Stop me before I do anything stupid!

I had asked about this mare back when I was looking for an endurance mount. She is still up for sale.  She reminds me of Kezi somehow. Loren has forbidden me from getting another horse this year, but I am still on and off thinking about another trail horse. Theses days its mostly because I want to be able to ride with my sister and Loren and whoever else that doesn’t have a horse to ride.

 

http://www.bayequest.com/b001/showads.php?ClassType=ID&maintype=126652&subtype=all&mth=1

 

 

Seriously, I am not sure I can keep myself from buying another horse! I really liked having both my mares, and having two ridable horses was great, and yet when was the last time I rode?

 

And I am calming down on the endurance stuff (I am still wanting to go to some rides and train for it) and remembering why I got into it in the first place, because I LOVE trail riding!

 

Lets see how much Loren yells at me when I bring this girl up!

Happy 101

So Mel passed this blog award on to me, I have to figure out ten things that make me happy then pass it on to ten more people. Unfortunately I only really chat with two other bloggers, and since one is Mel and the other she also nominated I think I’ll leave that part out!

 

Things that make me happy:

1. Watching my horses run in their pasture. Especially Lucy, she is very agile and pretty even when running up and down hills!

2. The first 10 minutes of any ride. It doesn’t matter how mad I might be at my horse up until that point or how bad our ride might go, I am always just so happy when I first mount up and start down the trail!

3. Snuggling with my boyfriend! Especially on cold mornings!

4. Driving from home to work and back again, I live in the most picturesque place possible!

5. Planning my rides the day before, I like to sit down with a map and go over how far/long we will be riding and how we will ride the terrain.

6. Hanging out with my sisters, even though we are all very different, we usually have a great time hanging out.

7. Playing with my dog, or taking him for  walk. I raised him as my trail riding dog so he loves to go on rides with me, unfortunately I can’t take him on a lot of the trails I ride on now, so its always nice to ride at home and bring him with.

8. Ummmm, is it weird to put playing wow!?

9. Having a clean house, it doesn’t happen very often but when it does its so nice!

10. Living in a small town, where everybody knows you and looks out for you (or is just plain nosy, depends on how you see it!)

 

Gee I thought finding ten things that make me happy would be hard!

 

Right now all I want to do is go riding! I haven’t ridden Lucy since October and I haven’t ridden at all since Desert Gold. Too many things keep coming up. The weekend before Christmas my dad and I went to Las Vegas, I got the flu and now I haven’t been eating that well since then. I would have gone for a ride this last weekend but it was raining on Sat so I cleaned my tack room (Lucy now has 5 blankets! Two turn outs, one show/stable, one sheet and one fly sheet).

On Sunday I had every intention on riding and the weather was great. My truck was in town at my sisters so I went to pick it up, however it was low on diesel (I think anyway, my trucks fuel gage doesn’t work and I haven’t driven it in a while to remember how much I put in the last time), and the gas station in town has three of its pumps out, which is including the diesel! So I thought about riding at home, but didn’t want Lucy’s first ride in such a long time to be all climbing hills. I finally decided to take her for a ride at home on our short trail but while grooming her I got really lightheaded and had to hold on to her for support. I wisely decided to ride another day! Instead I took her out to graze and sat on her bareback in my mud boots, it was fun!

But now I really, really, really want to ride! Especially since I got a heart rate monitor and a really nice leather saddle bag for Christmas!

Oh and I think I want to buy an Australian saddle for Lucy! I like my Marciante, but I think I want something a little more English. We will see!

 

Happy New Year!

Updates!

Really not much to update on though. I haven’t ridden since Desert Gold, first it was horribly cold, then it rained and now I am just too busy. I am enjoying getting my work done right now and its pretty muddy out anyway.

 

I was hoping to go riding this weekend but I may be going to Las Vegas with my father. I hoping to get out of it since I don’t want to be away the weekend before Christmas.

 

I actually haven’t been doing much of anything horsey even my usual online horse research for one of the thousand things I feel it nessecary to research.

 

Mostly I have been catching up on work and doing research for my story.

My boyfriends mom gave me a bag full of leeks which I am now trying to find a good recipe for! Not entirely sure what I am going to do with them, I have never even eaten them before!

 

I’m also supposed to be going to a livestock auction to look for a cow for my dad for Christmas. This was origonally my idea but now I am not so sure I am up for it. I was so busy and out of everything that I put it off until this week, cause I kept forgetting that Christmas is next week. I am so not ready for Christmas.

