It’s 70 and It’s January

 

 

If I wasn’t so busy at work, I would have taken the day off.  As it was, I planned to leave early but duty called and I couldn’t get out the door until normal time.  It was 72 degrees according to the dash of the Durango.  I am told that is the warmest its been this time of year since the 1930’s.  Someone at work wondered if we should be concerned with this unseasonable change.  A person much smarter than me said the earth has been around for millions of years; who really knows if it is that unusual.  So with that comment in mind, I’ll keep enjoying this weather and hope that February gifts us, too.

 

 

Along with the nice days, the sunrises and sunsets have been remarkable.  The above pictures were taken driving in to work this morning.   I just can’t get enough!  John and I rode just a little over five miles after work tonight; once again, racing the sunset.  It is our 19th wedding anniversary.  I’d have never believed 19 years ago we would be riding horses today or any day.  You never know what the future holds now, do you?

 

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And Then There Was One….

 

For those of you who follow only my blog, long before there was simply horsetrailriders.com, the website.  Founded in 2004, the goal of horsetrailriders.com was to provide information on the horse trails in Nebraska and horse trail riding events.  In my book, the website was a huge success as far as meeting those goals, but having no website design experience, it was always clunky for me to update.  When I found Blogspot, I could easily cater to my lost passion – writing – in a less cumbersome format.  Although I tended to the basics of the old website, it was kind of left to grow dusty.  I knew I could merge them together but knowing I could do it and knowing how to do it are two different things.   

 

 

When I asked for help from fellow bloggers about combining the two, many of you provided some great suggestions.  But when it came time to actually doing the deed, I didn’t trust myself or what I was reading.  So I turned it over to website designer, Robin, of Brown Wing Studio to do all the technical behind-the-scenes stuff. And in a matter of moments, she pressed the necessary buttons and viola`, it was merged.  And it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg, either.  If you need help with a website, I highly recommend Robin.  

 

By the way, Robin and her husband, Brian are also fellow horseman and bloggers.  You can follow their horse life here:  On the Trail To Somewhere and A Year of Equestrian Living.

 

Thank you so much, Robin, for your expertise.

 

Brown Wing Studio           (319) 438-2493            brownwingstudio@gmail.com 

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Ancestry

 

 

We attended a funeral today for my Aunt Shirley; the last of the aunts on that side of the family.  I remembered fondly that while growing up the many “vacations” we spent at Aunt Shirley and Uncle “Fudge’s” dairy farm.  Along with the dairy cattle, I remember a horse, who’s name I have forgotten, the apple orchard and the acres of pasture where we used to play.  I also recall they had a bomb shelter in their basement, a sign of the times.

 

My sister Ann, brother Tony, me, and cousins Debbie (Uncle Gerald) & Rhonda (Uncle Ray).

 

The minister asked if any friends or relatives would like to get up to speak.  Had I been prepared, I would have loved to tell those in attendance about what wonderful memories we had “vacationing” at their farm.  Although long since sold, gazing to the north at the graveside service, we could still see the dairy barn and silo on the horizon.

 

 

One of our cousins brought the above collage of pictures to the funeral and gave to each of us.  There were eight boys in the Martin family and evidently Dad (Emery) and three of his brothers enlisted in the service in 1941.  Dad would have been 20 years old in this picture.  He and and Uncle Slim (Verlin) were in the Navy.  I know that Uncle Fudge (Raymond) was in the Army, but I’m not sure what branch Uncle Paul (top right) was in.  The uniform looks different than that of Raymond.  My dad and his brothers came home safely from the war.  Dad grew up in a family of eleven.  Today only one sibling survives. 

 

 

The above picture was taken of my dad probably in the late fifties or early sixties; most likely before I was born.  He knew his way around the horse and used them for farming when he was growing up.  He bought us our first horse when we were very young; a pony much too small for a man his size, so I never saw him ride.  He was gone by the time I got my first horse as an adult.  I am sure he would have approved.

 

Although we regret the reason for the impromptu reunion, it reminds us how time continues to move on.  Those of us who played in the fields of that dairy farm are now (gasp!) middle aged; some are grandparents themselves.  Nonetheless, its always nice to remember where we came from and share such sweet memories.  I was truly blessed growing up. 

 

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Flying with the Gov

 

 

I drove down snowy roads to get to the airport on Monday morning and landed in Austin that afternoon to temperatures in the high 70’s.  The rental car place tried to place me in a minivan.  I wanted a convertible.  We settled on a Dodge Avenger and for the record, there was no way in hell I was going to drive a minivan no matter how much they tried to convinced me it was an upgrade.  I don’t do minivans. 

