Well Pam has done it again......

Pam Saxon came to our house the other day and took some pictures......I had great plans for these pictures, but that is another story, one which I will not go into here.

Anyway, here are a few of them...... a preview if you will.

She always does such a wonderful job...one day she will go professional and we can all say "we knew her when"........

Til next time.......

A few more baby steps.......

Well this week was another successful one.....Robin, the trainer, got on Duke again and rode him. This time for a good 15 minutes or so and she even got him into a trot, TWICE! This was a huge step and he was surely beautiful with his "gait" in that trot! We were both excited. I didn't video this time but I will have my camera with me in future sessions.

Also, Cisco has come a long way in just a week. Robin said she couldn't believe it, "he is a different horse this week than last", she said. There are a lot of things he did that I won't go into all of them here but he has made progress by leaps and bounds. We still have a long way to go, BUT he is on his way this week. She even got on him on Friday. It was not a "ride" by any stretch but she laid over his back and actually got on his back, sitting upright with his bridle and lead on. She was on bareback but was on his back just the same and I lead him around with her up there. This is another step in the right direction. Excitement has filled out house over these two events......these sound like small things, not really worthy of explanation here or excitement, but around here we are very excited. This is the very beginning of what we have been waiting for.

Til next time......

SUCCESS....even if it does come in baby steps!

For a number of months now we have had two horses here with us that we were given. I contemplated taking them, I wanted them and of course since I love all animals, especially horses, my tender side said yes....they can come and live with us! Mal was not completely convinced but he allowed it. I knew that the people giving them to us had come to that descision painstakingly, they loved them too, but had to find homes for them as they could no longer take care of all of the horses they had. Both of our horses were born in their care and they raised them from colts. I knew they were only giving them to us because they knew we would take care of them. The are registered Rocky Mountain horses and are what is called a gaited horse. Which means they have a very smooth ride, because they are gaited.

So, on with the story, although I really, really wanted them and was very excited about having horses again, I was skeptical because you know the old saying....nothing is ever really free! Well that certainly proved to be true when just three short weeks after they came to live with us, I ended up at the University of Florida Veterinary School Large Animal Hospital with them.. needless to say, that was far from free.......but I degress. They are much better now and we have begun training them...well actually we were put in touch with a wonderful lady (a Christian lady) who has been training horses for about six years. She has taught me a lot in the last three weeks and we have made progress. On just the second week with her our Duke had made such progress that she decided she would get on him the following week....AND SHE DID! I have posted the video of it. I was so very excited to see him under saddle and all tacked up that I could hardly contain my excitement. Although I love them, I am very glad that we have them and I am thankful that they were given to us....I have to admit that over the time that they were sick as well as the weeks after I was afraid that I'd made a mistake.....I want them here but I want to be able to ride them. I want Sutherlyn to be able to ride them and I was afraid that maybe we were never going to get there. But a few weeks ago, we did. It is a very small step but one that I have been waiting for. I look forward to many more....and to the day when Sutherlyn can ride Duke and/or Cisco. Duke had been trained and had been ridden before, briefly and a long time ago, but Cisco is another story. I hope that we can work with him and train too.....time till tell.


Til next time.......