Tag: Weekend Recap

A Soft Spot For Stars Blog Hop: Location, Location, Location.

On By AveryIn Horses3 Comments

This is my first blog hop, and it will not be my last! It has rained basically non stop since Friday, so I have no fun riding stories. I basically did chores and fed while getting wet. Then on Sunday, my parents and I got the family Christmas tree. I finished decorating it last night with the help of wine. The decorating is almost finished. Normally, I would be finished with Christmas deco within a couple days of Thanksgiving, but given the events of late, it just has not happened.

I digress, I am going to jump on the TB pedigree blog hop bandwagon eventually, but I can not remember who started that one? Cheetah‘s dam was an OTTB and has a fun pedigree. I did all the research while I was in grad school. It was great for procrastinating.

Today’s blog hop comes from A Soft Spot For Stars. I already like her because we both have dun mares. Anyway, I too am curious about fellow bloggers locations and what it is like where they are.

8e2fb13d66cac7d6dd11209131704afeNo secrets here, I am a Texas gal. I reside in the ‘southern half’ of the state, in a big city. My horses stay at our family farm an hour away. That makes things difficult for me and my fuel consumption. However, it is an easy hour drive and I can go out after work whenever I need or want. The time change makes it hard to ride when I go after work during the winter, but I can blanket the old guy and feed him before it gets dark on cold nights. I will be doing that the latter half of this week.

Demographic? Most people that live in and around the city board their horses if they do not have property outside of town. There are several equestrian friendly communities outside of town where you can live and keep or board horses. We are probably 50/50 mix of western to english riders of all kinds. There are many shows and clinics in the ‘general area.’ Most shows and clinics are just far enough away from where the horses are to not be ‘convenient’ (1.5-2+ hr haul). This is very frustrating for me as I am hungry for more knowledge and do not want to let my riding get stagnant. BUT there are many great trainers and I have a few that I plan to haul to for lessons in the near future. We have a few good tack stores in town (good or bad considering how you look at it!). There is a big tack store in the area. It is generally an hour from town or an hour from the farm, but I ride horses for people out that way sometimes.

Costs of horse keeping in my region of the great state:

  • Trim-$35 (Lito just gets a trim, as do the other geldings and Petunia)
  • Front shoes-$70 (I keep front shoes on Cheetah Beets)
  • Average cost of a month of full time training-$800
  • Average cost of monthly pasture board-$400
  • Average cost of monthly stall board-$600 (All kinds of board and prices range wildly. These averages might be on the high side, but there are places I have seen that have exorbitant prices. The ones that I have looked at and work for me are not all that much closer than the farm)
  • Hay, good horse quality Bermuda-$8.00 (I have not looked at the prices for this year yet)(We high quality pasture and have had good rains this year…I do not think we will need to buy too terribly much this year)
  • What I consider priceless? Feeding in my pj’s. That Texas sky. Sunrises and sunsets viewed from the back of my horse. When I am at the farm, I can do whatever, whenever.

Weather? In the summer it is hot and humid. The only ‘good thing’ about the humidity is that it keeps us from generally having too many 100+ temp days. The heat index is the killer…and the bugs. All of our cows have some percentage of Brahman in them to help with coping with bugs and humidity. I ride all year round. In the summer on the weekends, I wake up and feed in the dark so I can be tacked up and mounted by the time I can see with the first light. I generally ride 2 horses (groom, ride, cool out, hose down) and get some chores finished by 11 AM. I do not do much else until 7 PM when I will ride another horse. It also limits when I haul. I do not like to haul during the hot, middle of the day. During the work week, I hustle out there and get 1 horse ridden and get back home late. Sometimes I stay out there for the night and come back super early in the morning for work. Winter is pretty easy by majority standards. It will freeze a few times. Lows are generally in the 40’s. A cold night is in the 30’s. It will only do that for a few days. It is not uncommon to be riding in short sleeves in January.

Lito has what I think is an allergic reaction to mosquitoes or flies. Does anyone else have this problem???
Hot Darcy.
A ‘frosty’ morning ride on Cheetah, looking at the geldings.

Other notes? Hunting season. It cramps my style a little bit because some in the family like to hunt at the farm. That is all fine and good except that requires me to not ride. That bugs me. Other than that it is fine. Our property is on a river and there are some duck hunters that like to come and park themselves behind the barn. The barn is not right on the river, but it is close. Anyway, I can hear them and let me tell you, it is funny. They are not very good at their duck calls and I can hear them talking. That is not how you do it!

