For many, Thanksgiving means the Three F’s: food, family, and football. To this, I add Fotography. And Fillies. And many Furlongs of graded stakes action.

Cigar Mile Day is generally the last hurrah of the season for New York racing fans. This time of year, the weather gets chilly, racing at Aqueduct moves to the inner dirt course, and the holidays approach.

I brought my friend Lisa to the track and she did a great job as my assistant. She also learned quite a bit about the light at the track and how to get the proper exposure for bright sun and the shade of the grandstand.

Before you know it, Derby Fever will be upon us. This Saturday gave racing fans a little more information about their favorite two-year-olds.

Launch N Relaunch broke his maiden with ease.

Buddy’s Saint (center) won the Remsen handily.

Although they did not take a trip to the winner’s circle, there were many other nice colts at the Big A that day, including Imaging:

Highveldt Storm:

Lentenor, full brother of Barbaro. Barbaro’s Kentucky Derby was one of my favorite races of the decade, but I never got to see the great colt in person so it was a treat to see his younger brother carrying on the legacy.

But the day was not all about the colts. Stardom Bound had an eventful return from her layoff. Peach Brew stumbled out of the gate at the start of the Gazelle- if you view the video (below), you can see that it happened in the blink of an eye, but the photo shows how much it can affect a horse’s game.

The marquee race of the day was the Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile Handicap. Kodiak Kowboy won the race and a real shot at this year’s Eclipse Award for Champion Sprinter.

Furlongs and Furlongs of Fun for this Fotographer. Hope you had a good weekend as well.

Tanjil. You will believe a horse can cry.

By Christi Wales, Accountant and Mother.

For her twelfth birthday, I took my daughter Dana to Judy Oldmeadow’s Morgan Horse Farm.

I never thought it’d be an amazing, life-changing day for me.

We began by bringing all the mares and foals to the round yard to see how they interacted with toys and us. Dana sat in the yard and the foals loved her, perhaps because she’s young too.

Judy and I noticed that one mare, Folie, was overprotective of her foal, Echo. The poor thing wanted to play, but Folie wouldn’t let him. So we joined Dana and I spent some time massaging Folie all over – which she loved. Before long, she let me near Echo and encouraged him to interact with me.

I held out my hand and let Echo toddle past me, just brushing his back to get him used to my touch. I then massaged some of the other mares. With three children myself, I figured they’d like their necks, backs and rumps massaged.

After a while, Folie was so relaxed that Echo was able to break away and play. It was a fantastic sight that I was proud to be part of. I kept massaging the mares, plus any foals that approached.

Then Tanjil decided that no other mare could have me.

I’d rub her and try to move on, but she’d come next to me, right near the other horse. Though she didn’t touch the horse, it knew she was boss and walked away.

At first I thought it was funny. Why did Tanjil want me to herself? She did it again and again with every other horse I tried to rub.

My hands were getting sore and Folie was giving her foal a chance to explore. So I decided to wait to see what happened. Well, little Echo headed in my direction with his mum’s full support – a fantastic breakthrough for both of them.

A bit later, Echo was hanging around so I gave him a rub and Tanjil just stood near me. I found it strange; had I done something wrong? Then Tanjil came and stood with her head right over me.

I started rubbing her neck thinking, ‘Why me? Was I was a strong leader? Did she feel I was a strong mother?’

Being a mother is hard. Sometimes I feel I don’t have the strength. But I find it and keep going. If I don’t, no-one else will do the things I must do to keep my family safe, together and running smoothly.

I don’t get a break from being leader of my herd. At times I hate being the one who has to pull rank, keep everyone in line and be tough to be kind in the long run.

At that moment my emotions overwhelmed me. With her fantastic intuition, Judy yelled out that the last time Tanjil had stood this way with her, it’d made her feel like everything was going to be OK.

I glanced at her and nodded; a huge lump in my throat. Then my tears flowed.

I looked at Tanjil and couldn’t believe what I saw. She was crying with me! Not just watery eyes; these were full tears, rolling down her face, one after another along with mine.

Was I delusional? No. This magnificent mare was helping me with my doubts as a mother. I thought then that maybe she also felt the pressure of being the leader who kept her herd in line.

Tanjil gave me what I never got from my mother. What I needed to know when I became a mother myself: I’m a good mum. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be OK. We can only do our best. We make mistakes, but that’s OK too.