 

This was the first trip down to Texas that I actually had some spare time away from work related activities and contacted my old roommates, Kris and Kelly, who live in the Austin area.  They moved to Texas about the time I moved to Saunders County.  We don’t see each other often anymore, but have always kept in touch. 

 

Kris lives near Bastrop County and was in the path of the fires this past summer.  She has horses but no horse trailer.  She had a friend with a trailer on standby to evacuate and when they got the call, they had to move quickly.  She worried that her friend wouldn’t make it in time and cried as she put tags with her name and number on her horses’ halters; prepared to open the gate to let them go.  But her friend made it in time and in the end, the fire stopped about a mile from their place and it was spared.  What a scary ordeal.

 

Did I mention I didn’t unpack my jacket the entire time I was in Texas?

 

 

I had a layover in Denver on the way home.  I glanced up to see Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman sitting at the same gate as I was at, talking on the phone.  I took the above picture with my iPhone, totally Facebook-worthy!  I had met our Governor on another occasion and he is very approachable.  Before long, he was making the rounds visiting with those at the gate.  He stopped where I was sitting and I shook his hand and made small talk.  When we boarded, he was seated two rows in front of me, continuing to talk to other passengers traveling to our state capital as they boarded the plane.  His body guard was in the row ahead of me.  I felt safe. 

 

The sun was shining today and it warmed up to almost fifty again.  Feeling almost 80% now, there was no excuse not to ride.  I saddled up Windy and we did a quick 4+ mile loop through the fields.  Sundown caught us quickly and it was dark when I put her up.   Snow is expected again tomorrow.

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I Probably Shouldn’t Have….

 

 

Sometimes you need to put mental health before physical health.  And if I pay for it tomorrow, I’ll try and remember that statement. 

 

I probably shouldn’t have, but I did.  I rode today.  I didn’t plan to ride.  I didn’t plan to do anything but more of nothing which I have been doing for several days now.  But duty required me to get out of my pajamas, that I had been wearing since the day before, and run to the store.  John had told me it wasn’t too bad outside and he was right; although not warm by any means, it was certainly better than the single digits from earlier this week. 

 

I’ve been nursing this pesky injury.  I double-downed on the pain killers last night, took a long, hot bath and slept with a heating pad.  As a result of one or all of the above, I have to admit I felt a wee bit better this morning.  The mom in me said I probably shouldn’t; but the rider in me said to “go for it”.

 

I saddled up Windy before I could change my mind and headed to the field where Fancy had her meltdown.  And we kept on going and going and going.  Oh, not that far; did a bit over 5 miles at a rather slow pace, but nothing hurt while riding and it was good for my soul.

 

 

After I got back to the barn, I decided Fancy still owed me those two miles from our parting of ways.  I took the saddle off Windy and quickly saddled Fancy.  I put Ritz in the truck; couldn’t catch the fool dog – he knows when I’m up to something – but when I opened the truck door and motioned for him to jump in, I got him!  I didn’t need his help today.

 

Fancy stood quietly at the mounting block and I swung my leg over.  I took a deep breath before I asked her to walk on.  We started in the arena and after getting my groove, I asked for a trot and she complied.  We trotted around the arena several directions until I was comfortable enough to open the gate and go out into the field.  Not as far as the “scene of the crime” but our field in front of the barn. 

 

 

This is what we did for 3.2 miles.  The big red splotch is the arena and the lines are our tracks in the field.  Up and down, back and forth, walk and trot.  We’d go farther each time and then circle around and come back.  She didn’t have any moments of hesitation; she was attentive and easy to ride.  My goal was to keep her in her comfort zone and me in mine.

 

I leave tomorrow for Texas; hopefully these eight miles helped stretch some of my tight muscles out and not hinder the healing.  Actually, I feel better tonight than I have all week.  Like I said, could be the ride made all the difference.  Or the drugs.  Or both.

 

Its snowing now.  January in Nebraska.

 

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Horsetrailriders.com

 

I am in the process of merging Horsetrailriders.com and this blog.  For an untechy person like me, it isn’t easy and it is kind of clunky right now.  But soon “the two shall be as one”. 

 

 

In the meantime, I have added tabs up above which will link you to Horse Trails (in Nebraska) and Trail Rides (in Nebraska and surrounding areas).  Come springtime, our Platte River Riders schedule will be housed here and I have put out the information about this spring’s Friday AFTER Mother’s Day Ride (note new day.)  

