3rd Annual HCR!

RCC's nod to Beel's famous
fine art

I can't believe it's already almost time for the 3rd Annual High Country Rendezvous!  Can you believe we've been doing this three years already?  I don't even remember whose idea it was to put together the first equi-blogger get-together, but I do remember how much fun it was! (Upon looking back at my first post, the honor of coming up with the idea goes to Rachel.)

The second year was a bit more hectic for me, coming straight in from Horse Master and RomCon, but still absolutely amazing.

For those of you who are wondering what the heck I'm going on about, HCR is an equi-blogger get-together that my parents host at their B&B every year.  It's a great chance to get to meet our blog friends in real life and spend some time together trail riding.  Any equi-blogger is welcome, we try not to be clique-y, all you have to do is call the Bionic Cowgirl or Beel at 303-747-2552 and lay down your whopping $5 deposit to hold your room or click the HCR 2012 tab at the top of my page for more information.

C'mon, you know you want to...

Getting Dressed

Okay, Estee, we're gonna try a saddle today...

Let's get the bird poop off...

Let's see...yeah, first the saddle pad...

Oof...this saddle business is so foreign...

On three...one...two...

...three...

Wait...these straps...I know I'm supposed to do something with them...

Oh, that's right, we have to tie the saddle on...

Good thing my hands know what to do...thank God for muscle memory...

Whew!  All saddled up!

And I even managed to get in the saddle.

I've got some great pictures from our ride up the Goat Trail today, but those are going to have to wait until I get back from HorseMaster.  It's that time again, time for me to load up and head down to southern Colorado to work as a crew member for Julie Goodnight's TV show.  It's a blast, but I'll be super busy and wireless is spotty down there. As soon as I return from HorseMaster, I head up the hill to the Lodge for the High Country Rendezvous.

Ride safe and hug your horses; I'll see y'all after HCR.

Equine Bloggers! It's Almost Time!

Can you believe there's less than a month until this year's HCR?  Where did the time go?



With Mom's hip surgeries, recovery and the beginning of their season, it took us a while to come up with a schedule for HCR, but we've got a tentative one hammered out.

Thursday 

3:00 - Check in at the Lodge

6:00 - Welcome dinner

Friday

8:00 - Breakfast

Saddle fit seminar by Dr. Dave (time TBA)

Horse games (time TBA)

12:00ish - Lunch

Free time for shopping/touring RMNP/Estes Park (time TBA)

6:00 - BBQ at Livery

Saturday

9:00 - Breakfast

11:00 - Ride to Calypso Cascades, sack lunch furnished.  Cost $65/horse

3:00 - 6:00 free time

6:00 - Dinner at Lodge

Sunday

9:00 - Breakfast

11:00 - Check-out

By extending HCR a day, we've increased the amount of free/blogging time.  After all, we are a group of equine bloggers, right?

If anyone has any other ideas for activities or has an area of expertise that they'd like to share, let me know.  I am considering doing a short presentation on the Bosu ball and exercises that helped improve my balance; I'll bring the Bosu up so everyone can give it a try if they'd like.

If you haven't yet registered for HCR, click here for information.  The Lodge is filling fast, and HCR is just next month, so if you've been on the fence about joining us, just do it!  You won't regret it, I promise.

Look At This Coolness!

I know you're saying to yourself, "Self, I really like the High Country Rendezvous window decal.  How on earth can we get us one?"

I'd tell you you could contact Megan at BuildASign, who is phenomenal to work with and design a cool window cling, window decal, or bumper sticker of your own.  Megan contacted me about doing a review of their products and I have to say, I'm impressed.  She's easy to work with and has some good ideas.  In fact, the window decals were her idea.  I had wanted to do window clings, but she was afraid the picture wouldn't show through tinted windows.  So, instead of just sending me the clings, she also sent me window decals.  I'm extremely pleased with how they turned out.  Mom and Bill have one of the window clings up in the window of their office, and I've got one of the decals up on Ripley.

And you'd say, "Self, Megan sounds awfully wonderful, and so does BuildASign.  GunDiva says she is and she really likes the products.  But I really want one of those HCR window decals.  How do we get one of those for our ownself?"

And I'd have to tell you, the only way to get one of these coveted HCR window decals is to register for this year's High Country Rendezvous at Allenspark Lodge B&B.

We've extended HCR this year by an extra day, as we didn't have nearly enough time together last year.  We went on an amazing ride, attended a mini-clinic put on by a local equine chiropractor, and had an adventure with a flat tire.

This year, we're adding a "play day" with the horses, where we can play some fun horsemanship games that most of us haven't done since we were kids.  The extra day also allows us to plan a trip into Estes Park to see the elk and do more riding.

The cost of HCR includes a room at the beautiful Allenspark Lodge B&B, any clinics we arrange, and meals at the Lodge.  Horses will be provided by Compass at the Allenspark Livery, and will be an additional charge (but she's cutting us a good deal).

