Tag: Trail Ride

All the Fall things.

On By AveryIn Food, Horses, Life, MusicLeave a comment

Happy Monday Morning! I hope everyone had a great weekend! As promised, (here is your teaser)

I have for you all the fall things my cousin and I did yesterday (although I have to warn you, I was bad and forgot about taking photos), but first I just have to tell you about the rest of my weekend.

I had a great dinner with a dear friend of mine on Friday. I have not seen her in about five years. She was in town looking at a possible second horse to buy. She did not end up buying the horse (sad for her), but we had the BEST time catching up on all the things! It was so lovely. After dinner I drove out to the farm to spend the weekend with family and horsing around. Saturday morning, I went for a walk ride with my mother. I ride and she walks. It is our thing. We had AMAZING burgers for lunch. Instead of a nap (which I really wanted) my nephew and I went for a drive around the property and down the road. That boy is so sweet. We had a grand time with the fall air in our hair. I got a blister from mucking, raking, and cleaning the barn. Cheetah and I had a nice lazy dink around the arena. After feeding the evening feeding, my mom, sister, and niece came out to the barn to have some horse time for my niece. She LOVED it and got and gave many kisses with the horses and Petunia the donkey.

Sunday morning was my Lito time. That horse. Man. He is just amazing. It was his 8th or 9th ride and he has not been ridden in about a month. First ride with a bit. He was great. Never offered anything bad and seems to really enjoy riding. He was little confused at the ‘new’ communication form as to be expected (he as been wearing the bit for a while and we have worked with it on the ground), but he was his usual steady eddy, lazy self. We took it easy because of the bit introduction and the fact that he as not been ridden in a while. He makes me want another youngster. Not that I need one. By the way, my news feeds have been full of nice Spanish fillies for sale. It is just not nice to me. Then my nephew had his turn to ‘ride’ on Chance. He rides, I lead. We had a grand time. How profound, I know, but it just was. Between family, horses, Texas countryside, and weather, it is hard not to have a full heart and be happy.

OK, on to all the Fall things with my cousin yesterday evening. I made a roasted butternut squash flatbread pizza for dinner. In addition to the squash, it had pesto, bacon, goat ebd0047a16213671db5f7b90cce21ea4cheese, balsamic red onions, arugula, and sage. It was so good! Sorry I do not have a picture. We were too excited for photos. We then made this Magic Pumpkin Cake for dessert. It was naughty and pretty good. I am usually more of a made from scratch kind of gal, but it is nice to do easy things sometimes that just require dumping and stirring. I think it will be better today after sitting in the fridge over night. I also would use a white cake mix instead of a yellow cake. Then we painted some pumpkins for table centerpieces. I was pretty conservative with my painting. I just thought their natural beauty should be able to shine and I also did not want to get wrapped up in something really detailed and intricate…which is what I usually do. I used some metallic paint and glitter that my cousin brought. I mixed them in a bowl with some unpainted pumpkins. My favorite is the little orange one with the metallic accents in the creases and on the stem. Very simple, but complimenting and pretty. What are your favorite fall things? My cousin and I always do baking and or crafts the minute the weather cools.

Brandon Rhyder is still as on point for me today as he was on Friday. This song written by Jon Randall was basically my weekend (sorry, this is not the best recording). I sure hope you have read this far and can enjoy this song. He gets me. I may have been born and still live in the big city, but being in the country has made me into who I truly am. I am so grateful to my parents for that.

Thanks to 98.1 KVET out of Austin for the vid.

Go out and kill it this week!

FRIDAY

On By AveryIn Food, Horses, Life, MusicLeave a comment

FRIDAY, FRIDAY, FRIDAY! Sending good vibes to you, dear readers, to have a great Friday and then a great weekend to recharge your batteries. OK, yes, I am proudly listening to Brandon Rhyder today. It is helping me get all the works checked off my list! Give him a listen and cross all the things off our list!