Frustrating things?

  • The drive. I wish they were closer. However, I like not having to pay board. I have contemplated it so I could have at least a horse closer. I also like them being able to live like horses. It is also simpler to have them at the farm with the others. I have also contemplated moving to a place somewhere in the middle.
  • I miss the barn community. It is a great thing. I have horse friends that I ride with, but most of them are not in our neck of the woods.

Join in on the blog hop if you have not already! I have had fun reading them!

Sundays are not for working…

On By AveryIn Dogs, Food4 Comments

…Sundays are for cooking. Family. Friends. Pets…

How was the weekend for y’all?! I did not get any horse time, but I had a great time with family as my middle sister was in town. It was so nice to just spend time with her. We ate, drank, and just had family time. I am having a bit of a hard time this Monday morning because of it, I dare say! I should not be having a hard time as I came into the office yesterday to catch up and get a head start for this week. This is Darcy’s best “Sundays are not for working” look from my office chair. Speaking of Darcy, stay tuned for her story coming up this week!

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When we left to head back home, I treated myself to a special, seasonal peppermint coffee. Why? Because I could! Going to work on a Sunday and not getting to see my horses earns me a special coffee.

My Thanksgiving cooking has already started! Every year here at the office, we have an office Thanksgiving lunch party the week before Thanksgiving. We order turkey and everyone makes/brings the sides. It is always a grand time. This year I am in charge of bringing the cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and an appetizer. I agreed to do the appetizer for our office manger.

Yesterday evening I made the cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce is so easy to make at home, I do not know why people buy it. It also tastes much better homemade. I never liked it until I had the real stuff. Just buy a bag of cranberries and follow the instructions on the back of the bag as your base. I would advise doing 1/2 or 1/3 of the usual 1 cup of sugar that it recommends. That is way too much for me. It is dependent on how you like it, I guess. From there, get creative! I like to think about eating turkey while I make it and if an ingredient sounds or smells like it would go well with turkey, I add it! Or, look at some other recipes to get inspiration. I subbed a little of the white sugar with brown. Salt and pepper. Cubed apple. Apple juice. I just add a little less water to accommodate the added liquid. Orange juice and zest. Lemon juice and zest. I wanted to add some thyme and poultry type herbs this time to make it more savory, but we did not have any. Instead, I ground up some dried herbs de provence. Then I added a little dash of Grand Marnier and Limoncello. It smelled and tasted divine. In previous years, I have added pecans to it. It is a pretty good idea. I decided to leave them out this year and see how it goes. I put some sauce in a container in the fridge for Thursday and the rest in a container in the freezer for our family Thanksgiving next week.

Do not tell anyone, but I also made the mashed potatoes yesterday too. Look, I had the time to both cook and clean yesterday, so I made them yesterday. Trust me though, no one will be able to tell. This ‘recipe’ I get from my mother. Her secret is cream cheese. Naughty! Naughty delicious! I like to add some fresh grated parmesan cheese for some nice salty bite. I put them in a baking dish, covered them with foil, and stuck them in the freezer. I will pull them out the night before and put them in the fridge. The day of I will let them get to room temp before I put them in the oven to get heated through. They will taste just as good as the day I made them.

The appetizer I am making is a jalapeno popper dip. I am going to try and make that today or tomorrow and will chronicle that later. It looks pretty tasty and I am excited to give it a try.

For our family Thanksgiving, I am baking a dessert and possibly doing the sweet potatoes. Boy howdy, I can not wait to share my dessert with you. It has become a must every year. It is a little bit of work but it is totally worth it, trust me.

I also need to bake pumpkin bread for my farrier and my vet. Do not forget to thank those people in your lives!

Have y’all thought about what you are making for Thanksgiving?!?! Tell me! One of my favorite parts of the holidays are cooking, especially because my parents kitchen is a hangout area for us. It brings us all together and our food is an expression of our love. Made with love, it always tastes better. AHA moment. What is your favorite part?

Walk in love, dear readers, and have a great Monday!

 

New day, new week.

On By AveryIn Dogs, Faith, Food, Horses, Music8 Comments

Thank you to everyone that commented with support on Friday! I really do appreciate it more than you know. I am going to focus on taking it one day at a time and try not to worry about things that are out of my control. I am going to focus on remembering to pray and tell Him about my worries. Give it up to Him. Why is that so hard??? New day, new week, new attitude. I am starting this work week out well. I came in early today have gotten a lot of work done while listening to Nelo, Penny & Sparrow, and The Head And The Heart to keep me on track.

