Thanksgiving, DFW-style!

After 26 years of spending Thanksgiving with my parents/grandparents, I did something different this year. I stayed in Dallas with Philip, and we went to his sister's house in Fort Worth, where we spent Thanksgiving with her family and Philip's parents.

Ramses even went, as apparently he had planned:

It was his first time visiting Philip, and he didn't really know what to think. He walked around the apartment for the first 24 hours or so meowing at everything. But he did greatly enjoy the vertical blinds and the full length windows that allowed him to lay on the floor but still see out.

Philip's sister has four kids--I'm about to inherit a lot of nieces and nephews--that are all super adorable. And they are starting to become more comfortable with me, which is really sweet. They all love their Uncle Phil, of course.

Not this Uncle Phil

Friday morning, Philip and I went shopping for wedding bands, and I'm excited to say that we purchased mine! It matches my engagement ring really well, in spite of being a totally different brand. We haven't found one for him yet, but I'm hoping we will at the Kay Jeweler's sale going on this weekend.

Saturday morning, we took Fiona over to his sister's house to play with the kids. They are all still very small children, so I didn't want to bring Romeo since his tail is such a lethal weapon. The second oldest child was scared of Fiona as it was, so it was probably for the best that giant Romeo wasn't there.

Fiona enjoyed her solo outing:

But she doesn't like how far away from me she has to sit in Philip's back seat--she's used to my regular cab truck where she can sit against me the whole drive.

The oldest child loved Fiona. She thought it was hilarious when Fiona licked her and loved trying to make her wave and do tricks. At one point she took Fiona on a "walk" through the house, something that the second oldest even joined in on (although he ran away when Fiona turned towards him because he didn't want to be licked).

Fiona was wonderful with the kids...but she was OBSESSED with the seven-month old baby. At one point the baby was sitting on the floor, and Fiona would just lay across from her and stare at her. Every now and then she'd walk over and start licking her feet, and the baby would giggle and grab her fur, and Fiona would lick her hands instead. A couple of times she even licked her in the face. She also was obsessed with the baby's rattle, which was a stuffed bear. She tried to (gently) take it from her a couple of times, but she got scolded every time. When the baby was taken to the kitchen for a bath, Fiona whined and stared off in the direction she had disappeared the entire time she was gone. And when the baby returned and was drinking her bottle, Fiona did this the whole time:

Poor Corgi didn't know what to think about the tiny, dog-sized human (or "people-puppies," as Philip's sister's husband calls them).

It was a fun holiday, and I can't wait to spend Christmas with Philip and my family. He has my dad's whole side of the family to meet, so I hope he's excited!

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New Orleans, 2014!

I love New Orleans. So much so that I went three times in one year. I'm not exactly sure what it is about the little city that I like; maybe it's the history, or maybe it's the beauty of the older houses in the Garden District, or maybe it's the magical feel in the air that makes you believe in vampires, voodoo, and...well, I'm coming up with a loss for another word that starts with v, so we'll go with gumbo.

I got to go back last weekend with Philip and Patricia, my favorite P people. And we had a blast! I was definitely not ready to come back, even though I had the day after off to go get my bridals done.

The first day, we left Katy around 10 and headed east. We stopped in Lafayette for lunch at none other than Cracker Barrel, the official travel restaurant, then continued on. By the time we arrived and checked into our hotel it was already dark, so sight-seeing was out of the question. So we went to the mall instead, where I got a bottle of my favorite non-grape wine (blackberry) and where we made the mistake of entering the Lindt Chocolates store. Lo and behold, they were having a "100 truffles for $25" sale, and Patricia and Philip had to really twist my arm to get me to participate.

Pitzer family photo

We next hit up Pat O'Briens for dinner and hurricanes (and more hurricanes).

I can't tell if the man in the background is seriously looking at the menu or seriously trying to be in the picture.

One hurricane is enough. You can trust me on that.

After we left Pat O's, we walked down Bourbon Street, taking it all in. People threw beads (even without us performing the necessary task to receive them), which I found very exciting for some reason. We then ended up at the Cat's Meow where Patricia sang karaoke while Philip and I sat in the quieter (read: old people section) part of the bar and people watched.

After those hurricanes, this was pretty much my posture the rest of the night.

