The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11

[MissTargets]

Not any rodeo in this area. There are a couple of places that have bull riding and team penning events. She does like to trail ride and I am glad for that.

[FrogInABlender]

Good Morning! Yeah, I went riding on Saturday. We went to the rails-to-trails and had a really nice ride. We had the whole trail to ourselves. I guess everybody went camping somewhere for the whole weekend and left the day-ride trail to us, and that suited me fine.

On Sunday morning I pulled up the yellow pansies in my rock flower bed and then went and got 5 big buckets of composted chicken manure and added it to it and worked it in. Then I planted yellow marigolds back in their place. That chicken manure is good stuff. It'd grow grass on a bowling ball I think, but it sure does stink. I'm hoping that it'll tone down a bit after it airs out and gets watered down. After that, we had a fish fry at my in-law's.

Yesterday my nephew and his wife had a pool party and cook out at their place. We had hotdogs with all the fixings, baked beans, corn on the cob, chips and dip, home made chocolate chip cookies, pound cake, and 3 different kinds of home made ice cream (peach, vanilla and chocolate butterfinger). My BIL brought his big inflatable waterslide and set it up by the pool so it was fun watching all the kids go down that. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend indeed!

Here's a couple of pics. They're nothing spectacular but I thought I'd share 'em anyways...

The kids on the waterslide...

The Old Fart's club on the rails-to-trails ride...

This horse is Grace's half brother. The guy who trains for me owns him. I just love his curly mane...

[HairOfTheDog]

Was it only the kids that got to go on the water slide? :~)

Glad you had a good ride... I like the curly mane too... makes him look like a surfer teen idol guy ;~)

He looks like he’s going grey instead of roan, right?

[FrogInABlender]

I sure hate to hear about Kat’s foot problems! Hopefully it’s just a bruise or strain like you said and she’ll work out well for what the want her for. She sure looks good for a 19 year old horse.

[FrogInABlender]

Good job on the fence. It sure looks nice an tidy now. What ever happened about all that dozer work the neighbors did right next to the fence? Did they clean it up some or what?

[HairOfTheDog]

Did they clean it up some or what?

Not really. She's covered part of it with black plastic, which I'm not fond of, and she says she's going to plant a hedge on it.

I'm going to have to go along that fence line with the weedwacker... I want to cut and smooth it enough that I can still get at least a mower width. I may work on that this week.

I've talked to her... I'm not sure if she's actually putting in a greenhouse, or just a big garden. She brought in a bunch of topsoil, and she's planting lots of shrubs and things in the dirt... she said it's her livelihood, selling trees and shrubs and things... not sure where she sells them.

She might get me a good wholesale price on some evergreen hedge for us, to plant between us and the store. We'll see :~)

[FrogInABlender]

Wow, congrats on all the ribbons at the show. Alison is one awsome littl rider.

[MissTargets]

Thanks...I am glad you had a nice weekend. That slide sure does look like a lot of fun. Our Rails-to-Trails has a lot of bikers on it. The horse area runs right along side of the paved part. When I get braver, I will take Bodie down it. Find out his reaction to all those bikes. Jody sure doesn’t care for them.

[FrogInABlender]

Yeah, the waterslide is only for kids and very small adults. My nephew found that out the hard way when he went down it and hit bottom (literally) and nearly broke his tailbone. Some of the adults went in the pool, but it was really too cold for anybody but the kids, and they wouldn’t have cared if it had ice in it!

And yeah, the trainer’s horse is a gray instead of a roan. He and Grace look a lot alike (they had the same sire), except she’s still fairly dark, on the body anyways. She won’t turn white nearly as early as he will.

[HairOfTheDog]

We pass a lot of bikers on our trails... see if you can get a couple of the bikes to stop and talk to you, or at least talk to them and get them to say hello on their way by. If you let the horses know they are just people, and usually they are OK from there on out.

[HairOfTheDog]

Oh - ouch.

[RosieCotton]

She might get me a good wholesale price on some evergreen hedge for us, to plant between us and the store. We'll see :~)

A shrubbery? One that looks nice - and not too expensive?

Too bad I can't plant hugh shrubbery or ivy over those pumps and such...

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Good morning:)

That is a pretty horse:)

Sounds like you had a pleasant busy weekend:)

I’ve been mowing this morning. But everything is so wet, it doesn’t really look very good, clumps everywhere, but it had to be mowed. I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t mind a bit of a dry spell...we’ve got rain for all week. But, in a month we’ll probably be begging for rain, it’s crazy:)

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

We need some of that kudzu they have in the south ;~)

I sure hope he gets rid of those soon. I’ve lost hope about the signs.

[HairOfTheDog]

There you are... good morning :~)

I was going to ask another follow up question about the 30,000 acre ranch... what do they do on it? Run cattle? It didn’t look like it was planted with anything, it looks pretty natural.

[FrogInABlender]

Well, come to think of it, we did encounter a couple of bikers and one jogger on our ride. Most of the bikers are good to stop and get off and let us pass, but some of them just keep moving and that does seem to un-nerve most horses. The jogger never even slowed down either and Bob didn’t quite know what to do about that. He just kinda slammed on the breaks and stood there all splayed out. Sometimes you just never know what they’re going to do.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Something I forgot to mention about the ride that I found interesting and exciting.

There was a writer there from the AQHA magazine, I think it’s the magazine you get when you are a member of the organization. She was there to take pictures, and write an article about QH’s in CTR competitions.

I think an effort is being made to get the AQHA to sponsor some of the rides which would mean an award/money payback. The Arab Association does that now.

Anyway I thought that pretty exciting, altho I don’t hope to see it happen quick:)

Becky

[FrogInABlender]

...She's covered part of it with black plastic, which I'm not fond of...

I'll bet not! I'm sure it's real fun for the horses when the wind gets under it and it flaps around. But it'll keep the weeds down until she gets something planted on it, so there's that. And like you say, if you can get out there with a shovel and a garden rake and smooth it down enough to get a mower between it and the fence, it'll make your life much easier, even though it's a real pain that you've ended up having to do it in the first place. They shouldn't have done that THAT close to the fence! :-/

[HairOfTheDog]

Did she interview you?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

It’s all very natural, nothing planted there. There are some cows, I’ve only seen them a few times. The John Zink Corp. has a manufactoring company in Skiatiook too (I don’t know what they make).

I knew the ranch was big, but I couldn’t remember exactly what I had been told so I googled it and found the 30,000 acre fact, I didn’t read much about what they do.

Becky