This weekend was good to get away and get my center/focus back. I got in some chores and rides, but I spent most of my time just absorbing the essence of horse: watching them graze, listening to them eat, breathing them in, and spending an exorbitant amount of time picking burrs out of everyone’s manes and tails. My fingers still hurt. While on a nice bareback ride with Cheetah, I noticed this little guy, just chilling.

The niece and nephew were there as well. Niece LOVES horses. A girl after my own heart!

When I got back to town Sunday, I got the Darcy dog bathed. She truly hates baths, but man does she love the toweling off part! It is so funny. This is Darcy’s day light savings look while I waited for the pumpkin bread to bake and laundry to do itself. I think day light savings is harder on them than us. She wanted her dinner earlier than the old time! Poor Darcy, she has it so rough.

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That face just gets to me, I tell you. I almost caved and fed her early. I said ALMOST.

What is that you say? You heard me mention baking pumpkin bread? Yup, you are correct. I baked pumpkin bread yesterday! No experiments this time. This is a tried and true recipe that I grew up on. You can tell by the state of the cook book. Just look at all that love. I am pretty sure it was me that colored scribbled on those pumpkins. Thank you to Frances Robinson of Mobile, Alabama for this recipe in the Southern Living 1985 Annual Recipes cookbook!

We eat pumpkin bread all year round in our family. We always make a double batch because more pumpkin bread is always better and it makes everyone happy. You see those lines there crossing off two items in the recipe? Those two items are chocolate chips and pecans. My mother is strictly against those in her pumpkin bread. It does not sound all that bad to me, but somehow I can not bring myself to add them. Funny how that works. If we do the glaze, it is for Christmas or Thanksgiving…and we add chopped pecans. Pecans are OK on the outside, just not on the inside according to mother. It makes a really nice Christmas gift. Just picture it: beautifully baked pumpkin bread, drizzled in a spiced pecan glaze, wrapped up in clear cellophane and both red and green ribbon. Gets me all excited for Christmas! Sometimes, like yesterday, I do half all purpose white flour and half whole wheat flour. I think it adds a lovely texture and makes you ‘feel’ like you are healthier…ha. I just love these loaf pans. They show as much love as the cookbook.

Well, that is all for today. Thank you, dear readers, for being you. I wish I could share this pumpkin bread with you. Oh well, more for me! What did y’all do this past weekend?

Stay tuned this week for Lito’s story. Click here for his dam’s story and here for the intro to this new series I am doing if you missed them last week!

Walk in love.

Back in the game

On By AveryIn Dogs, Horses6 Comments

Happy Monday morning!

Y’all. This weekend was pretty great.

I will try and keep it short and sweet on the word front. We know how I can be a bit…long winded. Yes, I surprise myself. Another fun thing about blogging. Anyway, I got in tree rides this weekend. These days that is pretty good!

So, first. I rode the mare horse. That is what my dad affectionately calls her, ha! Cheetah. Cheetah Beetah. The Beets. She goes by many names. On Saturday she was my angel girl. She was being so sweet and was surprisingly focused and relaxed for just coming back into working regularly. This might mean she will be not so great for the next ride, but I am not going to focus on that. I am choosing to focus on the good and allow the good to come through on our next ride. AHA moment. I round penned her briefly to get her warmed

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SOURCE HERE! SO FUN!

up before I even mounted. She seems to appreciate that most of the time. In the beginning, I thought she might have had a broom stick up her bum as she was doing her best old west bronc impersonation. It was not a very good likeness, but for me it was quite comical. Once I mounted up it felt almost like I had been riding her every day…except that she is pretty out of shape which is to be expected. She was relaxed and forward off my leg and seat, very between my legs, thinking not reacting. On the aids, if you will. I kept it pretty basic so we could stay well seated within her brain. If I start to ask her too many questions before she is ready, we move straight into the reactionary running side of her that has no bottom to the tank. She was the perfect Appendix Quarter Horse, the best of her full 50/50%. Man, it felt great! We did some big relaxed circles with some yielding in both trot and lope/canter and then called it a day to go for a cool down walk/hack up to the front gate and back. I wanted to continue going, but I decided it would be best to finish on a positive note…another AHA moment. We have all the time in the world for longer rides when she is back in shape and going consistently.

