Archive for the ‘She Rides’ Category
Z IS FOR ZOOMER
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on July 15, 2010 – 5:52 am -This post is in honor of the letter “Z”. For more zippy “z” posts, click here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/
ZOOMER
“a baby boomer, born between 1946-1964, who leads an active, adventurous lifestyle. The term was coined by gerontologist Dr. David J. Demko in 1998 and continues to be used to profile Zoomers on Dr. Demko’s web site at: www.demko.com/.
Happy Zooming y’all!
Posted in She Rides | 21 Comments »CHINA BLUE + TWO – OR HOW I GOT INTO THE HORSE BUSINESS PART II
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on May 19, 2010 – 12:32 pm -We went back and the breeder was waiting for us at the corral.
“I knew you guys would be back, I could see your wife falling in love with that mare,” he said to my husband as we pulled up. He agreed to deliver her to our little farm, so we raced home and checked and rechecked all of our fences for any breaks or anything at all that might hurt her.
Her name was Misty’s Ripplin, but her barn name was China Blue because she had big blue eyes.
About five o’clock he pulled in with his horse trailer and led her to the pasture, took off her halter and let her run. She ran and ran and ran for hours. We didn’t even try and catch her. We borrowed some hay from a neighbor and put some in the pasture with her, but she didn’t even look at it, just kept running. 
By the next morning, she had calmed down enough that we could get her to come over to us and she ate some of the hay.
We needed all kinds of stuff, halters, lead lines, saddles, grooming supplies. The tack and feed store wasn’t open on Sunday, so we couldn’t go shopping. Instead, we just watched her most of the day, milling around the pasture, smelling everything she could find.
Monday morning I went to work and my husband went to the feed store and spent a ridiculous amount of money on food, accessories, etc. If you’ve ever brought a puppy home, you know how much it can cost to get all of the equipment that goes with dog ownership. Well imagine if the puppy was 800 lbs! When I got home Monday, she had an assortment of halters, grooming equipment, feed and water buckets, etc. etc.
Life went on for a few months and winter rolled around. One weekend when I was helping my husband clean out the barn, I noticed that China seemed to want to be right next to me all the time. I had to shoo her away so I could work. I decided that she was lonely. My husband agreed and a few days later he handed me this
a picture of a mare he had gone to look at that day and wanted to buy.
I said sure, why not? This was, after all, his hobby, not mine. I didn’t have time for another horse in my life, I had an ill husband, two kids, a howling hound dog and a demanding job with an hour commute both ways. It didn’t matter though because this was his hobby and all I had to do was be supportive and help out a little on the weekends. I wasn’t investing anything in it emotionally, not really.
We bought a trailer (and a truck to pull it of course), so we could haul our mare to the breeder because that was the next idea that my husband had. He wanted to breed both mares, just once so the kids could be around baby animals and maybe we could make a little money by selling the babies. He found a breeder that had two stallions and we took them both up to his place one Saturday and left them for a week so they could be bred – one to one stallion and the other to another stallion.
I really missed them that week and that should have been my first clue about what was to come, but I never saw the train coming down the track before it hit me.
to be continued…
Posted in She Rides | 1 Comment »DUMB E TREE or HOW I GOT INTO THE HORSE BUSINESS PART I
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on May 4, 2010 – 12:23 pm -Actually, his real name is Dmitri Blu Russian. Arabian Horse breeders really do pick the most ridiculous names possible for their horses. Anyway, Dimitri was my last baby. For a lot of years, I had to have every mare on my place pregnant at all times. Fortunately for my sanity and my income statement, I finally seem to have gotten over the baby horse obsession. I am pretty sure there are a few more of the little guys in my future, but for now I have semi retired from the horse making business and I probably have Dmitri to thank.
He is, hands down, the prettiest horse ever seen around my place and without a doubt, the biggest troublemaker.
Here’s his story..
Well, I guess I should start by explaining how I ended up in the horse business in the first place.
I grew up around farming, but never lived on a farm. There were always animals around, dogs, barn cats (who are the wildest animal you will ever come in contact with), assorted calves, baby chicks, etc.
My husband and I left Pennsylvania when we were young because we couldn’t find jobs. We went to Florida where, at the time, the economy was booming and there were a lot of jobs. We lived there for over a decade, raising our kids and living in the land of the retired. Because we both worked long hours, we didn’t even own a dog or cat during that time. Any free time we had was very scarce and it wasn’t really fair to a pet to leave it home for the long hours we were gone.
When I was in my thirties, my husband became ill and, as a result, had to quit working. At the same time this was happening in our lives, my boss decided to move the entire company to the Rocky Mountains from South Florida. Given the fact that my income was a big part the lifestyle we had grown accustomed to, we decided to move to Utah. It was an adventure and a cultural shock. We went from subtropic to mountain desert, from Cuban sandwiches to green jello, but I loved Utah with my very first glimpse as I flew into Salt Lake Airport one late December afternoon.
As soon as we got to Utah, we went looking for a house with a little acreage. My husband was never the sort to sit around and twiddle his thumbs, so we decided to buy a horse to give him something to do while I was at work. We found the perfect spot, bought the land and the house that was on it, but were tentative about buying a horse. After all, it was a commitment to a different way of life and we were already stressed out by my husband’s health. We didn’t even have a dog at the time.
One afternoon I came home to this:
Ok, fine. I’ve lived with a lot of dogs. I can handle one little hound dog, even if he barked continuously (which he did, until he died at the ripe age of 17 a few years ago).
After much debate and numerous long conversations, we went horse shopping, or I should say my husband went horse shopping because this was going to be his hobby, you see.
One Saturday morning, he told me that he had found a mare that he thought would make a nice family horse and did I want to go out to breakfast with the kids and go have a look at her? Sure, no downside to a drive in the mountains and breakfast out.
As we pulled up to the corral where she was, I picked her out immediately. She was a dark brown mare, short and long with the most amazing blue eyes. She was friendly and sweet tempered and seemed to love the kids. When we were getting ready to leave she grabbed my son’s jacket and pulled him back so he couldn’t leave her! We decided to think about it and got in the car to drive home.
We weren’t 10 minutes down the road before I turned to my husband and said, “Let’s go back, I have to have that mare.” He smiled and turned around.
To be continued….
Posted in She Rides | 1 Comment »