Monday, April 30, 2012

Old friends, and new attitudes

What a Grand Weekend we had!

It rained so hard on Thursday I thought we were all going to float away. The rings were flooded and we couldn't ride at all. But by Thursday night the rain had stopped and the wind started. 
It blew the water right off the arena footing, and by Friday morning we were all ready to go out and show.  
This is me on Remington. I'd like to say I am not really so goofy looking- but I would be lying. 
Remington was just great! He cried a little bit, but he settled down right away. I lunged and rode him on Thursday and by Friday he was pretty much okay with the whole horse show thing. 
He raised his head and neck to look at everything, but he always went forward and never took a spooky or balky step. Not once! 

Denise brought her youngster William to the show. He was all eyes and neck for the first day, but by time I took this picture he was beginning to calm down. He's just the cutest little horse! 

Bar Hoppin Bob looks great here on the rail with Lil' Mama, but the judges just don't like his style. She took him in an English Equitation class and he seemed to be much more interested in doing that than this Hunter Under Saddle Class. He'll be 16 this year, and those young, scopey appendix horses are sure hard to beat at in an AQHA English class

Here is Denise and our Trainer extraordinaire' Jacqueline Allen Burke of Superior Quarter Horses. 
I have never had so much fun with a couple of women!


Here is Bob on course in the English Eq. class. 

Bob's redeeming quality is that he LOVES little kids. This little boy just wanted to hug and climb all over him. Of course the little boy did have a bag of cookies with him, and Bob loves cookies too. I thought Lil Mamma was gonna have a heart attack warning the Mom to keep the little boys fingers out of Bob's mouth and his feet free from Bob's big shoes. 

This is the look of Eagles wouldn't you say? 

Obviously I didn't instruct Lil Mamma in the fine art of photography from a distance. I'll have to do better next time. 
This was our Friday class. We were on course and he was very willing to go through every obstacle. Of course, we hit every one of them in some way! Tick tick tick bang! My score for this day was 51.5. Keep in mind that everyone starts out with 60 points and for every good obstacle you get  pluses point and for every tick you get minus's. 
And I had only been practicing the obstacles for three days- just since bringing him home from Jaq's training barn.
On Saturday in the Trail Class we scored 65.5! I've won classes with a score like that- but not this time. This time there were scores of 70 and 74! Accomplished horses for sure!

I might mention here that I also went into my first Walk Jog Western Pleasure class in 20 years ( Literally). 
Wow! Blew my mind! 
There is so much to remember- keep the legs on so his head stays down ( spur stops), and don't go so fast that you pass the guy in front of you, and don't run up someones tail . 
And go deep into the corners and claim your real estate on the rail early. Watch the judge and school when she's not watching. 
And don't forget to breathe. 
Or smile. 
Oh yeah, and there are thirty others in the ring with you. 
But...
We made it around the rail and I remembered some of those instructions. 
So now I also have to work on my ringmanship. 

But the best part of all was hanging with all my friends around a good meal. And take a close look at this picture...
See the woman on the right with the fork of spaghetti in her mouth...
YEP! Cynthia Cantleberry! My Hero! 
She sat down and ate and visited with us and then thanked US for letting her sit down! 
I could hardly speak ( a first) I was so happy! She's an amazing woman and as down home as you will ever find. If you ever see her in your neck of the woods, say hi. She'll return the smile tenfold. 




KBG and her horse Sure to Winsome ( Shirley) came back to the show pen this year after a two year absence. 
They did a great job. She placed forth in Fridays show, but not in Saturdays show. I have a feeling she placed in Sundays show, but since the placings aren't posted for that day until after 6 PM  I won't know her score- or mine- for another week or so ( until it on the website). I was just glad she came back to the show pen. She's just a ray of sunshine, as you can probably tell. 
We visited late into the evenings, ( when we should have been sleeping)! But isn't that really what horse shows are for? Keeping up and remembering old friends?
My whole attitude about showing has made a leap forward. 
I'm looking forward to the summer and more horse shows, thanks to Jaq Burke, Skipin out West and all my horse show buddies!

Jill was our surrogate Horse show mom this weekend. She loves the horses and they love her!


Sunday Stills

On walkabout in Alameda during my break, I came across this old truck. This was taken by my cell phone camera, then doctored up with the previously named program that is no longer.  I think this is one of my favorite pictures.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Only Four more days

I took Rem to his first horse show today. It was a small AQHA show, there were only about 15-20 riders there, so it was actually perfect for a first time out.
I didn't ride in the show- I just wanted Rem to hear the announcers, see the other horses coming and going around him, learn to stand tied to the trailer and learn to stand still when at rest. It was perfect for that. And we did get into the ring where he was an absolute prince. Though he was a little bit apprehensive, he was still trying his best to please and never offered to balk, sulk, buck rear, run off or pull back. Whew!
Good thing too, we have our first BIG show of the season, heck of his life, in FOUR days.
The CAQHEA shows are the ones I took Desi to when he was first in his show career. It is a more mellow show than the Gold N Grand shows that we also like to go to, with many rings, many horses and riders. The rings also have huge flapping tents between the rings-you can see them behind Little Mama in this photo.