Pre-ride photos…It was one of those crazy foggy days where the fog does not clear for hours.

Pre-ride photos. She was not amused.
Pre-ride photos.
Pre-ride photos.
Pre-ride photos. I have a photo just like this when she was 6mos prggers.
My gal pals

Cool down walk and post-ride photos…

Follow the Darcy.
LOVE HER EARS!
Look at that bird dog point.
Cookies for Cheetah! LOOK at that face!
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She has model poses.

Then I rode Second Chance, Chance/Give Me A Chance, Chance. I am not sure which descriptor name I like more. His name is Chance and we took a chance on him. He has worked out very well for us! He has his quirks, like they all do, but once he realized we were team players, he blossomed. I need to show you his ‘before’ pictures. Anyway, he was pretty darn good too. He is a very lazy horse and I am not sure who worked harder, me or him. If he could get paid for stopping and resting in the shade, he would be a rich…err…horse. Just the thing we want for beginners! We had a good arena work and then went down to check the cows. He is your typical ranch style, grade QH. Built like a tank with an unknown history. The poor guy already has half a winter coat (makes me worry that winter is going to be bad!) and needed a good hosing off after our ride. Good thing it is warm enough for that.

He likes checking cows.
Look at this tank.

Last but certainly not least, I rode the Lito Man. He was pretty good. Not as amazing as he has been, but certainly not bad. I was a little all over the place, so it was mostly all me. It was is ninth ride I believe. We worked in the arena first. It lasted a little longer that I wanted it to, but I was looking for a good stopping place. He is very hard to get forward in the arena. Anyone else with young horses have this problem? I think I am going to get a friend to come out and ride another horse while I ride Lito and get a good forward pasture ride soon so he can see what it is all about. After the arena, we took a walk to the river and back. Here is his pre-ride shot. Can you see his 50% PRE blood? He deserves more text, but I said I would keep this short and I have not! He will get his own post soon.

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What positives did y’all have this weekend that you are going to focus on?

Have a great Monday!

 

My supervisor…

On By AveryIn Food, HorsesLeave a comment

Please allow me to introduce you to my supervisor…He answers to Lito, but his formal name is Manolito.

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He thought I was doing the fence repair all wrong. He was sure to tell me that if he only had thumbs, he would show me the proper way to do the work. He watched my every move to ensure his paddock was fixed to his high standards. In the end, he approved of my work.

I just love this guy. The feeling appears to be mutual, I think. He seems to always want to hang out with me. I could not ask for more. I am so blessed to have him in my life and, of course, to have the awesome mare that gave him to me. Seriously, the two of them, I am without words. Funny thing for a blog, no??? I promise to give them both their own posts soon. I tried to take some pictures of them this weekend, but I am not happy with what I got. I did get to ride my girl and give Lito some work. Lito was great. Cheetah was pretty good. I kept getting in her way. She had a little bit of the season change snots, so we took it pretty easy. Honestly, I need more work than she does. Going from riding multiple horses a day to only once a week when I am lucky sure makes my body do stupid things when I ride. I often find myself saying, “uh, hello, what is your outside leg doing?!!?” Or, “uh, your hands, have you ever done this before?!” I need rider boot camp and for life to slow down. Does anyone else feel this way???

I also gave my family’s other gelding, give me a chance, Chance a work and got several chores crossed off the list. The list never seems to get smaller though. It is like a roll that keeps rolling while things just keep adding. That is the way I guess. It keeps us busy!

Yesterday, instead of doing an All The Fall Things session, my cousin (I suppose now that we have gotten here, we shall call her Cousin H), another cousin (Cousin T), and I went over to our grandparents house to cook them dinner and spend some quality time together. We made burgers, hash brown casserole, roasted veggies, and apple crisp a la mode with caramel sauce. It was a winner of a dinner, I tell you! Sorry folks, no photos. Wah waaa. I know, but I was being present. We have to be. Every day is a gift, especially with my grandparents, and tomorrow is not promised. AHA moment right there…maybe the most important one to date. We are soaking up as much of them as we can. This grandmother (and really my grandfather too, but mostly her) is where most of my horse gene comes from. It is one of our special bonds. I showed her all my new photos of Cheetah and Lito and could not help but love them. She especially loves the Lito man. Let us be honest though, who would not? To me he exudes love. I feel I named him well! More on that in his own post ;).

