Riders Award

My dear friend in blogland, Kacy at All Horse Stuff, awarded me this wonderful riding award. Not sure I deserve it because I don't ride out on the trails like she and Wa do. Boy, do I wish I could load up Gilly and head for Oregon to ride the beaches and wonderful trails that Kacy does!! Gilly and I aren't that adventuresome but we do have some adventures....sometimes not good ones! I do however climb back into the saddle when others tell me I shouldn't, "Oh, my.....you could really get hurt!" Well, I love to ride and I love my horse. I am not one for sitting in a safe rocking chair....I want that nice rocking movement to be on the back of a moving horse. I can't think of a better way of exiting this life, riding, doing what I love!!!
So thank you dear Kacy for bestowing this award on me.............now I have to find some one person to pass it along to. I know just who I will pass it to; Kacy, who has inspired me to do more with Gilly and press on to greater things for both me and my horse. (that was a no brainer!)
Hugs to you my dear friend!!!!!

Below are Kacy's words as to the meaning of this award:


This Award is dedicated to those Horse lovers and riders that inspire others to go deeper in ability, knowledge and understanding of the Equine(s) they have been entrusted to.The good of the horse is the ultimate goal apart from pressures to achieve ribbons and fit into lesson schedules.

~Some of These riders are fearless, when it comes to weather conditions and the forecasting of them...being with their horses, fills these folks' soul and takes the cares out of daily routines.

~They are unconditionally loving to the horse and may have rescued it from known ailment or living condition.

~Others have researched and purchased/ acquired their horse, to find a difficulty in temperament or a physical burden within the animal. Yet, Being dedicated , they have persevered to proudly be in partnership with their horse, lovingly striving for deeper awareness's between them.

~Some horse lovers may have been riding for years and suddenly, had an accident that takes them away from the great joy and freedom they have, being aboard such a magnificent animal. ~They have allowed the healing horse to rise in their hearts once again, and beckon them back!

~INTREPID RIDERS FACTION ~We strive to go where others only dare to go with our horse loves...healing,being respectful of the horse, riding, playing, camping, jumping, swimming and traveling down the trails of life. . . . with the horse in Heart~Overcoming many obstacles and sometimes weather, to ride!

~This is a symbol or an emblem to give away to those we are aware of that have uniquely nurtured and loved the Equine in a special way.

In turn the equine has inspired them as well, to be more and to go further in trust and ability.

It honors the unique drive they have for going the distance, understanding the needs and rising to the occasion of supplying the care/training for, their entrusted Horse(s).

Awards make me feel good...not so much(sometimes) that a specific award was given to me, but that someone thought of me for an award. This one is thoughtful because it is specific.

This award was born out of many people calling me a name...not a bad name, but one that I rather liked.

INTREPID RIDER~

After looking up the meaning, I agreed.

I added the "Faction" to the Awards name because ,I rarely fit into any large, organized group of people I find. I tend to stand out for being misread and judged for my joyful abandon to try things with my horse and to inspire others to do the same.

Fear is not my normal response to things ... just a desire to achieve higher understanding of what may lay ahead of me with my mare, that truly is a gift to my heart and soul.

I always seek out knowledgeable and caring individuals to assist me, in any quest I may look into.

I am taking with me the good I have gleaned from caring individuals that have shown great single minded LOVE to the horse, and am leaving the dust of the bad behind me, not allowing it to fetter my supreme desire to be all I can be :

-as a rider to my mare and also- to allow- her to be the Equine athlete she truly is!

There are not many rules with this award...JUST :

1)that you give it to only one person

2)link back to this post, so they may have an understanding to it's true nature

3) You may use any or all of the above written descriptions, with the award picture

Gilly's Adventure at a horse show....and other craziness

Remember I said that I was going to get a lot of pictures of Gilly at the horse show??? Well, it didn't happen and I am so mad at myself for it! Grrrrr!!!
The day didn't start out good and that should have told me that it was only going to get worse. Kim couldn't get here on time with the trailer, misadventures at home so we were late getting started. When she pulled up her boxer was running behind the trailer, strange?! We loaded all of Gilly things; buckets, water, tack, our lunch, cameras....yes, I had TWO cameras with me!!!

