Y’all. I just can not help it. I have a little teaser for you. OK, maybe not so little…I am sorry I am not sorry! Just a little stroll down memory lane, if you will.
It is just that…
We will be headed to our yearly ride in a little over a week and I just want to go through photos and memories until we are on the road! So, I am going to bring you along with me!
A photo summary of year 1…
This song…I listened to it about ten times on Friday.
So excited to be in Friday traffic on the way to the farm!
On the road again
Hey look what we found! A cross on the hill!
I got my sun coverage
We had plenty of provisions.
Ikey settled into his stall. I think he liked pretending to be fancy with a stall full of shavings.
Ike’s buddy Ronan, the red roan. AKA RoRo.
Ikey poo patiently waiting.
driving, driving
It sprinkled a little and it felt so good.
Look at that kissable face.
We horse people like when our horses poop. It means they are healthy, so we take photos and send them to our friends!
Beautiful sunset. Could not help but put the rig in there. Kinda hard not to with a 34 foot trailer.
Too cute for words. Ikey poo and RoRo.
Heavens. Look at all that stuff in there. We are girls…
Look at the beautiful rig!
Year 2…
Year 3…
How will I make trough the next week???
I am so excited to see what this fourth year will hold. A little older. A little wiser. And no less in need of it!
Lito is just as excited as I am, even if he can not tell me so in English.
If you have been following along on that social media thing (it was fun, you should give it a try), the pup is already out of the bag…but, if you have not been…I have some news!
Just when you thought I was going to share yet another Merle Haggard song (which I actually am because I slacked on sharing those and they are worth sharing), I am going to share a little something about Haggard’s new namesake, Merle the puppy! Likely soon to be Merle Man and Merle Dog and any other logical nickname. My favorite of those nicknames so far is Mighty Merle. It suites him!
So, without further adieu, I introduce to you, Merle, my new wingpup.
Naturally, that begins with where he came from. He comes from the same place Darcy’s sire, King, is from. And, King is actually one of Merle’s grand relations. This is all a full circle deal full of connections. Signs I tell you. The only difference is I did the drive this time instead of C and J. But this Merle’s story and it could not have been any other way.
This is his dam mamma, Nugget. I call her Nugg. You know how I am about nicknames.
A good and proud mamma she is.
After the pups were weaned, she escaped multiple times to get back to her pups. I love that about her.
This is the proud sire, Scotch. Handsome guy.
My Merle man seems to take after him.
This is a Merle pup from early on.
The cutest stinker.
He looks like a thinker.
Here is where the adventure part comes in…We flew up to North Dakota to pick him up! We almost missed our connecting flight, but we made it right before they closed the doors. And then…rented a car and drove all the way back to the great state, special package in tow!
If you are thinking I may or may not be crazy and that whoever would choose to come with me on such an endeavor is equally as insane…you may or may not be right! Let me tell you though, it was indeed a grand adventure and we had fun seeing parts of the country we have never seen before. On top of that, Merle is already a road tripper just like Darcy!
Friday evening in North Dakota we enjoyed watching the sunset after a taking a tour of the kennels. Sunsets in North Dakota are pretty! It was so great to be with the people that made my Darcy girl and Merle man happen.
Mighty Merle had bath time Saturday morning before hitting the road!
A dirty puppy is a sign of a happy, playing, outdoor puppy.
Look at all those spots under there!
He took pretty well to the road tripping and developed his riding preferences, like they do. The initial shotgun riding position that makes for a good dog.
The pretty Dakotas through an increasingly dirty windshield.
Driving.
The preferred shotgun riding position which makes for a great dog!
Pretty!
Posing or taking care of business?
Boop!
Driving some more.
Keep on keeping on.
Really so very pretty. All I wanted to do was ride a horse here…and clean the windshield.
The only evidence of Nebraska was a picture of a sleeping puppy.
Merle met some bikers headed to Sturgis.
By this point it was just put the pedal to the metal and get us all home.
Somewhere in here was Kansas…zero photo evidence. Just trying not to speed.
We finally made it to Oklahoma and the big dog had a big dog time! He was in two different random photo shoots with random people we ran into. There were two girls in a car that screeched to a stop in the middle of the street to jump out and ask if they could pet my Merle.
There was speeding from this point on to get us back to Texas.
We are finally home now and playing during coffee time. Learning what are toys and what are not toys.
He is already a brave a smart boy. Exciting times are to come!
Walk in love, dear readers, and enjoy both Merles!
Have y’all had a chance to catch a glimpse of the moon the last couple of days?
Pretty spectacular, right!?
No, I do not have any pictures of it because that is hard to do with a phone, but it really has been amazing. It was a full harvest moon yesterday, I believe. Big and bright. Pretty easy to see why they call it a harvest moon. Just another reason this time of year is so special. Makes you think. Harvesting all the seeds you have sown. Giving thanks for that harvest. Who you give thanks to and put your faith in.
