Seven & The Horse Trainer

Seven and I traveled to Denton NC for another Trail Obstacle Race at Brock and Leisha Griffith's farm. Seven is very well and actually won this time! Everyone brought their A game so it was close!
While I was riding Brock said that Seven looked like he was fun to ride. I told he he could try him out later. Brock took me up on that and took him for a spin around the arena after the competition.  It was fun for me to watch Brock ride him since he is such a good rider I got to see Seven perform at his best!

Is that Seven making Brock look good or Brock making Seven look good?

Twila Merrill's New Halter!

Twila's new fashion halter came in the mail today! She told me she likes it very much! 

Thanks, Cat! Perfect fit!  www.catstack.com 

South Mountain Mule Ride

We all took off with some cooler weather for one of my favorite places to ride. South Mountains NC State Park. On the way there I stopped at a new place to get gas and as I took a short cut road to get back on track I ended up in an old mill town with lots of old houses. I slowed way down and wondered what this place was. Then I saw the sign in the middle of town, it was the place they filmed the town scenes from the Movie, "The Hunger Games" I had heard it was some were in Western North Carolina but did not realize that it was right off of Route 40.  I stopped to take some photos on my way back out! 

We had a nice ride with a small group on Friday afternoon and then the last of the crowd arrived for the night. After a nice visit by the camp fire, we had a nice night with wonderful cool sleeping weather! 

Saturday morning we headed out on the trails with some of us still in jackets! We headed up the Saddleback trail (My favorite) and all the mules were very workman like, giving no one any trouble. About half way up the three mile trail we came upon a huge rattle snake sunning himself on the side of a log. I was near the back and stopped to get a good photo of him, which we used later to count that he had 14 rattles! YIKES! But he did not even move as the rest of us rode by! This was the time I was glad to be riding a good mule who knew how to move off my leg. As I moved Seven to the very edge as we when by.  About five minutes later the mule in front nearly stepped on a Copper Head who was also sunning himself on the trail! OH boy!!!  

We rode on and went to a wonderful open area for lunch. We can hobble the mules and let them full up on green grass while we relax and have lunch.  As we were spread all over the field I noticed a hiker appear from one side of the meadow, he had one of those child hiking carriers with a young child in th back. I watched him for a little while as he stood with his hands on his hips and mouth wide open, chin dropped to the floor. Then he moved so he could see more of the mules and just stood and watched, chin to the floor. Finally some other hikers appeared behind him and they stood in amazement too! Rascel went over to them and talked to them, let them pet a mule or two. Rascal said that they did not even realize that there were mules till he told them, then he was even more amazed! 

We had a nice long ride and once we got in we let the dogs play before supper. They played hard and all had a good time! Levi was playing with his ball and then others joined in. Holly's new puppy Lucy, Max and Lu's puppy Dallas and Teddy and LuAnn's dogs Daisy and ____.

Bruce had a wonderful dinner cooked for us. A trail stew with all kinds of sides! Of course the deserts were wonderful with cobbler and Ice Cream and other things.  Toward the end of the evening, Jennifer got up to take her dish back to the trailer and she saw something moving under the table. When she looked down it was another bigger Copper Head Snake. Rascel chased it way! 

We had all been warned about a bear who had been coming and visiting the dumpster in camp, at this point no one cared about the Bear anymore! 

About 3AM the rains came. In the morning it kept raining lightly and then quitting. It seemed like every time we made a move to start to get ready to ride it would pick up rain again.  So we all packed out things, said our good byes and headed home! 

Here is a link to the video I made from our ride: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsDOmX1HWD4

Another Great Weekend!

Had a great time on Saturday Judging an Open Horse Show in Halifax, NC. Great group of people and some good horses! Except for one BAD Horse Fly who decided I would be his lunch! He bit me five times before my ring steward had to whack me and kill it! FFEWW!

Saturday night some rough thunderstorms came through but it brought us our first taste of fall. So we were ready to ride on Sunday! 

Debbie with her mule Tucker and Christina with Oakley came over for some arena/obstacle work. We finished the day with a nice trail ride. I took Twila Merrill out for our 3rd ride! She is a little rough around the edges but was nearly perfect on our 1 1/2 hour ride!

The view from between Twila Merrill's Ears! That's Debbie and Tucker in front of us! 

Seven Wins Twice

Last weekend Reed and I went to a Trail Obstacle Competition in Lake Waccamaw.  It was a very hot and long day but we both had a good time. Reed's horse Fortune and Seven were both so good. We were able to park and rope off an area, making a small paddock area for them to hang out and eat grass. We sat in chairs in the shade with my battery powered fans on our faces trying to cool off! 

