The Mare and Me

Last year about this time I was prepping to ride in the Lehi riding club.  It's nothing fancy, just a group of cowboy folk who love to ride that have joined together to join a low key competitive riding club.  Last year was my first year participating, and it was most exhilarating...it challenged me and expanded my moderate riding skills.  Poco, the horse I ride, is a returning champion and made it all look like cinch.  She taught me a lot and I loved learning from her throughout it all; mainly I sat back and let her do it all.

Water relay: transport water in a ladle and spill as little as possible. I spilled.

Potato Relay: stab a tater from one barrel, race to another barrel and whip it in. I made it in...after missing one time

Warrior Princess

Keyhole race: run in and out of a keyhole shape and as fast as you can without coming out of the lines! Poco nailed it.

Barrel Race: make a figure eight around three barrels as fast as you can.  Favorite.

 I had great friends and family come support me and cheer us on.  I was giddy the whole time and high on the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to ride horses.

Good friends + my amazing Momma = Perfect audience

Lilly wanted a ride!

 All in all it was a successful event.  We placed in two of the relays and had the opportunity to compete in Regionals, but opted out of going.  It was in Central Utah and it was all just for fun for us.  I'm looking forward to starting again in this year's riding club.

Thank you Poco. I love my life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Wonder Land

I had the opportunity to house/pet sit for the mother of a good friend. There is a beautiful trail right outside their front door!

Tigger

Porter

Emigration Canyon

The Adventures of Mars and Bandit

                                

Keeping warm in her thermals at the cabin

Hiking hard on Granduer Peak

A rest after all that work...

Bandit on the other hand could have kept going for hours

Bandit found a caterpillar

Antelope Island

Mummy Bandit and Skeleton Mars on Halloween

Hoodoo, Maddie, and Dori

  Hoodoo, Maine Coon kitten drinking from the water bowl

Holding Hands

Behemoth cat

Maddie

New addition to the family: Dori the Newfoundland pup

Dori: Black Bear mixed with Gorilla

Bareback!

My eyes look really creepy and it's fuzzy but this is my first day riding bareback.  The picture was taken by a tall man on a tall horse so Poco looks small and I look long but it's not quite this exaggerated in reality.

It just wouldn't be my blog if I didn't post about horseback riding.  So, I rode bareback for the first time last week and it was amazing!!!  I am in love.  It is completely organic riding one with the horse, no saddle as a barrier.  I feel much more connected to the horse (Poco) because I feel her spine, muscles and back right there with my legs and somehow that feels really primal or instinctive.  I had been practicing riding on a saddle outside of the stirrups and that has helped immensely in getting comfortable riding without that support.  This helped in easing the transition from riding with a saddle to riding bareback.  In fact, as soon as I got on the horse (which was actually the hardest part!!) I knew I was going to love it and feel comfortable doing it.  It can also hurt too though because there isn't a shock absorber and you really rely on stability to stay on.  One hard bounce off balance and you are landing on your tail bone or pubic bone...ouch!  Plus I found that my inner thighs are really worked in order to hold on at times.

I was mostly worried about getting ON the horse because without stirrups to hoist you over you are really reliant on other means.  I had no idea of how most people do it so I ended up looking up on YoutTube videos of girls getting on a horse bareback.  View this link to see what I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSfDFrv78Bo.  This girl makes it look EASY, or maybe I am just s wimp but when I watched it I thought, "Oh yeah I can do that!"  Poco is a small horse and it looks simple enough, right? Wrong!  I smacked right into the side of her 7 or 8 times before I got my leg up high enough to pull myself up the rest of the way and even then it wasn't nearly as graceful as that girl.  Poco was really patient with me and let me try over and over.  Eventually I was able to mount almost without having to totally hoist myself over the rest of the way but only after doing it time and time again.  Oh and did I mention that I had to ultimately stand about 5 or 7 feet away from Poco and get a running start to actually mount?  So I never got to the point that girl in the video did while standing right next to the horse and just hopping on.  One day though, I will!  But it is interesting because I can always sense when the one jump is the magic one that will get me on.  I feel it before I even get over and I somehow need to figure out what happens those times and replicate it.  But the experience of pulling myself on is so rewarding, like I have connected more with my primal self somehow. 

I went again today and rode bareback for a while. I took some video and tried to post it here, but it is having issues. It's not the most exciting footage anyway because I was alone and couldn't zoom or change angles.  But anyway the second time again, the hardest part wasn't riding bareback, but actually getting on Poco.  I had to try over and over again and smack into her side until I finally got that momentous leap that I knew would send me over.  I got it about 3 different times, which was encouraging

Also, I went on a beautiful trail ride on a trail in Kennecot with Jenny and Gerry (Poco's owners) this November and it was so beautiful!  The three of us ended up in this meadow covered in fresh snow and we just started loping together, side by side.  It was so impressionable for me because it was something I had never done.  The white snow everywhere, running through it together and the cold breeze in my face was exhilarating.  I have posted one picture below.

Love Poco!

These bottom two were obviously taken before it snowed but I liked them so I thought I'd post. :) Notice my pretty new (at the time) saddle!

Party in Clinton!

