Our Weekend - Ryan's Truck

Another crazy couple of days! Saturday I had my barrel race. Badger did not turn like he should have, but he did run hard. Ryan reminded me that Badger and I don’t get to practice like we need to and he is still considered a ‘novice’ horse with this being his first year to compete in barrel racing. So, I’ll take Saturday’s run (1/2 – 1 second off of his normal time) in stride knowing it’s a learning process. I’m hoping to get some practice runs in this week and in the upcoming weeks.

After my run, I knew I needed to de-compress, so Ryan and I took the horses over to Rebecca’s so we could hang out and Becca and I could go for a ride together. It worked, I felt much better afterwards.

Sunday, the family went to church. It was really nice going to church as a family. We have really been missing that part in our lives and needed to re-connect with God and what his plan is for us. It’s always easier when you go down the paths God has planned for you.

Sunday afternoon we hung out around the house and that evening I debated between riding Romeo or cleaning the garage. I went with garage and planned to ride Romeo and Shiner this AM (Monday). So, I loaded them up and went to Sandy’s to ride. I pull up and I thought…”Is that what I think it is??? Is...that…no, it couldn’t be….mud???” Sure enough they had gotten 3 or more inches of rain. They live TWO MILES from us and we got no rain. I was very happy for them, but sad we hadn’t gotten crap for rain. That is just been our weekend. It rained all around us…literally…and we got maybe a ¼ of an inch…maybe…so I turned around and came back to the house.

I left the horses at the trailer since I had planned to try and get Romeo in to the vet. I did, so I loaded him back up and headed back to Needville. If you remember, we weren’t sure what his deal was since his testicles never dropped. So, took him to doc only to find out he couldn’t find anything…no testicles, no scar tissue (meaning he’d been gelded)…nothing…so now I have to do some blood work on him to find out if he has any testosterone. If he does, he’ll need to have surgery to remove the testicles (that don’t work) from his abdomen. If he doesn’t, then I believe we can just mark him as gelded. So, I’m sad to say my big, beautiful Romeo is not a stud. L I was hoping to breed him so that was sad news. On tope of that…I have to pay a lot more to get the testicles out because there is an increase chance of him getting cancer if we don’t.

After all that, I got started on the paperwork to get the truck loan for Ryan’s new truck. As you may remember, we had been debating for some time and trying to figure out what to do. We finally found a nice, used vehical and they were willing to give us a fair price for our Dodge as a trade in. So, we got the paperwork done and decided to drive to Gonzales (about 2 hrs away) to check out the truck, and, hopefully purchase it. We thought it was what we were looking for and appeared to be in good, mechanical, condition. So we followed through with the loan and got him a 2003 Chevy 2500HD Duramax. It is a 4 door, 4 wheel drive, long bed with a pretty maroon/charcoal two toned color. It even has a DVD player for the back seat. That might come in handy with Shelby once she is facing forward for the long trips we may take in the future.

Now, I’m sitting on the floor with the laptop and watching Shelby play in her entertainment center. She is even fussing at me to pull her out, so I guess I should go. She sure knows how to time stuff! HA!

Wake Up Call - Officer at the Door

This week has been an interesting week. We have three horses for sale and so it’s been a week of showing horses with hopes of someone buying with no luck…yet. So, we’ll see.

I had a nice evening last night (Wednesday nite) with Rebecca. I got to ride Romeo briefly as it was dark by the time the people left that came out to see Mito. Even though it was a short ride for me, it was still a nice ride. Romeo had never been in the pasture with me on his back and no assistance. I am really enjoying riding him. I can’t wait to get some more time on him. It’s just so hard with all these horses. So, hopefully something will give soon.

I started writing this Thursday evening. Realized I had nothing going on so I decided to put it off.

