Horse show travels: Nampa, ID

A few weeks ago, I went to Idaho for the first time. And let me tell you, Idaho is possibly one of the most underrated states I've been to yet.

Boise and Nampa weren't much to speak of themselves, but during one of my off days, I took some time to drive up into the mountains to go horseback riding...and it was B-E-A-yootiful!

The outdoorsman's paradise.

I ended up in Garden Valley, ID, for my ride. Since it was a Wednesday morning, it was just me and the guide, and we talked all about horses and Idaho pretty much the whole time. The weather was cool, the scenery was beautiful, and it was so relaxing. I rode a little Paint mare named Mindy who seemed a little put out to be riding instead of hanging out in her pasture grazing, but she was well-behaved.

I stopped for lunch at a little cafe in Crouch called Wild Bill's Coffee and Bistro and got a BLT, which was delicious. So was the free chocolate gelato I got, thanks to the coupon given to me by the trail guide.

As I had driven up to Garden Valley, I was tickled by the signs I saw on the roadway:

The "OPEN RANGE" signs were just so iconic. I did see some range cattle, which somehow exist effortlessly on the side of the mountains. And that was the only "wildlife" I saw. I definitely will need to spend some more time in Idaho one day, white-water rafting, mountain climbing, and of course, horseback riding.

In what's happening back home, I rode Rosa English for the first time. It felt very different on her, since she's so small. The whole time we were cantering I felt like I was going to come off over her head, but we managed through. And she makes a cute little English pony!

We also bought Philip his own saddle!

Now we can both ride Western at the same time! And he doesn't have to get leg cramps from riding in my too-small-for-him saddle. Which means more riding! Next on the list for him? Boots. Because somehow I married a guy who has never owned a pair of boots.

Read More

Remember how I used to post on my blog?

Well it's your lucky day, because I'm back!

June, July & August have been incredibly busy for me between the job and life in general. Life in general because this happened:

 
In an act of road rage, someone swerved in front of me and slammed on his brakes, brake-checking me. The first time it happened, I managed to avoid hitting him. However, the second time he swerved in front of me and came to a dead stop, purposefully causing me to hit him. Then, the driver floored it and tried to drive off, but I went after him and got his license plate number. Not that it's done me any good; he lied to his insurance company about what happened (saying that he didn't brake-check me, that he was just slowing down because he heard me honk at him), so they found me at fault. But $3,700 later, my truck looks like new again:

 
I'm sure you can imagine how happy we were to pay that out of our own pockets.

My job has been crazy because I drew the short stick for the NCHA derby held in Fort Worth for three weeks, which would have been TERRIBLE if work hadn't loaned me their (3500 dually) work truck since I had no transportation of my own. Between my deadlines for those stories, another story I was writing, dealing with the insurance companies and police from the wreck and having 11-hour work days where Philip would drop me off at work at 8:00 AM, head to his own job in Dallas, and then pick me back up at 6:30 or 7 PM when he got back to Fort Worth...well, the blog has been the farthest afterthought possible.

But I'm happy to report that I had a vacation last week where I got to go visit my grandparents, and Philip and I had a mini-vacation at his friend's lakehouse on Lake Palestine this past weekend. Even the Corg got to go along. Despite not liking the motor noises at first, she warmed up to the boat:

But once we got to the "swimming hole" and got out of the boat, it was hard to tell if she spent the time in the water terrified or happy. She turned out to be a good swimmer, but she much preferred to rest on the noodle with me holding her to anything or anyone else.

Even when Philip tried to hold her, she fought to swim back to me. Poor little short-legged corg.

In the world of horses, Rosa has been doing really well. She has reached the point where she's started questioning what I ask of her (silly teenagers), but we've had several pretty good rides lately where I insist she do as I ask and she concedes that might be a good idea. And meanwhile, she's really looking like a horse and not an awkward baby anymore!

Chica's doing really well, too. In fact, she's been more sound in the last few months than she has been since she was denerved. Philip and I have been riding a few times, and she's wonderful with him. We took the ponies trail riding one weekend, and even Rosa was a rock star. She spooked at a bench (and nearly jumped out from underneath me, thanks cutting horse bloodlines) and spooked at her reflection in a window, but other than that, she didn't really spook at any other "scary" things. It might have been the older horses' influence, but I think she has a good brain in there somewhere.

