Excited might be an understatment.

I went to my first horse show that I have been to in like 15 years.  Well I didn't take my horse or anything, but still I had fun.  Actually I have never been to an eventing show whatsoever.  I went to check out what it was all about, and, I, love, it!  I can't wait to take Steady!  The bigget thing I walked away with was the confidence that, I can do it!  They start all the way at "Green as Grass" and go up.  Now that is my kind of show.  We won't have to start at green as grass but we will begin with the "Starters" group.  They had cross country courses that ranged from small 6 in high logs on the ground to BIG jumps.  I learned so much.  The people were so nice and are not snobby at all.

I met up with a fellow OTTB owner and friend.  She and her horse are kind of in the same place as me and Steady so we are going to start showing together.  How fun to have a show buddy!!! 

So listen to this I was asked to help judge at the next jumping show!  It is all so exciting!  I am so excited to learn about judging.  You may ask if I am qualified to jump, well not technically but I think I will be able to catch on quick.  I mean I did spend 7 years showing and training in the hunter jumper discipline. 

So the scheduele of events; September 25th my first small fun show in 15 years that I will actually be riding in, October 10th my first judging experience at a jumper show, November 13th my first EVER  cross country/dressage show.  oooooh I cannot restrain my total excitement to be fullfilling this dream that I thought would be just that a dream.  It is coming to life thanks to this amazing OTTB that is in my back yard!

Riding lessons

Something that people (non horse friends usually) ask me is "Why do you take lessons, I thought you know how to ride?"  It does take everything in me to not just burst out laughing.  I usually just chuckle a bit and then try to explain the best I can that after riding for the past 25 years and taking lessons for over 10 of those years that I am still not good enough nor will I EVER be too good to take lessons.  I can tell even when I say it that it goes in one ear and out the other.  Not because they don't care but because it just doesn't make any sort of logical sense.  I mean I don't blame them I even struggle with the idea that I am giving lessons (beginner) and taking them too.  HA this humors me a bit.

It is a frustrating thing to try to explain to people.  You could get into the details about constantly critiquing posture and leg position, where your hands are, how long your reins are at any given moment.  But you quickly start to see their eyes glaze over and you realize they have not one clue what you are taking about.  They nod their head and you change the subject because, well, whats the point? 

The bottom line is the more I learn the more I realize I still have to learn.  With each new break through between me and Steady for as gratifying as it is, it really just opens about 3 more doors for things to work on.  But never at any point does this become discouraging.  Why?  Well if you ride, and I mean REALLY ride you know that answer and if you don't, well then, what's the point????

Favorite quote of the day: "If you want to ride for fun, then go ride a carousel".

Progress

First off sorry for the video quality, my 7 year old is not the best videographer but she did a fine job.  Then the quality is bad cause it was taken on my camera.  To add to all of that is was really windy which made it noisy.  But the point of the video is to show off Steady's head position he is getting so good with it.  He really puts his head low and really feels for the bit.  He is so much more collected and his balance is so much better.  He seriously had zero balance.  He can even actually bend now.  He was like a board when turning right at the begining. Even his canter is coming along nicely but I am not posting videos of that quite yet.  Though I should have done a before and after of it.  He first started not knowing any signal for leads and only picking up his left lead when asked and doing random flying changes when not being asked.  Then he would go tooooooo fast I mean not racing fast but too fast.  And at the turns were the worst he would cut the turns and really pick up speed around one of the turns.  After seeing some of his racing videos the last turn is when he picked up the pace and came from behind to win.  So I do know why he does it but not really practical for a dressage ring.  Then he started almost loping instead of cantering.  From one extreme to another.  Well yesterday he had a very nice canter and even started listening when I asked for him to tuck his head and collect himself.  But only for a moment, so we have a ways to go.  It is progress though and that is all I can ask of him.

.

When I first started my lessons a few months back I thought there was no way either of us would ever be able to pull of anything that resembled dressage.  Well we are on our way.  Not in any hurry but on our way.  He needs to take things slow and so do I.  I still have weight to loose and get into better shape.  So I hope hope hope that next year will be the year for us to event.  But even saying seems a long shot.  But I think I will be surprised when next spring rolls around.

My instructor said we are ready for our first small show!  I am excited about that.  It has been sooooo long since I have showed it will be like learning all over again.  So I am meeting up with a lady I met via internet at a show this weekend without horses.  Just to get the feel of it again.  I came to know her because she bought an OTTB about the same time I did from the same lady.  Actually she almost bought Steady and that is how we started emailing.  So I am lookng forward to hanging around the show and observing.

Frickled Beans

mmmm...if i do say so myself.  As far as I know I came up with this idea on my own.  Though I had inspiration from two different sources.  You may be asking yourself "What is a frickled bean?" 

