I went to the lake and visited with my sister and 2 nephews last Monday. One is into skiing and the other into wakebording. It was pretty interesting. I usually do my one trip a year on the slalom, but was shown up too bad to compete with them this time.
John Robert barefoot
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Gray wakeboarding
"> Tuesday & Wed. we got to ride some. We picked 5.5 gallons of blackberries Thurs. am and left to go to Shelbyville, TN that evening. A friend that has a house close to the Walking Horse arena let us park our horse trailer in his back yard. We went to horse shows Thurs. and Fri. nights. It was interesting, but I don't like what the horses have to go through.
A little girl showing-she placed, but not 1st.
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The prettiest horse I ever saw won 1st in it's class. It was a true blue roan 
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It was hard to get a good picture they were moving so fast.
continued: Sat. am we went to a gaited horse sale. Some friends of ours have gotten really good papered horses at good prices there before and they have a building with stadium step seats on both sides of an isle that you watch them ride up and down about 100 feet long. That way you can see how smooth they are and what their gaits are. You get to ride them outside before the sale if you want and see how they act standing and being handled. Some friends came up for the sale that know alot about gaited horses that helped us look. Hal is getting to the point that he isn't enjoying riding because his horse is too big, stubborn, and hard to handle. He doesn't have room on some trails to school him and I am afraid he will get hurt. He is not really smooth enough for someone who has had 4 back surgeries to ride very long without hurting, either. We found one that looked right and got him, so we loaded up the trailer and came home Sat. pm and didn't go to the last show.
This is the Spotted Saddle horse and Hal named him Trouble. He is a 9 yo and 15 hands high.
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We rode Sunday after we got home to try him out
"> After a little tweaking with bits and getting used to the saddle bags, he did pretty good.
Hal's 72 year old uncle came and shod him Tues pm and he gave me these hooves he sawed off a horse someone called him to come and trim:
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He said he had to lay her down and tie her and saw them off with a hack saw. It took 2 hrs. for all 4 feet. Letting one get like that is even more cruel that the walking horse pads, to me.
We rode again today 4 hours and he did great. We are hoping he doesn't change (and live up to his new name) after he gets over his sale barn cold and puts on a little weight. I rode the black Sassy 2 yo and she did fine. After the ride we went and got her Coggins pulled and some abx for Trouble's snotty nose.