Bombproofing Clinic.

Sidney and Jayde signed their horses up for a bombproofing clinic.  I had never been to one of these.  Essentially it is a carnival of scary things to horses.  You sign up for a one hour time slot, and you can walk or ride your horse through all the crazy things.  Pigeon was not super sure at first.  He did not mind some of the things and other things totally made him nervous.  Helium balloons do not seem to be his favorite.

Pigeon was not planning to walk under this cat.  Finally Jayde walked Kaycee under it and Pigeon followed.

This little A-frame tunnel did not seem to bother him one of the directions, but he was not too sure about going under it the other direction.

The tarps and balls did not seem to phase him.

The car wash curtains were another one that he was not too sure about, but he finally did it.

Pool noodles were his friend.

My parents and I went to watch, as Jayde hauled both horses in her trailer with Sidney.  It is fun that she is starting to build friendships that they can do some of these things together.  I had so much fun watching all of the horses.  Many of them were not sure at first, but as the hour went on, they became much less scared of things.

Pinners Conference.

My mom had attended the Pinners conference last year and had a blast.  She talked me into going with her this year.  We did not sign up for any of the classes, as I was only able to attend one of the day and had to be home by 5pm.  However, it did not disappoint!!!

It was a craft fair, combined with a boutique road show.  There were amazing items and lots of make and takes.  The aisle were super wide with tables and chairs set up in the middle of them, so you could sit and rest or do one of the many crafts right on the spot.

Here are some cute wood bookmarks we made.

I loved this cutting board.  It made me giggle and reminded me of myself and my niece Hallie.  I think we both need one of these!

I spent far too much money, but had a blast doing it.  Here is a yummy handmade candle I bought for my office.  Beautiful and delicious smelling.

Vegas, Baby!

Kendall and I headed to Vegas for a weekend of dance.  We had the 5 am flight.  I am not sure what I was thinking when I booked that.  Sidney got picked up at midnight by Noel.  Kendall and I had our alarms set at 3am.  It was chaos.  Our plane landed at 6 or 7 (I cannot recall).  We got our rental car and were off to see the Strip.  We did stop for breakfast on the way.  

I think we were on the strip by 9am, which was fine by me, as the crazies were not quite out yet.  Stephanie and Bentley rented a car with us, so we spent the day exploring together.

Of course we had to get Sidney a couple of flattened pennies for her collection.

The girls and I have a joke about Lewis Va-tune (yep), so coming across this store was a fun treat.

Our hotel was at this glorious resort in Henderson, Nevada.  It was surrounded by golf courses and Lake Las Vegas.  I enjoyed the sunshine while Kendall was in classes.  Classes started early and ended by 3pm, so we were able to get in plenty of pool time too.

The last day we were there, Kendall ended up getting super sick.  We had to check out of our hotel at noon, but our plane did not leave until 10:15pm.  I was wracking my brain about what to do, as we could not get an earlier flight.  Then I thought of the USO at the airport.  It was perfect.  We went there and she slept for 9 hours, while I read an entire book!  I have only been to one of these a couple other times.  It was so nice to be able to just stay in one place and relax.

 

A Relaxing Easter.

Easter snuck up on me this year.  My mom had agreed to host, and it was initially going to be just the girls and I with her and my dad.  The night before we added Abby to the mix, as well as Rebecca, Asher and Hannah.  It was a great time.  The two old ladies, pictured below, spent some of the time working on their crochet projects.

The day ended up being glorious!  It was literally the only nice day we have had in quite some time.

We played Apples to Apples.  This is always a lot of fine, though I never win!

My mom got me these beautiful flowers.  I cannot believe that I did not get a picture of her and my dad!

Ranch Life.

 Sidney has been working hard to get her school work done ahead of time, so she can spend extra time at the ranch.  Noel's little girl, Emma, has become the barn baby:).  Sidney loves playing with her, and Emma loves Pigeon!  

Hannah is an official member of Hidden Valley Ranch.  Sabrina ended up buying Lily.  She met with Hannah and her parents and worked out some conditions for Hannah to keep riding Lily.  It was a win-win for everyone!

Pigeon is such a good horse and trusts Sidney so much.  Sidney continues to work on new things with him.  Who says you cannot teach an old horse new tricks?

Sidney spent two of the three days at the Horse Expo this year.  All day long!  She even went the day before the horse expo to help Noel with her horses in a clinic.  She is hooked.  She was pretty good at not spending all her hard earned money at once, but did buy these cute chaps for the ranch show she planned to do.  They were a much better deal than the Italian leather ones she had tried on that were approaching $1,000.  Sheesh!

Sidney attended her first show.  The first day, she rode Noel's young horse Maze.  It was Maze's first show two, so they both took it easy and tried everything on for size:).

The second day she went, she took Pigeon and participated in games.  They had a blast.  She came home deciding she wanted to do barrel racing.  Uh,  no!

Mustang Mania 2023 - Part 05

This is a very bittersweet update.  After deciding that we would dig in and see what we could do with Harley, I had the owner of the ranch spend a couple days with him.  She has trained tons of mustangs over her lifetime and has a lot of experience and wisdom.  In the end, she advised me that Harley was not safe.  Rather than learning and giving, he had become more agitated and had taken to charging.  She did not think it would be good to have Sidney work with him.  She recommended that we take him back to the BLM.  

We arranged with the BLM to return him.  We had a number of people chipping in to help load him up, after that she and I made the short trip to the corrals.  At the corrals, he seemed to calm and be in his happy place.  That gave me a sense of peace about it.   

As for Levi, I am planning to have our vet take a look at him and assess whether he will have the ability to be rideable.  I have been told that some horses will grow out of their conformity troubles with age.  In the meantime, Sidney will continue to work with him and show him in the mania challenge.  He is truly a sweet guy.  She has been doing some trailering work with him, and he has been a rockstar.  More to come later.

April Fool's Day.

Sometimes Sidney reminds me of Kevin so much it hurts.  I woke up this morning to be reminded of his sneaky, yet funny sense of humor that has found itself within her.