Jen you Lucky Dog

My friend Jen got to go to Namibia in Africa on a horseback riding adventure. I am so jealous. Attached are some of the neat photos that she took. They actually scaled up mountains, had a run in with a leopard, ostrich, a very scrawny warthog, and got to see some beautiful scenery. Jen got to ride a nice little mare named Strawberry (far right).

This is my favorite photo, I love the tree!


I feel so bad for this warthog! He is so skinny!!! I would probably have been the dork trying to give him some food and being gored by his tusk.


Look at that beautiful scenery!


Riding into the African Sunset (metaphorically speaking)!!

Britchins and Cruppers

I never would have thought that somebody would ask me if I used britchins or cruppers. Everytime I say it, I feel guilty a little because it's almost like I'm using curse words. When we go to Crystal Mountain on Saturday, the Trail Guides recommend the use of Britchins or Cruppers on the horses. For those of you who don't know what they are, Britchins are the leather straps that go around the back of the horse, like the following:

And, a Crupper is the leather strap that loops around the base of the tail like so:

Both are meant to prevent the saddle from slipping down when climbing down a steep incline. After the talk of both Britchins and Cruppers, I proceeded to the local western supply store to gather some more information. I found out that both are relatively expensive, and that if you say Britchins just right, even the store owner will think you are using curse words!

Ugly Betty is the Bomb!!

OMG! I am so addicted to this show. It makes me laugh. I don't know if it's the 'low' girl on the totem pole doing well or what but I actually enjoy the show. Of course, to go around being known as 'ugly betty' probably sucks!

Can't forget the dolls!!!

Can I say we were just weirded out yesterday by the guy who brought his dolls to watch the Sounder's game. If anyone knows him, I apologize, but I almost felt like giving him $10 to bring a buddy with so he could actually talk to somebody alive for the game. About 20 minutes of the game was spent trying to secretly take a picture. I will treasure it for all time!

We're Famous!!

So not really famous per se' but as they say everyone wants their 15 seconds of fame. Or is that minutes? Click on the Link (the title above) to see me and Chris kicking butt!!! Somebody posted a little 2 minute video of us (all the black belt participants) during our black belt test from a year and a half ago.

Our Riding Buddies!!

Alright, finally took some pictures of Zena and Ginger. Zena is my favorite buddy, a 4 year old APHA mare that stands about 14.3 hands and weighs about 760 pounds that I started riding last September. We've already done over 150 hours of riding together. (Where's my Ride America Awards???!!!) haha. Anyway.

This is Ginger, a 6 year old non registered Breeding stock paint that my husband started riding a few weeks ago. She's about 15.1 hands, and probably 900 pounds, although I haven't taped her. We've gone on several trails with her already, and she does really well.

I'm just shocked at how well her and Chris get along. He does things that I wouldn't even think of doing (no dirty minds!) We went to Capital Forest today, and Zena and Ginger did wonderful, especially through the river and over the bridges (sounds like a song doesn't it???). Enough of that, I'll post more pics of them later.

Kid or Kitten???

We adopted a new kitten named Grafx. He is almost Siamese in coloring, although he came from either an all grey, or grey and white cat. He is the funniest thing. The first night, he crawled into my jacket and fell asleep upside down. The next morning, we woke up to our son sleeping like this.

Don't know if he was trying to copy the kitten or what!!!

Creepie Crawlies

Mom sent me some pictures of the spiders that are everywhere over there. Keep in mind she also told me that when she sends packages to make sure I shake out everything because the spiders and geckos get into everything. Okay, so the gecko I wouldn't mind, although on a 7 day trip I doubt it would actually be alive when we got it. The spiders however, she could keep, I don't know how I'd deal with one of these!

Allergy Attack

Yuck, so for the past week I've been suffering from really bad allergies (at least that's what I thought). I went to the doctor. She prescribed the whole thing. Eye drops, nose spray, and once a day tables. Those did absolutely nothing for me yesterday. My nose was running like a faucet. I swear I went through almost a whole box of my co-worker's kleenex (sorry Pam!). What a day. I went home and went to bed. I'm taking dayquil today. Going to test my theory on it might being a cold!

