Back to Life, Back to Reality

Reminds me of that song, I would sing it for you but if I am like Neil says you wouldn't recognize it anyways so no singing for you today (lucked out on that one I thinks)

Anyways now that I am back from what I thought was gonna be warm weather but wasn't in Texas I can get back on my real life.  I spent Wednesday catching up on what I missed while gone, reading mail, doing laundry, unpacking all that fun coming home stuff..  But by Thursday I could take it no longer and hooked up my trailer and loaded up the ponies and away riding we went :)  I took both Kali and Jessie again, they are gonna be my winter riding ponies I think.  And on the way there I got a notification from my truck that I had a low tire, so I stop and sure enough i can hear air leaking out but not real bad so I drive to the tire place and the fixed it for me.  So much easier that way that me having to change it then bring it in.  I dunno how we survived without all these gadgets on our vehicles (and phones!)  But if it hadn't been notifying me I woulda waited till after I rode then it woulda been real flat and I would have to change it before driving.

First up was Jessie, shes so awesome as always :)  and yet kinda goofy at the same time.  The arena was freshly worked and some spots got a little more water than others and were a little weird feeling, not slippery but just deeper and she tried to pussyfoot through them, made me laugh at her but I just kept making her go through them till she acted like they were not there.  Had a really good ride, only about 35 minutes cause she is pretty out of shape but gotta start somewhere.

then Kals, what a goober, when you pony her she is super speedy and raring to go but I lunged her and could hardly even get a trot out of her and then when I got on lazy lazy lazy.  I wish I knew how to motivate her to actually move out when I ask, never had a horse like that before, sure hate kicking them every step too.  She will move but only as mush as she has too, it kinda makes for a long ride even when it was only about 20 minutes.

Then yesterday I went for a lesson, i was kinda nervous had lots of questions but it was good, only on the flag cause he was in the middle of setting up an alleyway so he could work cows in his arena and hadn't finished it yet but that was good enough for me.  I like the flag cause for some reason I am better on it, it is kinda predictable but still helps me to learn.  he was riding a 2 year old and was talking through what he was doing while working and that actually really helped, made me think I am at the same stage as she was, lol.  Oh well gotta start somewhere.  Had coffee afterwards and lots of talk, I always leave there feeling like I learned something...and not always about cutting I really like going there.

 (some ponies were wishing they were in getting grain and hay)

 (some ponies are all blanketed and happy to be in )

(even the bull wanted in)

He was asking if I was thinking of going in the winter series and I had earlier  this year cause a neighbor was gonna to so that woulda been fun but she works all the dates they are so she isn't and I am not sure if I will either.  I hadn't planned on it but Doug goes to them all and it might be good practice if the roads are not bad, it starts in Jan so I have a little bit of time to get my horse back in shape, sure would like to do something this winter, as much as I love the arena I am riding in it is lonely.  I should find something I can do with Kali, I just don't know what she will like to do besides be lazy.  Ugg makes me want to sell her for sure now perfect for someone who likes slow and lazy cause she fits, lol as long as she has a friend shes happy.

Fort Worth Stockyards

After watching a few good goes in cutting we needed a break, as much as I love watching I would rather be out there and after seeing so many good ones we were kinda fallin asleep...oh another 214, hmm.  Sad really but that's how it is specially when we never heard of the rider.  So we headed out to the stockyards again, it was daytime and we were hopin to get in a few pics and more shoppin.  We did both :)

We wanted to go to Leddy's just cause its historic, wasn't too impressed with their stuff, real expensive and only a couple things I even liked in there, but now we know.  Then on down the street to the Sean Ryon shop, he warned us at the trade show he was pretty empty but we needed to see just to say we been there.  And he was right, lol.  But it is also the Luskys shop and lots of nice stuff in there, I got a vest and my friend was lookin at Jewelry, never bought any but she loves it, me not so much, well I like it I just don't wear it so no point in buying more.

We also hit a few touristy places and got a t-shirt for Neil and a magnet for my sister that she asked for.  I got a sign for the wall that I had been looking for something like it for a while and that's about all.  The we were hungry so we went back to the Cattleman's to have another slice of pecan pie.  We split a burger before that and it was pretty good too.  I am sure all their food there was good.  But the pecan pie was amazing!

Then on back to more touristing, we stopped at a museum that was neat and then we realized it was time for the trail drive, which we almost missed, saw the tail end but then went over to where we could see them in the pens, big horns on them they are not young ones.  And then on the way down i slipped right beside the watch your step sign (of course)  and now got a bruise on my butt.  But was worth it I should watch more carefully I guess.  Was kinda slippery on the wood cause it was kinda drizzly all day but not too cold.  When I got home I was telling Neil I got a bruise after looking at the longhorns and he thought I got poked in the butt, lol husbands!

More Cutting

We been heading out to the cutting every morning and this morning we decided to get gps lady to direct us there from our hotel instead of just randomly driving through all the fancy neighborhoods and by the university and hoping we eventually find it, lol.  Sure was cool to see some of those houses though!  Wow they were big.  Haha we stopped at Starbucks on the way and it was still under 10 minutes from our hotel and we had been spending up to half hour to get there!  Oh well made for interesting trips :)

We saw Winston Hansma go a couple times today.  Boy was he sure a nice rider.  We see his brother Gerry all the time in Canada and we saw his brother Paul the other day but I think from what we seen Winston by far is the nicer rider.