After a while, we decided we had had enough fun for one night and headed back to the hotel, where we got up bright and early slept in nice and long the next morning.

BEADS!

We met up with Philip's friend Kristen, who lives in New Orleans, at the Irish House for lunch the next day. Afterwards we went into the Garden District to check out my favorite coffee house in Nola, Still Perkin', and then walked around the Garden District for a while, checking out the cemetery and the houses.

At the cemetery wall

We next hopped onto the trolley (which was full to bursting) and headed into the French Quarter. Our first order of business, of course, was to stop at Cafe du Monde for Philip to experience the beignets. Yes, it was all for Philip.

The weather in Nola at this time of year actually got pretty chilly--much better than the last time I was there, when I nearly sweated to death from the humidity. Unfortunately I left my jacket in our rental car, which was all the way back in the Garden District, hence the "cold" look.

We walked through Jackson Square afterwards and just in time, too, for they closed the gates right as we were leaving.

"Wheeee!" says Andrew Jackson in the background

As we were walking through the quarter in search of dinner, Patricia spotted a sign for a ghost tour. So we went in and signed up, then, since we had some time before it started, we went off and had dinner at Maspero's.

The ghost tour was really fun. It was full of history with a few fun tidbits about hauntings here and there. The tour covered the Lalaurie house; the Count of St Germain, rumored vampire of New Orleans; the Lafitte Blacksmith Shop Pub; and several other buildings with haunted pasts.

We were exhausted by the end of the tour and headed back to get some sleep. This time we vowed we would actually get up the next morning and go do some things, before we had to leave to head back to Houston.

The next morning we drove back to the Garden District to check out Audubon Park, where Patricia graciously took engagement photos of Philip and I.

I'm so lucky to have a good friend that can put up with us being all couple-y!

We ate lunch at a place that doesn't even deserve a mention, the customer service was so bad, then headed home. It was a great trip that provided a wonderful respite from wedding planning and work for a few days. Here's to many more!

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Word dump and Halloween!

If you read my most recent post about my bridesmaids when it was published and then went back again today and read it again (nobody does that), you might notice that it looks a little different. Sadly one of my bridesmaids had to back out yesterday. She is in veterinary school, which eats up everyone's time and finances, and she didn't feel like she was going to be able to pull it all together. I totally understand, and everything worked out fine since Philip hadn't asked his fifth groomsman to be a groomsman yet. So we'll just have four attendants each instead of five. I'm sad that she won't be up front with me for the ceremony, but as long as she's present, it will be fine.

After I posted a little announcement to my bridesmaid group ("and then there were four"), two of my bridesmaids, Kaitlin and Patricia, almost immediately texted me to see if I was okay. This is why they are my bridesmaids, there to handle any sudden stress thrown on me! :)  It was really sweet and made me appreciate them even more than I already do. I know that as the days edge closer and closer to the BIG day, I'll probably have multiple nervous breakdowns and need lots of reassurance. I'm glad to know that I have such caring people on my team.

PS OH MY GOSH it's getting closer and closer and things are starting to happen. My bridal portraits are in a week, one of my bridesmaids just ordered her dress today, I moved up to the next bracket of dates on theknot.com's checklist...only 144 days to go! I simultaneously can't wait and am overwhelmed by how much there still is to be done. Well, overwhelmed isn't the right word. But there are still 49 things to do on the checklist before this thing can get on.

Philip and I went and met with our officiant Saturday and then afterwards had dinner with my grandparents at the place our rehearsal dinner is probably going to be held. It's a cute Italian place with delicious bread (always a win in my book) and delicious chocolate cake (forever the most important thing).

In non-wedding news, Halloween was this past Friday. I dressed up the dogs (and myself) in costumes for work:

Flashing camera lights were apparently terrifying.

Romeo's costume lasted maybe an hour. He wasn't trying to take it off per say, but he didn't really like wearing it and kept shaking his head, causing his caveman rider to list alarmingly to the left every time. Fiona's elf costume lasted much longer, but I finally took it off because I felt bad for her. It's a tiny bit too small, so whenever she laid on her side, her little corgi leg stuck out in the air. Oops.

