What A Nice Surprise!

 

I got an email from Allie B from over at Adventures with Shyloh that she'd bestowed upon us the Leibster Blog award.  Her Highness, Queen Estes, and her humble human are honored to accept this award.

As with all blog awards, there are rules, so here goes:

HOW TO ACCEPT THE AWARD: The Liebster Blog Award is a way to recognize blogs who have less than 200 followers.  Liebster is a German word that means beloved and valued.  Here are the rules for accepting the award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and include a link back to their blog.
2. List 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions given to you.
4. Create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate.
5. Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or fewer followers to nominate and include links to their blogs.
6. Go to each blogger's page and let them know you have nominated them. 

11 Random Facts About Me 

• I go by my middle name in real life; not a fan of my first name, though I love the person I was named after.
• Estes is the first horse I was ever completely terrified of.
• She's also the first horse I've ever owned.
• The nickname GunDiva is absolutely tongue-in-cheek, I try not to be a diva in real life, though just recently I have been accused of being "prissy".  I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.
• I always thought I'd grow up to be a NYT best selling author and make oodles and oodles of money like Stephen King.
• Now I'll just be happy if I can ever get through editing my books and sell one or two.
• I started this blog with stories of my life as a wrangler; it has morphed into more of a "Queen Estes" love-fest.
• Her name isn't really Queen Estes, it's just plain ole Estes, but Mrs. Mom started calling her Queen Estes a few years ago and it stuck.
• I've met several of my blog friends in real life, even though we live states apart.  Luckily, Mom and Bill have a great place to host blog get-togethers.
• I was going to grow up to be a sign-language interpreter (along with a NYT best seller).
• I can still sort-of sign.  At least well enough to get by. (And if that fails, there's always fingerspelling)

11 Questions from Allie

1. How did you get into horses? I don't recall "getting into" horses.  I've been a horse lover my entire life.  My godparents plunked me up on their horse, Flame, when I was very young.  My godmother even gave me a young horse when I was just a toddler, but we had to give it back.  I don't even remember the horse, I've just heard the stories from Mom.
2. What other animals do you have? None currently. We live in an apartment that doesn't allow pets.  After being a pet owner most of my life, it was quite a change, but I have to tell you, I *love* not having to worry about them if Jay and I want to go somewhere on the spur of the moment.
3. Do you board your horses or keep them at home? I don't board Estes in the traditional sense.  She lives with Mom's herd up in Allenspark in the summer, and until this spring, went with the herd to winter pasture.  I have a hard time calling it "boarding", as they are just literally turned out on a bunch of acres and left to fend for themselves.  In April, she moved to a friend's place just a few minutes from me, where she'll probably end up wintering from now on.
4. How do your friends/family/significant other feel about your horse obsession (because we all know, we are obsessed)? Mom really only got one "horse crazy" kid.  The rest of my sibs tolerate them.  Ashinator has outgrown her horse obsession, but Autobot (Nebalee's daughter) is still horse crazy, so that makes Mom happy.  I bought Estes about the same time Jay and I met - he knows that I had to love him more than my horse or I wouldn't have married him.  He would love to have a horse of his own to bond with, but he's not obsessed.
5. What is your favorite non horsey thing to do? Read.  And shoot.  Or maybe shoot and read.
6. What is the weirdest thing you ever tried to feed your horse? Estes once wanted to try my bread sticks and cheese.  You know the little packets with the fake cheese in it?  Her Highness loves the bread sticks; she's fairly certain they're one of her favorite foods.  Did your horse like it? She loves the bread sticks, but when I scooped up some cheese (hey, she asked!) on the stick and gave it to her she curled her lip back where the cheese had touched it and used the hitching post to scrape the cheese off of the inside of her lip, all the while glaring at me.  It was hilarious.  Now she sniffs everything very carefully before she eats it if it comes out of my lunch bag.
7. What is one thing with horses that you would like to try that you have not done? Mounted shooting.  I'm super jealous that Mom and Bill are going to a clinic next week.  But I'll be at my own shooting class sans horses.
8. Describe your horse in three words. Amazing. Beautiful. Intelligent.
9. Borrowing this from another: Barefoot, boots, or shoes? Both.  Estes was barefoot for the first four and a half years I owned her.  But as she's getting older, she needs a little help with her club foot, so she gets shoes on the fronts and she very much likes them.
10. Supplements? Yay or neigh? To an extent.  Mom's got a whole cocktail of stuff she feeds the herd: beet pulp, oats, senior feed, apple cider vinegar, flax seed oil.  I think that's it.  When Estes is with me, she gets hay and oats.  And joint supplements when I remember to buy it.  Speaking of which... (I guess none of what we feed are actually supplements per se)
11. Did anyone else have a hard time coming up with 11 questions? Haven't started yet, but I'm going to go ahead and guess: YES!