UPDATE!!!
I knew it, it was a cold. Darn you doctors! haha

New PJ's!!!!

Thanks Mom!!! My mom sent a box to me from Guam today. Inside were 6 pairs of PJ's (2 robes for me!!!) and 1 for each of the boys. As soon as Aidan saw them he wanted to put on his special "Jedi" outfit. Brennon and Keagan imagined they were dragon fighters, and for once they kept themselves entertained without the use of electronic devices. Go mom!!!!!

Going, Going, Gone!!!!

The kittens are gone!!! Between Sunday and Monday, we had about 14 calls on the kittens. At 8pm last night we were down to two. I received a call at 8:15, was met by a wonderful family, and they took the last two grey kittens!!!! I'm so glad they went to good homes!!

Have you jumped your barrel today?

Yesterday at the barn, we decided to try our hand at jumping. Our barn owner saw us jumping a little pvc pipe and he decided to up the ante. By the end of the session, we were jumping full barrels. I was laughing so hard (it was either that or scream in terror!)after each jump. It literally was a terrifying experience, but quite a bit of fun.By the way, this is something you should not do with your horse. I chalk it up to that dumb kid incident everyone did on their horse that I didn't get to do until I was 30.

Here's Megan and Arizona jumping the barrels. Arizona is tall enough she probably could just walk over them if she wanted.

Mud Mountain

Well, although there were no bears, we had a great time at Mud Mountain Dam. Nine of us from the stables went, and we were quite the little parade as we climbed the road to look at the river. Finding horse trails was harder than it looked, though, as most were designated for hikers only. But, of course we still had to go look at those! ;) Nothing too out of the ordinary happened except for Chris almost having the saddle horn shoved up his butt when Ginger spooked from a wayward limb. And once again, yes, I cried, this time from laughing so hard!!!!



Here we are overlooking the river, it was a really awesome view!!

The trees and scenery looked almost fake. It was pretty breathtaking to be in the middle of such huge trees! There were several spots that the horses would get a little too close to the edge, but overall the view was nice!



Here's a pic of Zena and I standing almost knee deep on the side of the trail.



Such a handsome man! Chris and Ginger made a good match for the ride.



Do I have something stuck in my teeth?!!



Settling down after a long day.

Updated Kitty Pics

These are Smokey's kittens. There are 3 boys (grey) and 1 little female (black). They are about 5-1/2 weeks old right now and so cute. There are also about 8 other cats between the other two females, so if anyone is looking for a kitten, then come and get them!! I was right about the mother cat abducting the other kittens back. Seems as if she prefers raising them in the wood pile than in the box.

Hosker Clinic Part II - A Kick In the Pants

Alright, so day two of the clinic was just as exciting. Everything we learned was a general repeat performance of the day before, including the wonderful cow kick from a horse named Arizona. For some reason, poor Zena just draws that kind of attention from horses. Unfortunately, I wish I hadn't been sitting in the saddle when she received it. So....for the second time in two days, I got kicked from Arizona in the leg. This time though instead of merely shrugging it off, I felt as if my whole leg had gone numb, and when those 'oh so considerate' people are trying to help, all it feels as if you want to do is cry. So I did. I cried, Megan cried, then I told her I was buying two nerf guns to pop Arizona in the butt, and then we laughed.

On the plus side, Chris helped lead the team to victory with a 4-2 win in our soccer game. Although Chris said he didn't help do much, he woke up with massive shin splints, which means he had to have participated pretty well! :)

Hosker Clinic Part I

Well, today was an interesting day. It could have been the fact that we all went dancing last night, didn't get home until 2am, and then I had to be up in 4 hours.:) The things we do to our bodies sometime! Anyway, the clinic today was fun, of course I learned that I know absolutely nothing about the inner workings of horsemanship. I also learned that if you appear pitiful enough, somebody else will park your horsetrailer for you.