Romeo was as thrilled as he looks

Friday evening Philip came into town and we went to Northgate to meet up with his friend Justin. Philip was dressed as a 1920s gangster, and I wore my Cruella costume:

Fiona matched, obviously

We had fun out with all the other people in costume. I got lots of compliments on my costume (along with a lot of "hey aren't you that lady from the dalmatian movie?" comments), just like when I wore it to the Renaissance Festival. Justin hadn't worn a costume, so after finding a bunch of little plastic necklaces on a table at a bar, I gave him two and demanded he wear them and tell everyone he was 2 Chainz. Which he did. Muahaha.

The pinnacle of the night though was when I spotted a girl wearing a headband with dalmatian dog ears and some other dalmatian printed clothing. I walked up to her and told her "You'd make a lovely coat, darling." Rather than laugh or appreciate my wit, however, all she did was look at me like she was frightened.

I regret nothing.

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Hurry up and wait!

Today marks five months until our wedding day!

There are times that I think wedding planning could be a full time job. Okay, okay. I know there are such things as wedding planners. But I mean more so that planning my own wedding could be a full time job.

And then there are blocks of time where it feels like a hurry up and wait game. I was so bent on crossing things off my checklist and making sure something got done every day...and now I've about caught up with myself. I feel like I should be doing more, but then again, what else is there to do right now? We have an appointment to meet up with our officiant this Saturday, and I have my bridal portraits scheduled in the next couple of weeks. Otherwise, I think we've done as much as we can for now.

One of the big things we recently checked off our to-do list was booking the cabin we will be staying in for our honeymoon. I know that I previously said that we would be staying in Saint Maarten, but we have since changed our minds and will be going to Puerto Rico instead. Saint Maarten looked beautiful and luxurious, but Puerto Rico seemed to provide more opportunities for adventure--more our speed. We will be staying on the edge of the rain forest within driving distance of the beach, providing us opportunities to go hiking to waterfalls, kayaking on the bioluminescent bay, horseback riding on the beach--a little of everything. Plus, since I speak decent Spanish, I'll be able to converse with the locals and get some practice in ;)

Five months seems so close and yet also so far away. I am so excited to marry the most wonderful man I know and stand up with some of my favorite women in the world (who it would seem I have neglected to mention so far):

Megan, my maid of honor and sister

Patricia, my best friend and favorite troublemaker

Kaitlin, my soul mate in all things writing and Renaissance

And Courtney, my roommate and loyal scorpion killer

I am so honored that these women are all willing to go through the horrors joy of being my bridesmaids! Thank you, ladies. :)

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Regularly scheduled programming

Due to wedding planning, a lot of other important parts of my life have been put on the back burner. One of these things, unfortunately, is training Rosa. Every day I go out to feed her I feel so guilty that she is just sitting in her paddock, not getting ridden.

But! Yesterday, I made an extreme effort to get baaaaaaack in the saddle again. It was probably the first time in two weeks that she had been ridden. And she. was. so. wonderful! I'm seriously still so impressed with her. Since getting engaged a month and a half ago, I've probably ridden her three or four times total. And yet each time I get on her or longe her, no matter how much time has passed, she's always like oh, okay. I remember this.

An example of this is what happened towards the end of our ride last night. I've been slowly introducing her to the back, and it has been a majorly foreign concept for her. And she hasn't had much work on it since I haven't been riding as much these last few weeks. But last night, I shifted my weight back in preparation to ask her to back, and she immediately started shifting her weight backwards, too. I lifted my hands and pulled slightly back, and she backed. We did it a second time to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and that time she backed even straighter.

This horse. She is so smart and so willing to please. One day, once she has more experience under her belt, I think she might make as good of a horse as Chica (well, as close to Chica as a horse can get). I'm just tickled. For one, this little cowbred horse was not what I wanted in my next horse, but she and I click so well, and I'm having so much fun with her.

For two, when I look at where she was a year ago (I'll have owned her a year on October 20th. How is that possible?), she is such a different horse from when I bought her that it's like someone replaced her in the night. She's gone from being an untrusting, difficult to catch, scared of everything, pain in my butt mistake to being a trusting, affectionate, smart, and willing mount. I know we still have a long road of training ahead of us, but just seeing what she can do in a year's time with inconsistent work is very, very encouraging. I'm excited to see where she will be next October.

Happy anniversary, my little Ponderosa!

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Double the 'C,' and double the 'S,' and you'll always have...

SUCCESS!

We have a venue!