I then thought that maybe Tanjil also needed reassurance that she was a great mum and leader. Because when I saw her with her foal and the herd, it was exactly how I felt.

I’ll never know if she felt my empathy. I’d not seen a miracle before, but that’s the only word I can use.

I have a horse named Major. When Judy took Dana and me to the rest of the herd, Major stayed with me while the other horses went to the car.

He was so affectionate. I was rubbing his body when he moved – uncomfortable with the slope. I thought he was going to walk away but he simply ambled to level ground and waited for me.

I hugged his neck and said I loved him, that he was a good boy and that I wished I could see him every day. As he wrapped his head around me, a tear rolled down his face.

It was very moving. I remembered that Major had lost his mum when very young. Maybe he perceived my feelings of abandonment.

Had I not experienced my miracle with Tanjil, I wouldn’t have thought a horse could cry.

Now I know they feel pain, sadness and love.

My Fat Horse!: How to Help Your Horse Lose Weight (Understanding Your Horse) Review

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My Fat Horse!: How to Help Your Horse Lose Weight (Understanding Your Horse) Overview

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My Fat Horse!: How to Help Your Horse Lose Weight (Understanding Your Horse) Specifications

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32inch lcd hdtv

What better way to test out how some of the buttons work than to post a picture of me and my horse?

Torunn and Oscar

The horse is a charming, nearly 20 year old Oldenburger by the name of Oscar. He is as big and black as his shadow, with hooves as pancakes and a tendency to bite people he likes. Sometimes I think he believes I will one day turn into a giant carrot or sugar cube.

He was bred as a draft horse, but since I don’t have a wagon (wouldn’t know how to drive it even if I had one)  he his now earning his oats as a hobby jumping and dressage horse. As he his big and black, it’s not always easy to take good pictures of him. It doesn’t help that he usually make funny faces or eats something instead of doing noble poses and gazing proudly into the horizont. The horizont really doesn’t interest him at all.

A well-meaning friend asked me the other day if we “got those mustangs broke yet?” I was quick to tell him that we are gentling them, not breaking them.  He didn’t quite understand so I went on to explain that we want to be their friends and you don’t try to break your friends down.  You start by letting them know they can trust you and a friendship starts to build from there.  He still looked a little uncertain of this, so I then asked him how he treats his friends and how his friends treat him.  I think I finally got through to him, but I am not so sure…

It is very unusual for two people to become friends without knowing anything about the other.  Friendships are built by spending a lot time getting to know each other.  You communicate with each other and sometimes you have to learn a new language to do this.  If you are totally committed to this friendship you will do all that you can to learn as much as you can about the other.  You find common bonds and build on that.  Soon you learn to trust each other, knowing that the other will not betray that trust.

Ember and Image

We set out to do just that with Image and Ember.  We knew we had our challenges ahead of us having 2 wild horses to work with.  We knew that they would have a tendency to look to each other for comfort before coming to us.  So we had to get a little creative in our ways of working with them.

Ember's Beautiful Mane

Horses have a very beautiful language in that every body position means something different to them.  Where we are standing in relation to their body.  The squareness of our body to theirs.  What it means if we stand behind them.  It is ALL a part of their language.  And if we had any hope of our friendship with Image and Ember to grow, we needed to realize how important this language is.  Just something as simple as standing in the wrong place could give them mixed signals on what we are asking them to do.  My husband loves to use hand signals, especially when we are out in the field baling hay.  Sometimes I have no idea what he asking of me with the motions of his hands so I have no idea what he wants me to.  So it is very important for me to learn his language of hand signals.  By thinking in these terms, I can completely understand how important all forms of communication are: whether baling hay or building friendships with a wild horse.

Image and Ember in their paddock area

We needed to keep working with Image in overcoming his fear of the corral.  We knew that he had to have some good experiences in a corral to start overcoming that fear.  We knew the terrors he had faced in the corrals of his not-so-distance past and we did not want him to relive any of those experiences any longer than he had to.  We gently coaxed him in and out of the corral several times and then left the gate open to their paddock area so that he could freely go in and out of the corral on his own.  My heart is happy that he no longer shudders at the thought of going through that gate.  He just walks right on it without any hesitation now.