                                                     It starts with a pickled green beans.

                      Then 1 Cup flour and 1 Cup beer whisked together.  Dip the beans into the batter.

                                            Shake off excess and put them into the fryer.

Then you place a plate on top of your fryer so it will stay shut.  Oh wait, that's just mine.  You can probably skip this step.

 

                                      After about 2 minutes dump them onto a paper towel.

                                           

                                                    Then get your favorite dipping sauce.

                                                                  Then enjoy!

So frickle = fried pickle

frickled beans = fried pickled green beans

In a nut shell it is a delicious treat to eat while watching your favorite college football team play.

I made it to 30!

I have 30 followers!  I am appreciative of each of you that bother to read my ramblings.  I am so happy to have started this blog.  I didn't even know about the world of blogging not too long ago and now look at me all blogified...lol...I made that up could you tell?

30 is significant for me this year in more than one way.  I turned the big 3 0 this year!  Not a big deal to me.  The number really doesn't mean too much but it does make me think a little more about how I am spending my time, what I am investing myself in and what I want to accomplish.  Time starts to move a little quicker with every passing year and I definitly want to seize the day.  That is part of the reason I "just went for it" when it came to persuing my passion of horseback riding.  I wasn't willing to let another year go by saying "one of these days" I will fullfill that dream.  I mean if I don't do this for myself it is not like someone is going to do it for me.

Then there is the 30 lbs I am on track to losing this year.  At weigh in today I was down 16 pounds!  It feels so good to feel so good.  One thing I realized today is that my knees don't hurt anymore!  The last few years my knees have hurt when I would go up and down stairs and squating.  I don't know if that has all to do with weight or if riding agian has helped but I do know it feels good.  My goal is 30 and I may go for a few more once I hit that goal but that is a weight I am happy with.  It is another one of those things that I realized that if I don't do something about this now it will only get harder.  I am going to weight watchers and it is the accountibility I needed.  Along with dropping weight my goal is to be in shape to start eventing next year!!!  Now that is a motivating goal for me!

So 30 is the number of the year for me.  Thank you to each of you that make that number up and I am glad you are going on this jouney with me.

Harvest!

I have just been busy!  I can't tell you how many blogs I have read with that as the first line in the post.  Maybe it is because I follow so many farm/homesteading blogs and well this kind of lifestyle does not lend itself to loads of free time to write about all of the exciting adventures this life takes us on.  Well school has started and strangely enough that actually gives me a bit more time.  It makes me get schedueled.  And I am also in a break of canning for the moment so that alone frees up time.

Here is my harvest from today.  Red long beans, some green beans, cutting celery and tomatoes; san marzano, better boy, yellow pear and black cherokee.

Me in the garden.  Have I mentioned on here that I have lost almost 15 lbs!!!!  Just tooting my own horn a bit.

 

I haven't had a ton of motivation to be in the garden this year because of the incredibly HOT summer we have had.  It seems rare to get a day under about 90 degrees and 100% humidity.  They say though we are getting a break from the 90's starting tomorrow!!  Just in time for the holiday weekend.  Maybe they will stay away.  To add to it we have had NO rain.  It has been so dry and all my plants are thirsty.  We do water some but it is not the same as a good drenching from a summer rain.

So when I am not here(on my blog) you may just find me here(in the garden)

Its turkey time!

Can you guess how many pounds our turkeys dressed out at?  Today was the big day.  We dropped them off last night at a local amish butcher.  When I went to pick up the turkeys to put them in the trailer they decided to put up a good fight.  I am not kidding I was beat up by a turkey.  One hit me in the jaw and it is bruised today, one hit my in the cheek and it is sore, one hit me in the arm and left a nice bruise and one some how scraped my arm and left me bleeding.  I think I need some turkey lifting lessons or maybe it was the fact that they were like 40 pound monsters!!!!  The turkeys may have won the battle but I won the war...LOL!!!   They dressed out at 34, 33, 28 and 22!!!!  I came home today with 117 lbs of turkey!!!

We are grinding two of them.  Boiling down the carass for broth and the rest of the meat that we didn't get off the bones since we are NOT professional butchers.   Then two will remain intact for Thanksgiving and another special occassion.  We got one ground tonight and here is that experience.  It was a whole family event.  Well except for Kelcie she really didn't have much to do with it.

Here is one of the biggest, 34 pounds! 

Ryan's job was de-boning and cutting.

I manned the grinding station.

The two kids weighed and baged it.

15 pounds of turkey burgers, tacos, chili, meatballs and yummy turkey goodness!

By the end of raising these birds I said I was NEVER doing this again.  It is a pain in the butt and I don't even know if you save very much money.   But it didn't take long after having them in my fridge/freezer to get me thinking about how nice it is going to be to have all this meat.  So I am sure I will be going for it again next year.