It is now Friday morning, 5 AM. Something went on…I heard a banging noise coming from Shelby’s monitor. In slight panic, but still half asleep, I looked in the video monitor and she was sound asleep and by herself. (I fear someone will sneak in and take her, as do all mom’s I’m sure.) I know I heard something and I also thought I heard a male voice yelling. I panicked even more and I told Ryan I thought someone was here. I thought it might be our 79 year old neighbor, Mr. Brod who lives by himself. As I’m finding my way through the hallway and into the living room I see lights flashing. The adreline (sp?) began to rush and I thought for sure something bad was happening to our neighbor and, since he lives by himself, they were coming to tell us. I know, doesn’t make sense after it all happens, but I thought maybe he asked them to get us since we were right next door.

I hear the banging again and I realize the person is at the front door, which is in the computer room. We don’t use that door, so it’s piled with baby things. I turn on the light, see more flashing lights in through the window, and open the door.

An officer is there asking if we own a red horse. It had been hit on the rode and needed urgent care. PANIC…I have THREE red horses, including my beloved Badger who was in the front pasture. I’m freaking out inside and thinking of the ways he could get out of his pasture and how that didn’t make sense. Then, how would he get on the road? The gate was shut and he would have to go all the way down the fence line to our first gate. He does not have that kind of ambition. He just thinks about eating…he would’ve stopped at the first site of green grass. And, if he did get out, where is Twister (our paint horse)???

By this time, I’m walking down our first drive and Ryan (the smart one) is walking towards the front pasture where Badger is located. He asks the officer to shine the light in our pasture, and there is my big, beautiful Badger…eating grass. Thank you Jesus! One down, two to go.

I’m praying as I’m walking down the first drive that it is not one of the other two horses. Ya know, how you bargain with God. So sad…as if it’s going to change the situation. As if he’s going to say…Ok Stacie, you pleaded and bargained with me for 25 seconds…POOF….let me change out the horses with your neighbor’s horse. As if they deserve any bad experiences.

Anyhow….I’m trying to find the horse and it’s 5 AM so it’s DARK…red horses in the laying on the dark trailer floor doesn’t mix well when you are panicked and praying it’s not one of yours….finally the officer shines the light in. It wasn’t Mito cause the horse had a star and not a stripe…but I wasn’t sure if it was Cowgirl….she is the safest of the three pens so I didn’t think it was…but just wasn’t sure..til Ryan pointed out that it was gelding (male horse). PHEW does not express the relief I felt.

We told the officers of the neighbors who have horses…they hadn’t been down there yet. As I write this, Ryan is heading down to other neighbor’s house to have him check. He has a red (sorrel for my horse lovers) horse as well.

The sad thing is the officers can’t do anything with the horse until they get consent to the owner. The horse is laying down on the trailer floor and his back leg is all messed up. (As I proof this I realize the horse is laying down with no drugs. He is either extremely hurt or worse, has a broken leg that we can’t see yet.) Who knows what else is wrong with him. Ryan offered to give him some drugs to help with the pain, but the officer said they can’t. So sad that there are enough idiots out there that us good people can’t help a hurting animal because of “liabilty’.

I know it seems silly to be thinking about my blog in this time, but there is nothing I can do and I am wide awake. I just pray we find the owner and they can care for this animal the way he needs to be cared for.

PS: So glad we have these dogs that never barked once with all the lights flashing and the officer climbing our fence to get to our door. I guess that is a good thing…maybe they are so smart they know the difference between strangers, friends, and police officers???? J

Changing the subject – and leaving on a better note – I got to ride Romeo last night. It was our first adventure out into the back pastures by ourselves. He did AWESOME! I believe I am in love….(starry eyes)…..This horse is just wonderful and has been sooooooooo easy to break. He’s just so smart. He’ll try me, but soon figures out he can’t get away with it. After a couple of tries he quits and gets back to work. I really need to sell some horses so I can start focusing on getting a nice handle on him. I was hoping to have him in the novice barrels next year, but I don’t see that happening since it’s July and he’s barely neck reigning. Oh how I wish I had the time before Shelby now! Wouldn’t trade her for anything…I just miss the freedom of time. The freedom of if I’m sitting in the house I can go outside and get stuff done….and not stay inside while she naps or close the house while she naps. I’m so over cleaning my house…but I’m not good at sitting still for long periods of time.

