Petey the Pug??? and a ride

Saw this picture in a dog/cat catalog and it sure looks like Petey! It said the pup was a Puggle, I am wondering if Petey has some pug in him. Love the jammies on the dog, how funny!!!

Had an MRI done on my shoulder, from when I got thrown off Gilly back in July and they found a small tear in a tendon. I had kept doing thing, helping with baling hay, carrying heavy buckets of horse poo all kinds of things to help get over the soreness. Guess I should have been a little more careful with it. Monday I went to an orthopedic doctor, hoping that he wouldn't tell me I needed surgery or had to wear a brace. I am happy to report that no surgery and no brace! He gave me some anti-inflammatory cream, it seems to be helping and I also need to take it a little easy on the arm then do some exercises for it. In the paper work I filled out for the doctor, since I hadn't been there before, there was a form about osteoporosis. I had to laugh, not that osteoporosis is something to laugh at, my grandmother had it but.....for the number of times I have been thrown off and fallen on by Gilly, I would say that my bones are pretty darned tough!!!!

Monday I also got to ride a beautiful dressage horse, we just walked, I was cooling her off for my friend Sheri. Hess is really something to ride, hardly takes anything to get her to go forward, unlike Gilly who needs a LOT of pushing to make him go! LOL Since I'm not that good of rider I just thought that walking was a pretty good thing....I don't know all the right commands to move Hess and didn't want to be suddenly cantering when I wasn't ready.

Hess is a Trakehner/Arabian cross and such a sweetie, really, really nice horse. I have wanted to ride her for a long time just to see what it's like to ride such a well trained horse. Since Gilly is about the only horse I have ridden in 5 years, to me it feels really different. Maybe I need to ride more horses just for the experience.

Riding in the big Cover-All arena was really nice too! Wow, wish I have just an arena to ride in, this would really be a dream come true to have a building like this to ride in!


Hess, is about the same height as Gilly but not as big built, and not as wide. Gilly gives the illusion of being taller than he is. His big legs, feet and big rump makes him look like he is over 16 hands but he is really only 15.3.

Below is a picture of Hess and Sheri at their last show in Lexington, Virginia. She is a beautiful mover that's for sure. Hess is for sale and I will attach the link to her ad on EquineNow.
http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-197991
I have to say I have never ridden a $38,000.00 horse, that's why I was a little nervous! I sure didn't want to mess her up! :-)

As soon as the ground is a little more dry Mike is going to till up round pen again; the grass took it over since I wasn't able to ride for over a month. Hopefully next week Gilly and I will be back to school and starting Dennis Reis' course. Can't wait!!!!!

Pokey's cake

You can't tell but there are apples, carrots, banana chips, oats and apple juice in the mix! Boy, did they slurp it up!!! Here they are eating out of Pokey's bowl; Pokey left it to go check out Gilly's bowl. Gilly had cleaned his up and came to Pokey's then Pokey said, "Hey, that's my BOWL!!!!" So here they are sharing and they cleaned it all up!! YUM-O



Pokey had to sniff the camera! LOL too funny, what a nosey little guy!
Yes, he has a boo-boo on his nose; what he did to himself, I don't know. The bald place up higher is where he decided to stick his head through the bars of the gate when he was mad and got stuck! Hope he learned his lesson and doesn't do that again!!!!



So glad that the two of them are so kind to each other, they always share.
Equine birthday cake.....yum!!!!!

Something about me you probably didn't know....

I'm a HOOKER!!! There now you know! I started this obsession in February 2001 and had hooked over 200 rugs and mats of various sizes. I sold lots of rugs on eBay, have done commissioned rugs and have lots and lots of rugs hanging on walls here at home and a pile of them in my sewing/hooking room. This rug is one I started awhile ago but have gotten side tracked by other things.......horse, donkey, horse, donkey, horse, donkey.....etc! LOL

Close up of the rug, two pineapples and a cat in the middle. I have hooked a little more since this was taken but will post a picture later and hopefully will have even more hooked.

This is my view from my porch glider that sometimes I sit in and hook. The house you see is my neighbor, Geri's. Yes, and you can see my garden, with a lot of weeds in it! LOL I am afraid I wasn't a very good gardener this year; seems like the weeds always manage to get a head start on me.

As I sit and hook I can see the road in front of the house and just past the green grass strip is the creek that runs and splashes over the rock bed. It sure makes for a nice soothing sound as I sit and work. There are hardly any traffic on our road, very nice! I do have to really watch the dogs, they think nothing of walking around in the road.

Sunshine streaming through the trees to the dry leaf bed below. You can hear the squirrels running through the leaves and see them on the tree branches. Lots of birds singing too, really nice in the spring to see all the yellow finches, one tree they seem to like will be covered with yellow, beautiful.

So there you have it, I'm a HOOKER and it's legal!!! LOL

Little Pokey is 2 years old today

Here is the birthday boy, Pokey is two years old today!!! I forgot it until this evening so I didn't get him his birthday mush like I fixed Gilly. I will fix it for him tomorrow, he won't know the difference; he'll just be glad he is getting a treat!

Here is baby Pokey with his mom and I think he is a day old. His former owner gave me the pictures. Look at the fuzzy little butt and head! How cute is that? Pokey is marked like his dad, mom is just a gray/brown donkey.

