Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2009 THE YEAR WITH NO FEAR!

In case all y'all didn't know, I live may lives. One of those lives is a children's writer. It's wonderful and creative and mostly inhabited by women. BUT one of my dear friends is Mr. Jim Averbeck. 
About a year ago Jim and I travelled together to a conference and as we rolled merrily along we disclosed things to each other about ourselves. One story he told has stayed with me, it is the story of his Year With No Fear.
About a year before,his partner of several years had had a very scary incedent and Jim began to fear everything. He didn't leave the apartment, he didn't accept invitations to anything. His artwork suffered, his writing suffered. He was in short- unhappy. 
Then he and his partner went to some wonderful warm place and in an inspired moment he had an epiphany. He was tired of feeling depressed and sad, always waiting for another shoe to drop, another crisis to avert. He decided that the New Year would be for him The Year of No Fear. And to celebrate this he and his partner jumped off of a cliff-literally! A 60 foot cliff!
And they didn't die! 
And so began his YWNF. He began his art projects anew, he rewrote and submitted a long held manuscript "In a Blue Room". He reconnected with his friends, his allies and himself. He told me it wasn't always easy, but after jumping off of a cliff what else could be so scary?
 
The happy result of his Year is this book- "In A Blue Room"
Illustrations are by Tricia Tusa. This charming book is nominated for many awards this year, and has a starred review in the Publishers Weekly. (No mean feat- let me assure you!). 
So after Jim's story I have reminded myself many times to live my Year with No Fear. I advocate it to all of you too! That doesn't mean you have to jump off a cliff ( eegads!) But I want you all to do something different- something that you are afraid of doing because it is out of your comfort zone. I want you to take the literal leap of faith that I know you are all capable of!
I want you to ride bareback, or rescue a horse, or walk ten miles for a cause. I want you to join a theatre group, or enter a horse show or stand  up at a City meeting and give your opinion about something you believe in. 
Make 2009 the Best Year of your lives!
I dare ya!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Glacier Update

Glacier is doing well! As of today she has gained 40 pounds! That is about 10 lb. a week.  Her energy level is returning, she now has enough energy to make ugly faces at Desi, her next stall neighbor, and hop up and down if he gets fed first. 
Her skin problem is slowly resolving itself with the scabs and hair falling out in small pieces.    I'm using MTG on it, and though it is rather smelly it seems to be working. Her thrush is nearly gone too- Thanks Thrush Buster!
I wanted to see if she knew how to lunge on a line today, so after grooming her, and cleaning her feet, we put on the halter and went into the arena. After first standing there looking at me like,  " Oh darn!" she began to walk in a circle around me. At the snap of the whip she began to trot, and I must say she has a long lovely stride. Then I asked for the lope, and she kinda forgot she was on a long line and took off bucking and running. She hit the line, with my big butt on the other end, and it knocked her off her feet. She's still weak, so it sure didn't take much. Not to worry though- she's ok. 
After that she remembered her manners and loped nicely around in a circle, both directions. 
I'm very pleased I won't have to retrain her, and now we can begin building some muscle tone back into her.
She's really very sweet and extremely kind ( except to Desi whom she hates!)
I didn't have my camera with me today, but I'll take some new pictures soon so you all can see the improvements. 

Saturday, December 27, 2008

I've been scrapped!

 Heidi over at   Heidiwriter's Weblog has scrapped me! Oh that sounds painful doesn't it? Fear not! I can handle it! I've been scrapped before- or perhaps I have been doing the scrapping. On the other hand- Scrap is good! It is creative! I make stuff out of scrap all'a time! 
So I have to give you all ten 'scraps' of honest info about me. BORING! But I'll do it anyway- y'all need a nap right about now I'm sure. 
Oh and I have to scrap some other folks too! So look out I may scrap you! Check out the end of the blog to see who I've picked. 

Scrap 1. I hate to cook. Yup- I know all you dollys out there LUUUUVVE it, but I have a fierce wish to turn my stove into a planter. 

Scrap 2. I've been buying trading and selling horses since I was about ten. Some of them my parents knew about, some they didn't. But that was in a time where people would deal with a confident ten year old and not ask, " Where is your Mother?" 

Scrap 3.  I've never been out of the country. Yes that is Country not county. Not Mexico-not Canada, not even Hawaii which is still technically in the USA, but since you have to fly over water to get there  I count it. 

Scrap 4. Before I had a drivers license, I had a black and white pony and cart that I drove EVERYWHERE!. And remember this is the East Bay, just East of San Francisco- people gawked! Even then....

Scrap 5. My first real job besides babysitting or riding horses was at a Gas Station and I was the window washer. Self explanatory I'm sure. I was 14 and made $1.50 an hour. 

Scrap 6. When I was five I rode my Shetlands with a string wrapped around their bottom jaws because I had read about it in a book. ( Where is your mother?")And I didn't ever ride in an arena- it was the wide open spaces....

Scrap 7. I have had horses rear and fall on me three times. (and of those times I was hurt twice).

Scrap 8. My greatest aspiration ( as of today anyway) is to ride Bay Desperado (Desi) in the AQHA Select show.Someday. Soon.