Also saw a few names I recognized, I am amazed at all the people I dont know, I knew there were a lot of cutters down here but still to hardly know anyone is kinda hard.  We saw Phil Rapp, was not as impressed as I imagined since he is an $8 million dollar winner, and we saw Lindy Burch, she was kinda cool I have to say am glad we saw her.

Also found a young stud we sure liked, and his oldest foals are 3 this year and they sure seemed nice and smooth, looked easy to ride, his name was Metallic Cat.  Might have to keep my eye out for some of them in the future.

Oh shopping, those were all Nettles stirrups Shirley, a friend bought a pair there with the leveler in them that keeps her stirrups level at all times, I kinda wanna try them out.  Was funny we went there and they were still setting up and we asked for someone who can tell us about them and the guy says well I make them what can I help you with, lol.  And I really really wanted to see the Rios of Mercedes boots and see what the hype was about, boy they are a nice boot.  But $$$.  Same friend wanted a pair of Anderson Bean boots and ended up getting the Rios, I wanna see if she still likes them after wearing them for a while.   I am thinking of getting a shirt from the CR Ranchwear, they are sure nice, she makes them and they have a little glitter on them, I tried on some and they didn't have my size in the shirt I really liked but we are going back tomorrow and hope she brings more.  We talked to the gal that makes them she does a really nice job.

I do agree I wish they would say where in Canada they are from, was interesting to see Cody Smith down here with a horse, did not know he was coming down.  And turns out Doug was asked to come down and ride so he come in Wednesday and rode the horse on 3 cows for practice then showed it Thursday!  And he said he wasn't nervous, I cant imagine doing that.  He didn't score well cause apparently he had his rein hand high on the neck and they thought he was reining so deducted some points but said she was a nice horse.  Kinda makes me sad we didn't see him that day cause we were in Oklahoma.

Tomorrow back to cutting for a bit then over to the stockyards in the daytime and hope to see a cattle drive and the train and all the other touristy stuff before going back for more pecan pie.

Thats all I know so far, but only one more day till we have to leave :(  Will sure miss it, but I guess maybe have to come back next year for longer :)

Lost in Fort Worth

We made it down to the futurity building today.  Boy it is cool but confusing, we even had GPS lady confused!  LOL she kept telling us to make a u-turn then make a left turn before we even moved.  We headed through a super old rich part of town, wow some of those houses had old money in them!  Amazing!  We had her going around in circles and finally we just asked and it was super easy.  After we got parked and went in the wrong building and saw the sales ring, kinda makes me sad we aren't gonna see any sales cause they don't start till Dec 9th.

Then some nice man pointed us in the right direction and away we go through all the barns and in some other door and whew there we are and boy it was exciting.  A lot of nice ponies out there.  I was actually kinda disappointed cause I was told it was so much better than what we got in Canada but didn't think it was, but then we got thinking they look like our four year olds and there were no real dinks so they are really good!  We even saw the high scorer of the day and he was cool!  I got a video of part of his run.  But I am not uploading it now, maybe when i have more time to waste, too busy here!

We were there not very long and who do we see but Doug!  Of all people he had a good chuckle about it and told my friend to buy a really nice horse and take it to him for training and she could pet it and maybe when it was 8 she could ride it!  It was hilarious, we sure laughed at that!  It wouldn't have been a hardship to take a few of them home we saw some we really liked :)

After we saw lots and went in the trade fair even though it wasn't really open sure was a lot better than the AQHA one, whew!  I was pretty sure it would be but...

And then we headed over to the Fort Worth Stockyards, boy was that entertaining, once again GPS lady tired to get us lost cause we had to take a detour cause of construction but she of course did not know and so we drove through some interesting areas and then finally made it there.  It was dark and kinda rainy and so we looked in a few places but not a lot was open and so we ate at Cattlemans and had the best pecan pie ever and then we went back to our hotel.  if we have more time we might go in the daytime if the weather clears up a bit.  Or we will have to go again next year :)

1 Day at the AQHA World Show

This morning we headed up to Oklahoma City so see the AQHA World show.

We knew a girl whose horse was competing in the senior driving class.  On the way up we got to see some pretty nice barns and places, and we saw Carol Rose's place, still makes me kinda sad that its for sale though.  And we went through Moore where Toby Kieth is from.  Sure and interesting Drive, I am glad we went even if it was almost 4 hours.  We got there early enough that we saw the Junior hunter under Saddle finals

and the Aged halter Mares...boy that was boring....so long.  They lined them up under all 4 judges before they finally placed them in the class.  I though it was never gonna end, but there was lots of people cheering so I guess someone liked it.

Then the class we came for :)  It was cool and of course I like driving anyways (even if its with bigger ponies) it was cool and her horse got 3rd so she got a trophy and a picture and a buckle and a coat.  Pretty fun! And then she made us get in her picture, not sure I wanted to be in it but she was so excited we did.

We also went to the trade fair, was pretty small I was disappointing but that's OK we got a better one this week :)  The amount of showy stuff, stalls and trophys and stuff around the barns is just crazy too!  But kinda fun to just be there.  And in the one barn was a hawk flying around was kinda unexpected.

Saw this cool log carving, that's one big log and to carve like that was just amazing!

And the waterfall outside celebrating their centennial in 2007, wish it was nicer out there was lots to see.

Got chilly and windy out and was almost freezing by the time we left, was kinda rainy and dark the whole way back but much warmer down here still.  Specially when I hear at home how cold it was.