"Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and once it has done so, he/she will have to accept that his life will be radically changed." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, January 23, 2012

Thank you, Coach.

The Penn State family lost our greatest leader on Sunday.  Joe Paterno was more than Penn State's football coach.  Coach Paterno strived to make an impact.  I count myself as a fortunate recipient of that impact. JoePa, as he was commonly known, dedicated his life to making Penn State a high quality school while coaching a strong football team.  It turns out, much to our honest surprise, that JoePa was human and made mistakes.  When we remember his legacy, let us also remember his mortality.  We are all mortal and so, as JoePa did, take time to contemplate and build your legacy. 

The Paterno family has asked that donations be made to the Special Olympics or THON.




 The classic coke-bottle glasses in memorial.  
Courtesy of Penn State Football on FB.



(This is a serious blog.  I'll do a much more relaxed one next.)

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is announcing she will step down from her position this week.  I know nothing of her political history, but I do know that she has strength few other people will ever experience.  Giffords was shot in the head a year ago at the Arizona Congress on Your Corner event.  She will return to the site and finish that event.  Thirteen people were wounded and six were killed last January.  I applaud Congresswoman Giffords for her fight to not only recover, but thrive in the future.





Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Holy Smokes, Holidays!

Yawn.  What a crazy last few weeks!  My Mama got on my case New Year's Day about not blogging recently.  She's right, I need to start typing.  I had two weeks at home and as you can probably tell, I avoided the laptop like the plague.  I use this machine every single day and sometimes I need a major separation from it. 

 Mom, Me, and MaMa
The boys.  Same spot about 3 years apart.

We can't talk about the holidays without discussing presents.  Let's be honest, I'm more about the commercial holiday.  Back on Black Friday, I bought myself an awesome chrome toolbox for the back of the diesel.  Then I moved all the equipment from the back seat of the truck to the toolbox and still had lots of room in it.  The only solution seemed to be a chat with Dad.  He told me to wait for Christmas. Holy smokes, be careful what you ask for!


The "starter" kit.

 This is all I really wanted.

I feel extra unstoppable in the Green Giant now!

Another crazy present story is that LClark and I took a trip on the Friday before Christmas Sunday to Park City Mall.  We were expecting to die and honestly, it wasn't so bad!  


In between the holidays we had the HVS party.  It was at the Lawn Fire Hall.  I thought it was a great success.  I had a great time watching the polo wrapping relay, pin the nose on the reindeer, and Pictionary.  And the food, YUM!  So very good.
 The Christmas Hulu Rat.  It's my Mom's...
 The kids took revenge on me for spinning them too much.

I spent almost everyday riding and at the gym so I slept through the New Year's celebration.  It was all part of my plan to start the New Year rested and relaxed.  Ok, so rested anyway.  Yeah, and about this gym thing.  I know some of you are tired of seeing my FB posts about it already.  But I also hope some of you will nag me if I start to slip.  I have big riding plans this year and my fitness must improve.  I'm running about 2.5 miles a day right now.  I didn't think I could do it, but I am and it feels GOOOOOOOOD!  Trust me, I think it's weird too.  Let's just go with it.

Fred is still out of commission.  The test results have come back as normal on all accounts.  Now we move on to a phenobarbital trial.  Phenobarbs are used to treat seizures.  We should know in a month or so if that addresses Fred's twitch.


Cindy has very generously let me ride Patrick over the last few weeks.  (THANK YOU!)  He was amazing to ride almost 5 years ago when I started at HVS and now that I've learned a little since then, I think he and I are having some fun.  

 Jean, Crabby Paddy, Me, and Gadget




Lauren G and I stopped by Watermark Farm during our time off.  Ellie and her mother Anne have an amazing herd of horses.  They gave Lauren and I an amazing opportunity by letting us ride Oz (Wizard WF) and Lauren also rode Liam (Don William WF).  Oz is a 5 year old stallion and moves like nothing I have ever ridden before.  Liam is a 4 year old gelding who is probably around 17.2!  It was cool and such a treat.  Check out Ellie's website and drool over the horses.  Go on, you know you want to.

 Lauren and Liam


After our trip to Watermark Farm, I went to Cindy's first lesson with Kim Walnes.  I'm not gonna lie, my head hurt from an information overload.  Kim taught everyone in attendance many things.  You probably want more details, but I'm not kidding, it was a lot of good stuff and I'm not sure that I can start without covering everything.  I'm glad I was on the ground for the first lesson because I would be overwhelmed in the saddle. There will be more opportunities to audit her lessons and I encourage riders to attend at least once.


Ok, so that wraps up the holidays in an express manner.  I'll have to talk about the new year in the next post, and Fred :( , but that will have to wait until later this week.