As futurity season gears up, I'm preparing for the imminent Season O' Work Travel. This Saturday I fly to Idaho for a week, then two weeks later I fly to Vegas for 5 days, then a week after that I go to Reno for a few days. In October, I'll be in California. And I don't even know what November and December will look like yet. So if you don't hear from me on here for a while, I'm probably buried in horses and articles. And I'm okay with that.

Read More

Horse show travels: St. Paul, MN

A few weeks ago, I found out that one of my coworkers was slated to go to Minnesota to cover a reining show. And it was her birthday weekend, so she wasn't terribly excited about going. I, on the other hand, was a tad jealous, since I had never been to that part of the country. When I told her I'd go in her place, she was SO excited, and so I booked my flight and eventually was able to cross two new states off my bucket list: Minnesota and Wisconsin!

Y'all. I've never thought that Minnesota or Wisconsin were very high on my list of places to see, but let me tell you, they were BEAUTIFUL. At least at the time of year I was there. I'm not sure I could handle their winters. But when I was there over the weekend, everything was so green, the weather was pleasant, and even the farmland areas I saw of Wisconsin were gorgeous (and farmland isn't my favorite scenery). The old farmhouses and silos were so picturesque, and I was definitely that tourist on the side of the road taking pictures. And the people I interacted with were as nice as they could be. Possibly the best thing about the trip, though, was that I didn't have to explore the state(s) in a minivan – this time I was upgraded to a Jeep Patriot!

The reining show, which was in its inaugural year, was very good, and the show organizer was super nice. Hopefully I'll get to go back again next year.

Reining is hard to capture on a cell phone.

Monday I went out to see my ponies, and I was really excited because Chica was going to be used for a lesson. The little girl had just started taking lessons with my jumping trainer after coming from another barn, and during her first lesson, she fell off, making her terrified of the horse she had been riding. Part of the problem was that she came from a western barn, where they only taught her neck reining, and since she's now trying to learn English with all of its direct-reining glory, she's having a hard time transitioning. Since Chica does both, the instructor thought she might be a good mount for the little girl to learn how to direct-rein on, while at the same time building up her confidence again. Isn't it so funny how 14 years later, the horse that first shattered and then rebuilt my confidence is now helping another little girl find hers?

The instructor's opinion on Chica after the lesson: "She is worth her weight in gold." I'd have to agree.

Rosa was there too, obviously. I thought that riding her and making her focus on ME and not Chica would be good for her. Now that she's 3 and a half years old, she's lately been trying to assert her rebelliousness (I knew she was too good to be true, as easy as she was to saddle-break!) like any teenager, so our last few rides have been interesting. The one before this one, she bucked with me in the saddle for the first time. I stayed on and told her how I felt about it. While she didn't buck with me this ride, she certainly felt like she was thinking about it, but I managed to keep her moving and busy and we ended the ride on a good note. Plus, her turn-arounds suddenly improved exponentially last night, which was a pleasant surprise. I think we have a little ways to go yet in getting her lope more consistent, part of which is due to my own lack of confidence now that falling off hurts a lot more than it used to. But I'm happy that she is capable of learning and settling down even with Chica in the arena.

Read More

Horse show travels: Reno, NV

This past weekend was my first time to cover a horse show by myself for my job. The show was the Four Sixes/NCHA Western Nationals, held in Reno, Nevada. I didn't get to cross any new states off my bucket list, but I did get to see a new city and work in a short trip to the beautiful Lake Tahoe.

I flew in the evening of May 1st. Upon arriving, I went to pick up my rental car. I usually love renting cars if only because 1) I get to try out a new vehicle for a few days and 2) I don't have to spend the gas money on my truck. However, this time was a little different. The reason? This was my rental:

Yes. Me, my backpack, my purse, and my suitcase got a whole minivan to ourselves. And not just a minivan, but a minivan that looks like a toaster that had ambitions of being a bus when it grew up. What was Ford thinking?

But anyway. I was grateful to have a vehicle to get around in, and after almost getting sideswiped by another minivan (irony), I was grateful to be in a larger vehicle.

The show went very well. While it took me some time to warm up to interviewing, by the final day I was in my element, talking to people, taking pictures, and having fun. I met a lot of people and affectionately became known as "Quarter Horse News Lady," despite my insisting that there were a lot of Quarter Horse News Ladies in my office.

I did not have any finals classes to cover on Monday, so after taking photos and talking to people for a little while, I took the opportunity to go explore Lake Tahoe. What a breath-taking, beautiful place. I knew it was going to be magnificent after seeing photos, but in person it's even more stunning.