 

 

I did have an opportunity to update the Horse Trails information.  I added some new pictures and also linked back to blog posts that I may have done about a certain area.  Might provide additional insight if you are wanting to check out a new trail. 

 

 

The Classifieds page is forever sunsetted from this website but you are welcome to post your ad on the Horsetrailriders.com Facebook page.  Ads should be equine in nature and kept regional, meaning limited to Nebraska and surrounding states. 

 

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Instagrams

A long time ago, I loaded the Instagrams app on my iPhone; something I read about on The Pioneer Woman.  But I haven’t had much of an opportunity to mess with it.  Then the other day, I came across a picture of Windy that was so crisp and clear, that I decided to play around with it a bit on Photoshop. 





The top picture of Windy is straight out of the camera.  While not a bad picture really, I decided to liven it up a bit.  I won’t pretend to be able to tell you step by step what I did to this picture but it seemed to work.  I then sent it over to my iPhone via Dropbox (another must have app which I do use all the time) and uploaded it to Instagram.  The above picture was the end result.





I did the same with this picture of Ginger taken last winter.  I didn’t do anything with it in Photoshop but did choose an Instragram setting.  Its funny, but it almost looks like she has moved slightly. 

Both photos offer a bit more drama than the straight out of the camera picture.  It’s a fun little program to play with and another time killer.

(I changed the first picture on the post below to an Instagram 1977 setting.)

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Better Day By Day

 

 

Glancing outside can be deceiving. The sun is shining but winter is certainly back. Although there is no snow at home, the parking lot at work received a dusting and it hasn’t gone anywhere; evidence to the chilly temperatures. Single digits. January. It’s just as well. My activity level has dropped to next to nothing. Although my headaches have went away, my lower back is still very sore.  And there are moments I feel I am relapsing but for the most part, I am getting better day by day. 

 

 

After studying the human anatomy, I have determined the pain to be coming primarily from the thoracolumbar fascia area and my pain is specifically in the area circled in green.  Additional pain may be found in the iliac crest, gluteal aponeurosis and the gluteus maximum muscle itself. The spotted areas in purple is the bruising that changes daily; if you didn’t know it, you would think I was tattooed. (I’m not). Let’s just say I am glad that is behind me and I don’t have to look at it all the time because while I am somewhat fascinated with bruising, where this has gone is pretty bad.  Scary is too nice of word!

 

While I am certainly not the epitome of picture perfect health, I am very active and other than complaining about the extra poundage, I really don’t have any health issues.  I won’t drive around a parking lot looking for the closest space and I never take the elevator at work unless absolutely necessary.  Not having taken any pain pills yesterday, by afternoon I was becoming quite crabby and I needed (NEEDED!) Hot Tamale candies.  That candy dispenser is one floor down and let me tell you, I seriously thought about the elevator.  (Insert whining noise here.)     

 

 

Although there may be some warm up this weekend, it is not going to go above the norm like it has been lately.  I don’t think I’ll ride this weekend; give myself a few more days to heal.  I let the horses out to pasture.  There is not much grazing this time of year but I am sure it felt good for them to get out and stretch there legs. 

 

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Miscellaneous

I am sitting at the dealership having keyless entry put on my new truck.  Weird that it didn't come with that.  There are a lot of "options" I can do without in a truck.  I don't need a DVD player or heated seats, but I do need that little clicker on my key chain to make my life easier.  The other night I hit lock on the door before John got his coat out of the backseat and we exchanged words.  Simple gadgets for keeping the peace.


The dealership does have a business center.  I started out by using their computer but found they firewalled all my favorite sites and they were not x rated!  Facebook?  Blogspot?  Please!  So I had my laptop (or loaner laptop - long story) with me, so I pulled it out and viola`, I am back in business. 

Today is an optional holiday at work.  I was feeling pretty beat up last night so decided to take the option.  I can't say I feel worse today than yesterday, but I do have some new aches and pains.  And a bruise has finally appeared and its not on the side I fell on.  Perhaps from the saddle horn as this arm would have been coming across the saddle when I went down?  Who knows.  Call me crazy but I do find bruising fascinating.

My helmet ended up with some smudges and 2 small cracks.  You can see one of the cracks by the vent.  The other can't be seen as well; it is over by the ear.  This helmet has seen its day.  I have other helmets I can wear - I have seemed to collect them lately. 