Scrap 9. I read about three books a week. 

Scrap 10. I listen to the Grateful Dead all of the time. Aiko Aiko is my favorite song, followed closely by Sugar Magnolia.

So there you have it! Fascinated? I'll bet! 
And now... I am going to Honestly Scrap ....
Bee Content Ranch  
C-ingspots
Lucky Begonia  
Life at the Rough String.


Great Blogs all! Now its your turn to spill!
Yahoo!
 

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Ghosts of Christmas Past

My most favorite thing about Christmas is ...





Not the Candy, although I like that a lot.



Not the lights, even though I enjoy driving around my neighborhood to see what everyone has done.



It's not the gifts either.



It is something small.



And very personal.




It is the Memories I make and recall each year.

It is Hubby (who looks a little like Jesus) stringing the lights because I wasn't tall enough and hate high places.




It's Lil Mama in her very most favorite Christmas dress being sweet for the camera.




It is the first puppy she ever owned by herself -Patsy the Amazing Doggie.





It is OD and Mac- he was young and black as night then.




It's picking the biggest tree we could find, then smashing it into the bed of the pickup truck.

It's my memories of two little girls so full of happiness and excitement that they were bouncing in their beds.

It is the memory of my Granny and her silver tree, plastic icicles and red,blue and green rotating lights. (sure wish I could find a picture of
that!)
I know - you are saying..."All we have are memories!" And you might be right! But to me Christmas memories are just extra special. They seem to stand out and glow in my mind. I anticipate taking out my box of ornaments, carefully unwrapping each precious one and recalling the past. Grandma's name etched on this gold one, Baby Gin's first plastic orb. The year we took OD to SF and found this bright blown glass ball in the window at Union Square. Remember, remember... remember.
Are you remembering too?

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Gettin' California on y'all

Recently someone told me they thought I had lots of good people around me. They are right! I do!
But it has been a process of growing and re-evaluation and self evaluation and introspection. It has taken all of a lifetime to finally be in the place I am today. 
I enjoy a good drama- from time to time. I write drama and I watch it on TV. But after Living in Drama for a large portion of my life I finally just said "STOP!" I dropped the people in my life that wanted to draw blood, live my life, suck me dry. It wasn't easy- oh no! Those same people- the ones living in the ' I can't help it' groove- kept trying to weasel their way back in to my life. 
Recently I had one try to weasel back in again.  An old high school flame- albeit one that I was crazy about - when I was sixteen and didn't know JACK! 
He called to say 'hello', he wanted to know how I was, if I remembered him ( how could I forget the guy that broke up with me in code, in my High School yearbook pages!)If we could meet for coffee...yadayadayada! 
Hmm... let me think a minute-no! Nice to hear from you-goodbye. 
Was I sorry? Nah. 
I believe that (here's where I go all California on yer asses) bad Karma begets bad Karma, and good Karma draws good Karma to you. If you are bright enough or lucky enough or aware enough to stop repeating the cycle of bad, weird, hurtful, angry things, you can get up out of that same rut and begin to shine. 
I don't have time for people that lie. 
Or people with the faces of angels that have the hearts of devils. 
I try to live each moment of my life like it might be the last.
 I stop to thank people for the everyday things they do, for me or for others.
 I try like hell to say something positive to everyone I meet.  
I stop to smell the roses.
 I lend a hand.
 I listen. 
And it comes back to me ten-fold!

 I do have a group of wonderful, giving, happy people surrounding me daily. 
Don't you?

Monday, December 8, 2008

A Real Good Day!











Glaciers feet were not as bad as I'd feared! Her toes were long, but her heels weren't, her sole is soft, but her hoof is hard. Her legs are in good shape too- a few minor, and older, splints, low down on the inside. She's thin and she has no muscle, but her body score wouldn't be bad. All and all a very good report. Vet coming on Thursday to check her teeth.


And on this weeks Horse.com website was a great article on feeding an older neglected horse- just up my alley! To check it out you can go to MySpace-Mtzhorsewomanprez.






This is my cutie-patootie horseshoer- Kevin A. Not only is he a real nice guy- he has a New Zealand accent- G'day Mate and all of that! He's a great horseshoer too! Too bad he has a sweet girlfriend- we'd all be fighting over him!

It was cold today too- at least by CALIFORNIA standards. Last week- 75 degrees. Today it was 48 degrees. Brrr! Too swift a change for me, my blood is still real thin! We bundled up TLC and drug him along (of course! they kinda of frown on leaving babies home alone at this age-). He loved it! His little nose got kinda red, but he smiled at Kevin and cooed at me, and wanted to touch 'his' pony!
Then The Best Neighbor in the Whole World came over and brought us a kids saddle ! Whoopee!~
Now Lil Mama can make a sheckle or two giving riding lessons. Boy It was a super duper day for us!
Hope all of you had good days too!
It's only 17 more days until Christmas!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Glacier Reunited

Does this look like a happy girl? You bet! 
This is my niece The Ant. She's fifteen now,she  learned to ride on this mare, and was beyond surprised today when she came to visit me. 
Me~ Let's go see the horses. 
Ant~ (coming down the shed row) Who is that horse... Is that GLACIER! How did she get here? What is going on!
Me~ snicker snicker. I bought her! She'll be here with me now forever! 
Ant~ (Smiles as big as can be) Can I brush her?