I was amazed to see snow in the mountains while I was driving, some that was even right next to the road.

After driving around all day taking in the sights, I decided I wanted to get out and do a little hiking. Since I was by myself and in bear country, I knew I wasn't going to go far. But I was going to be kicking myself if I didn't see a little bit of the beautiful scenery in person, rather than through a car window. I found a place off the side of the road where I could pull over and park by a trail head, and then up the mountainside I started until I couldn't hear the cars below me anymore. I climbed up to a vantage point where I could see Lake Tahoe through the trees. The scenery around me was gorgeous, and I could have continued hiking through it all day.

I flew home Wednesday evening. Upon getting my suitcase and jumping on the shuttle to my parking lot, I found myself in a bit of a conundrum. It turned out there was a "north" and a "south" shuttle--and I was on the wrong one. But the driver, upon me remarking upon my discovery to him, very kindly drove me around the airport to the correct parking lot, even stopping to grab me a bottle of water at the entrance gate. When we got to my truck, though, things got strange. It started when he noticed my vehicle. "You drive a truck?" he said, with his voice full of surprise. I replied, "Yes," to which he said, "A beautiful girl drives a truck?" "Well, I have horses," I said, as if I needed an excuse to drive a truck, and that threw him even more off. While he loaded my suitcase in my truck for me, he asked me about the horses--if I owned them or just worked with them, if they were "boys or girls", etc. Each time I tried to hand him a tip afterwards, he kept deflecting it, until I finally insisted he take it. He responded by nearly breaking into tears, folding his hands into the prayer position, bowing his head, and telling me how beautiful I was. Then he hugged me, made sure I knew how to get out of the parking lot, and climbed into his shuttle. I thought he was going to leave, but he rolled down his window and told me to go ahead and start my truck to make sure there were no problems before he left. It was really odd and a bit uncomfortable for me, but moreso because it made me wonder--was I the first person to treat this guy kindly? If he was that moved by me giving him a tip, which I consider a pretty standard practice for when someone performs a service--in this case, driving me to the other side of the airport when he could have just dropped me back off and told me to catch the correct shuttle, and lugging my suitcase for me--then what kind of crap does he have to put up with on a daily basis?

Awkwardness aside, it was a good trip, although I missed Philip and my menagerie terribly. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Read More

The Ones That Got Away

Before you judge me for the title of this post ("Kristin! You've only been married a month, and you're already reminiscing about old flames?"), rest assured that, like most things in my life, I'm talking about horses. Not men. Or babies (as in when I tell Philip to "look at this cute baby" and after seeing the picture he always responds with "of course you're talking about a horse"). I digress. This morning in the office, a co-worker and I were talking about clicking with horses that did not belong to us. It got me thinking about a few special horses that I got along with really well and would have loved to own but was unable to purchase at the time I knew them.

1. Chico (Steppin It Up)

Chico was a grey Quarter Horse that belonged to the owner of the barn I was keeping Chica (cute coincidence, no?) at during high school. I rode a lot of horses for her and people who boarded at the barn back then, and Chico was a new horse she had bought. He was about three years old at the time. I fell head over heels for him between his pretty coloring and his super sweet disposition. I think I rode him more than I rode my own horse during my senior year--I would ride him during my lessons and my sister would ride Chica. He was for sale, which of course didn't help my obsession with him, and I tried so hard to convince my parents to let me buy him with my FFA money. They (rightly) advocated against it since I was about to go to college and wouldn't have the money to keep two horses. This was the point in my life that I thought I wanted to be a horse trainer, and I was so stubborn about wanting to buy him that I seriously (secretly) considered not going to college. All for the love of a horse. One day I arrived at the barn and went searching for him to ride him, but couldn't find him. I called the barn owner to see where he was, and she told me she had sold him. I didn't get to tell him goodbye. I was devastated.

Fast forward a couple of years, and the barn owner heard through the grapevine that Chico had been struck by lightning and killed while out in the pasture. She didn't want to tell me, so she told my mom instead, who told me. I think I cried for three days straight.

A couple years past that, I received a call from the barn owner. Apparently it was a misunderstanding; Chico was still alive, and he was for sale again! I immediately called his current owner and made plans to come see him. I didn't know how I was going to afford him, but there was no way I was letting him slip through my fingers again, especially after he came back from the "dead." If nothing else, I just wanted to see him and give him a hug. It wasn't to be, however. The owner called me the day I was supposed to go see him and told me he had sold. When I asked if I could come see him anyway before he left, she told me that she didn't think it was a good idea, but guess what, she had several other nice horses for sale instead! I told her thanks anyway and cried, again, the rest of the day.