It's an old, gorgeous mansion in Brenham. It has a pretty outdoor setting for the ceremony, and the inside has rooms we can set up tables in for the reception.

I really love it, and so does Philip. It has the look I wanted, and it fits in our budget. I was really doubting we'd find something that met those criteria, but God is good!

So that's a HUGE thing checked off my To Do list. Leaving...let me check...75 things, according to my theknot.com checklist (which has been VERY helpful). The next big things will be booking a caterer and an officiant.

In the meantime, we have our honeymoon booked! Whoop! We will be going to St Maarten. We still have to get a few more details worked out--flights, etc.--but we have the resort reserved, so that's another big relief!

We also have our photographer! Philip is friends with a guy who is a professional photographer, so we got an amazing deal with him. In the next couple of months I'll be booking an appointment with him to go to Austin and get my bridal portraits made...so surreal!

Things are looking brighter as far as wedding planning. There's still so much to do, but between theknot.com and my Mindy Weiss Wedding Planner and Organizer, I'm hoping to stay on top of things so that I don't get too overwhelmed. I am feeling a lot less stressed than I was (although the stress dreams continue--the other night I had a dream that was just people I knew coming up to me and telling me I was fat. Good job, subconscious.)

March 28, 2015, here we come!

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Rethought.

So I had this whole angsty post typed up yesterday about how much I was disliking wedding planning and how not fun it was when you didn't have a bank vault at your disposal. It was long, and it was dark. I felt fully vindicated as I wrote it. And yet, I did not hit "Publish."

Now, I'm glad I didn't. Because since venting, I've started thinking about what the wedding is leading up to: life with a man whom I love, a strong Christian man who has endured my mood swings, tears, and outbursts these last few weeks of planning with patience and understanding.

You see, weddings are expensive. And I mean EXPENSIVE. We have yet to find a venue that doesn't charge everything we've saved for the wedding and then some. And I am so frustrated and stressed out by it.

And yet, I looked beyond the wedding yesterday after pouring my anger into my blog post, and I remembered that it's just a party so that your friends and family get to celebrate with you. It's the start of a new life together. Sure, it's a big event, but it's not so big that it warrants every ounce of my attention every hour of the day. I think I've only ridden my horse once since getting engaged; that's how consumed by this I've let myself become. And the wedding is still 6 months away.

So, I'm not saying that I've relaxed about trying to find a venue. Seeing as the wedding is only six months away, we do need to nail that down pretty soon here to make sure we get our date. But I'm trying to not be my usual control-freak self so I can give it up to God. It seems like a petty request, but he's answered even pettier prayers for me.

It is a rare event when I stop and think before submitting something in anger. Maybe this is a sign that I'm growing and learning how to reign in the beast that is my temper.

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A surprising weekend.

So this weekend brought with it a pretty big surprise. What is it, you might ask? Well, if you know me, you know I like a good story. So let's jump in!

Philip came into town Friday evening, and he took me to dinner at a German restaurant in Bryan--the same restaurant we went to for Valentine's Day. We ate and were merry, as Germans do, then he took me dancing--just like we did on one of our first dates in Dallas.

The next morning, he surprised me with breakfast--delicious coffee cake, the same breakfast he made me for my birthday earlier this year. Is this the surprise, you may ask? Surprise food is always a good choice in my book, but no, the surprise is still coming.

After we finished breakfast, he told me that he was taking me hiking in Huntsville State Park. So I got ready, taking my sweet time, and we drove that way (about 20 minutes later than we were supposed to leave). He seemed to be in a slight hurry, but I didn't think too much of it.

We got into the park, and we were driving along, looking for "the best place to stop and get out of the car." But suddenly, we turned into a stable. Philip had set up a surprise horseback ride for us through the park. He even had snuck my boots into his car when I wasn't looking.

The ride was extra nice because the rest of the participants had cancelled since it was supposed to rain that day, so it was just him, me, and the guide. HSP is beautiful with lots of super tall trees. And it was nice and quiet and relaxing. Also I enjoyed being on a horse that wasn't a green two-year old. My horse was a bay roan gelding named Pinky (poor guy) whom the guide told us was the alpha horse out of the whole ~30 horse herd. Philip: "I'm not at all surprised Kristin got the alpha."