I also checked my email before going to bed and I had another guy wanting to look at Mito. This is after I added to the ad that Mito is gentle, but needs a rider that can handle a horse until he gets more experienced. I’m hoping that will eliminate the people who can’t ride real well. Who knows, I have talked with them on the phone and told them how he rides. I am as honest as I can be…and they still come out. So, who knows…Perhaps this is the one.

I also got two emails on Cowgirl asking if she was still for sale. I wrote back saying she was…so hopefully we’ll have some luck there too!

If I can get them sold then I can focus more on Shiner and Romeo. I can work Shiner on the barrels and hopefully get him loping them. He was trained before, but I don’t like the way he was trained so I’m working on re-training some of the basics. He is doing well with it, so I’m sure it won’t take long. Hopefully I can get the basics right and then start loping the pattern and start competing on him in a month or two. That will definitely help us sell him and hopefully make Ryan’s Mom a little more money in the process. This market is tough right now, even down here!

Well, I guess I’m going to go and see if the cops are still out there and see if Ryan found the horse’s owner. Pray for that person and pray for the horse. It doesn’t look good and it is a tragic experience to wake up to!

Monday

Monday - the reality has set in that I have gotten really attached to Shelby. I realized this yesterday when I realized I had three days of work related stuff and I would not be able to be with her all day like I was used to. I believe August will be harder than I expected.

As for the weekend, we had a nice weekend. I ran on Saturday. But, it was what happened before that was exciting. I went out at 1 pm to get Badger out of the big pasture. He had other plans. He decided to make me walk all the way out to the back pasture...about halfway back is when he and his 'possy' decided to dart back, full blast, to the barn. Then, he circled around the open barn doors until I walked all the way up and decided that he did not want to be bothered. So, he tried to get back out to the big pasture. I fought him off with the whip, but he was just too quick and fast for me. So, out he ran to the back pasture. His 'possy' realized he was gone and they went running after him.

I had to, once again, walk out to the back pasture in 100 degree weather to a sweated and winded horse. I was so mad at him I could have beat him raw. I then put his halter out on in the pasture and walked him back up. The feed I brought to catch him was dumped on the ground. The terd did not need any after that experience! So, by the time I got him back to the barn and tied to the trailer it was 1:30. I was to run around 2:30 or 2:40 and still had at least a 30 min. drive to the arena. ARGGGG....

So, Badger is grounded! I put him in the 'grounded' pasture...which is where the naughty horses who teach other horses bad habits or are mean go. So, now Twister and Badger are in there. They also happen to be the fattest horses, so this idea might work. There is basically no grass in there. I am hoping the two of them will begin to lose weight.

Which brings me to his run. I felt he should run a 15.8ish according to the other times, but not fatty. He ran a 16.0. ARGGGGG...so he put me in the middle of the 2D and NO MONEY! I have no idea how I did in any of the classes as we had to go cause it was raining, we had no gas for the generator and my diesel was low in my truck. (We have to have A/C for Shelby.) So, we had to leave even though we were almost to the end of the barrel race.

I will report how we are doing in the standings once they post it.

This weekend is we run in his favorite arena, so I am hoping we pick up the pace. I also suspect he'll be a little lighter that day too since he has little to eat in the pasture now.

As for Shelby, she is growing so much everyday. She now says "Mumma" and she continues to try and crawl. He can do the army crawl, but still needs to work on it. She loves to stand and she likes me to sing to her the "If you're happy and you know it..." song. She even claps her hands at the right time. It is tooooooooooo cute.

Novice - 1st Place!

I'm excited to share that Badger and I are winning the Novice. :) YES....now we just need to stay on top! Run Badger, Run!

I just took him to get his right hock injected. I am so dissappointed in the supplement I use for his joints, etc...Lubersyn. It's extremely expensive and it's not working at all. So, I'm going to have to try something new.