OK, so the trailer is loaded now lets get the big boy out to load up. I got him out walked him up to the trailer and he promptly side stepped around to the other side. OK, Gil get into the trailer, nope, side stepped to the other side and behind the door. What the heck is wrong with you??? Last time he loaded fine, just walked up and into the trailer and started eating his hay. Not this time.......we worked with that darned horse for over an hour before we finally got his sorry butt in there!!!

So we start out, can't go fast, on a gravel road and pulling a trailer and what do we see running behind up.....Kim's dog! Well, living out here in the country and down in a hollow our cell phones don't work. We couldn't call her husband to come and get the darned dog. Mike is running the chipper so he couldn't hear us if we stopped and yelled to him; so we tried to keep going and hope that she would go home. What am I saying, the dog kept coming and running in front of the truck; now there is no where to turn around so we had to stop, pick her up, she is covered with mud and take her with us to the top of the hill where hopefully one of our cell phones would work. NOT!!! We had to drive another half mile, we are almost three miles from the house now, before we could get her husband on the phone. He was supposed to be watching the dog, obviously he was NOT! It's now after 10 in the morning, we were supposed to be there at 10.....that's not happening. I had to call my instructor to tell her we would be late.

Finally we are back on the road with the horse, yes, he's still back there and as quiet as can be. What was all the fuss about getting into the trailer, who can say, he doesn't move when riding. We get there and unload him, oh, great! He has decided to poo in the trailer but it's mashed all over the door and his butt and tail!!! GILLY!!!! So I try to rinse it off but he is hopping around because he sees all the horses there. We are out in a field and there aren't a lot of trailers and horses but he can see them at the arena across the race track from us. Thank goodness his tail is black and you couldn't see that some of it was still green! :-(

So I get one picture of him, above, standing by the trailer. We started walking him toward the arena where all the activity is.......OH BOY, OH BOY, OH BOY!!!!! he is saying look at all the horses!!! He didn't know where to look first, the paints and palominos caught his eye the most. None of them paid him any mind, he whinned, nickered and shorted but they all ignored him. He watched for awhile then settled down somewhat to just look.

Kim and I walked him across the race track to some trees and there were some other horses here too. The picture above was taken there; Gilly is looking toward the race horse barn where there was some activity there too. (check out my jeans in the picture. I tapered the legs and sewed on some synthetic leather for patches, works very well and the price was right!!)

Back at the trailer I saddled him up, no, not me going to ride, my instructor is. I thought he was just a little too wound up for my liking so I stayed on the ground. Glad I did too, he got spooked twice but Vicki didn't fall off, of course, she is an excellent rider. Someone through a fork full of manure over the fence right at him, he jumped of course and the dumb woman never even said "sorry" just continued to through more over the fence! After that some crows flew out of some tall grass and that gave him a fright. Then all was well and he settled down and Vicki had a good ride.

This is the part that I hated missing the pictures or video, I could have done either. They had a 15 minute break in classes so anyone could ride in the arena. Vicki took Gilly in for a ride. WOW!!! He didn't know what to think of all the horses milling around him going all directions. The look on his face was priceless!! When a big group walked toward him then passed him he wanted to go with them! That look was just too funny! But I missed it, how??? Someone was asking me about him and instead of talking and photographing at the same time, I just ran my mouth.....grrrrrr! Vicki got him moving and paying attention to her instead of what was happening around him. He was trotting beautifully and cantering......and I got not one picture. Kim didn't either, darn it!

After his ride I sponged him off with some cool water, gave him a good drink of water and let him cool out while we ate lunch. After walking around a bit more we were tired, hot and ready to go home. Do you think Mr. Gilly was???? He started the same trailer shenanigans as before, running from side to side and would not get into the trailer. A few times he would step his front feet in and just stand there. If you tapped him with the stick he would back out and just give you a look that made me want to choke him!!! "You can't MAKE me! La la la la la!!!" What a brat a 1,200 pound brat at that, now how do you move something that size when he say, "NO WAY"! It didn't help any either that two scruffy kids and their ponies were running back and forth where he could see them, the parents standing there watching us fight with Gilly and not saying a word to the kids. Some people are so ignorant!!!

After over an hour for this, finally a couple stopped, they had been showing too and gave us some help; plenty of others had just gone past and looked but not offered to help. We finally got a lunge line and put it around his butt and pulled a little and he went right in. He didn't know what to think of the man who came over, he looked like he wasn't going to take any guff from Gil and Gil's eyes were pretty big. He said, "OK, this guy looks like he is going to kick my butt so I'll get in now". We shut the butt bar and he just stood there eating his hay and resting one hind foot like nothing had gone on!!!