Is this the surprise, you're asking? Yes, it was a surprise, and a good one at that, but no, we're still getting warmed up!

After the ride, we headed out to "walk around the lake"--only when we arrived, he had another surprise: a picnic lunch, just like he did for another of our first dates. There were strawberries, carrots, sandwiches, wine, even my favorite: dark chocolate. We ate a nice meal before the ants found it, while surrounded by trees and the lake.

So was this the big surprise? Not yet, but we're getting close!

After lunch, he pulled out his guitar. He had played it for me during our first picnic lunch date too, so I assumed he was going to do that again. However, he had another surprise for me: he had written a song for me. He began to strum the first notes, and I broke down in tears like SUCH a girl.

The song was beautiful. I always thought it would be super awkward to have someone sing directly to me like that--where do I look? At them? Do I smile? Nod seriously?--but I loved it.

So now you're thinking, ah. That is a nice surprise. Sounds like a good day that was full of surprises. And you'd be correct. But guess what? Even my own song wasn't the grand finale.

After he finished playing, he set his guitar down, as cool and collected as he could be. He started telling me how much he loved me and how he wanted me by his side forever. These are things he tells me all the time, but I'll admit, this thought crossed my mind: If he doesn't propose to me after ALL of this, he's a jerk!

Well, no worries, subconscious. Because right after that he stood, pulled me into a standing position, and kneeled before me. He said, "I have a question for you." And then he asked me to marry him. And I responded in the most stereotypical way every girl in every movie has ever responded that I swore I would NEVER do: hands over my mouth, tears running down my cheeks, etc.

Oh--and I said yes.

I'm pretty smitten with my ring. It's everything I wanted. Apparently he collaborated with my bff (whom I had conveniently shared pictures of rings I liked with along with every detail I wanted mine to have). She amazingly didn't let anything on to me about the weekend in spite of knowing that he was proposing. In fact, quite a few people knew that it was coming--including my very young cousins, whom I've spent a lot of time with lately--and NO one spilled the beans. I'm so impressed with everyone.

I LOVE the detail on the sides!

Even more impressive is that he met up with my parents for dinner in College Station one evening, without me knowing about it, to ask my dad's permission for my hand. Both he and my parents had been at my house that day, but they left at different times, and I had no idea that they had met back up later.

So I'm engaged now, and it feels so weird. Planning my wedding so far has been very surreal. I keep having to remind myself that it's my wedding and not something I'm planning for someone else. It's already overwhelming, but I'm trying to stay calm and cool and not turn into a bridezilla. I've gotten as far as picking my bridesmaids and am looking at venues now. I know what I want, but there are SO many places, and I pretty much still just want to elope in South Africa. But I'm trying to be a good sport about it. So many people are excited about it, and it's helping me to get more and more excited. So prepare for lots of wedding planning posts, as I'm sure that's about to take over my life for the next few months.

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Warning: emotions lay ahead.

I had to make a tough decision the other night.

I went out to ride Rosa but discovered that she had a huge gash inside her leg, I'm assuming from one of the support T-posts that keep my roommate's horse from getting into the 2-year old pen and terrorizing the fillies. So Rosa got her leg cleaned up and the night off instead.

I went out and grabbed Chica and jumped on her bareback with her halter. Everything started off ok; she felt and looked totally sound at the walk and seemed fine at the trot, too. Then I asked her to canter. While she got into the canter and tried to remain there for me, she was so jarring and struggling so much that I asked her to go back down into the trot, which she did, although this time she was limping.

I got off her and bawled my eyes out. For one, I felt bad for making her do something that hurt her, even though I didn't realize it was going to. For two, the last time that I rode her, she was having trouble at the canter, too. So I think it's time to seriously retire her, at least from doing anything more than walking.

It's almost poetic, if you're into dark poetry. For the first couple of years, I couldn't/didn't want to canter Chica for fear that she would buck me off. Now, when Chica canters off beautifully from the word "canter," I don't think I'll get to experience it anymore. Maybe ironic is a better word.

It's so hard to watch her break down like this, even if it is slowly. She's always been such a tough girl who tries her heart out for me. Even the other day when it was causing her pain she tried to keep going. And it makes me so MAD. I see some shitty horses people have who are not worth the feed and time they put into them yet are completely and totally sound, and then there's my girl who is so well trained and such a good horse and there's so much I could still do with her, even at 18 years old, if she wasn't chronically lame.


