Horsing Around

Here are some cute sayings I read on some horse t-shirts in a magazine...

Dogs have owners...HORSES have Staff!

The hardest thing about riding...is the ground!

Horses leave hoofprints on your heart!

Don't follow where the path may lead...go where there is no path and leave a trail!

Riding : The art of keeping the horse between you and the ground.

Laugh and Ride often!

The magazine I found these in... backinthesaddle.com

Me And Precious 1992

Riding Precious

Riding Precious at the new barn!

Precious Update

We moved Precious to the new place on Sat. The pictures below are at the old place where she has been almost two years. Notice her blue shipping boots on her legs. Those keep their legs and ankles safe while in the horse trailer. Precious is so funny when she has those on because when she walks she picks her feet up real high. It is cute! The move went smooth and Precious did really great like she always does. We went out on Sun and she was pacing out in the pasture she was turned out in which means she was not real happy. That made me feel bad but today she was doing a lot better. I went out and spent about a hour with her. I am going to try and ride tomorrow if there is enough time. I am also going to try and take pictures of her at the new place.

Precious

Interesting Timing

So my cell phone rings this morning (Fri) and I don't recognize the phone number but answer anyway. It is my horse's owner before me. And like I have said in the past he calls every few years wanting to buy Precious back and remember I have had her now for 18 years (I still can't believe it has been that long!) I told him I am not interested in selling her. He said he just bought 300 acres about an hour and a half away from us and that we were welcome to bring her out there to stay at his place and take advantage of all his land.

I did think this is interesting because number one- we do need to find her a new place since they are selling the place she is at now and number two- even though she is not ready to be retired now she is getting older and I have wondered what I am going to do with her when she is ready to retire. I will always keep her no matter what but I wold like for her to have a nice place for her to retire to. He asked me to come out and take a look at his land and see if I would want to keep Precious out there. I told him I would think about it and call him back. I do think it is interesting at the timing of his call since I do need to find her a new place to live. But honestly it really is too far away from me. I would only be able to see her on weekends and I wouldn't be able to go out that far every weekend.

Even when I do retire her she really couldn't be that far away from me but if he was closer that would be a great deal to have. Let her hang out with other horses on 300 acres. Maybe I will tell him to move closer and we would have a deal! LOL!

I have two places to look at tomorrow for her. One is kind of a drive and the other is pretty close so I just have to see if I will like it. We looked at a place last night and it was nice but just too far out. That is about it as far as the Precious update goes!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Precious And Finding A New Home

So can I just tell you how much I hate trying to find Precious (my horse) a new home? Man I hate it!! Why? Why? do they have to sell the place she is at now?? Why??? Well I do know why but Why I ask Why???

Ok enough of that.... So lets do a flashback to when we lived in the Dallas area. I had Precious at a pretty nice place that was about 15 min drive at the time well they got a new guy to live and take care of the horses and I started to think he was starving my horse so I decided to move her. Well you look on the internet for places that board and on the internet pictures will look amazing and you think you have found a great place but then you go see it in person and the place will look nothing like the pictures or will be a dump or the people taking care of the horses aren't that great, ect, ect. I swear I looked for about 2 months and had almost given up hope mean while I was sneaking food to my horse everyday since I thought the guy was not feeding her. Now in Dallas they don't have much land left because they have just built houses everywhere but out of the blue I found a place with over 500 acers (which was a miracle in its self) and was perfect! I never wanted to move again but then we moved to Austin.

The search began again and my time ran out so I just picked a place that was ok but quickly found out that it was not going to work out. But as luck would have it a person at my husband's work knew of a place close to where we live and we checked it out and move Precious there the next day. That is where she is at now. Well I have till Aug 15th to find a new home and let me just say the search for the new place is on! Things have not changed much as far as searching goes. I was looking on the internet and found one place and all the pictures looked awesome then I started to wonder why I was not at this place already and then the last picture came up of the barn and I remembered back when we first moved to Austin that we did check that place out and it was a dump and it was a not a lot of land which means riding in circles which is get very boring fast! It is amazing how good you can make a place look in pictures! So the search continues.

It is just one of those things that has to feel right. Your horse has to be happy where she is at and I have had her at places that she was not happy and you can just feel it. It really affects a horse if they are not happy. It just has to be a place that you feel is right and I sure hope we find it soon cause the clock is a tickin! Wish us luck!

From The Inside Out

This popped into my mind this morning so I thought I would post it. We have all heard that 'you are what you eat' and I truly believe this. Food can really affect your complexion, skin, ect. I am a horse person and one clue to how a horse is doing is to judge from their coat (fur). One example that stands out in my mind with my horse was a few years back. Normally Precious (my horse of 18 years) has a very very shinny coat. It is something many many people have commented on over the years. Horses can and do get worms very easily such as tape worms, ect so every other month we have to give a paste that kills all the worms in a horses body. Every once in awhile the paste will not be enough to kill all the worms and then you have to call a vet out and he puts a tube down the horse's nose into the stomach and gives a very powerful paste that will kill everything. So back to a few years back, Precious' coat got very dull and so I called the vet out and he gave her the powerful deworming stuff and about 2 hours later her coat was back to being very shinny and healthy looking! It is amazing how fast something like that can happen! Of course we don't have worms in us (at least I hope not) but it does show you how fast what we eat can affect us and how we look. So next time you are debating on fastfood vs. good for you food maybe you will think of this story and go with the good for you food!

update on Precious/Her bday/baby

Hi Everyone! I thought I would post some answeres to some of the questions I have gotten from email and also give an update on Precious and her adopted baby....