We arrived home without further incident!!! But Gilly had to stand in the trailer until it was all unloaded for being such a fine horse all day! Then he had made another mess in there that I had to scrub out, thanks so much Gilly!!!

This is the kind of stuff that just makes you want to beat the living pee out of a horse, not that it would do any good but BOY can they make you CRAZY!!!! So now we have to go back to trailer loading school and knowing Gilly he will just walk in like he has done all along when I don't want to go anywhere!!! They know and they know how to push your buttons too!!!!!

THE END!!!
P.S. Pokey says he can't see what all the fuss is about, no way is HE going to get into the trailer, there's no need too!

Back in the saddle with some new stuff....

Oh, yippee!!! I am back in the saddle again! I rode Gilly this morning and it was great! My shoulder and arm are still somewhat sore but me knee did well, still can't bend it all the way but it is working enough to ride.....I am really happy about that.

I also ordered some new horse stuff for me! A new helmet (yes I got it yesterday so it was on my head when I rode today)

This is my new helmet a Troxel Legacy Gold GPS III and I love it!!! Great fit nice look and I am going to wear it all the time when riding. I was looking at my old helmet last night and it has a crack in it??? How did that happen? I never fell off when wearing it, but yet it has a star crack the size of the end of my little finger on the side. Guess it's a good thing that I got a new helmet.

I also ordered some new half chaps, the others I have are Ariat All Terrain chaps that go really well with my all terrain Ariat boots; I wanted these to go with my Ariat paddock boots. I also got some stuff called Sit-Tight to spray on my saddle seat to keep my butt in place......hey, know what...IT WORKS!!! I was able to sit Gillys bouncy trot today!!!

I don't have any pictures of me and Gil on our ride today but we did ride. Up and down the road, did some trotting and some fast walking but no cantering, yet. On the way home we rode through the hay field where I fell off, he seemed pretty nervous and we just walked. Even Pokey running in the field above the road made him nervous which it hasn't in the past. We rode on up past the house to the next neighbors and another Blue (devil) Heron flew out of the creek in front of us a little way up the road. Gilly just stopped and looked at it but didn't shy. He was a really good boy today and we had a nice ride!!!
Tomorrow we will take another ride then Sunday it's the horse show. Gilly will be busy taking in all the sights and sounds that he has never seen before. What fun; I don't know if I will ride him there or not, it depends on how he responds to all the activity and there will be a lot of little kids running around there. But I will take pictures anyway, stay tuned!!

Still waiting to ride.............

This picture was taken two weeks ago, when I could still ride. My knee is still giving me fits, even though I am icing it and putting "Sore No More" on it. I can't straighten it all the way nor bend it back very far.....like walking up or down steps....sideways one step at a time! Very frustrating, but it seems to be a little better than yesterday. I really want to get back in the saddle.....probably NOT by the creek at a canter though, dang Blue Heron! He had to pick that moment to fly up in the air and Lucy felt obliged to chase him; she always does that and there is no way she could catch him. One of these days he is going to drop an unexpected deposit on her head for that!!!

Any I am still going to the horse show on Sunday even if I can't ride. Gilly will enjoy all the sights and sounds and other horses there. Kim and I will have fun; hope to have a lot of pictures to show from it; stay tuned!!

After the fall...........again!

I have no pictures cause no one was out to witness this fine dumb-ass event!!!

I was riding Gilly this afternoon, we did cantering and he was doing fine. I had the western saddle on, just because I like riding it for a change from the English dressage saddle. We were having a great time cantering through the hay field on the way home, our field. We had cantered a little way and he slowed to a trot. I asked for a canter again and he responded then............a Blue Heron flew up out of the creek across the field from us. Lucy came tearing from up on the road bank and behind Gilly leaping up into the air trying to catch the bird. I was cantering with one hand on the reins and the other on the saddle, I turned my head to look at what was going on. Then Gilly started to run faster, threw in a little buck and next thing I saw was the ground coming up at me! I went off on the right side but somehow I hit the ground on my left side, my T-shirt and pants were covered with grass stains. I laid there for what only seemed like a minute or so trying to see if anything was broke and if I could get back up. I did and started looking for Gilly; I figured he ran toward Kim's house since we had just passed it shortly before. When I got back up onto the road, I limped down to see if I could see Gil. There he was standing on the opposite side of the road, looking scared. I called to him and he started walking to me. Thank goodness and thank goodness there aren't many cars on our road. Hadn't seen on for two hours.