Due to the fact that the Lodge is at 8,700 feet in elevation, unless you own horses who live and work at that elevation, we cannot accomodate personal horses.  It takes too long for them to acclimate to the altitude.

Who's Who?

So, there have been lots of HCR posts with pictures and I'm about to inundate you with more - some one-on-one pics.

Bill and Ranger

Me and Estes

RockCrawlinChef and Gem

Juanita and Jesse (doing their Stacey Westfall impression)

Rachel and Head Banger Baggins

Momma P and Timber

After the horse-swap, Rachel giggling her fool head off on Timber in the creek.

Killashandra and Raja, who holds a special place in my heart.

Riding through the Horse Smorgasboard: Juanita, Momma P, RockCrawlinChef, Rachel and Killashandra

One of my faves, me and RCC.

Shirley over at Ride a Good Horse recently hosted an equi-blogger trail ride in her neck of the woods.  Click on over there to see some absolutely beautiful pictures from her neck of the woods.  I'm glad to see other riders getting together to do things like this.  Ours was a blast and I can think of a ton of places I'd like to visit and ride and a bunch of equi-bloggers I'd love to do it with.

Take Off Your Hat!

As I was busy being traumatized by Bill, the rest of the HCR attendees were at the livery getting signed in.  Compass, the Barn Boss, has met my husband on multiple occasions.  In fact, the week before the ride, we'd had a bonfire at the livery to celebrate her birthday.  The woman knows my husband.

However...

She's getting everyone signed in and collecting money and gets to RockCrawlinChef.  Being a smart ass, she says, "that'll be $500, please."  RCC, without missing a beat (so I'm told), tells her to put it on "GunDiva's tab". 

She looks up, looks him over in his cowboy outfit (the man in a cowboy hat is - wow) and honestly has no clue who he is.  Really, Compass?  We just celebrated your birthday together and you don't recognize RCC?

He thinks she's kidding about not knowing who he is until she demands that he take off his hat.  Then it sinks in that she really did not recognize him and wasn't being a smart ass.

Oops.

Dinner Time!

The 1st day of HCR was hectic to say the least.  I spent the morning shooting with my best GunDiva buddy, Tara, ran home threw some clothes in a suitcase for RockCrawlinChef and myself, changed clothes and headed out to my former boss' memorial service.  In the midst of all of the excitement of getting to spend time with Tara and getting to meet Killashandra and Rachel for realsies, reality intruded and RCC and I spent an hour or so at a memorial service.

She was an amazing person and one of the most genuinely nice people I've ever met.  She died far too young and without warning, leaving an adult daughter.  The fact that her daughter is an adult doesn't make it any easier - her whole life, it was her and her mom against the world.  Luckily, she got married a couple of years ago, so she's not completely family-less.  Nevertheless, I was too chicken to stay for the reception and face her daughter in the midst of her grief, so RCC and I headed up to the lodge.

Check-in at the lodge is at 3:00 pm every day, but I knew that Killashandra and Rachel weren't going to be getting there until 5-ish, so I wasn't too stressed out about getting up there before them - I figured we'd make it.  And we did, but not by much.  The minute I walked in the door, Bill asks me, "Have you heard from Rachel?"

Um, no.  Was I supposed to?  Seems Mr. Daddy had called the lodge looking for her.  And when he called the lodge looking for her he identified himself to Bill by his alias, Mr. Daddy.  Which cracked me up.  Only when bloggy land meets real life do we have to refer to ourselves as our aliases (or alii?).

Mom was a bit stressed out because there was still so much to do before everyone arrived, so we headed out to clean the horse pen and then it dawned on me...most people clean their houses for company, we were cleaning our horse pen.  Only for equi-bloggers, I tell you.

About halfway through the cleaning process, Killashandra et al. arrived and Bill brought them over.  I was thrilled to meet them face-to-face, despite the fact that I was slinging manure.  I have to tell you, I fell absolutely in love with Killashandra's boots.  They were amazing!  Red with just the right amount of bling.  I was so dazzled by her boots that I couldn't even gather my thoughts enough to get a picture of them. In fact, I'm pretty sure I gushed over her boots before I even managed to tell her hello properly. 

Mom headed back over to the lodge with them while RCC and I finished up the pen.  Tell the truth, we kind of didn't do the best job in the world finishing up, I was too excited to go spend some time with our guests.

We stalled for a bit, waiting on Rachel and her mom, but we were getting hungry, so I set the table while Mom put the finishing touches on dinner.  Bill rang the brass bell to announce dinner and we sat down.  Before all of our butts were in our chairs, up pulls Rachel and her mom.  By God, not only can the woman read lips, she can read minds!

We didn't even give them time to unload, just met them on the porch with hugs and ushered them to the dinner table.  Click here for the dinner photo and Mom and Bill's take on dinner.

It's Here, It's Here!