Thanks for all the notes about wearing a helmet. I know those of you who do know the importance, and perhaps someone who doesn't, will think about it now. Its possible I have a mild concussion - undiagnosed by anyone but me (but I bet Mindee would agree.)  Having two boys in football, I recognize the symptoms and know there is nothing you can do about it except try not to get hit in the head again for awhile.


My internet doctor says, "For mild concussions, you should get plenty of rest during the day and sleep at night. Gradually return to your normal activities, without over doing it. Ibuprofen can be taken under a doctors advice, but avoid alcohol and other drugs."  


I've reluctantly laid off the pinot noir and only rode 5 miles yesterday.  At a walk.


Happy Monday, all.

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The Morning After

Coffee tastes as good in the morning after a horse wreck as it does after a two margarita night.  I thought I felt pretty good after soaking in hot water but when I went to roll over in the middle of the night:  Ouch!  If I had to pinpoint the most pain, it is coming from the tissue on and above my right butt cheek.  That took the impact first.  Although there might be some swelling, I see no bruising.  It is a bit numb to the touch in some areas.  I think my tailbone is okay. 

 

I do have to say that my beloved white German Shepherd was no doubt a contributing factor in the wreck.  Where he is normally the stellar riding partner leading the way and flushing out deer, pheasant and whatnot, when Fancy froze up and tried to turn around, his herding instinct kicked in and he went behind her barking to keep her going.  While our horses are around the dogs all the time, this probably added to Fancy’s angst.  Who knows?  But he won’t be going with me again with any horse but Windy. 

 

While we all have visions about being a good enough rider to be able to pick where we land, that is true up to a certain point.  I do know when I first made a conscious decision to get off, I couldn’t get enough control of her to safely do that in the fashion I hoped… you know… foot in one stirrup, the other leg swinging gracefully over and nailing perhaps a 7.5 landing.  There come a point that my mind DID tell me to get the hell off NOW because its not getting any better; she was starting to win the battle and gain some speed.  I had already lost my seat and was shifted to the right so the right side it was.  The bean field was the better option than the gravel road or driveway should she make her escape for home.  I suppose I dropped my stirrup; I don’t remember doing that – maybe it was already gone -- and I remember when going down hoping I had enough distance to get away from her feet.  I truly think the horse feels us going and gets away from us not the other way around.  But who knows.

 

But here is the part I want to mention without going into preaching.  No matter how good of rider we are and no matter how good we think we can fall, you can’t change the fundamental principles of physics.  When your body is being driven somewhat violently downward, so is your head.  At some point it is going to hit.  It may not with a casual fall, but when there is a lot of motion, the g-forces are stronger and even if you are a weight lifter, your neck cannot control that head from eventually hitting. 

 

I can still feel the fall.  Butt, shoulder and then head.  It didn’t bang on the ground, it was driven as my body slid along the dirt.  Yes, I was wearing my helmet and my right ear hurt instantly from hitting against the helmet.  And through the course of the night, I took six Advil and my head still hurt this morning when I woke up.  Not bad, but I have to think that 6 Advils did numb it a bit. 

 

I usually always wear a helmet.  Its as much a part of my riding tack as my boots are.  But the other night while team sorting, I didn’t.  We were inside, the arena soil was deep and soft and I was riding Windy.  Truth be known, I forgot it in my trailer and was too lazy to go get it so that is what I told myself.  And of course I wanted to be cool around the cowboys (wink).  I know I wouldn’t be as lackadaisical about it on the trail, but it was a good wake-up call for me.  I don’t care if you wear a helmet or not; just don’t have delusions that you can save your head if a wreck could happen.  With what I experienced yesterday, I could no more have kept that impact from happening than I could from having my head hit a windshield if I weren’t buckled into a car in a head-on collision.  So be careful out there. 

 

I did Google “fractured pelvis” and it told me, “Pelvic fractures are life-threatening injuries. It is usually sustained as a high velocity injury like falling off a great height, crush injury or a road traffic accident.”  I couldn’t help but think “all of the above”.  Although I am very sore this morning, I do feel better than I did last night.

 

Time for another cup of coffee. 

 

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Eatin’ Dirt 2012

I should have stuck with housework.  But noooo.  Tempted by the sunshine and the desire to put on some more Distance Derby miles, I fetched my favorite horse, Windy, and rode for about eight miles.  Not a quick ride; moderate compared to late, and refreshing.  I still had some daylight left and decided I would put a couple miles on Fancy; finish out the day with 10 miles on the chart. 