I tried to get back on but the saddle had slid way back and sideways, so I decided to walk back home and hang on to Gil if I needed too. We made it back, I unsaddled him and put him back in the field. Hobbled to the house to see what I had done to myself. Couldn't find any bruises but lots of grass stains, and boy am I sore!!! My right knee hurts, both hips, my left shoulder blade.....nothing hurts bad enough to make me think it is broken. But I knew if I didn't do something that I would be so stiff I couldn't walk. Mike was out weed eating so I started raking and picking up the weeds. Pulling weeds in the flower beds, slowly though. As long as I kept moving I didn't feel too bad but if I sat down for any period of time I started to get stiff. I had taken some Ibuprofen as soon as I got back into the house to help with the inflammation.

After supper I got into our big Aqua Glass jetted tub to see if that would help with my sore spots. After I got in I was hoping that I could get back out!!! I did but the stiffness is creeping in and I am hoping that I can get out of bed in the morning.

I am so mad at myself for not holding the reins with both hands and making myself sit deep in the saddle and maybe I wouldn't have gotten bounced off. I hope that I am not too stiff in the morning because I want to get back on Gil again.....I swear I think I am going to invest in a Velcro seat cover so my butt will stick to the saddle better!!!

Gilly goes to the fair.............

Well, OK not really but we did go to the fairgrounds. The fair isn't until the until the end of August but we wanted to go so Gilly could get off the farm and see some sights. Since he has done so well at trailer loading Kim and I decided to take him for a ride. First we walked him all around the grounds, he saw lots of horses, horses with wheels (sulky racers out practicing) he wasn't to sure about them and thought he might like to trot along too. No, Gilly we are just out for a walk. The thing that scared him the most was two little kids, about 5 and 3, they came running toward him and he about jumped out of his hide! Gee, mom those little humans more fast and scared me!!!

After walking him around Kim and I had lunch. I had packed a picnic lunch for us. We tied Gilly to the trailer, he had his hay bag to eat out of. He stood there resting one foot munching away. There is a bike path right behind where we were parked and there were many bikers riding that day, he would turn and look but wasn't bothered by them at all. Gilly also has some of our lunch, apple and a piece of bread, he was happy.

Picture above was taken before I started riding him around the grounds. There was another horse working in the arena close by that he was keeping an eye on.

We rode around about half an hour before we went into the arena to check it out. Gilly was looking at the shadow on the ground of the big lights. They made a funny looking shadow and he wanted to step really high to get over them! The only other thing he was a little leary of were the orange cones in the corner.

Here we are cantering..............

Here we are barrel racking, see how fast Gilly's feet are flying.....hardly touching the ground! LOL Yea, right!!! No, really we were just walking around it using leg yielding.

Walking toward Kim as she was taking pictures.

Walking past the announcers stand, he wasn't concerned by it at all. I have seen some horses in shows that are afraid of it and will shy away. We won't be showing but it's fun to just come and check out everything. The next horse show will be July 12th and we are planning on hauling Gilly here so he can see more horses and more excitement......more small humans too!
Gilly loaded up really well, I was afraid he might not want to go back in. He didn't get in far enough so I just touched his hip with my finger and he stepped up so I could fasten the butt bar and he was ready to head home.

I got to drive Kim's truck home pulling the trailer, my first time! It was fun, a little scary especially going down the steep hill (gravel road) going home. I just drove really slow and we were fine. Kim has the nicest trailer, I still wish I had one.....sigh.....maybe someday! I can use her's anytime but still I would like to have my own. The neat thing about her trailer is from the dressing room you can open a door into the part where the horses are. Makes it much easier to tie them up after they are in the trailer and secured with the butt bar.

Having a dressing room wasn't on my list of priorities for a trailer but......it sure was nice to be able to pack all out stuff in it. A 7 gallon jug of water for Gil, his bucket, saddle and tack, to bag chairs for me and Kim, the cooler with lunch and other stuff! Nice trailer....I love it!

Next week it's Lacy's turn to go for a ride!!