11 Questions for the blogs I nominate:

1. What is your passion?
2. If you could do anything you wanted for the rest of your life, without having to think about money, what would it be?
3. What is your guilty pleasure?
4. Favorite book ever?
5. Favorite movie ever?
6. Have you ever met anyone famous?
7. Who would you like to meet (living or dead, real or fictional) and why?
8. Biggest pet peeve?
9. If you won the PowerBall or Lotto and wanted to donate a chunk to a charity, which charity would it be and why?
10. Favorite place you've visited?
11. Where to you want to visit that you haven't been able to?

11 Blogs I want to nominate: (this list will reflect my eclectic reading)

Living a Dream is written by another Colorado blogger who is an amazing person; during the recent Black Forest Fire, she took in several people and their animals.  She's currently got a list of ways to help the victims of the fire rebuild.  Go show her some love (and make a donation if you've got an extra dollar or two).

Monty On Guns is written by someone far more knowledgeable about guns than I am.  I learn something every time I visit his blog. 

BrownEyedCowgirl is written by another Colorado blogger.  I've been following her forever and got to meet her at the first High Country Rendezvous.  I love reading about her "adventures" with her horses.  She's a barrel racer and I'm so not, but I loved watching her ride Estes at HCR - I don't allow many people on Her Highness, but LT had Estes moving so beautifully I couldn't believe that was my horse. 

Lynne at Female and Armed is the co-founder of National Take Your Daughter To The Range Day.  She also just released her first book TAKING YOUR FIRST SHOTS and is the driving force behind Women Firearms Instructors, of which I'm a member.

Country Tea and Bullets is posting infrequently, I'm guessing due to her grueling school schedule, but I love what she does put up.

Is She Dangerous? is new to blogging and shooting.  Also a Colorado girl, and I'm enjoying reading about her transition from being a non-gun owner to gun owner and the life changes that go along with it.

Funder over at It seemed like a good idea at the time might have more than 200 followers, but her networked blog thingy only says 22. Team Fixie (Funder + Dixie) just attempted their first 100 at Sunriver.  I think she's a bit crazy what with all the endurance stuff, but I enjoy reading about her insanity.

Earle at noydbyah posts very infrequently, but every post is hilarious.  It's stuff that he shouldn't say out-loud and must blog, lest he explode from all of the thoughts in his head.

Daddy Hawk over to Preachers and Horse Thieves is one of my GunDudes at The GunDivas.  He and his wife, The Queen, recently adopted a beautiful baby girl.  The focus of his blog is...well, there's not really a focus.  Guns, politics, things that make him mad or things that make him giggle, and not nearly enough posts about his new baby girl.

So What if I'm Not Typical? I'm Still Fun is a blog I just recently started following, in the last few months, anyway an have enjoyed his posts.

Mrs Mom from Oh HorseFeathers & Related Twisted Tails has kind of fallen off the blogging bandwagon.  I don't know, something about life getting in the way.  I'm hoping a little bloggy love will get her arse in gear (no pressure).  She's got a whole house full of opinionated critters, both two- and four-legged.