 

 

Fancy and I had an unexpected parting of ways today.  Things I learned:

• Bean fields are not soft. Although preferred over a gravel road, there is not much give.
• Its hard to decide if the tailbone or the hip hurts; they are pretty close to each other.
• I’m pretty sure the tailbone is connected to the clavicle because it hurts too.
• And the shoulder.
• And my temporomandibular joint.
• And my pride. 
• My helmet took an impact because my right ear hurts.  Helmets are not overrated.
• I landed on the side of my coat where my iPhone was located & it survived. 
• Wear a helmet and carrying the cell phone on the body – important rules of the trail - paid off.  Although I was barely out of our driveway, I called my son to come and get me.   He gave me the “really, Mom?” look. 

 

What happened?  Who knows.  I took her out a little farther than she was comfortable and when she decided enough was enough, we had a communication problem.  She didn’t buck or rear; she just wanted to go back to the barn NOW and while I didn’t disagree, I was asking for a bit more control.  We dropped into a ditch, there may have been an unexpected spurring, I lost my seat and we parted ways.  It happens.  

 

So four advil and a long soak in the tub probably wouldn’t have been needed had I stuck with housework today.  But what fun is that?  I am just hoping I am not too stiff tomorrow; the weather is suppose to be even nicer.  I’d like to get a few more miles on the Leaderboard.

 

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Sister-Wife

 

The work week goes so slow; weekends so fast.  Here it is Saturday already and I have accomplished nothing for the good of the house or for fun, for that matter.  I’m in the work-eat-sleep grind.  Not particularly in that order and none of it enjoyable at the time. 

 

I watch some of those home decorator shows and we have a lovely big ol’ house that has grown tired over the years and could certainly use some charm.  And I am lucky enough to have a husband who can do a lot of the stuff that needs to be done or would add some flair to it.  But I have no ambition for the creativity these days.  As I type this, he is downstairs painting.  I didn’t even pick out the paint color.  We remodeled this home twenty years ago - it had sat vacant for 30 or 40 years – and even though updating needs to be done, doing it again does not interest me.  Its enough to just keep up with the day to day. 

 

I need a sister-wife.  One who excretes domesticity.  I am more the barn type.  I don’t even mind going to work if someone else takes care of the house, plants a few flowers and manages to get the clean underwear somewhere other than the laundry basket.  How’s that for a tradeoff? 

 

Back to the grind….

 

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Winter Found Us

 

 

I knew we couldn’t hide for long; that Old Man Winter was lurking behind the trees waiting impatiently while Mother Nature handed out her unexpected blessings. 

 

Last night, knowing it was the last night of this great un-January-like weather, I rushed home, changed clothes and saddled Windy and took off through the fields.  I had learned the night before that even though it is dusk, when you are moving out at an average of 7 – 9 mph, extra clothing is NOT necessary; heck, even my hair was wet with sweat under my helmet. 

 

We did a quick loop; over five miles in about 40 some minutes, getting back to the place about dark – the moon not yet rising.  I towel dried Windy as her thick winter coat was as wet with sweat as the back of my head. 

 

Right now, the temp is sitting in the low 20’s and the wind is howling from the north as if to tell us that it ain’t over yet; maybe its just begun.  Shiver me timbers….

 

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Kindred Spirits

 

How many of you would agree that weekends go WAY too fast?  I see a lot of hands raised.  And when it’s a fair weather weekend with only two more days of it forecasted, it makes it doubly hard to think about sitting in an office all day!  But… it pays the horse bills.  Suck it up. 

 

 

I just saw the above sign on Facebook.   Ah, I think this horse rider might.  When I see the bikers out on days like we have been having, I can’t help but think of them as kindred spirits; just chasing the sunshine and warm breezes like the horse trail riders. 

 

 

I rode four out of five of them this weekend.  Fancy got the long workout when we rode the Oak Creek with my friends on Friday.  It was a 14 miles round trip ride with gaited horses.  Fancy put her big girl pants on and picked up the pace.  It was a fun ride.

 

 

Yesterday I took Windy out on the roads and she felt a little off.  I had noticed a little blood along her coronary band and wondered if she didn’t have a small abscess.  I brought her home and put her up and pulled out the “Tubby Twosome”.  Since they both suffer a bit from buddysourness, I decided to ride one and pony the other. 