So The Ant spent the afternoon, brushing her coat, cleaning her feet, and letting her graze around the barnyard. She told me that the mare is three years older than she is- so that makes Glacier 18. She told me her registered name is Glacier Two Hands, and she told me her Mom ( my crazy sister) still has her papers ...somewhere.  So part deux of the Great Glacier Caper will continue...
As I was happily clipping my own sweet Desi, I was  thinking of all the things that had to go right for me to find this horse. The timing of the ad, our finances, etc.. and I was enjoying the fact that this turned out well, especially for the horse and Ant.  It occurred to me that there usually aren't happy endings to this sort of thing, so why did I expect this to be one? And then somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered Black Beauty. You all know the story of the black horse that goes from riches to rags and then is rescued by his original not so rich groom.  We all rooted for Black Beauty, but his pal Ginger wasn't so lucky. More horses face the fate Ginger faced.  
I have rescued plenty of horses. I was rescuing horses when it wasn't fashionable- when people thought I was just a crazy young girl. And I am so glad that I am not alone in this any longer. I know you all do what you can- not only to rescue horses but to educate people as well. Just like Anna Sewell tried to do all those many years ago. 
Thanks to all of you for your support!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Thanks Horseshoeing Housewife-I think...

Ok I've been tagged by the Horse shoeing Housewife. I'm suppose to tag a few others, but I don't have all that many blogger buddies yet- so I'll just leave it open- for now.
This is six (count 'em) 6 things that are little known about me.

1. I love Cartoon movies. My Favorite is The Incredibles, but I love them all from Shrek to Snow White.

2. I have been a professional driver. Not like a race car driver- although I have gone fast in a car or two. I mean I drove for a living- I was a Team-o bitch for 12 years, and I drove a Limo for two. I love to drive!

3. I wanted to be an actress or director when I grew up and actively studied to do so.

4.I've been without a horse in my life probably a total of two weeks.

5. I was on local TV last year and I never tuned in to watch the program.

6. I am a history buff-especially California History and local Native American History. But I have traced one line of my ancestors all the way back to the early 1700's when they came here from Ireland as indentured servents.

So now you know all about Vaquerogirl!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Saga Of Glacier

OH Friends, this is a long and sad little story. 
Can you bear it at Christmas time? 
I hope so. 

This is the Saga of Glacier, the little black and white Appaloosa mare. She was purchased as a young horse up in the Territory of Alaska. She was loved and petted and the girl that bought her is my little sister. LS rode her everyday, trained her in the wilds of Alaska, riding her and packing on her- the little mare gave her all with never any fuss. She was THAT kind of horse. 
Then LS moved to the Lower 48 and brought the little mare with her. She took good care of her, but things started to go bad. LS got into drugs and her hubby got into alcohol. They still took care of Glacier, but maybe not as good as they should have. LS continued to get worse and worse, she left her family and abandoned her horse. She tried to get straight and divorced her hubby but the pull of drugs was too strong and pretty soon, she wasn't going to see Glacier at all. She forgot she had a horse or a family. Glacier was abandoned -but the barn owner was kind and fed Glacier, and fixed her neglected feet. This is about the time I realized the LS wasn't taking care of Glacier any more. I tried to buy Glacier, but it was too late the barn owner had already sold her to a young girl that he thought was kind and good. She wasn't. She was a spoiled selfish little beznatch! I tried to buy Glacier from her and she said " F-you!" But the little girl couldn't keep Glacier, she rode her too hard, fed her too rich and nearly killed her- so she gave her to some other kids. The other kids weren't any better. They abandoned Glacier in a field. A nice woman that someone knew had horses was called in to rescue Glacier, which she did- and because she had eleven horses of her own she listed her for sale on Craig's list. 

Where I spied her. 

"It can't be OUR Glacier!" I thought! So I called up my Super Sleuth- Lil Mama- and had her call the nice woman. The Nice Woman told Lil Mama a sad tale of this poor abandoned appaloosa horse. The horse was suppose to be a super dressage horse brought down from Alaska, but the poor horse had been abandoned for the last ten years in a field. 

WELL! 

I knew the real story- but I wern't saying. 

So I got out my "Hunny, this is Real Important To Me," face and put it on- hit my TERRIFFIC Hubby up for the dough-which he gave to me with nary a fuss at all! We hitched up the trailer and headed out.
Lil Mama and I drove to the Nice Woman's house- 2 hours away- with a screaming baby-through rush hour Bay Area traffic and negotiated for the sad little horse. We smiled and nodded and finally put the little mare into our trailer and brought her home. 
NOW she is our little Pony- Never to roam no more. She has a forever home with ME and Lil Mama! 
LS won't ever get her back- and she will want for nothing all the days of her life.

Hey! I didn't say the story had a sad ending!

If you want to see the pictures go to Mommy in Spurs blog- she took them this afternoon. I'll post some later tomorrow.