About half way through that afternoon and in between classes Fortune saw something across the way and got so scared of it, that Seven was starting to get scared too! So we grabbed them both and I went to go investigate what he was looking at. It turned out to be a friendly Pot-Bellied Pig in a pen. I scratched his head and he oinked at me! 
I knew Seven would not be scared of him so we took them over to see the pig. Seven walked right up to the fence and sniffed at the pig. Fortune was still not so sure but Reed walked up to the fence and Fortune got a lot closer. Reed said it was her first time scratching a pig! 

We had a great show, Seven won both the In-Hand class out of 22 people and then won the Masters Class! 

The Masters takes that same obstacles and makes them harder by adding Horsemanship challenges. Like putting horses two front feet in the Water Box for the count to three, Stop on the twin size mattress for the count to three. The hardest one was a circle of Chalk on the ground. You had to put his front right foot in the circle, then put both front feet in the circle and do a 360 degree turn on the forehand. 

Here is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIi3Z_L0m4k

I am so Proud of my Seven and treasure the relationship we have! 
Which is what Horsemanship is all about!!

It took me all of Sunday to recover from being out in the heat all day, and the late night getting in. But on Monday (Labor Day) Debbie brought her mule Tucker over for a ride. I rode Seven a little in the arena with her, but then I tacked up Twila for a short trail ride. Everything went so well. I had to do a lot of steering and some encouraging with my legs to get started out, but she soon relaxed and walked out with her neck laid out and head down. She even went through the big ditch! I was so happy with how she was doing, that I giggled the whole time!  Later that day Craig the Farrier showed up and she got shoes for her front feet!  I can't wait to take her for another spin!  

 Judge Heather Hines, Seven, Me, Mary Miller Jordon and FK.

 My awards, Saddle pads and custom necklaces!

 Twila's new shoes! The wholes are spots were she has some healing White Line. Reed said it looked like she has Open Toed shoes!

Summer Blooms!!!

So excited about my Crepe Myrtle Tree! I planted it early this Spring.  My friend Tara found it for me at a dealer buy out!  It was marked to be light purple, but I was not sure what color it would really be! So pretty this week!!!  Just right for the end of Summer!

Weekend with Mom!

Mom came down for a weekend visit, to go watch me and Seven compete at the Denton Trail Obstacle Race. She came in on Friday and helped me get packed and ready to go. Then we got up way too early and drive to Denton. I introduced her to all the friends and people there and she commented how nice everyone was. Mom took photos of me and also Rebecca and Mimi on the course!  Seven and I had a good ride and got 3rd place!

 Seven crossing the bridge with ramps on each side.

Seven doing the Pin Wheel Obstacle. You hold the end of the board and balance the other end of the top of the barrel and ride a circle around with it. NOT EASY!

Sunday morning we got kind of a late start after resting all morning, but we had a productive afternoon. We ran around to the Dump and other places, then stopped by and picked out pallets. I needed to rebuild a part of the fence that the mules had knocked over in the sheep pen. I had seen several photos of people using pallets standing on end to make a small livestock fence. It took us about 3-4 hours but we got it done! It doesn't look to bad either!  Thanks for your help and supervision MOM! 

Now all I have to do is Convince the Sheep to go in! Easier said than done! 

Seven's First ACTHA Ride!

Aug. 17th Seven, Levi and I headed to Ivanhoe, VA to the New River Trail for an American Competitive Trail Horse Association Competition.  It was cooler there and the camp was right near the New River and the trail that follows a rail road bed along the river.  We got settled and I saddled up to ride for a little bit! I met a lot of new people and then ran in to a few I already knew.  I rode down the trail with a nice gentleman I met who was my camping neighbor. He had a nice palomino Pleasure Horse.
The evening we had chicken dinner and then we all messed around in the arena till 11pm that night! Great fun to watch everyone and play with the obstacles. There was a small pedestal there and I got Seven to put all four of his feet up on it! (all that work at home really pays off!)

I dressed up really nicely and also groomed my mule up as much as I could. I figured Seven might not do well because of the Judges in the woods at each obstacle! So I was going for Best Dressed and Best Groomed awards! 

The next morning we had breakfast and the morning riders meeting at 9AM. Riders started going out at 10AM with the first obstacle being pool noodles in the main arena. I rode out with Vickie riding her pretty mare Gigi and her husband Jim riding one of Jay Lankford's mules Sammy.