I did try to get a photo of the super moon a few years ago while riding Cheetah at night. It was such a super moon, it was practically daylight…even if you can’t tell from the photo. A few days prior to this we found out that she was not pregnant on the first try. She just wasn’t ready I guess. In my memory, she was ready to breed back that day we found out and I took her directly from the clinic to the stud farm. This photo was possibly taken the day I brought her back home from the second try. Pregnant with twins. Lucky us. That was a sad day when we had to do the twin reduction. My sister was with me, pregnant with her first child.
I have a thing about the moon. Not like I want to go to the moon. Zero desire to do that. I am just captivated by it. Things happen during the full moon. Good things, mostly. Horses can sometimes get a little goofy during the full moon though. Animals of all kinds get active. It has a powerful force.
I did some research into moon phases and its effects on horse births. I was trying to plan when to take Cheetah to the place she would foal out. I asked my vet about this. Full of excitement, as you can imagine. Also full of knowing his response. He was nice about it and didn’t make me feel too crazy, but he clearly does not put much stock into it. Cheetah did not foal during the full moon if you were wondering, but I sure thought she was going to!
I have caught myself riding during a full moon often and generally by accident.
Once with R. We were riding bare back. The moon kept us from realizing how late it was. We got caught on film by the game camera. This was also when Cheetah was pregnant.
It happened another time with a another friend, K, in early high school I guess. Man that was a great weekend. We literally rode horses the whole time. Only stopped to eat and switch horses. We decided to go on one last ride that day in the big pasture back behind the barn. It was later than we normally would have started for a typical sunset ride, but we figured we could just make it a short ride. The sunset set the sky on fire with every color you could imagine as we set off and we just kept going.
We stopped talking long enough to realize we could not go any further and that it was past dark. Oops. But not really dark. That is when we saw the moon. Lighting our way back home. It was literally a flashlight in the dark. We could see everything and the horses were having as much fun as we were. We would have kept going except for hearing my father’s call to us from the barn when we finally got back within ear shot. Sorry, Pops.
Anyway. Kind of random. Seems to be the theme for the week. I love the moon, but I am glad the full moon is behind us now that we are about to head across the state for a riding vacation! No goofy behavior! Knock on wood. I am all packed and ready. I have a couple things yet to pack for my Lito man, but other than that and loading it all in the trailer, we are good to go! Knock on wood. Fingers crossed Lito still has all four shoes.
We strike out tomorrow morning for the first leg of our journey. I will try to check in at least once before I am out of pocket for the whole of next week. Jealous? I know you are.
Check back for a full photo report upon my return! If you missed last year’s, click here!
This morning I woke up early to finish packing and load everything that did not need to be cold in my car. I even woke up before my alarm. Darcy was picking up on the energy and seemed to know that this weekend is not going to be the average weekend. She was bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to go the minute I opened my eyes. She stuck by all morning, as if to remind me not to leave her. It was extremely hard to leave her to go to work!
Right now, during my lunch break…after I finish writing this post, I am going to a local Mexican bakery (my favorite!!!) for some pan dulce for our breakfasts. After work, I am packing up the cold groceries and my sidekick Darcy girl and heading to the farm. One step closer to leaving Friday morning and pulling out. Cross your fingers Lito still has all four shoes on. Last night I made some chicken enchiladas to have for a couple of our dinners. One less thing to take away from fun time! Ain’t nobody got time to cook (or clean dishes!) when we have a girls weekend dedicated to horses!
Last weekend I got most all of my horse stuff loaded and packed in the trailer. I have all of R’s horse stuff in my car, ready to load in the trailer, along with all of my personal things. I will be doing that while I try not to die waiting for patiently wait her arrival with Ronan (I had gif conversations with R all morning!). Hurry up and wait. Ugh. I have patience, I promise. I am so ready for this and am super excited to put some serious miles in on Lito. I tried to do this last year with him, but then the river flooded, twice.
The plan is to leave around 7:30 or 8 AM on Friday to avoid hitting traffic on our way and arrive around lunch time. We will get the horses unloaded and settled, get our stuff inside, and eat a quick lunch before tacking up and riding out for the afternoon. Then ride all morning and all afternoon. Rinse, repeat! There will be some drinking, eating, music, swimming, pit fires, watching of Kentucky Derby, and maybe some sleeping. We will have all day Saturday and all day Sunday before leaving Monday morning. Both R and I have somewhere to be by 5PM on Monday.
This sums up how I have been all week on the inside…and maybe on the outside:
Sorry for the excessive gif usage, please don’t leave me! …tap, tap…? Anyone still there???