 

 

Blue did really good ponying Butter.  He actually felt like he enjoyed being out.  We did some trotting but with Blue it can be pretty teeth jarring; he’s very rough.  He looks like a percheron or a Tennessee Walker in the above picture.  Just the picture; he is 100%  quarter horse.

 

 

I switched off and headed out on Butter ponying Blue.  She is a lot smoother ride but can get a bit snotty.  And stubborn?  Wow!  We had a few “come to jesus” moments.  You could just see Blue telling her, “don’t make waves… just keep moving!”  As a little “bonus” for her little outbursts, she got to do some laps in the arena after the ride. 

 

 

I finished out tonight’s ride under the sunset shown above.  Managed to snap that with my iPhone – it was quite incredible.  I have logged just under 42 miles in The Great Horsetrailriders Distance Derby – enough to keep me in the top 10, I think.  Last count, the total of all riders is over 900 miles! 

 

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Blogger Help

 

Since 2004, I have owned the website Horsetrailriders.com.  I started it as a way to share information about horse trails in our state, upcoming trail rides and horse events and of course, had a Classifieds sections, as well.  With the advent of such forums as Craigslist and Facebook, my small Classifieds became quite laborious (how’s that for a Words With Friends word) than a labor of love and I shut it down this week.  I invited readers to post their classifieds on my Horsetrailriders Facebook page. 

 

Why do you care?  Because I need help.  Technical help.  And searching through the help pages of Yahoo and Google have been no help at all, so maybe one of you know the quick and easy answer to this. 

 

I own the domain Horsetrailriders.com (HTR) and it is hosted by Yahoo.  If you go to www.horsetrailriders.com you will see that it resembles this blog, but it isn’t.  It is its own page. 

 

I blog on Horsetrailriders.blogspot.com (Blog) and have links in the sidebar that go to various HTR pages. 

 

I would like to use Horsetrailriders.com as the name of this blog and continue to use blogger for publishing – basically discontinue the Yahoo web hosting & move those HTR pages over here to Blogger.   If someone enters www.horsetrailriders.com, I want them redirected HERE on Blogger.

 

I tried finding out how to redirect or forward HTR to Blogger and the page on Yahoo that it talks about in their Help section cannot be found when I click where it says.  Then it talks way over my head about code….. blah, blah, blah.

 

I am thinking maybe Yahoo isn’t my answer – that Blogger can do all this for me.  That Blogger might let me use my domain horsetrailriders.com right here. 

 

But how?

 

If there is a simple way, please let me know via comments or email.  Meanwhile, I’ll continue to delve into the Help sections of hell….

Entries are Closed in the Distance Derby

If you are following the Distance Derby, by the time I get the teams loaded that are sitting in my in-box, we will have close to 75 teams.  That is more than enough to manage.  Therefore, entries are closed. 

You can follow the Distance Derby at The Great Horsetrailriders Distance Derby blog.

It’s going to be a fun year of riding!

First Ride; Last Day

 

What time does that Husker game start today?  Should be a good time to get out and put some miles on my horse.  Although there typically is very little traffic along my roads, riding during the Husker game should pretty much guarantee a quiet ride.  The fact that the high is only going to be 34 with wind might thwart any riding plans.  Call me a weenie; we’ve been spoiled. 

 

 

We finished up the last of our family get-togethers at my home town this past weekend and pulled in at dusk last night to find the horses were out.  All was well, but I did kick myself because I had noticed before I left that one of the panel fencing was compromised with just one pin holding it, no doubt from the big belgian mare leaning over it to reach a waiting bale.  It would have taken me all of 3 minutes to put the other pin back in and find some baling wire to reinforce it, but on my way to doing that, I must have started doing something else and forgot all about it. 

 

The herd was glad to see us and willingly followed us into the corral.  They had slipped through a small opening in the panels to get out but I don’t think going back in would have been as easy.  I know there was probably 10 gallons in a tank in the opened round pen and it was gone, so they must have been thirsty.  Who knows how long they were out; could have been 1 or 24 hours.   It gives me heart palpitations thinking about it.  Thank God our alfalfa field kept them home. 

 

 

The Great Horsetrailriders Distance Derby started yesterday with riders already logging miles.   Check out the Leaderboard.  I need to get going; hate to be left behind! 

 

 

It’s back to work and the real world tomorrow.  I’m going to miss the sunrises out my front door and the sunsets out my back door, my team of dogs who are at my feet 24/7 and saddling up and riding mid-afternoon.  I guess I need to go back to pay for the privilege.