On Precious Bday I did get to make it out to see her! It had been raining all day but about 7:15pm it stopped and cleared up and I jumped in the car and drove to see her (She is about 10 to 15 min away depending on traffic). I had two Bday apples for her and peppermints. I think she knew it was her Bday and was expecting me because she was waiting at the corner of the fence where she can see cars drive up so it was like she was waiting for me. She usually does not hang out their. Plus I had been telling her all week that her Bday was coming up. :) I was very happy to make it out to see her on the actual day because I have not yet missed going to see her on her Bday and I have had her for almost 18 years!!

Update on her and her adopted baby...

They moved the baby (he is not really a baby anymore but we just call him that) because he is a boy and they wanted to move him before he figures out he is a boy and Precious is a girl...ect. He is too young to fix so they will put him with the rest of the boy horses until he is old enough to be fixed. Precious (Precious is not his real mom but only standing in as a mom for him because his real mom rejected him) was not too upset about it but the baby went all to pieces but is doing better each day. There are two horses Precious is being turned out with in the mean time. One is Rumba which they are pretty good friends and another is Zoe. Precious does not seem to really be friends with Zoe but she doesn't attack her either in fact she pretty much acts as if Zoe is not there at all which drives Zoe a little crazy I think. Awww...the life of a horse!

c-ya later!!

Precious' Bday!!!

Today is Precious' 21st Bday!! Happy Bday Precious!!! Her paper name is Sudden Threat. Her Granddad was Dash For Cash which is one of the most successful race horses ever!! Out of 25 races he won 21 with 3 second places. The age they raced him to also made him the oldest race horse to win races! I think he was around 7 and still racing. Most race horses start when they are 2 and are retried by the time they are 4. Dash for Cash was born in Frisco, Tx in 1973 and died in 1996. He was still with the same owner! He produced several offspring. Around 1300 and a horse named Sudden Dash was Precious' dad. I looked today to find info on Sudden Dash but couldn't find anything today but about a year ago (probably around Precious' Bday last year) I found some info on Sudden Dash. From what I remember he won around 90,000.00 in races and went on to become a barrel racing champ horse. Precious mom's name was Tonto Threat and it cost 85,000.00 to breed her to Sudden Dash which produced Sudden Threat...Precious. She was bread to be a race horse but the guy that had her (he had many race horses) was having financial trouble and his wife was making him (this is what he told my dad) sell all his horses so they wouldn't lose their house. Well he knew my dad through work and wanted to sell him Precious at a very low price. We bought her for 2,000.00. She was 3 years old and had never been trained but she was broke. The deal was he would sell us her if he could come and visit her and if we ever wanted to sell her to sell her back to him for the same price. The guy lived in Dallas and at the time we lived in Amarillo. Well I got her and of course fell in love with her and trained her in English jumping. Randy (her previous owner) did come and visit her several times. He really did love her and Precious really did love him. She always remembered who he was. He is the one who gave her the name Precious. She doesn't really look like a Precious but she knew her name and I didn't want to change it on her. About the time I graduated high school, Randy started asking if he could buy her back but I always said no. He stopped coming out to visit her about this time but about every two years he would call to see if I wanted to sell her back to him. He did call me about two years ago so it might be about the time he calls again to see if I want to sell her. I am pretty sure he really regrets selling her to us. I think he thought he would be able to buy her right back after he got back on his feet but I feel in love with her as well and could never let her go! She has been one of my highlights in life and is such a sweet horse!! I love her so much and she can give looks that just melt your heart!! Reading the bio of Dash for Cash his owner said the reason he felt he had so much success was because of his intelligence. Here is what his owner said " I think one thing that made Dash For Cash as fast as he was, and as successful as he was, was the fact that he has so much intelligence," said Phillips. "This horse had more intelligence, and has more intelligence, than any horse I've ever been around. When he was in his training period, in early life, this horse was just as docile as could be; you could take him out with a cotton rope and halter, and lead him out and graze him anytime, all the time he was in training. But you put him on a racetrack, and he got up on the muscle. He was that way all his life. you can go out there, and lead him anywhere you want to, do anything you want to with him, and he's just perfect. Every other day in breeding season, when he comes out of the stall and he knows he's going to the breeding barn, he gets on the muscle—but he's all business, whatever he does. And after the business is over, he's through." Precious defiantly inherited that from her granddad! One of the things I have heard through the years from trainers was she is "too smart." Happy Bday Precious!! I love you!!!

Hi Everyone! Here is a few pictures of Precious. The horse on the right is a baby Precious adopted (although the baby is almost as tall as Precious!). The real mom of the baby started to reject the baby and it was too early for the baby to be winged. So they tried putting the baby with other horses and none of them took to the baby. Well if you knew Precious you would know she doesn't really get along with other horses. Every once in a while she will find a friend but it is pretty rare so they weren't even going to try and put the baby with her. Well every time the baby would walk by Precious the baby would just talk to her and just go crazy tying to get next to her then Precious started to do the same thing so they decided to try her with the baby and guess what.....they are inseparable! They are so cute together! So the joke is when I had Jade Precious went out and found her a baby too. LOL! The pictures with the Santa Hat would of looked better if I would of groomed her but it was freezing cold that day and everyone was putting the Santa hat on and getting pictures so I just did it real quick. Her and the baby are so cute together!!