Anyway, I am not sure I want to buy another animal that eats a lot of food. As it would live in my pasture I would feed it, and as I already feed another of my fathers animals (Huck belongs to my dad) and care for it. Plus I really don’t want to have to take all that time off to go to auction and whatnot.

 

Well anyway, I guess that is it for now. I was hoping to ride this week but now my dad wants to leave on Thursday (he wanted to leave in the morning but the horses are being trimmed in the afternoon so I can’t leave until like 5) so I will be missing a whole day of work. Of course as Loren pointed out, this is my boss who I am going with!

2010 rides

I will deffinatly go to one of these,  just not sure which yet and might go to more then one.

1. Shine and Shine Only 3/13:

Why: Its practually in my backyard, it won’t be much of a drive for me. I will get to condition there before the ride if I want.

Driving distance: 66 Miles, 1:40 driving time

The trails should be fairly easy, there are not many big hills in San Jose.

 

2. Shine and Shine Only II 4/17:

Why: If Lucy does well at the first one and I like it, why not go to the second one?

3.  American River Classic 4/24

Why: Putting this ride on here is insane, but I would so love to do it! Its far away (by my standards!) and from what I understand its not an easy ride. However I would really love to do it someday. Obviously I would have to chose between this one and shine and shine only.

Distance: 165 miles, at least 3 hours driving time

 

4.  Wild West Pioneer 5/28 5/29 5/30

Why: Well Mel loves this ride, so there must be something good about it! Still quite a ways away. I will hopefully know by then how Lucy is feeling about endurance rides and would possibly ride two days if she was doing well and enjoying it.

Distance: Well further then American River Classic!!

 

5.  Just Coe Crazy 6/5

Why: Close and I really enjoyed riding in this park. Again I would have to chose between Wild West and this one.

Distance: 90 miles, 2 hours driving time

 

6.  Diablo Trail 6/26

Why: Again very close by,  and somewhere I can condition at first.

Distance: 75 miles, 1:40 Driving time

 

7.  Eastern High Sierra Classic 8/14

Why: Again a ride that I would really like to do at some point, but may be too hard for Lucy this year (or at all). I have seen pictures from this ride and have decided that I need to go there in person!

Distance:  250 miles, at least 5 hours of driving!

 

8. Desert Gold! I think I would like the chance to ride this one with Lucy, as I did really like the park.

 

 

So now that I know there will be a shine and shine only in March (just a couple days after my birthday!) I am more likely to go to that one or the one in April. Depends on what Loren and I do for our birthdays (they are a week apart).

 

If I manage to get to one ride I will be happy, if I get to one ride other then shine or shine only I will be thrilled. And if Lucy just really takes to endurance and I really enjoy it with her we will go to as many as we can afford! And that Loren is willing to have us gone for! Heheh!

 

I don’t think I will get to ride this weekend because of the rain, I almost rode this morning but decided to get to work on time instead. So who knows when I will get to ride, but I am deffinatly having horse withdrawl!

The Lucy factor

Yea, a post about Lucy!

 

So I have plans for this year, not goals.  Some of them may turn into goals, but for now they are plans.

I just realized on Saturday that Lucy is nine now. Its hard to believe that she is that old! She is such an amazing horse!

 

So our plans for this year:

• Ride at least once a week, possibly twice.
• One long ride a week (10 to 15 miles)
• Some work on driving at home (short sessions)
• As little trotting as she likes. I will not make her trot more then she wants to, but it will be my decision to walk not hers.
• We will not set out specific miles, times or paces before a ride, we will just ride the ride we feel like doing at the time.
• I will keep a very detailed log of our rides and study it as much as possible to make sure I am keeping her happy and not over working her.
• We will ride at home no more then two rides in a row.
• We will ride somewhere new at least once a month until there are no more close places to ride that we  have not been too.
• I will trailer her to my gate to ride rather then just walk from home as she doesn’t like that.
• I will take her to a ride in Spring and see how she likes it!
• We will have fun!

Well I think that is about it! I don’t know which ride yet I want to take her too. Loren really wants me to take her to one as soon as possible. Even though she is still in great shape it will take me until the end of the year to get her back into as good of shape as she was at the end of summer.

 

Its interesting because reading back through my blog posts, she was actually doing quite well. She did have her off days, but all in all she was doing really well. I think I just pushed her a little too far on that 20 mile ride (although I did learn that she is capable of doing that milage, and that was a tough ride!) and I rode her too much at home.

I need to make sure I don’t make any of the mistakes I made over the summer and do all the things that helped. I think keeping the milage at 8 to 10 miles was really good and will be a good time to up her speed, very slowly. Or I may not up her speed at all until after her first ride. I think she will be a lot faster at a ride and may start to want to pick of the speed after her first ride. It may be that I will not work her at very fast speeds at home but mostly do hill work, and let her pick her own pace at rides (which I think will be faster then at home).

