bike misery

July 14, 2014Posted inLIFE BIKING
Sad it is when you start anything new to your body. My body is just starting anew with the bike.  This might have been our third or fourth real ride.  My feet are used to toes up when riding a horse.  When riding a bike, the toes point down quite a bit.  One of my feet doesn't want to point down, so I have torn or stretched some kind of muscle on top of my foot.  ouch I bought a camelback water carrier yesterday at the high price Walmart store.…

Lucky Star Maturing? Good Gad

July 11, 2014Posted inCountry Frank's Lucky Star, Missouri Fox Trotter
Never fear, Lucky Star still argues.  He did take a rein in his mouth just last week.  The young argumentative boy has turned into a more mature less argumentative boy.  Lucky and I spend a lot of time going slow, steering with the hindquarter and riding without me touching the reins.  After we get all this worked out, we might do a few drop to trot canter lead changes in a figure eight type pattern  He still breaks into a non rhythmic lateral bumpy gait.  We can't keep the three…

Cisco Love

July 11, 2014Posted inCISCO, Missouri Fox Trotter
What an amazing horse is Cisco! Cisco is doing great. I loaded him and Lucky into the trailer and we went to play some ground games. Lucky was fine tied to trailer and eating grass while Cisco and I played the seven Parelli games. Cisco is wonderful. I decided that the  last game  would be me sending him into the trailer. He's fine with being led into the trailer, but me asking him to load is just a little different. I won the game when Cisco loaded him self into…

and the crowd roared…

July 8, 2014Posted inCISCO, Missouri Fox Trotter
It was 1999 and Velvet and I were doing the World Celebration for Missouri Fox Trotters in Ava, Missouri.  It was night and Velvet was tucked in her stall for the evening. I wandered up to the arena to watch the horses in the historic arena perform the gaits of the Missouri Fox Trotter. It was the Four Year Old Stallion and Geldings class that I sat down to watch.  The riders and horses blew into the arena and the crowd studied the horse and rider as they passed by.…

Whah Whah Whah 2014

June 30, 2014Posted inCISCO, Country Frank's Lucky Star, Missouri Fox Trotter
Winter blues along with Lucky Star little progress.  Will I ever get to show him.  Will he stop in the middle of the arena during the class.  How can I keep him going.  I've not been in a show arena for going on three years now. Will Lucky Star make it this year?  Canter isn't anywhere near solid yet.  Will he balk while we are in the show ring?  Will he argue on transition from one gait to the next?  When I ask him to slow down from a fox…

Liberty Trailer Loading!

June 25, 2014Posted inCountry Frank's Lucky Star, Missouri Fox Trotter
Here's what went viral.  A beautiful country scene with quite a few trees.  "CRACK!"  The crack of a bull whip.  Thundering hooves.  Seems like several minutes of thundering horse hooves.  We anticipate seeing the horse come thru the tree line.  Finally, we see the horse galloping through the tree line headed our way.  The horse gallops to a horse trailer and hops in!  "Wow," we all said as we shared it with friends.  This was Australia and the bull whip cracker was a Pat Parelli student. I replied to all…