The first annual High Country Rendezvous starts tomorrow!  Yep, you read it right.  First.  Annual.  So if you aren't able to make it this year, pencil us in on the calendar for next year.  We're gonna have a great time getting to know each other in real life, we're going to get some one-on-one instruction on horse anatomy and saddle fit, go for a beautiful ride and eat ourselves silly.  I can't wait!

HCR - Just Days Away!

Those of you who are attending the High Country Rendezvous - We are so excited that you're coming up to join us.  Just a couple of things, though...

The weather at 8,500 feet changes a lot...pack clothes for either eighty degrees or eight degrees.  We've been below forty at nights already.

Riding...in order for us to make arrangements for the horses, we need to hear from you.  We need to know how many of you are riding and what type/length of ride we want to do.  Do we want a loooooooooonnnnnnnggggg ride (all day with a picnic lunch) or a two-three hour ride (maybe a couple of them)?  We will be using livery horses, so there will be an additional charge to ride.

Please shoot me an email (tel835@hotmail.com) or Juanita an email (aplbnb@aol.com) and let us know what you'd like.

For those of you who are not coming to High Country Rendezvous - there's still room and time to join us.  If you can't make it this year, there's always next, so get us on your calendar!

There's Still Room!!!

The High Country Rendezvous is just a couple of weeks away, but there's still room for equi-bloggers.  If you've thought about joining your blog friends for horses, fun and blogging...stop thinking!  Get on the phone and reserve your room (303)747-2552.

For more information, click the tab at the top of the page.

C'mon - you know you want to join us...

I'll be back in a couple of days with more from Horse Master.

Great News for High Country Rendezvous!

Can you believe that the High Country Rendezvous is only a month away?!

When we planned it, it seemed so far away, but here it is, right around the corner.  If you haven't booked your room, be sure to contact Bill or Juanita at (303)747-2552 (only $5.00 to hold your room).

The good news?  Dr. Dave Siemens, an equine chiropractor who often travels with Natural Horsemanship Clinician Mark Rashid, will be presenting to us on Saturday morning (don't worry, there will still be plenty of time to ride).  We haven't determined yet if the topic will be equine anatomy/chiropractic care or saddle fit and how it affects your horse.  Any suggestions?

For more information about the High Country Rendezvous, please click the HCR tab at the top of the page.

My Earliest Horse Memories

I was not raised with horses.  My godmother and godfather had horses and I was lucky enough that my godmother gave me lessons.  My memories are few, but I know I've loved horses my whole life.  I have a picture of me on Flame when I was just two or three (of course, I can't find it to share with you), with my godfather standing nearby.

I remember thinking that Flame was the smartest horse on the planet.  My godmother would ask her how old she was and Flame would patiently count to sixteen.  Every time.  I would make her ask over and over again.

I remember standing on a stool or bucket beside Flame and learning how to swing my kids' size saddle up onto her back.  I was so excited when I got to my lesson (of which I only remember one or two, how weird is that?) and found that my godmother had bought a kids' saddle for me to ride in.  Sadly, that was near the time when I found out that my godparents were going to be divorced.

I also remember riding with my godmother down the road from her place to an open area.  It was the first time (that I remember) riding to someplace other than their yard.  I know that she had hopes of me barrel racing (at least that's what my mom told me), but I do vividly remember setting up spools in the closet of my bedroom and running the pattern with my Breyer horses.

Who knew, all those years ago, that I'd never out-grow my horse craziness?

From talking to my mom, I do know that I learned to ride, first and foremost, bareback.  Doing all sorts of crazy balance things: airplane arms, laying down back-to-back with Flame, twisting my torso to touch Flame's butt with my airplane arms.  All the same drills my mom puts the grandkids through.   I don't ever remember falling - if I did, it wasn't traumatic enough to remember.  In fact, the first time I ever came off a horse, I was a pre-teen and it was a damn pony with an attitude.  Though I don't remember my lessons, my godmother and Flame gave me confidence in my balance at a young age.

What are your earliest horse memories?  Did you start riding at a young age or were you an adult before you were able to ride?

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Don't forget about the High Country Rendezvous!  It's right around the corner.  Click on the link or the tab at the top of the page for complete information.

High Country Rendezvous and Ride of the Week

RockCrawlinChef made us a beautiful button for the High Country Rendezvous.  I love how he can just whip stuff like this out and have it be perfect.

Be sure to check out the information page (just click on the button in the sidebar or on the tab at the top of the page) and make your reservations soon.  It's only $5.00 to reserve your room at Allenspark Lodge, so call Juanita and Bill soon before we fill up, 303-747-2552.

AND...

I'm looking for more guest bloggers for Ride of the Week for May and June.  It doesn't matter if you've guested with me before, you're welcome to guest again or recruit one of your horsey friends to blog instead.  I'm having a great time reading everyone's stories, and judging from the number of hits I get on Wednesdays, a lot of other people are as well.  If you (or one of your friends) are (is) interested in guesting, please shoot me an email at tel835@hotmail.com.