On a side note, our septic tank backed up. Seriously, what else could go wrong? So I'm waiting for the guy to come out and probably empty our tank. More Money...It's been a frustrating year for us. It seems like we are constantly being attacked financially. I have reached the point where I just think...It's only Money...it's only debt...it is what it is...I hope to one day look back and think NEVER AGAIN once we pull ourselves out of this yucky year.

Well, time to go. I have Badger in the trailer rocking it around as if to say get my butt home and Shelby sitting quietly in the backseat of the truck being very patient. I better not push the good behavior. :)

Shelby Videos

I finally had an opportunity to get some DSL access. I took Shelby to the doc this morning and we stopped off at Target to get some stuff. I was then going to stop and get something to eat in Needville when Shelby decided to take a nap. I thought I'd take advantage of this and stop somewhere there was wireless DSL so I could sit in the truck with her while uploading these videos.

Anyhow, I told doc how Shelby has been a bit congested and so she is going to have me give Shelby some generic zyrtec. I was surprised I could do anything for her! So, hopefully that will help her congestion. She also lost a little weight. Doc thought that might have been from the congestion...not wanting to eat. So, hopefully the allergy meds will help and she'll start eating more and gaining some weight.

It has been a busy couple of weeks with Shelby. She keeps me hopping, so I haven't had much time to write. It's also been slow in the news as well so I hadn't had much to say.

Airplane ride to MI

Peek A Baby

Thursday

This week has been yet another adventure for us, Boudrie’s. For me, it has been a big taste of being a stay at home, poor (as in no money), mom. That is not much fun at all. It also doesn’t help that it is like 100 degrees, literally, outside! So, Shelby and I have had a lot of time in the house and staying cool. Each day is much the same with Shelby getting up, feeding, playing with her, giving her down time in her chair, nap, repeat. In the evenings I usually take her for a walk just to get her outside before we both go crazy.

Today was a busy one for me while Shelby slept or played. I spent most of my free time calling banks, learning the loan value of specific trucks, what the value of Ryan’s truck is, etc. I haven’t done that in YEARS so it was a little bit of a learning curve for me, especially with the banks being so tight on their loans.

I have figured what we are going to do (get a different truck) now I have to figure out where we are going to get the money to pay for the loss on Ryan’s truck. We are cutting our losses at this time. I just don’t feel safe in that truck anymore. We carry a lot of precious cargo…Shelby…horses…us…and can’t afford anything bad to happen.

We did find a really nice truck in Gonzales that we really like. We will make a trip there (about 2 hr drive) to check it out this weekend if we need to. As I type this, Ryan is heading to the dealership to check out the new ones. It is unlikely he’ll get a new one in the price range we are looking for, but you just never know. After what we went through with the Dodge, I prefer new, but, more importantly, I prefer what we can afford. So, we’ll see. They have lots of discounts, rebates, etc plus our GM discount…you just never know until you look into it. If that doesn’t work out, then we’ll make the trip to Gonzales I guess. We just don’t know what else to do.

On a Shelby note….she is doing great. She is learning more and more everyday. It’s fun to be home and see her grow in mind and body. I have been teaching her sign language. She’s been doing the sign for “eat” for several months. However, just this week she did the sign for ‘more’. It was soooooooooooooo cool! I was feeding her and kept showing her the sign for “more”. I then said (without signing) “Do you want more?” and she did the sign for more. I thought…No way…that’s a fluke…so I said it again and she did it again. It was soooooooooooo cool to witness it first hand. So many times I hear about her ‘firsts’ from Ryan or her babysitter, Brenda. I was thankful to have one for myself.