  I am a little apprehensive about them.  But if Rem is as good as he was in Woodland today I think we'll be OK.
I brought Rem home from the trainers today to get him all spruced up and so I could ride intensively for the next four days.
I'll be sure to post pictures and keep you updated!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Please stop this insanity!



I don't know who thought up the idea that to have a really 'broke' horse you need to be able to stand up on him. 



Even when you are standing on your head. 
To me this gimmick is akin to playing crack the whip on roller skates behind a slow moving train. 
There is no good reason for it, there is gonna be a wreck and it sets a real bad example. 


Seems like everyone is doing it too. 
I say 
STOP THE INSANITY

There may have been a good reason in war ( but I can't think of what it might have been.)


I guess if you like showing off it is a good way to be noticed. 
But when the horse sellers on Craigslist  just randomly stand up on a horse to show he's broke...
That's just false advertising.
I could probably stand up on Desi
or Rem
on a good day.
That don't make him broke. 

This is a broke horse. This is how a man should sit on a horse. 
Notice the horse is practically asleep, the reins are slack and the man is relaxed and probably smells good. 


Photo by Mary Williams Hyde
This is a horse that is broke. This pony is attentive, and respectful, the reins are slack and this little boy might smell like cookies ( or he might not). If he stood up on this pony his mamma would proll'y whoop his hide.


This is a broke horse. He is respectful and his reins are slack. It has taken years to get him to be this broke- and though she could  stand on him, she usually won't. 

So please please please, for the sake of all that is good and holy- 
Don't stand up on your horses!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Picnic is closing and I'm so mad!

I've been using Picnic for a few years now. It is probably one of the best photo editing sites on the internet- everyone uses it because it is so easy. You could use it for free or you could pay a very nominal fee and use all of the cool edits.
Then Google came into the picture.

My Grandpappy used to say- If you can't beat a horse- buy the horse. Well, that is what Google has done to Picnic. They will close it as of April 19th.

I've been trying to use their version of Picnic-Google + and it SUCKS! Not only is it confusing, unwieldy, and hard to use, it insists you share your photo. Oh, it says you can share them, and just lock the album, and then 'share' it only to yourself. Only then can you try to edit your photo. I say try because it's hard to even find the right buttons. The tutorial says use 'lightbox'.Sure I will- when I find it!

I am just as angry as a wet cat in a wind tunnel!
There are a few other sites I will try. PicMonkey ( which doesn't have any of the cool editing tools but seems easy) or Aviary ( which looks expensive. I says looks, because it won't let me try it on my own photos with out paying for it first.)
Maybe I'm just an old fuddy duddy, but I was doing great with Picnic- I felt GOOD about Picnic!

I have a feeling this is just a warning shot fired across my bow. First NetFlix submarined its users, and now Google. What we have grown used to, are happy with and works great- will no longer be available. Our choices are being limited by our tech savvy. Bookstores are falling prey to Amazon and it's e-readers, phones to A.T.T or Verizon and their smart phones or notepads.

 To those of us over the hill- well, your kids better love you. You are going to need them to navigate your whole lives soon.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

The first one is always free...hehehe!

So if you have had a little time, you have found the Pinterest Board. Good for you!
So many of us didn't know what it is all about! Just a bunch of pictures~ so what!
But now I know what it is all about so I can clue you in as well.

Once you have logged in, you will see the word Pinterest in red at the top of the screen.

 Right under that is a small tool bar that will read 'Pinners you follow,Everything,Popular,video,gifts'.

 Click on Everything and  a drop down menu of things will appear. Pick one, like 'Crafts' ( who doesn't like Crafts!) A whole new set of pictures will appear, some of them will say something like 'Barbara Glenn onto crafts'.

If you click on the photo it will come up alone on my page. Then you can comment on the photo or idea, pin it to your own board, follow me, follow that particular board of mine or find the original website it was posted on by clicking on the photo again. If you hover on the picture there will be a button that says 're-pin'. When you re-pin, it goes on to your very own boards.
You can give all your boards titles so you know where you put it!  Then if you decide you just must make that  mason jar soap dispenser, you'll know that on your own boards, under your title 'things I just gotta make', you'll be able to find the directions.

You can also Twitter, post stuff to FB or a few other sites and so on.

Of course pinning one thing just leads to pinning more things!
I hope this has sort of helped all you Pin-challenged out there.
Just click away and have some fun with it!