Even more insanity

I'm looking over my shoulder today.  I'm still smiling and all is mostly ok or will be, but omg.  Lets just do a laundry list rundown: Fire, horse falls on friend cracks her pelvis, cowboy gets flipped over on and breaks femur, car window falls off track and then shatters, acquaintance gets kicked in face almost dies (not exaggerating here), help another friend put down very very old dog get home and my very very old cat has died in sleep.  I think that is all.  On the upside?  I am almost ready to move Mojito and Bridger out to the 100 acres of awesomeness, my husband may be home more than he was last winter, car is getting fixed.

Also, Lester and Chloe have discovered the joy of a box.

 That's all for now.

Spinning around

Time keeps flying by, but something this week made is come to a screeching halt.  No one was hurt and only a few outbuildings were lost, but we had a 1000 acre go ripping through the area.  Husband and I rushed out to our friend's place (which is incidentally where my horses are moving to shortly since my mom's place sold) to help with what we could.

On the way, her place is on the other side of all that smoke

Light smoke=weeds dark smoke=building

Incredible sunset

Firetrucks lined up

Woah, way to make one slow down and assess what is really important.  I did manage to daydream a bit and was thinking if my guys were there I could have saddled them both up and ridden/ponied off into the distance, old west style.  Here I had been obessing over a video I made of Aero where I seem jiggly and incompetent and suddenly it became the minor issue it actually is.  Yes, I can loose a few pounds.  Yes, it isn't the best riding, but he was being super difficult.  No, it is not the end of the world.

On the upside I love the music!

This evening I got some fun shots of Diva and Bridger in the setting sun, nice and relaxing

Nom Nom Nom

Still eating

Sleepy

Love this!

Another great weekend

We brought home two wins this weekend!  It was a blast.  One horse affectionately known as Speedy, was just that.  He has had two years off due to plain bad luck, he cut his leg to the bone kicking through the stall wall, then he got strangles.  Finally after 28 months from his last race we led him over for an allowance race.  From the moment he came out of the gates I knew we had it, he toyed with the other horses and as he came into the stretch his ears were perked forward and away he went to win by over 6 lengths.  If a horse is really trying they will typically have their ears back and if they are crazy confident they perk them up.  He ran five furlongs in 57 secs and change, he now has the fastest five furlong time for the meet here at Les Bois!!!  The craziest part is that he can do it in 56 secs if he really boogies, there are few horses that can claim that (there are 8 furlongs in a mile).

On the way up (photo by CLS photography)
Eugene was being super intense, this is one of his favorite horses!

Pulling away (Yes that is him twice in the yellow, cool phone feature)

Fist pump from the Jockey!

The other horse won a stakes race over in Oregon, same one that won in Union.

So I am finally getting my last rides in to earn Mojito's papers.  Yes it has been a long time coming, the previous owner has been as busy as me, but we are both in a better place and I'm excited to help her get riding her mare again!  I trained two horses in exchange for Mojito, and the weather pooped out on us before I had the predetermined number of rides done, luckily she is a great lady and let me take him home:)

This is her, a huge Hanoverian mare

Crazy picture with only her head moving, and some arms.

Yes, I know the pictures and updates of Mojito have been few and far between.  There will be some soon, this is a promise to you and myself, I've got to get him going again!

Riding with friends

I got a new phone, so pumped!  My old one often refused to make phone calls, find the internet, text...aahhkkk!  I have been checking out all the features and the camera is incredible, I'm talking 13 megapixels of incredible.  Stay tuned for some high tech looking pictures.

I have had the pleasure of riding around with the sprinklerbandit and let me say it is lovely to ride with a friend.  I haven't had the privilege to in quite some time, and while riding is most always a blast it can get a bit lonely by yourself all the time.  She has been rocking it on Gunner and even came with while I rode Aero today.  Some testing of the phone camera went on, it certainly proved itself.  I was going to share some riding time on Aero, but he chose today to act like a stubborn inappropriate word.  Typical horses: you brag, someone comes to watch, horse pulls out the naughty moves.  I finally threw in some moves the cowboy taught me (canter, halt, rollback, canter, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat) and Aero came to attention and gave me this:

Pretty sweet face I'm making ;)

So we gave him a bath and planned for play time in the future when he wants to be my sweet cuddly guy.  BTW he is now for sale as his main owner is wanting to have less horses to feed.  I guess the previous statements might scare someone off, but seriously what horse doesn't have a stubborn day here and there?  He is truly one of my all time favorite horses, tears will be shed when he goes down the road.

On a brighter note, Aero's baby sister Bonnie is a lovely yearling, it will be starting time before we know it!

She is the dark one, its looking like she will be much taller than Aero

Summer adventures

My husband bought a canoe.  No, I am not upset.  In fact I think it will be fun, I'm a big proponent of getting out in 'nature' as a rather cheap form of therapy.  Sunday was his birthday, and we went north to a lake, rented a canoe and paddled up the river.  It was beyond scenic, and bonus: we didn't tip over.

Lewis and Clarke anyone?

So lucky to have this in our 'backyard'

We have had some fair finishes at the races, this guy is in again tomorrow, here's to hoping!

R Seeker and I

It is looking like we will have racers here until the start of August and then the barn will head back to California, yeah for sleeping past 4:45 am, boo for the husband being gone again.

Oh and on a mostly unrelated note:

Made this awhile back and forgot to post it.  This is the sprinklerbandit and I, some OTTB humor:)  The sprinklerbandit and I have been having fun at the track keeping a quota of horse dirt under her nails!

A bit of progress

It has cooled off a bit!  It makes me feel warped when 94 degrees feels comfortable, I mean seriously I have red hair my max should be 80.  We escaped to the river yesterday, we signifying me, Eugene, and my dad who is up for a quick visit.  It was bliss.  We fished, but I mostly took in the breathe taking scenery.  Observation here, when I was a little kid I could fish up a storm, now that I am older I swear the fish bolt when I arrive, boo.

Middle fork of the Payette river

Also, hope you all had a great 4th of July.  We ran 2nd in the Stars and Stripes Handicap! I took some pictures of the fireworks, but they were lame, so I pixlred it!

The hot weather brought some spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

Trying out the panoramic setting on my phone camera

Bridger is less sore, but still needs his feet done.  We had a very productive session with the side reins, that said, he has got to learn to use his butt a bit more.  So as I was thinking over my options for this Lucy's person posted about making her own Pessoa lunging system...so doing this!

No worries, I know that I little goes a long way with that.  Traditional side reins just don't seem to be Bridger's cup of tea, he has figured out how to drop his lower neck and impersonate a giraffe with his head, bleck.  Ok I'm off to do some weekend projects!

Comments!

Wow, I will have to read Aero all of your sweet comments on my last post, kidding, sort of.  Thanks for all the support! He is still doing super duper:)  So it has been hot here.

I didn't cheat here, this is after driving around and then stopping in the shade.  Ick!

I don't think I mentioned, we won the big Boise Derby last Wednesday, it was awesome.  The crowd was going absolutely wild!  I need to scan our win pictures and then I can put them up here.  We have one in tomorrow and three on the fourth.  I love racing on the 4th of July, there is always a great crowd and the atmosphere is super pumped up.

So I was going through some old photos on an old SD card that had never been edited and found a couple of Rio Listo, my first OTTB.  He was neurotic, but wonderfully bold.

A late evening jump school back in 2009.

 I love a reminder now and then that yes I can in fact jump, the babies are fun, the dressage is fun, but I have really been craving a good gallop over fences recently.

He was gorgeous. 

So I'm just here trying not to melt, hope you all are have stupendous weeks!