Visiting Relations
Oma and Opa came out from CA this week. They flew in on Thursday and will be heading out today. They dropped by Chris and I's place on Thursday and visited briefly. Oma took, and enjoyed some of our oranges (heaven knows we won't be able to eat all of them). Opa checked out Rowdy and Dakota, his old horses and was nearly beaten by the jealously protective mother hen (did I mention the chicken had eight eggs hatch last week?). Of course, then she promptly lost her chicks and Oma and I wandered about for a few minutes until I flushed them out and, amidst much clucking and excitement, the hen rounded them up once again.
Friday Chris and I more officially celebrated Valentine's Day as it rained off and on from around 4am until well after dark. Needless to say I didn't have any lessons that day and missed training. We have come to the conclusion that the Cheesecake factory serves but one purpose, to provide good cheesecake and that is all. The food is reasonably good, but it is hard to have excellent food when you have no focus.
Saturday we were quite soggy and my first lesson was canceled, but the second still came and, instead of riding or working with the horse due to wet footing, I taught Dakota a couple different braids, two for the mane and one for the tail. I am not an expert when it comes to braiding, but I can at least teach the basic technique. Needless to say we had a bit of fun and even if the braids did not look terribly professional, they were serviceable.
Chris left for work before the lesson was over (he mentioned later that he was grateful he missed seeing Chewy all braided up, hehe). Normally he works just Mon-Fri, but they were short-handed so he got some overtime.
After the lesson I retreated inside, worked on a watercolor for class, and waited for Mom and Opa to show up, which they eventually did around 11.30 (and they had initially thought to come out around 9.30, heh). They were worried initially about the footing being bad out on the trail, but I pointed out that , while we did get rain off and on all day Friday, it wasn't nearly so much as previous days and, besides, the trail was uphill from where we were and it could only be drier, we'd just have to stay clear of the washes in case of some random quicksand, which I hear shows up on occasion.
We loaded up the two Trotters, Rowdy and Dakota, and Kash practically loaded himself in back. He's getting really good about getting in the trailer, actually, I basically point and he hops in. Not to say he was ever bad about it, but most horses don't jump in on their own without a person leading them.
The three of us went up to the San Tans, managed to find a parking spot, and headed out. Opa showed his good-natured teasing, asking if I needed assistance getting on and mentioning something along the lines of "be sure you stay on!"
We went for a two-hour loop and had a very good ride. Although Kash was quite high on himself for the first little bit, he did rather well considering he'd been locked in his stall for 24 hours because of the rain. Opa and Mom would pick up their Fox Trot and I'd keep Kash back a little, ask for a slow trot, and try to engage his mind a bit by asking him to yield to my leg. He would yield slightly, but more often than not he took the single leg against his side as a cue for the canter. I was quite impressed that he picked up the right lead and kept it wonderfully collected and slow. The right tends to be his weaker side.
After he calmed down a little and got over the excitement of just being out he walked nice and forward, but calmly and attentively. The other two horses did fairly well, even if Opa and Rowdy nearly ran Kash and I over once at a hill as Kash is very good at simply walking up and down where Rowdy and Dakota are still learning that the walk is the preferred gait going up and down hills.
We had some good conversation on the ride and came home to find Chris about ready to mount up on Sunny for a ride in the arena.
Sunday we had Stake conference in which they took the three Queen Creek stakes and made them into five. We are now the Queen Creek-Chandler Heights Stake. Woo.
Sunday also meant dinner at my parents and an early celebration of Tye and Dad's birthdays. After dinner I ended up helping Oma with her computer and cleaning up some files along with getting some things organized. She was quite grateful and I was happy to help. I think initially Bea was going to help her with it, but I was drawn over intrigued by what Oma was up to.
And time to run off to class.
Friday Chris and I more officially celebrated Valentine's Day as it rained off and on from around 4am until well after dark. Needless to say I didn't have any lessons that day and missed training. We have come to the conclusion that the Cheesecake factory serves but one purpose, to provide good cheesecake and that is all. The food is reasonably good, but it is hard to have excellent food when you have no focus.
Saturday we were quite soggy and my first lesson was canceled, but the second still came and, instead of riding or working with the horse due to wet footing, I taught Dakota a couple different braids, two for the mane and one for the tail. I am not an expert when it comes to braiding, but I can at least teach the basic technique. Needless to say we had a bit of fun and even if the braids did not look terribly professional, they were serviceable.
Chris left for work before the lesson was over (he mentioned later that he was grateful he missed seeing Chewy all braided up, hehe). Normally he works just Mon-Fri, but they were short-handed so he got some overtime.
After the lesson I retreated inside, worked on a watercolor for class, and waited for Mom and Opa to show up, which they eventually did around 11.30 (and they had initially thought to come out around 9.30, heh). They were worried initially about the footing being bad out on the trail, but I pointed out that , while we did get rain off and on all day Friday, it wasn't nearly so much as previous days and, besides, the trail was uphill from where we were and it could only be drier, we'd just have to stay clear of the washes in case of some random quicksand, which I hear shows up on occasion.
We loaded up the two Trotters, Rowdy and Dakota, and Kash practically loaded himself in back. He's getting really good about getting in the trailer, actually, I basically point and he hops in. Not to say he was ever bad about it, but most horses don't jump in on their own without a person leading them.
The three of us went up to the San Tans, managed to find a parking spot, and headed out. Opa showed his good-natured teasing, asking if I needed assistance getting on and mentioning something along the lines of "be sure you stay on!"
We went for a two-hour loop and had a very good ride. Although Kash was quite high on himself for the first little bit, he did rather well considering he'd been locked in his stall for 24 hours because of the rain. Opa and Mom would pick up their Fox Trot and I'd keep Kash back a little, ask for a slow trot, and try to engage his mind a bit by asking him to yield to my leg. He would yield slightly, but more often than not he took the single leg against his side as a cue for the canter. I was quite impressed that he picked up the right lead and kept it wonderfully collected and slow. The right tends to be his weaker side.
After he calmed down a little and got over the excitement of just being out he walked nice and forward, but calmly and attentively. The other two horses did fairly well, even if Opa and Rowdy nearly ran Kash and I over once at a hill as Kash is very good at simply walking up and down where Rowdy and Dakota are still learning that the walk is the preferred gait going up and down hills.
We had some good conversation on the ride and came home to find Chris about ready to mount up on Sunny for a ride in the arena.
Sunday we had Stake conference in which they took the three Queen Creek stakes and made them into five. We are now the Queen Creek-Chandler Heights Stake. Woo.
Sunday also meant dinner at my parents and an early celebration of Tye and Dad's birthdays. After dinner I ended up helping Oma with her computer and cleaning up some files along with getting some things organized. She was quite grateful and I was happy to help. I think initially Bea was going to help her with it, but I was drawn over intrigued by what Oma was up to.
And time to run off to class.