But I know that's the way of the world. There are lots of good people getting cancer and Parkinson's disease and ALS while bad people continue to do bad things. We live in a fallen world. Life isn't fair. Etc.

So, this isn't goodbye to Chica, obviously. She's still up for walking around the property. She seems to like the attention when I ride her (she's always been jealous of other horses), so as long as she's feeling up to it, she'll still be my #1 ride. But I think the days of carefree cantering through the trees are behind us. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hug my horse and cry some more.

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Chica & Rosa!

Nothing too eventful has happened since I last posted. I'm still waiting to hear back about a job interview I had in July, so fingers crossed there!

Last night I got Rosa out, intending to ride her, however it suddenly dawned on me how exhausted I was as I was getting her out so I ended up just bathing her and working on showmanship instead. I did, however, jump on her bareback and ride her around my yard with just a halter, and she was awesome. Here are a bunch of pictures of clean Rosa!

 

The face that says "My mom won't let me graze on all this nice grass."

 

I love the shine!

I got Chica out a little later, and while I didn't bathe her, she still got to have her picture taken, too! She was so happy about it.

Just a little bit of a grass belly........

 

"A hair dresser my mother will never be."

Poor Chica's forelock. I'm not sure what happened, as usually I can trim it and make it look pretty good, but this time it was a complete fail. I'm not sure I've ever seen it so short! I blame the fact that it was wet when I cut it the first time.

That's all for now! Perhaps I'll have more news on the job front soon.

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Titles are hard.

This past Saturday was Philip's birthday. Since he had to go to Houston for a bachelor party Saturday morning, I made plans for his birthday in College Station for Saturday afternoon. They were a surprise, much like him surprising me with horseback riding plans for my birthday (that unfortunately got rained out). So after he left for Houston, I went and picked up the tandem kayak I had rented for the day. I also went to Kroger and got several types of cheeses (he loves cheese) and some fruit and crackers to go with it for a picnic after our boating. I then went to Spec's and attempted to find a wine from one of our first dates, but to no avail, le sigh.

When he got back to CS, we loaded up my truck and headed to Lake Bryan. There were a ton of people there, but we found a good place to put in the kayak, climbed aboard, and off we rowed. I don't know how long we were out on the water, but I will admit that my arms started to get tired sooner than I would have liked them to!

We got done kayaking, pulled the boat on shore, then just hung out in the lake for a while. Those of you who know me know that I am TERRIFIED of bodies of water--lakes, oceans, etc. Walking into the lake and feeling the gross bottom of it resulted in many disgusted noises from me, yet I managed. The water felt really nice, and with all the people around, I wasn't TOO concerned about getting pulled under by the Bryan Loch Ness Monster.

After we got pruny, we enjoyed our picnic under the shade of a tree. I also made Philip pose for a picture, since we are terrible about remembering to take pics (please ignore the ugly blue stripe of paint on the end of my truck; someone vandalized it a month ago or so while I was parked in the mall parking lot).

After we got home, we went back out for dinner to Philip's choice of restaurant (Wendy's) and rented a movie. It was a great day that went much too quickly.


In other news, after not hearing from the lady supposedly interested in Rosa for over a week, I'm assuming she is not coming. Which means Rosa is mine, ALL MINE! Muahaha. At least, for now.

I'm still keeping an eye on prospects that are available in the surrounding areas that I might be interested in, just in case. Just in case of what, I don't know. In case I win the lottery, even though I don't play? In case someone drives up and hands me a check for several thousand dollars? Use your imagination.

But that's currently neither here nor there, so for the time being, I'm going to enjoy the horses I have.


Finally, I got some exciting news today from the publisher I work for. I've been training for a full-fledged editorial position, and I got incredibly positive feedback today on the work I've done. In fact, the managing editor was so happy with it that she has made me the official editor on the two manuscripts I've been working on--which means my name will be on them when they are published! I am really excited. She also wants to get me involved in the marketing and acquisitions processes and says that she sees a lot of potential in me long term.

So now I've opened up the communication lines for these two authors and turned their edited manuscripts back over to them with my suggestions. This is the start of my career. I have more experience to add to my resume. Let me reiterate: I am SO excited!