I had wondered about that boy ever since. A few months ago, I logged into my American Quarter Horse Association account and looked him up, just on the off chance that his current owner had transferred him into his or her name (people aren't always on top of that). I noticed a new name on his record, and I (perhaps creepily) looked it up on Facebook. There she was, and not only that, but there were pictures of an almost white horse on there too! I debated messaging her and finally went for it, and she confirmed that Chico, now named Blue, was in her possession. She was happy to talk to me about him, especially when I sent her an old photo of him. And it was such closure for me to know that he is in a fabulous home with someone who loves him very much.

Chico and half of me, for some reason.

2. Reyolena (TAMU Reyolena)

During college, I took an advanced horse training class. Our first day, we talked with the instructor about our experiences and he assigned us to horses based on our abilities. I was assigned to Reyolena, a cute little bay gelding. Originally I was disappointed; I wanted one of the few non-bay or chestnut horses in the class. But by the end of the semester, I was happy to have been picked for him.

Reyolena was a character. If I was longing him and it started thundering, he'd run faster and faster, screaming at the other horses. The first time I rode him, he bucked with me while I laughed. But otherwise, for a two-year old, he was so amazingly calm and sane-minded. Trust me, when you ride in an arena with 15-20 other two and three year old horses of varying training levels, you really appreciate a horse that can keep its cool. Outside of the arena, I taught him to drink out of the barn's water fountain. And he loved the smell of my hair. Any chance he got, he would stick his nose in my hair and just inhale for minutes if I let him.

We did an auction at the end of the semester and sold off a lot of the horses. Reyolena is one that the school decided to keep for their stock team. I've tried to find out how he's doing but have been unsuccessful thus far. Perhaps one day I'll run across him in my new line of work.

Sniffing my hair, how he do.

3. Annie (Siani)

All of my life, I've loved Friesians. I mean, who doesn't, right? With their flowing hair and jet black coats, they look like something straight out of a medieval fairy tale. So when one came into my barn, I fell immediately in love with her. When I was given the chance to ride her, I was over-the-top excited.

Annie belonged to a couple who were friends of my barn owner. She was the baby of the wife's Friesian mare. The wife couldn't do anything with her, so she sent her to a trainer. The trainer, however, kind of put her on the backburner. She had done a little riding on her, getting her to where she was broke, but that was really it. Even her care of the mare was lacking. When I saw Annie, her feathers were tangled, her tail was a mess, and I thought she was one of the most beautiful horses I had ever seen.

Annie learned quickly that either she and I could be enemies, or we could be friends. When I went to get on her the first time, she did not want to stand still. We had a discussion about it, and she never moved again anytime after that when I rode her. She had a huge trot, a huge canter, and was just so much fun to ride, even if she didn't know much.

Annie was for sale, too. She was just way out of my price range. Her owner talked about wanting to give her to me, since I was the only one putting any effort into her, but her husband said no. I was still hopeful he'd come around, however. They wouldn't have wanted to pay the board on her forever for me to come out and ride her, since she wasn't selling.

But then one day, she did sell. The new owner didn't even come see her, he just bought her based on photos and video of me riding her. She was to leave on a Saturday, so I drove in from College Station to tell her bye. I brushed her, combed out the feathers on her feet, and made her look as nice as I could so that he knew that someone had loved her.

Maybe one day I'll own a Friesian, but even if I don't, I'm so glad to have been able to have the experience of working with Annie.

Me riding Annie with a patient Chica waiting in the background.

I still miss each of these horses, in their own way. I know it was for the best that they didn't work out at the times I knew them, mostly because of financial reasons, and I know there will be other horses in the future. Hopefully horses I'll be able to afford and purchase. But I want to give a shout-out to Chico, Reyolena, and Annie, for the large parts they had in my life.

Read More

The end of the beginning...

Here we are at April 6th, 2015, 9 days post wedding. That means I've been married a little over a week now! So crazy!