Tonight I am having dinner with a horse friend from college! I have not seen her in about five years. She drove 9 hours to come look at a horse. Very exciting. We will probably hit up a tack store or two and then have a fun dinner catching up…and talking horses. Off to the farm for me after that. Sunday afternoon, my cousin and I are going to do all the fun fall cooking, baking, and crafty things we have been waiting to do! Get ready, come Monday (name that Jimmy Buffet song) I am going to tell you about them all. Then next week, it is buckle down time for wrapping things up at work and packing/getting ready for my week long trail ride vacation. Leaving a week from tomorrow!

Have a great one! Walk in love!

Zyto Compass

On By AveryIn Dogs, HorsesLeave a comment

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OK, has anyone had their horse scanned, or anything for that matter, with a Zyto Compass??? It measures the baseline galvanic skin responses or something like that…I think. It is like a lie detector test, but not.

On Saturday, I went to ride a new friend’s house to ride and get ready for our week long trail ride in October. I took Ike (because that is who I will be riding) and my Lito man. I brought Lito along for the fun mainly so he could see a new place and practice his ‘chill at the trailer alone’ skills. He passed with flying colors by the way. I mean, this horse, is so good. He hauls like a pro. He makes me so happy. Sorry, sorry, I digress, back to my story.

I also wanted to bring him because this new friend of mine is very knowledgeable on the use essential oils in all living things, especially horses. Every summer, Lito gets hives from what I guessed would be the bugs. I wanted my friend to look at him, see what she thought, and maybe recommend something that could help him. Any chance I can avoid the ingestion of unnatural things or cutting on a body, I am all for it. My sister also uses the essential oils on her family, so I am mildly familiar and I like the concept.

Naturally, the minute I unloaded him, she fell madly in love….. What?! OK…maybe it did not go exactly like that in reality, but it sure felt that way. She did like him and tell me how cute he is because, let’s face it, that is fact. Anyway, she offered to do a Zyto Compass reading (after she explained the concept to me and said it might just be all vudu) on him for free to just see what essential oils it recommended for him. I tried not to jump up and down with excitement as I said as calmly as possible, “oh, really? that would be great.” You see, I just love to learn new things and I was just flat out curious what it would say, regardless. So, I held the  hand cradle with my right hand and touched him with my left hand while my friend held Lito’s lead rope without touching him. As painless as that.

Interestingly enough, he had 36 bio-markers out! Or something like that. I had a mini internal freak out then asked, “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?!!!?” as I looked at Lito in horror. She chuckled at me and said lets go look. We looked up the oils it recommended and most of them were related to stress and anxiety. The rest were for anti-inflammatory (skin maybe) and some bone things (still growing). Very interesting. He really did not seem stressed at all. I mean he was in a mildly stressful situation being an hours haul from home at a new farm (a very peaceful farm with good feeling energy), but he was not displaying any outward stress indicators. So, he is either a pro at concealing and internalizing his stress and anxiety, it was a faulty reading, or it is just vudu. Who knows? Not me. None of the oils recommended were for bugs or parasites, so who knows with the hives either. Oh well, she suggested applying some lavender on him for his skin and adding a mixture of garlic powder and vinegar to his feed for the bugs. Maybe we will do a scan at home next time. Still very interesting.

Has anyone tried any of these things on themselves or their animals?

In Other News

On By AveryIn Food, Horses2 Comments

My phone told me this weekend that I could not take any more pictures. How rude. Now I have to take photos off my phone to make room. I guess I could delete some old messages. Woof. I need to get a new phone anyway. My current one is on it’s last leg. I was able to get these darling images on my ride Saturday morning. Ike’s ears…nothing cuter.