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A change in plans...

So last weekend my boyfriend was in town, and he asked if we could ride horses. Thrilled at his enthusiasm and wanting to encourage it, I conceded...even though my two year old has never been ridden away from my backyard/her pen. I hoped that with Chica's calming, Madea-like presence, Rosa wouldn't have anything to worry about.

A couple days before I had ridden Chica around more of the property while ponying Rosa, boldly going where no two year old has gone before. At least, not Rosa. The only time she really spooked or was concerned was when Chica...passed gas, and I suppose startled her. Rosa "bolted" straight into Chica's side, and I prepared for a beat down of epic proportions. My forgiving, lovely mare didn't even flinch. She's come a long way since Katy Cowgirls.

I saddled up both horses and taught the bf how to clean hooves. While doing this, some neighbors rode by on four-wheelers, one of which repeatedly backfired and sounded like a gun shot going off next to my head. My whole body tensed up and in slow motion my mind went "Nooooooooo" as I turned to Rosa, bracing myself for the worse. She didn't flinch. Even Chica got a little startled by the noise, but my spooky little baby just glanced over her shoulder at them, shrugged, and carried on.

Phew.

Afterwards, I got Philip up on Chica (in my English saddle, no less). While he rode around and got acclimated to her, I longed Rosa. Warming her up was non-eventful, so after about 20 minutes or so, we headed out.

I'm not foolish enough to take my two year old, who I've never loped before, out someplace where one of us could seriously get hurt. Like, say, my road, where cars whiz past at 50 mph+. Instead I rode her over next door to my landlord's yard. And guess what? She led the way, without hesitation. We even left Chica behind several times. There was no spooking, no silly babyness...then, we got to the "bridge" part of my landlord's driveway. It's not really a bridge, just a place where the sides of the road drop away for about seven yards.

Rosa was NOT having it.

I could have fought with her about it, but between the mower buzzing around the corner, my landlord's dog barking like an idiot, and my landlords' kids throwing stuff, I didn't want to push her anymore. So I called for Philip to ride across first with Chica while I made Rosa stand and consider her choices. We then rode across it without hesitation, and she discovered it actually wasn't a horse-eating monster. She even led the way back over it as we headed back to my place.

Everything was going really well, and I was relaxed. But then, without warning, the four-wheelers came whipping around the corner again. I barely managed to yell out a four letter word at Philip and dismounted my horse in record time. The engine backfired, and again Rosa just stood and didn't react. I glanced behind me to see how Philip had fared and was surprised to find him standing next to Chica, who this time was also unaffected. I just laughed and decided to walk the horses back to the trailer to unsaddle.

So. Now what? It appears that the little mare has a pretty sound mind floating around in that baby brain. And now I don't want to sell her. I've really enjoyed trail riding and would love to take Chica out more if it weren't for her feet, but maybe Rosa can eventually fill that hole for me.

Of course, I have someone that may or may not be coming out to look at her--you never know until the person is at your house, even if you have talked to them on the phone several times--and if they do come out, I'll sell her if they want to buy her. But I've decided not to market her anymore. If it comes down to it and I have to sell her, then so be it. In the meanwhile, I'd like to see what else this little girl has up her sleeve.

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Rosa photo shoot!

I decided to rectify my lack of Rosa pictures yesterday evening. She was a mudball and could have used a good bath beforehand, but ain't nobody got time for that. A good brushing and coating of fly spray spruced her up pretty well anyway.

Here is one of the resulting photos!

Rosa is the most difficult horse to get to put her ears forward. So how did I accomplish this, you might ask?

Romeo lent his voice. He was really happy about being able to help:

Such a cutie pie.

Here are a few more Rosa pics. Also, just wanted to add that she was WONDERFUL about standing still and not trying to wander off or graze. Good job, Rosa.

And a terrible selfie:

And a fun eye selfie:

And then this happened:

Poor, sad Romeo. I decided to set my camera on a timer and try to get all three of us in a picture. Let me tell you, that is not an easy task when your dog is afraid of being closer than five feet to your horse and your horse is afraid of you running at her (to make it into the picture). Ten seconds is not enough time, Canon PowerShot.

Plus I forgot to untuck my jeans from my boots. Neat!

Maybe one day I will attempt this again and include Chica, Fiona...and RAMSES!

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