 

We will see what happens.

 

I told Loren about twenty mule team, which he thinks I should do, but I am concerned that for her first ride its pretty far away. I would deffinatly stay as long as Mel is there, I think.

 

Hopefully I will get to ride this weekend (rain might be gone by Sunday!) and so I will get to see how well Lucy has retained her condition.

Well this weird week just won’t end will it?

So today I came to the decision to quit all of the non-profits I help out at. This is actually a rather long list once I thought about it”

Pescadero Conservation Alliance, I was their “human resources” in other words I did everything that no one else wanted to do, and I answered questions.

Pescadero Foundation, I am the treasurer, we have a meeting next week at which point I will inform them of my decision (which I might note, it was not my idea to be in this position in the first place)

Pescadero Arts and Fun Festival, technicly I am not a part of this organization, but I have always helped out being the daughter of one of the founders and sister to one of the current members. I have never missed one festival, I was two when they started.

Community Christmas tree, sponsered by the Pescadero Arts and Fun Festival, ,my mom and Lorens mom were more or less in charge of it. When my mom died I just kept on getting the tree and helping Kellie decorate it.

 

 

The funny thing is that I had pretty much decided most if not all of them before today. But today is when I decided to get out of PCA, it had to do with an e-mail which I will not go into. PAFF I knew right after that I was not interested in going or helping out anymore, and I had just told Loren yesterday that this would be the last year for me with dealing with the tree. Why? Because I use terms like “dealing with the tree”. I am no longer happy doing these volunteer jobs. I want a more simplistic life, I thought that I wanted the busy fast paced life my mother lead. A part of me too thinks that really, I wasn’t in it for the good and the humility of helping, but because I wanted to be important and praised for me great abilities.  I wanted to seem busy and importaint and just really good at what I did. But the fact of the matter is I am not good enough at any of these things for myself. Other people seems happy with the jobs I do, but I expect more. So until I am capable of more (lets not forget that I am only 20 and have been involved with many of theses things since before I was 18) I would prefer to simplify my life a little more. My job is hard and stressful enough.

 

My dad will be upset, because he really liked me being involved at PCA, but I have to admit (and I can only admit this here) I don’t see the organization going anywhere. I think it will continue to flounder until it just dies. I know this shows no confidence, but I trust my instincts and they are rarely wrong.

 

Its funny because in many ways I think everything with Ocean helped start this.

• I thought I wanted a really nice talented endurance horse to take me far – I really just want Lucy.
• I thought I enjoyed having a fast paced busy life – I want something more simple that allows me to enjoy what I am doing in the moment.
• I thought I wanted to be involved in a sport that allowed me to plan everything and monitor my horse health and condition and that I could make goals and schedule – I want to just ride my horse and no longer have goals or ambitions (for the time being), I want to ride then go home and be happy that I just rode, not depending on how many miles we went or how fast she went.

 

 

I know, I promised no more unusual posts! But its been a very strange enlightening week, what can I say!!

Enlightenment

Who, me?

 

Nah!!

 

But really, I did have a moment of enlightenment yesterday, it was brief, fleeting if you will!

I was researching religions for my story (no, I really was having fun) and while doing a bit of reading up on Buddism I realised something. See I have known quite a bit about Buddism from my family, most the female members, so its ideas are not wholly unknown to me. However I have never really sat down and studied its teachings before.

It has four noble truths:

1. Life as we know it ultimately is or leads to suffering/uneasiness (dukkha) in one way or another.
2. Suffering is caused by craving or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds. This is often expressed as a deluded clinging to a certain sense of existence, to selfhood, or to the things or phenomena that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness.
3. Suffering ends when craving ends, when one is freed from desire. This is achieved by eliminating all delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state of Enlightenment (bodhi);
4. Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the path laid out by the Buddha.

 

Number two really hit me. When I was planning on buying Ocean, I was oppressed with all the problems assosiated with having to spend that amount of money and all the time I would have to spend with him conditioning and whatnot. After the ride when I decided I did not want to buy him, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest, I felt so much better.

I realize now that I was pushing myself towards the goal of Endurance because I felt that I would have no direction in my life without it and that Lucy would never be useful in that respect. I thought that I wanted to be busy caring for an athlete and conditioning him, now however I am realizing that after all I went through with both mares I just was to relax and enjoy my horses quietly.

 

Anyway, thats my philosophical post of the week!