Hobby Horse Blog Hop

Dreaming, over at Living a Dream, has started a new blog hop for use horse lovers to reach out and meet each other.  It's called the Hobby Horse Blog Hop and each week she'll be posting prompts for us to write about.  Since Estes is gone for the winter, my blog fodder is running thin, so this will be good for me keep in the blogging groove.

This week's prompts included the questions:

1. Tell us about your first horse, real or imagined.
2. What lesson(s) did you learn from a horse?
3. What riding discipline intrigues you the most?

Estes is my first real horse.  I love her almost as much as I love my husband, which is one of the reasons I married him.  If I couldn't find anyone to love more than I loved my horse, I would have stuck with my horse.  Estes was a fire-breathing dragon that I fell absolutely, head-over-heels in love with back in 2004.  She became mine in 2009.

Photo courtesy: Rachel at Once Upon a Miracle

I did have a plastic Breyer horse when I was younger that did lots and lots of laps around the make-shift barrels in my bedroom and I had a favorite tree limb at our cabin that was just the right size for a five year-old's pretend horse.  I put many miles on the branch that stuck out horizontally from the tree and then arced upward like a horse's neck.  The Bionic Cowgirl knew that I'd either be riding my tree horse or flying my invisible helicopter when we were at the cabin.  Luckily, they were right next to each other.  In fact, I used the seat of my helicopter (a rock at just the right height) to mount my trusty steed.

As far as lessons learned from horses, there are too many to list.  I don't even know where to begin.  Every encounter with a horse is a learning opportunity and I've been lucky in that most of my lessons have been positive.

I know very little about the different disciplines and have even less desire to compete in any of them. Does that make me a snob? Or a reverse snob?  I'm a trail rider through-and-through.  Not a competitive trail rider, not an endurance rider.  Simply a let's-get-on-our-horse-and-go-explore kind of trail rider.  Estes is game for anything, so we're a good fit.


My question:  Where is your favorite place to ride? Or where do you think would be your favorite place to ride?

Horse Fix

Oh boy, did I need some equine therapy.  But with my equine at fat pastu
re, that left me with my choice of Ranger, Washoe, or Jesse.  That's a no-brainer.  Ranger's my boy.  Washoe and Jesse are a little hard to handle when they've been cooped up and Ranger's just getting too old to care what the young whippersnappers are up to.

From inside the lodge, I could hear Ranger..."Beel!  Beel!  Let GunDiva come play with me!"

What?  You didn't hear it?

I did.  Loud and clear, so I grabbed his halter and played catch with him until he literally sighed and touched me on the shoulder with his nose so I could catch him.  I'm not as good at "catching" with the rope as Beel is.

But I didn't plan on how I was going to get him out of the pen.  In the summer, we just walk them through the square pen, which forms kind of an airlock, and out.  But with the recent snow, that wasn't going to happen.  I walked him over to the real gate and we went out that way.  I really wished that I had been able to mount up from inside the pen, because I was in snow to my knees. (No comments on how two inches of snow would be up to my knees either - it was legitimately deep.)

Ranger and I made it to where I thought I could mount up with a little help from Beel...

This seemed like a good idea.
It wasn't.
I pulled a muscle in my arse.

This was a much better idea.

"GunDiva?  Are you sure this is okay?  Beel's still back there."
Yes, Ranger, it's fine.  Beel's okay by himself.

"Beel!  Stop doing the flashy-box thing!"

"That's it!  You flashy-box thingied my one too many times!"

Five minutes of riding and I feel so much better.  Ranger, eh, who knows.  But at least Beel stopped with the flashy-box thingy.

This girl...

I miss her.

A lot.

A lot, a lot.

Hope she's getting fat down at fat pasture.

That is all.

Worst Trail Ride Ever Give-away

I've had a lot of worst trail rides.  Mostly, though, they're amazing, but any time you put horses and humans together in the wilderness things are going to happen.  Just ask the Bionic Cowgirl - her last worst trail ride involved a plate and nine screws in her right arm.

I have a whole list of worst ride stories.  I could tell you about the time my Barn Boss' horse went to noon on me, or about the time that I did a Hollywood-style dismount, or about the time we had to AirLife a guest out of the forest.  I don't know anyone who has been around horses who doesn't have a worst ride story.

With that in mind, I thought we'd do a little contest for Julie Goodnight's new book, GOODNIGHT'S GUIDE TO GREAT TRAIL RIDING.

Read about how Estes darn nearly broke my leg in half with a gate.

All you have to do to enter is to write a blog post (or two) about your worst trail ride and link up. The contest will run from now until Friday, December 23 at 11:59 pm MST.  The winner will receive an autographed copy of Julie's new book (Julie's autograph, not mine).

Note: Bionic Cowgirl, you are NOT eligible for this give-away.  Neither are you, Beel.

Those Old Westerns

A friend of mine from the Writers' Police Academy sent me this; I thought you'd appreciate it.

Enjoy...

Those Old Westerns

Awww...

Talked to Mom today, who talked to Ida, Estes' "other mother".

My baby girl is doing okay out on fat pasture, which makes me very happy, because we got her moved down just before the weather went to crap.  However, she spent the first two days she was with her old herd, hollering and looking for Mom's herd.  It's the first time since I bought her that we've broken up Mom's herd for the winter and it was distressing for her.  That makes me very sad.

She's settled in to her old herd again and has stopped calling for Ranger, Jesse, and Washoe.  But it still makes me sad, in a my-kid's-gone-to-kindergarten kind of way.

~~~~~~~~~~

In happier news, remember this:

It's been released!  Heidi got her copies the other day.  I can't wait to read it.  Anyone who is interested in buying it can go here to order it.  And, if you order it by a certain date (I honestly don't remember what the date is), Julie will inscribe and autograph it for you.

I'm a little nervous to read my contribution, because Heidi just asked us for some trail riding horror stories.  So I shared the story of when Estes about broke my leg in a gate.  Since I just jotted it down, I have no recollection of what I said, other than Estes about broke my leg.  I hope she or Julie polished it up pretty-like and I don't sound like a total idiot. :)

Heidi asked for trail riding horror stories too early - if she had waited a few months, Mom would have had a doozy to contribute.  Nothing like getting kicked, shattering your elbow and having to ride out as a contribution to a trail riding book.

Sooooooo Glad...

...that Queen Estes is at fat pasture.  We took her down on the last nice day we had, after a beautiful ride.  I have lots of pictures that I want to post, but my computer died and I'm using a work "loaner" that sucks big ole hairy donkey balls.  Sometimes the 'e' key works.  But I spend a lot of time going back and adding in the effing 'e's.

Anyway, I have about 18 inches worth of reasons why I'm glad Little Miss Estes is down in the lowlands.  It's single digits up the hill and the snow is falling, falling, falling.  She doesn't have nearly enough fat on her bones to handle the kind of weather Mom and Bill are having.

As soon as I get my new computer, I'll get pictures up.