Seven did well with the noodles and so I hoped we were off to a good start!
The trail was really pretty with all kinds of nice views of the river and rock formations. We rode along and would come to each obstacle, work it and then move on. We did not have to keep any specific pace and just rode in a relaxed but fast walk!
Some of the other obstacles were to trot over a tarp, climb up a short hill get some Gold (Gold colored Candy) out of some saddle bags and then come back down, back up a short hill, do some transitions at specific cones, etc.
When we returned they had one last Mystery Obstacle to work. It turned out to be four cones and a long stick in the middle. We were told to do as many things with the stick as we can. So I trotted over, walked over, backed over, side passed, put each front foot over, halted over it. Then at the suggestion of Paula and Brian, I tried putting Seven so he straddled the pole between his front two feet and his back two feet, then backed up and walked forward. I was not sure I could do this and it took a little to get him to get started, but he did it!

At 4:30 they gave out the awards. I was surprised and pleased to win the Open Division and then also won the Mystery obstacle too!  I was am excited that Seven did so well! Vickie won 4th place in the huge Pleasure division and Bryan was 2nd in the Open too!

 Our first ACTHA Ribbon! Open Division!

 Seven & Shannon with Joe and Penny Most -Ride hosts!

 All my Loot from my win and placings this weekend! 

Later that evening they had some obstacle competitions in the arena. Seven got 2nd place in the in-hand and tied for 2nd in the mounted competition. I was so pleased with Seven because there was a stuffed dog, a scarecrow with an alligator face and a black cow head stuck into a black covered hay bale. He handled it all pretty well, but kept and eye on them! Too funny! 

  

 Seven keeping an eye on the stuffed animal Dog, while I check the mail!

Brian & his nice Mare working the Mattress Obstacle! 

I did not have a rest-full night on Saturday. At 1AM there seemed to be a loose horse or something going on that woke me up. I got up to check and there were head lights a scooter, a horse and people all around. Not sure what was going on, but Seven was doing fine. Then at 2AM I heard scrambling feet out side the front of my trailer, so I got up again to check. This time it was a guy letting his horse graze about 40 feet in front of my trailer. When I came out he apologized for waking me up. He said the horse was having some kind of problem, he did not know what.  I told him that maybe it was because he was riding her at 2AM in the morning??..... Too funny... he apologized again and I went to bed. I was then awakened at 5AM by RAIN! UGH..... 

I was going to haul over to Iron Mountain and ride with Vickie and Jim on Sunday morning but the rain never let up. So we packed up and went home. It was disappointing not to ride but, I was glad to get much needed nap on the couch then we got home!
Thank you to Joe and Penny Most and all their helpers for putting on such a great event! Also thank you to the sponsors and ACTHA who make these events possible! 

Trail Ride With Friends!

Sunday August 12th it was finally not raining and finally not over 100 degrees with 100% humidity! So Debbie brought her mule Tucker over and Belinda brought her TN Walking horse Jasper for a trail ride! We rode a for a little in the pasture and did some ground work before heading out! We took a quite relaxing ride that even Seven settled into. The bugs were not too bad for August! We went by my farmer friend's place to get photo of in front of the sunflowers he is growing!

 Belinda & Jasper

Debbie & Tucker

While heading across to the big lake behind my house, Belinda noticed an iPhone in the grass. I picked it up and even though it was soaking wet it was still sort of working! So we rode over to the Moss's house to give it to them. I was sure it belonged to one of the boys in the neighborhood who rides their four wheelers in that area!

When we got home Henry was there with his parents Bev and Will for a visit! They even brought a water melon for the mules! Henry started out with a pony ride on Seven, by Seven was not too keen on Henry's bright red cowboy boots! So we pulled out, good ole, Sadie Mae! Later Sadie made a mess of herself and make us laugh when she drooled all over the place while eating water melon!

Vet, Bath, then Farrier for Twila Merrill

Thursday Dr. Kate came over to draw a Coggins and give Twila her shots. Then I decided that is was so hot and Twila and Sadie Mae were so yucky that I gave them both a bath. Twila was a good girl for it all!
My neighbor Larry came down, he is close to 70 and has had Mules, Draft Horses and Donkeys his whole life.
It was so cute to watch Larry and Twila have a conversation.  I could not understand what he was telling her, but she loved it.  They also shared a cute, head to head snuggle!
Farrier coming out tomorrow to put shoes on her. I hope it will help her tender feet, then we can ride more often!