Wordless Wednesday

Fall Days - Horses - Donkeys - Fog - Kansas

Hey y'all!

We've been having some perfect fall weather here in Kansas; foggy and chilly in the morning, then by about noon the fog is gone. It's sunny, with clouds scattered across a bright blue sky. Just a light breeze, with a high degree of about 60-65. Perfect fall weather! Thank you Lord!

Molly

Daffy. I think I'm beginning to love this gal.... I seriously need to get a dog of my own. 

Buster.

-For some reason, pictures like this always lighten up a lot when I post them. 

It looked wayyy better before I posted it...

Went on a ride yesterday. It was very.... uh... eventful shall we say? ;-)

I still love my wildrag from Ashley! 

Go check out her wildrags at http://wildrag.blogspot.com/

Some of these are from this morning, when it was foggy out.

This one looked a lot better too.... :-/

Betty

Chey-Chey

Hello me. 

Anyways.... More about my earlier dubbed "eventful" ride.... It was going fairly well. Holly was a little bit more spooky than normal, but it was nothing I couldn't handle easily. 

Until on the way home.... 

We had just passed a place with two big dogs that always run back and forth, bark, and growl. 

Holly didn't like them very much, but since their owners put a hot wire down, and they couldn't get past it, I wasn't too worried. 

As I was saying, we had just passed that place, when a big Irish Setter comes running and barking down a different driveway. Once he reached us, he started running in circles around Holly and I, barking and growling all the time. Holly, by this time, had frozen stiff, and was scared to death; ready to bolt at any moment. I held the reins, not really tightly, but tight enough for Holly to know that I was ready to stop her. 

Then, lo and behold, the dog's owner comes running down the driveway, lugging his huge, orange dumpster behind him. This dumpster is not only humongous and bright orange, it's also louder than thunder, especially when bouncing around behind a running man. 

This running man is also yelling at the top of his lungs not to be afraid of the dog. 

"His bark is worse than his bite; don't worry about him!!" 

I'm sitting here on this very frightened horse, with one bum arm, and this man comes running, yelling, with thunder right behind him, telling me not to be afraid of the dog...? 

The dog ain't the problem anymore, Buster. 

Anyways.

Holly had had enough. She started a very frenzied bucking. I managed to stay on through this without getting too off balance. (Remember, we were bareback.) 

After bucking several times, she spun around in a circle and did something she had never done before.

She reared. She actually stood up on her two hind legs, and pawed the air with her front legs.

It must have looked amazing. 

I was holding the reins with my left hand, and had a camera in my right hand. Thankfully, I had the strap around my wrist. Of course I started slipping down because we were bareback, so I had to hold onto her mane with my right hand to keep myself on.

I felt something go pop in my right shoulder, which I just had surgery on. It hurt so badly. But of course, this was no time to think about a painful shoulder. 

As soon as she dropped back down to all four feet, I swung my left leg over her back, and got off before she had a chance to do it again. I managed to hurt my shoulder again while dismounting. 

I managed to calm Holly down in a few minutes. As soon as I got her calmed down, the man walked over and got his dog, who was in fact, still barking. 

He then said "That's what you get for riding without a saddle. At least you got long legs."

He threw that last statement over his shoulder, and I heard him mumbling 

other things that I really didn't care to hear... Boy, was I upset with him. I somehow managed to hold in any harsh words I wanted to say to him. There were sure a lot of them. 

So I walked Holly the rest of the way home. Holly was trembling, and pain was shooting through my shoulder in tremendously large waves. I managed to get Holly and myself home without injuring ourselves any further. But wow. What a ride. My shoulder is still really sore, but my physical therapist doesn't seem to think I did any really bad damage to it, thankfully. 

I crossed another item off of my bucket list yesterday. Sit on a rearing horse. Though I always hoped that it would happen under different circumstances... ;-) 

Lovin' this Country Life

Well, my Thanksgiving post is a little late... But it doesn't mean I'm not thankful. ;-)

At the beginning of this week, I started much more intense and difficult physical therapy for my shoulder. After not using it for two months, I got really sore really fast. It's also been waking me up quite a bit through the night too, so I haven't been sleeping real well. I was tired, in pain, and getting rather grumpy. 

I was finding it pretty hard to be grateful for anything. 

So, as I usually do when I'm feeling discouraged, I went across the street.

To the horses.

Horses have almost magical ways of making you feel better. 

When I got there, I didn't see Holly anywhere at first. I climbed through the fence and looked around. After looking further, I see her laying down in the lope-in shelter. Although she was beneath a roof, she managed to lay right where the setting sun was shining, plus where there was a wind block, so it was nice and warm. 

(Though sunny, it was around 30 degrees, and windy.) 

After petting the rest of the horses and donkeys, I walked slowly over to Holly, urging her softly to stay laying down. She didn't get up, and didn't seem to mind my being there, so I slid my leg over her, and sat down on her. I then proceeded to scoot further down her back, and leaned forwards onto her. Hugging her around the neck, and burying my face in her mane, I closed my eyes and relaxed. 

"Finally, a moment free of pain" I thought. 

Drinking in the sunshine, and the glorious smell of horses, I reflected on the past week. The thoughts that immediately flooded my head were not good thoughts. I was thinking only of the bad things that had happened recently, rather than concentrating on the good things. I quickly realized that I hadn't been very thankful this week, in spite of Thanksgiving being in a couple of days. After arguing with myself for a few minutes;

"You've kept a pretty good attitude throughout this whole trial. Cut yourself a little slack. It's fine to be grouchy after what you've been going through." etc...

I knew deep down that all of those thoughts were wrong, but it took a few minutes to convince my inner thoughts of that. Eventually I got to the point where I was chiding myself; getting my thoughts corralled a little closer to what they should be. After seeking forgiveness from God for my horrible, ungrateful attitude, I hugged Holly again, and thanked her for her calming presence. (Not to mention how warm she kept me while I was sorting my thoughts...) 

Just as I was getting ready to stand up, she started getting up too. So I took hold of her mane with one hand, and sat on her as she stood up. 

Wow. Yet another thing to be grateful for. Sitting on a horse as they were standing up has been an item on my "Bucket List" for quite some time now. 

Call me silly if you want, I've just always wanted to do that. And now I have. 

So to end my little story here, I'm going to write down a list of things I'm most grateful for:

My God and Savior

His Holy Word

Horses

Donkeys

Amazing Friends

Far away Friends

Family

Delicious Food

Boots

Jeans

Cattle (don't ask..)

The South Wind

Cricks

Shirts with snaps

Big Sky days

Sunny weather

Wide open fields

Mud

Trucks

Cameras

Camouflage

Plaid

The color grey

Wood

Trees

Doctors

Technology

The sound of hoof beats

Dogs

Cats

The smell of leather

and horses

and wood

Music

Fiddles

Guitars

Mandolins

Banjos

Dobros

I'm going to force myself to stop there....

I thought this gal was a neat color, so I snapped a picture.

Kyle's ol' Buick.

One of my cats, Rachel-gal

(Who is, by the way, the best mouser ever!)

Betty.... I couldn't stop laughing when I saw what I had captured.

People say I'm crazy for loving wind so much....

Check out the names on these two's tags... haha!

One of my most recent wood-burnings. I can't decide whether to try and sell it or not. 

So, Happy Thanksgiving to all of my wonderful friends!!

Stay happy!