She is also starting to try and figure out crawling. Her legs and arms move, but they don’t go anywhere. If she gets on the hardware she can scoot backwards. She also loves to stand up with my help. She is getting stronger and stronger. She can now pull herself up without my assistance other than me holding my fingers out for her to grab. She is starting to try and pull herself up using furniture, her bouncy seat, etc. But, she has not had success with that yet. That goes for her sitting up from a lay down position as well. She gets about half way there and gets stuck. She gets so mad and throws these little fits. She starts to whine and looks for help. I have learned not to hover and let her work through it. I think being home all the time has helped me with that by eliminating the ‘guilt’ factor of not being with her as much as I would like or feels she needs.

With Ryan working full time she shows signs of missing him. He walks in and she lights up. It’s too cute!

As for the weekend, we are tentatively planning to go to Eagle Lake with some friends. There is a 2 day barrel race, but we are all ready for a break. A weekend off will be really nice. I got up early two days this week to ride horses. I got to ride Romeo and Badger 1x this week and Mito 2x. They all did well. I love that I can ride Badger in a rope halter and lead line. It helps keep my hands out of his mouth, which can make his mouth tougher which is not good.

Mito is starting to settle down and think a little more. He’s not as nervous. At this point, I’m working on making him a good trail horse. Since his price has dropped so much that’s all I’m going to worry about. Well I say that, but truth be known, I’m also working on the barrels with him. I’m using a technique I got from a Connie Combs clinic. Pretty simple, I just work on keeping him square around the entire barrel. He likes to drop his shoulder and weight on the barrels which will cause me to hit barrels when we pick up speed. Mito is smart and after a few times around the barrel using this technique he squared up a lot more and was going around the barrels more evenly. Yea! He’s trotting nice around them using this and so I hope to work on loping him next week. It should be an easy transition since I’m using all the same signals at the trot as I would at the lope. So, we’ll see…if I get him running competitively I’ll start running him every now and then. Either way, my hope is to sell him.

Romeo did well too. I don’t push him at this time. He is lazy and hard to keep going, so I’m working on that. You can be lazy, but when it’s time to work, it’s time to work. He is just sooooooooooooo smooth….and so nice to ride…other than the lazy streak.

Well, I guess that’s plenty for today. I have some really cute videos I’ll add of Shelby. I need to get access to some DSL, which means a trip somewhere where there is wireless. Hopefully that will happen soon as I’m anxious to share the videos with you all.

Stupid Dodge

Ryan's truck is broke, again! Ugh...There was a recall on it, so we are hoping that is what it is. Needless to say, we are looking to trade it in. I'm so frustrated by this stupid truck. The bad news is we haven't had it that long and so we have little invested in it in regards to the loan and the trade in on trucks is not good right now. So, I'm not sure what we are going to do.

This year has been a challenging one for us financially. It seems like a lot of things have broke or are unrepairable...it's depressing.

This time we will shop for used Chevy's. They have some nice ones in Gonzales so we are going to there this weekend. It's a 2 hour drive, but worth the investment if we find a nice truck for a good deal. I just don't know what we'll do if the payments go up, which they might since I know we'll be upside down on our truck. Stupid Dodge...I've been saying that a lot.

As for me, I'm sitting at home playing on the Internet and cleaning the house to pass the time while Shelby sleeps. I'm trying to stay productive, then part of me thinks why do I need to...I'm getting paid...hahaha...

Ryan's 2nd job is working out well and has been a true life saver for us. His business has really slowed down these last few weeks. Also, people are switching to trims more than having their horses shoed since it's so much cheaper.

Shelby has really helped keep my mind busy. We play a lot and it's a lot of fun. She is sitting up all by herself and working on sitting up when she is laying down. She also can pull herself up using my fingers to sit and then stand. That's one of her favorite things to do. It's too hot outside, so we just hang out around the house a lot until late in the evening.

Oh, I almost forgot...WE GOT RAIN!!! Ryan thinks we got around 2 inches. Yeeehaaww...I'm so happy! I would love to get more, but we will take what we get. I'm sure it's all soaked up already. We got it last night so at least the sun didn't evaporate it before it had a chance to soak in.

Well...that's about it for me. It's been a slow week, which is good!