.  I think Dillon might be a bit ADHD.  He's an awful lot like my youngest daughter who has it.  The only time he really came undone was when the pony wearing the bell under his girth came by at a gallop.  We spent some time going sideways before he got tired of that.  Then we had two short but really steep banks to navigate that he gave a little trouble on.  The problem was that you had to turn away from the horse in front, wait on them to go down, and then go yourself.  Dillon could see the horse in front and didn't want to turn away but with a little hard headedness of my own and insistance that we go down the safe way we did it.  Small victories but I think he is trusting me more and more as a herd leader.  He gets anxious if he can't see the horse directly in front but he is learning that we do meet up again in just a few minutes.  The funny thing is that he will lead the group quite well if you can't see the others in front at all and he is not so worried about catching up with them. I hope that soon he will begin to take comfort in having horses behind him most of the time too.

My friend just bought a brand new Sundowner with living quaters so we can trail ride more.  I am so excited about being able to go a bit farther away from home.