Here is Gilly and Pokey meeting for the first time last year about the middle of April. Look how tiny Pokey looks beside big Gilly. He also had a lot of burs in his fuzzy coat, we did a lot of brushing that day to get a lot of them out.

And a second picture, look at that little tail. Gilly was snuffeling him all over and softly nickering to him. I am sure that Pokey didn't quite know what to think of that big horse, he had never seen one before. LOL he looks like a strange furry dog!!

Now I ask you how cute is this little face and pink spotted nose???

Don't be late for supper!!! Running hard to keep up with Gilly off the hill behind the barn. Click on the picture to really see Pokey and just how high he is jumping. He was really scooting down the hill to get his supper. He didn't know what oats were when I first got him but after he found out, he sure didn't want to miss out.

He didn't know what to think of the fly mask, I had to get him a mini halter. It has long since been destroyed by Gilly. It has velcro on the poll and under the jaw, both of them really tore it up. Gilly pulled it off then Pokey got ahold of it........bye-bye fly mask!!

Ahhhhh, a nice dust bath! He can never resist a spot to roll and cover himself with dirt! I guess it helps keep the flies from biting but it sure doesn't look good on a white donkey! But then he doesn't care, as much as he rolls it must feel really good!
(by the way, this is my neighbors Appaloosa mare, Lacy with Pokey. Lacy thinks that Pokey is her baby.....from behind they do look somewhat alike, don't they?)

**************HAPPY BIRTHDAY POKEY PIE!!!!!****************
*********************The End!*******************

Evening shots on the farm

Pictures taken in the evening pink sky, red at night sailors delight. Red in the morning sailors take warning. I think that is the way that goes. If I remember right red in the morning means rain or storms. We got some rain this afternoon, not enough though, we need rain, it's been pretty dry.

A fog sitting in over the hollow this evening also very humid. The trees are starting to turn and fall is definitely here, I love fall, cool crisp nights, the wonderful smell of the dry leaves. My most favorite sound in fall is Gilly's hooves crunching leaves as we walk through the woods! I would have loved to ride this week but I am trying to get over a cold and feel pretty ucky.


The boys finishing their hay and Gilly chewing on the salt block. Mike's animal, yellow bulldozer, sitting down by the tool shed. I need to take a picture of his collection of "Deere" sometime. LOL John Deere that is.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Dennis Reis, in Columbus, Ohio

Went to see horse trainer Dennis Reis this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio. WOW.....that pretty much sums it up! It was great, not a huge crowd so we got to talk to Dennis a lot, ask questions and just have a grand time. I learned a lot too and where I want to go with Gilly.

I have had a lot of time to think about where our journey is going in the month and a half that I haven't been able to ride because of the terrible horse flies here. I couldn't do much at all outside unless I wanted to be eaten by the fanged vampire flies!!! I felt that Gilly and I had gotten off our path to a good partnership some time ago and was trying to figure out just how to get back on it again. I knew he needed some more round pen work, well, lots of it really.....he was having a lot of respect problems and just being a brat in general. The dressage lessons I was taking were really good but something kept nagging in the back of my mind, something is missing. I had in the past work some with Parelli training but for me a lot of it was hard to understand and there was sooooo much of it and quite pricey too. I had also done some work with Clinton Anderson's training, much easier for me but still something was missing.

While talking to Dennis and looking at his course it finally hit me; this is what I was missing! A structured lesson plan that had a beginning and end to work toward. Work books, DVD's something that I could refer back to again and again if needed and also I can call Dennis or Deborah and talk to them if I need help......yes, I can talk to them!!! Most of the others you can't talk to but you can Dennis.

Gilly and I will work on some more dressage when we are finished with this course. Dressage to me is just something nice to learn. We are not shooting for showing although there are those that would like to see Gilly go far with dressage, I think he could but it's not for me. I just want to ride on trails, at parks, on our country roads and enjoy my beloved horse. But I want a good trustworthy partner for this and this is where our schooling begins. I have heard it said that a horse is only as good as his human; so I have to sturdy hard. Study hard but have fun and that we will!!!!

Dennis' wife, Deborah; what a wonderful woman! She is a great rider, announces the shows on RFDTV, does the videoing, editing the shows, books the tours, the list is endless and she always has a smile and cheerful attitude for everyone! I am impressed!!! I would be dead tired doing only a fraction of what she does! You go Deborah!!!!

(sorry these next three pictures were taken with low light settings and not very clear)
Dennis chasing the big red ball and Deborah riding her horse chasing the ball also. Wonder what Gilly and Pokey would think of that huge thing???

As you can see the horse wasn't afraid of the ball. He would hit it with his chest to make it roll, Dennis would hit it to make it bounce too and the horse would go after it. Fun stuff!

This picture was taken at the end of the show. Dennis was pretty tired from working a young horse in the round pen. Long line driving, it was a great demonstration.

(to get the big red ball click here) > www.reisranch.com

I have been reading and reading since I got home Sunday night. It is recommended that you read all the workbooks first before viewing the DVD's and starting the course.........so I am. I still have to have Mike work up the round pen for me, it grew up in grass while I wasn't riding. I have to make some good footing to work in.

On Sunday they filmed some of the clinic so I will let you know when it airs on RFDTV, you just might see me in the audience! LOL

I will bring all of you along with me on the journey Gilly and I are on!