I recently house sat for 4 handsome creatures residing in the sunny city of Clinton.  Nikki (the Blue Heeler) seems to be the matriarch of the furry family as she routinely would attempt to put Maggie (the Shepherd mix) in her place to ensure that her round belly was fed first.  However, Nikki doesn't have one mean bone in her body and wouldn't even know how to hurt little Maggie if she wanted to.  But it was adorable to watch Nikki growl and bare her teeth at young Maggie in a ferocious attempt to look mean and ensure first dibs on the treats.  Maggie appeared completely oblivious to Nikki's protests and just bounded around her in playful jubilee.  So, as much as Nikki attempted to protest, she really is just a big, soft paper tiger at heart.  In fact I couldn't stop her from trying to crawl right up onto the sofa with me so she could kiss my face to death. Unfortunately, her elderly legs didn't quite allow it causing her to bark from the ground while Maggie bounded up on the sofa, showing off and demonstrating that she was runner up in the matriarchy.

Maggie, Nikki, and I took a walk along the path that followed the stream near the house and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  Nikki got tired sooner than Maggie but was determined to keep up. 

Nikki

 

Maggie

Fiona and Kit-Kat (also known as Angel, but it's been reported she doesn't quite live up to this name so we will refer to her by her nickname, Kit-Kat) are the kitties of the household.  They are almost identical and for the first few hours I couldn't tell which was which.  Once I deciphered that Kit-Kat is a gray tabby and Fiona is just a solid gray, I started to notice their distinct differences.  Fiona, the elder of the two, used to be a therapy cat for Intermountain Therapy Animals, where I work.  She definitely lives up to the standard of therapy animals too: very loving and social.  Plus she has the most adorable meow that makes me want to pet her eternally.  She and Maggie play this "game", which I think is much more of a game for Maggie than Fiona, where Fiona will very quietly try to pass by Maggie as she is sleeping, like a prey passing it's predator, trying not to wake her.  This just excited Maggie beyond all belief and causes her to perk up immediately and chase poor Fiona down the hall barking.  Of course Nikki (who is starting to go blind due to cataracts) would become startled and excited by this sudden game of chase and join in.  The result would be a herd of creatures barking and stampeding down the hall. 

Fiona

Kit-Kat was quite oblivious to any threat from Maggie or Nikki and traipsed around without a care in the world right in front of them, which leads me to think Fiona unintentionally initiated and established the stampede relationship she has with Maggie and I can't help but giggle at it a little.  Kit-Kat spent most of her time by the door looking out the window and meowing in eagerness to be allowed out.  She had a lot of kitten energy in her but if at anytime I filled up her food dish she would come running from where ever she was, regardless of what she was doing to satisfy her insatiable belly.  Fiona was more content in her hiding spot, only emerging when Maggie was fast asleep. 

Kit-Kat or Angel

Overall, the Clinton adventure was a success!

Horses and Pain!

Me, helmet, my new saddle, Poco (front) and Sassi

This isn't house sitting related necessarily, but it's about animals so I thought I'd share anyway.  Almost 2 weeks ago I went horseback riding with a few friends and had quite an eventful day.  I had a riding lesson on a Missouri Fox Trotter, Sassi (picture below), who is just that!  She got a little frustrated and impatient with the lesson and decided to rear up!  I have yet to experience that on a horse to this point, but figured my time was due.  Luckily I did everything right and stayed on, but it was pretty scary and exciting all at once.  Little did I know what else would be coming...

We went to Dimple Dell afterward to trail ride and ended up having quite the frightening adventure.  I was initially riding Sassi, who I have to briefly describe.  She's an English breed so her gait is very unique.  Her walk and trot is so smooth you feel like you are gliding; you barely move, which is so different than the typical bounce of the trot on a Quarter Horse.  Her gallop is interesting too, also smooth but different.  Her breed types are used in endurance racing so she has sooo much energy and can go on forever.  As we started our trail ride she would gallop ahead a hundred yards, turn around and run back to the other two riders and then turn around again.  She is like an attention deficit child on a walk with elderly adults.  It is super fun!

Sassi-Missouri Fox Trotter-and me!

Anyway, back to the frightening adventure...so halfway through our ride I switched horses with someone and ended up riding Riley, the Quarter Horse (pictured in a previous post).  Poco (the horse I usually ride) was also there, being ridden by another friend.  The ride was beautiful and so fun, but as we were approaching the end of our ride, a dog barked suddenly and spooked the horses.  All three of them abruptly turned away from the dog and threw ALL THREE of us riders on the ground.  Right before I came off, I realized I might be coming off and kept saying to myself "No, you are NOT falling off this horse!"  I tried to fight it as best I could, but before I knew it I was on the ground rolling, having hit my leg against something.  Riley was much taller and stalkier than Sassi so the thought of coming off (compared to when Sassi reared up) was a lot more intimidating!  I could hear the stomping of his hooves behind me and I prayed he wouldn't accidentally step on me, causing much more severe damage than what I had.  Luckily he didn't, but my leg was in intense pain.  I couldn't talk or move for a good 5 minutes; I just sat there holding my leg rocking back and forth.  I was worried I had broken something and the pain shot up and down my leg.  But after I rested, the pain subsided enough that I was able to get up.  One of the other riders broke her arm, unfortunately in her fall.  After assessing each other's injuries, we ended up all getting back up on our horses and riding back to the trailer, which was only about a 10 or so minute walk back luckily.  The friend who broke her arm ended up at the ER that night, sadly.  Pictures below!

It was cooooold that day! I like Riley's ears at the bottom of the frame.

Me and Sassi; Colleen and Poco

My Leg Injury-Day 1

Leg Injury-Day 3

Leg Injury-Day 5

Leg Injury-Day 9