The wedding was wonderful but went by too quickly. I'm excited to get photos from our photographer so that I can remember everything that happened. Some moments of note that I laugh at now:

*Philip's car overheated somewhere between College Station and Brenham the morning of the wedding, so he had to transfer everything over to one of his groomsmen's vehicles and leave his car on the side of the road with a groomsman until it cooled off. The groomsman then attempted to drive it, only to have it overheat again, so it spent our honeymoon at a dealership in Brenham instead of in a parking lot at Hobby airport.

*My dad and I didn't have any time to practice a dance, so I picked the song the night before and we improvised. The song I chose was Guns N Roses' Sweet Child O Mine. The dance we did involved moves like The Lawnmower and The Shopping Cart. Somewhere someone has video of this, and I can't wait to see.

*When it came time for the cake cutting, Philip and I were standing behind the cakes with everyone staring at us only for us to realize that we had no idea how we were supposed to cut the beautiful cake before us. I had to pull someone out from the crowd who had been married to show us what to do.

*After the reception was over, we ran through our friends as they threw rose petals at us and climbed into the get-away car (after knocking out hundreds of balloons), which was one of my parents' cars since our original car was out of commission. Philip turned the key in the ignition, and it did the dreaded click-click-click. The battery was totally dead. My brother had to bring the truck around and jump it, and then we had to cross our fingers it didn't die again while we were at my grandparents' house changing. Fortunately, it lived.

Fortunately all of the important stuff worked out and we were married anyway :) We may have misplaced the aisle runner the morning before and maybe I couldn't get the ring on Philip's finger during the ceremony--he had to shove it on himself, and it will probably never come off again--but I still had fun, he had fun, and our families and friends enjoyed the day, and that's all that mattered.

A friend asked me what my favorite part of the wedding was. After thinking about it a bit, I told her that the best thing about my wedding was the fact that my grandparents (and, yes, my parents and siblings) were there. That's the number one thing I've ever wanted--for my grandparents, who helped raise me when I was younger, to be at my wedding. And not only were they there, but my grandfather and my dad walked me down the aisle together. It was so, so special to me.

Read More

Just keep swimming...

Here we are, with four days to go. As far as the wedding goes, I'm not really stressed out. I'm excited for it and getting all fancied up and going on a week-long vacation with my new husband. But it's the other things that are really trying me right now.

For one, when I started my new job, I obviously had to change over health insurance. And trying to fill my one prescription afterwards was one of the most daunting tasks I've ever taken on. It literally took me weeks, only for the doctor to give me three months worth of samples for free in the end since it was such a problem. And the new insurance company wants to charge me a 100% markup from what the old insurance company was charging me, which is complete and total BS (but they don't seem to look at it that way). But anyway. It's resolved for now.

The other thing is that over the weekend, while I was at my bachelorette party and Philip was hanging out at my parents' house, someone broke into his apartment. Let me rephrase that. Some mother-effing jackass threw a rock through a window then reached through and unlatched the window, came in, realized that most of Philip's stuff was gone (Philip had moved a lot of it to my house the Friday before we drove to Houston), and in apparent desperation pulled whatever was left off shelves, dumped it on the floor, and rifled through everything he/she/they could find, including the silverware drawer (?).

They ended up taking several bottles of change Philip had been saving, including change that he was going to donate to the Pregnancy Help Center, a small tool kit, probably around $200 worth of liquor, possibly a phone charger and a large cooking pot (he wasn't sure if they were packed away somewhere already), and worst of all, my favorite wine bottle opener. It was one of those big contraptions where you screw it onto the cork and it raises its arms like it's excited for you, then you press the arms down and the cork comes right out, so easily. I was very excited to finally have it at the house, as I just have the cheap corkscrews you have to wrestle with, and he kept meaning to bring it over, but he never did before this happened.

We are very fortunate that all of his really valuable things--including my wedding band--were already at my house. The most sinister aspect of this is that he had important documents, like his social security card and passport and etc, laying in a file on the floor with some other stuff, and we're not sure if they were rifled through or not. Nothing appears to be missing, but who knows if they took photos of his stuff.

So now on top of all of the final wedding tasks he's going to have to call the Social Security office and credit agencies and his bank and deal with all of that. I am absolutely livid that this person did this and got away with it. The stuff they took can be replaced, but it's the principle of it, as I'm sure anyone can understand (except the piece of shit who did this along with the rest of his breed).

But on a happy note, the bachelorette party was a lot of fun, and the girls that put it on did a fabulous job. I'm lucky to have such great friends!

"Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, consider this justice a gift on my bachelorette party day."

My Maid of Honor and favorite sister!

Read More