Alright, on that note, I must get going. Go get with your family, either by blood or not, and share a meal. Share the love. Be present with them. Enjoy it!

Go lead with love!

A ride in the Hill Country…

On By AveryIn Faith, Horses2 Comments

Please enjoy this scroll through of my ride with friends and fellowship in the Hill Country along the Frio River! Not many words needed, I dare say! If you missed the reveal of my gifts, check out yesterday’s post.

I had a little bit of traffic on Friday, but it was OK, I had great music. Petunia thought she would help herself into the yard when I got there. The Sunrise on Saturday was just…just. Beautiful!

So excited to be in Friday traffic on the way to the farm!
This song…I listened to it about ten times on Friday.
Look who let herself into the yard. This is Petunia running away after being discovered.
Waiting for my friend to pick me up Saturday morning! Could not ask for a prettier day!

Loaded up and pulling out Saturday morning!

Look at the beautiful rig!
Ikey poo patiently waiting.
Ike’s buddy Ronan, the red roan. AKA RoRo.
Heavens. Look at all that stuff in there. We are girls…

We were so blessed to have no incidents while hauling and no traffic, either way!!! We only had great conversation and music! Oh, and plenty of great Texas views and beef jerky. Hey, we did not want to get hungry!

driving, driving
We had plenty of provisions.
I got my sun coverage
On the road again
Hey look what we found! A cross on the hill!

We met at a friend’s place in Bandera for a couple of days along with some other friends before heading to the Frio. They were all going on the ride. We had great times, story telling, rest, and sunrise/sunset times. Yes, that is me with my nails done. I had to hide the horse ruined nails, but who cares when your horses are that cute!

THAT is me with my morning coffee. I like to feed my horse in my pjs.
Too cute for words. Ikey poo and RoRo.
Beautiful sunset. Could not help but put the rig in there. Kinda hard not to with a 34 foot trailer.

We lost someone along the way!!! Ha! Just kidding…

Ike getting fancy in his stall! I then added more shavings. I like to really bed them down. I also documented his BMs. You horse people understand that.

Ikey settled into his stall. I think he liked pretending to be fancy with a stall full of shavings.
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!

Now time for the good stuff…Riding snaps!

It sprinkled a little and it felt so good.

Hydrating…

Such beauty! God’s beauty!

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Me before we headed home…Ha!

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I hope you enjoyed! Have you gone on any fun trips lately?! Share!

Lead with love, dear readers!

When you need perspective

On By AveryIn Faith, Horses, MusicLeave a comment

OK, so I am still processing my last week…and am still tired! Tomorrow, be prepared for a picture book of my week riding in the hill country! For now though, we must all wait. I can not begin to process that just yet. Yawn. I am still recovering!

Oh!!! I can show you the gifts I gave! Looky looky!!! Remember I told you about a few gifts I made for some friends that were going to be on the ride this past week? Now that the gifts have been given, I can show you! I gave each a photo transfer of their horse on a block of wood with character (have a look at this post to learn how!) and a piece I found created by Alex Ladner, also on a block of wood. I think they are just exact. I really tried to work with the character within the wood and let it shine and compliment the photo. I gave a few more photo transfers to some others, but these two are my favorite. Do you like them??? I hope so.

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OK, back to perspective. The Friday before I left for my trip, I rediscovered an artist! I love when that happens. I started listening to Sean McConnell while in undergrad. He was getting some air time on a local Red Dirt station at the time. I loved his sound, but then somehow I did not keep up with him. Not sure why. Crazy how that happens. Anyway, while at work on Friday, I was listening so some shuffle mix that came up on YouTube. I was working away when I heard the song ‘Lie Baby Lie,’ but a different version than what used to be played in the flatland when I was in college. It intrigued me and I went to go look at who it was that was playing and singing. To my surprise, it was Sean! I immediately went to look up all of the material he has created since I stopped listening to him. I still dig his stuff and I am still listening to it this week! One song in particular really spoke to me that Friday. Have a listen, and when you need perspective, give it another listen. I have added it to my mental file of ‘when I need perspective.’ I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to the man himself, Sean McConnell, for posting this vid on YouTube. He also has several faith based songs. I have no doubt that I will be post on his songs again!

Have a blessed day, dear readers, and lead with love!

Tune back in tomorrow for the big recap!

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!

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.