I am getting him in shape for a week long trail ride in the middle of October, which is why I have been focusing my ride time on him. Let us not talk about the rain issue. I have to prioritize my riding because with the weather I can not get it all done. I rode Bella the buckskin last week. She regressed by several years it seems, so here is hoping that this week is closer to par. My dun duo unfortunately for all involved has been pushed to the back burner. My Cheetah girl is downright miserable in our hot, humid, and buggy summers. Her temper is quite thin towards the end. I hate not riding her regularly, but our relationship seems less strained when I give her the bad part of the summer off. Being a fair weather rider is not my jam as I ride regularly all year, but sometimes you have to change your norm or make sacrifices for the better of the horse. My poor not so little Lito. My family and friends have been otherwise occupied for much of the summer and I have frequently found my self alone at the farm. I have a rule of no riding freshly started horses alone. You know, if it is not safe it is not fun and all that. There is also that whole rain thing that I said I did not want to talk about. However, I do not worry about him much and I am in no rush. He is a star. When it cools down and my life slows down a bit (hopefully) I will get them both going again.

I have not been able to really feel the fall air come in, but I have seen some leaves on the ground. That is something, right? What have y’all done to get you through the summer dregs?

In other news, I baked a chocolate cheesecake for my Grandmother’s birthday Saturday evening. I did not get a photo because the dumb phone told me I couldn’t and it was not the prettiest thing. It sure did taste good though! I am going to make some changes to the recipe and see if I can make it better. I also made a strawberry, lavender, and mint margarita. Interestingly enough, my phone let me take a picture…priorities??? Oh man, it was so good! I mean, if you were wondering.

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Last night I made a roasted tomato, pepper, and butternut squash soup with basil and a cheese crostini. No pictures there either, but boy oh boy, it tasted sooooooo good. Super healthy and satisfying too.

Apparently when I do not get my ride time, I cook or do other crafts. What do you do when you can’t ride or do your ‘thing’???

Lead and follow with grace.

Sunrise Saturday

On By AveryIn Faith, Horses, LifeLeave a comment

Good morning, good morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Man, I am on a roll with the alliteration today! I apologize for my absence. I dare say you will forgive me after you hear about my weekend.

I had a great weekend at the farm. I got out of town as quick as I could and hit the road around 3:30 in the afternoon (why I did not post on Friday). I hitched and loaded up the trailer to be ready to pull out early on Saturday to have a morning riding with friends. I loaded handsome Ike and left the farm around 6:15. I had this grand design to take a bunch of photos of horses and nature to share with you, but I was having too much fun and did not take but one picture! How is that for being in the moment?! Go me! We arrived at our destination at about 7 and unloaded to witness this beautiful Saturday sunrise! Even Ike was enjoying it. Please pardon all the power lines and trailers. Even still, is that not gorgeous??? IMG_7730
I am thankful I got to enjoy that sunrise before everyone started pulling up. It gave me a quiet moment of reflection with Ike and reminded me how blessed I am. I have been so stuck in the deep lately, that it is hard to get above it and see the positive and what life is all about. I am beyond blessed to be able to do everything I get to do. To be able to wake up before the sunrise, ride with friends on a fantastic horse, and enjoy great company and fellowship in the Texas countryside?!…Cue that Jerry Jeff song… An absolute dream to me. Life’s simple pleasures and God winks are truly great to witness. THIS is what it is all about. It is an AHA moment I have frequently.

Anyway, I digress. Mr. Ike was a perfect gentleman, as per usual. I also felt a slight mixing of fall air. I know what you are thinking, “you crazy lady, you’re in Texas. It is not time for fall yet.” I know, I know, but I felt it! I fit a couple more rides in on the other horses in between chores and storms. I did get soaked to my skivvies when the sky opened up and caught me far from cover. Oops! My parents came out on Sunday to stay the rest of the weekend. We all decided that to leave on Monday would be criminal…and a traffic nightmare, so we stayed till this morning. That 5:15 AM wake up call might catch up with me later, but I will fight through. My momentum will not stop and I will make this a great week.

Happy short work week, dear readers!

Mustard Seed.

On By AveryIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Muster up your mustard seeds, folks. I have taken the plunge and finally started a blog. I know you are probably thinking, “just like everyone else and their dog. The world does not need any more blogs!” Have a little faith, ye readers. My pup is turbo cute and we will cover much more than just my dog. You will just have to tune in and see for yourselves!

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Isn’t she CUTE?!