Bless the Cantle and Pommel

June 29, 2013Posted inCountry Frank's Lucky Star, Missouri Fox Trotter
Western saddles have a seat defined by the cantle and the pommel.  The cantle is the owner of the saddle horn.  The pommel is the owner of the back of the seat.  When you swing a leg over your horse to sit on a western saddle, the pommel and cantle gently guide your seat into the correct position on the saddle.  "Plop" and you are seated where you are meant to be. Today, Lucky Star and I borrowed a dressage saddle.  Dressage saddles have no saddle horn.  That's what I…

Bike Shop

June 24, 2013Posted inMiscellaneous
Pleasant HIll has been added to the Katie Trail!  The Katie trail is a long long gravel chad trail that has been put on an old railroad track.  There are no grades over 1%.  That means when you ride a bike, there is no coasting.  We don't have that problem with riding horses on the Katie Trail.  Sadly, this portion of the Katie trail isn't open to horse back riding.  The Nerve! Pleasant HIll has increased local businesses by one.  We've added a Bike and Coffee Shop.  So, the other…

So Much to Tell…So Many Words to Type

June 23, 2013Posted inMiscellaneous
Adventure One - this morning The back story is my recliner.  My recliner is one of those power lift chairs.  We bought it so my mother could get out of a chair.  She left us in 2007, so we must have had this chair a couple years before that.  I've been sitting in this chair every day of my life that I live at home.  I soak up my mother's DNA and use it as a Mom reminder.  I love the chair.  The chair has been telling me it might…

Velvet and Nichole Take on Everyone

June 9, 2013Posted inMissouri Fox Trotter, Velvet
Velvet and Nichole won the garland in the youth Versatility Spring Show.  I clapped and cheered all the way through the blue and one red ribbon! Ranch Horse Day was a surprise.  This year the Ranch Horse classes just had one classification...Open.  Open means professional horse trainers and everyone else can participate.  Nichole is 17.  She was in Ranch horse events competing against her mom, step father, younger sister and a host of other adult riders.Points are accrued based on the placing of the horse/rider and how many riders competed…

Ava-Day One a Huge Success

June 5, 2013Posted inJennifer Vaught, Missouri Fox Trotter, NOVA, Powder, Susan FoxTrotter-book title in Amazon, Velvet
Day one, Showmanship started the day off right!  Jenny and Nichole won the open and youth showmanship classes!  Nova and Velvet were in show horse success mode. Tony and Powder joined in the next events and the ribbon sunumi started.  The Vaught family flooded me with ribbons.  Blue was the main color.  In the youth events, Nichole and Velvet mostly won the blue ribbon followed by  sister Caitlyn riding Attu.  In the open events Jenny got most of the blue ribbons with Powder and Tony getting many second place ribbons…

Ava Pre-Day

June 4, 2013Posted inJennifer Vaught, Missouri Fox Trotter, NOVA, Powder, Susan FoxTrotter-book title in Amazon, Velvet
Two hundred miles flew by and I entered the time zone known as Ava!  The golf cart guy met me at the entrance.  I found Nova, Powder and Velvet and the Vaught family.  Life is good.  I beat a lot of people here.  There are still parking spaces available if you want to run on down to Ava! We had fun times at the office getting everyone signed up and ready to go tomorrow.  Everything went smooth as silk.  Everyone has numbers and even better, safety pins to attach the…