This Crazy Thing Called Life....

Wow. Life has been CRAZY! I don't even know where to begin. The last 2 weeks have had me running here, there and everywhere. I have had so much going on I don't even know where to begin. First, my cousin Betsy came up and spent a couple days with me. We had 2 days of good trail rides. The first ride was about 4 hours long and the second ride was only about an hour and a half. But the horses were pretty good with only a couple minor issues. And we had a fantastic night at the casino gambling our butts off. And yes, I did win some money! Thanks to Betsy's super cool gambling tips (I am not much of a gambler)! And due to my crazy life right now, I haven't had time to download my pictures yet.... soon.

Last weekend we were out of state celebrating my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. My Aunt Desert Rose put on a fantastic party (as usual) and we had a blast! I wish I hadn't been feeling under the weather though, I didn't eat much due to not feeling well and there was some awesome food there! It was great seeing so many family members and we can't wait to do it again! 

I am working at the farm all of this week so by the time I get home I am way too exhausted to ride or even get on the computer. I miss my retired life, although my retirement has been super crazy! You would think that I would have all the time in the world to blog, visit blogs and that sort of thing. But I have been busier now in retirement then when I worked a full time job! I don't see it settling down anytime soon, I have so many things planned and I do have to work again the following week. 

So I will leave you with my last ride on Chance. I have only been able to ride her once in the last few weeks due to super crappy weather and a crazy life schedule. But the ride I did get in was pretty good. I started by lunging her in the round pen and boy was she super broncy!! I couldn't believe it. After watching her, I said there was no way she was in any frame of mind to be ridden. But after some time lunging she settled in and I said hell with it, I am getting on! She needs more rides and at the rate our weather is going (NOT cooperating) I may not get another ride in until July! So I got on. We worked on walk, trot and whoa, plus moving off of leg pressure. I then got a crazy idea....I do get those from time to time. My OH was watching me ride and he was going to head back to the house and I was going to get off and walk her back to the pasture. But I stopped my OH and said "Hey, gather up all my stuff for me, I am going to ride her down to the pasture." My OH gave me the "You are crazy" look. So I rode her out of the round pen. There is a slight downhill grade after we exit the round pen, and Chance hesitated and stopped. She was like "You want me to walk down that with you on my back?". So I urged her forward and she walked on. (All the pictures were taken by my OH on my cell phone, I didn't realize that the flash wasn't on until way later. So the pictures are kinda fuzzy and not so good).

I rode her further then I planned on.

When we got closer to the UTV by the gate, she stopped, put her head up and was wondering what the heck it was. But again, I urged her forward and she walked right on by it. I ended up riding further then I planned. I decided to walk over the dirt bridge and ride her in our big grass field.

This is right before the monster in the bushes.

We had done about one or two laps when Chance jumped and looked sideways. Silly Sadie likes to hide in bushes and she was hiding in the Japanese Maple tree. She happened to walk out of the tree right when I was riding Chance by it. Chance handled it better then I thought she would. So I turned her back around and walked her up to Sadie and the tree.

I had to turn Chance around to see the monster in the tree.

After a couple more laps of Chance just looking around, she relaxed and we just kept going around and around.

Many obstacles for Chance.

I thought Chance might fear the flag a little when I rode by it. I have been letting Chance graze by the flag many times so she can get used to it flapping in the wind. She usually jumps once then gets over it. She had no issue with the flag on this day.

Chance did not have an issue with the flag.

There wasn't much going on in the neighborhood this day, which was probably a good thing for her first ride outside of the round pen. I am usually all up for all sorts of commotion so she gets used to it. But I did not want that for this ride.

Being such a good girl!

We reversed and walked a few laps that way too.

Staying relaxed.

And then I rode her back to her pasture. She was super good and very relaxed. I would still like to get quite a few more rides on her before I attempt the neighbors trails. And even when I ride the neighbors trails, I will have my OH ride Fritzy with us.

I never once felt her get nervous. Yeah!

She is such a super cool horse and is so very trusting of me. I think she would go anywhere I asked her to. Just my kind of horse!