Me with Image and Ember

Next we started working with a lead rope.  They both got used to having the rope anywhere and everywhere on their body.  Then it was time to learn how to lead.  Image did really well.  With pressure – release techniques, he was soon leading very well.  We were careful to always reward for doing well, even in the smallest of victories.  Sometimes he would get a little stubborn, but by gently coaxing him from the back, similar to what his mom may have done in the wild, he would almost always do as we asked.  If not, we backed up to what he knew he could do and started over.

Me with Image after leading him around the corral

After leading Ember around the corral

Ember was a little trickier and we found that lunging her worked best.  She has a tremendous amount of energy and gets bored very fast if not doing something fun and exciting.  She has been doing very well with leading now.  Every now and then she becomes “Queen Ember” and will not do a thing we ask of her.  I have learned that Ember is a thinker.  She has to think every thing through before she does anything.  She is so different from Image in how she approaches different situations.  I know I have said this before, but it still remains true.  She will come around in her own time.  And we will be here, waiting.  Sometimes friendships are built very quickly and sometimes they take some time to build that trust.  We have the time.

We let both Touchy and our 8 year old mustang, Abi, out with the kids to let them get to know each other.  Touchy, having been out with the kids before, did very well with them.

Image and Touchy

Not knowing exactly what Abi would do when introduced to the kids, we put a halter on her.  Abi was so excited and nervous to meet the new kids, she ran in circles.  In her excitement she kicked and bucked and put on quite a show.  Never once did she aim at the kids.  All of this was nervous energy and excitement.  As soon as she calmed down, she came over to where Terry and I were to get some comfort.  We coaxed her over to the kids so she could start building a friendship.  She was little too keyed up to completely enjoy the situation.

Abi meeting the kids

With both Image and Ember now leading fairly well, both in the corral and out in their paddock, we knew it was time to let them out into the big pasture with the big girls.  We put halters on both Shy Ann and Abi.  And then we put all three older girls in the back pasture so the kids could completely focus on us and what we were asking them to do.  We led them over to the creek to cross it to get to the pasture.  We had thought that this may be a challenge for them.  Even though they were both used to getting in the water holes up on the mountain, running water was a completely different thing.  With a lot of coaxing, one step at a time, I was able to walk Image across the creek.  True to her fashion, Ember had to think about it.  While thinking about it, she stuck her nuzzle in the water and seemed to be blowing bubbles.  She knew what she had to do.  She wasn’t crazy about the idea though.   She chose to jump across rather than walk through the water.

Image saw the green grass and immediately wanted to graze, so I let him.  Ember saw the other horses in the back pasture and thought that getting to them was a higher priority.   After Image got a few good mouthfuls of grass, I led him closer to Ember in the center of our big pasture.

Image and Ember in the big pasture for the first time

We took their lead ropes off and let them graze for a couple of hours before letting the big girls back in the pasture with them.  Ember ran close to the fence that separated her from her new friends.  Everyone got excited by this and were soon prancing around.  Everyone but Image, that is.  He was clearly more interested in enjoying this green heaven he had just been led into.

We were unsure what would happen when our alpha, Shy Ann, met the kids for the first time.  We knew that the area had to be big for them to run in so we waited until this moment to let them meet without fences or corral panels.  Terry stood close to the kids as I opened the gate for the big girls to come back in to the main pasture.

Shy Ann about to meet Image and Ember

Shy Ann trotted down to the kids and sniffed around.  She immediately postured her Queen status, as if the kids didn’t already know the power she holds in this new world.  But just to make sure all was understood, she told them the way it was going to be.

Shy Ann greeting the kids

Image showed no signs of questioning Shy Ann’s authority.  Ember, on the other hand, decide to sass Shy Ann a bit.  She led Shy Ann on a merry chase.   She knows that Shy Ann is the queen of this green castle, but she can still have fun, right?Abi decided to join in the fun. And soon they were all tearing across the pasture.Image brought up the rear.  He is clearly not in to running as his cousin Ember is.Ember was born to run and run she did!  It did my heart good to see her so happy running all over the place. Image stuck to Ember like glue when Shy Ann decided to exude her authority once again and chase them around a bit.Ember soon outran Image and left him behind as Shy Ann continued her chase of Ember.  I was surprised to see Shy Ann snaking Ember.  I have only seen stallions do this in the wild to bring members of their band back into the fold.  They all soon settled down and went back to grazing.  It took a few more hours for them all to get close to each other and graze without any drama.  I was very pleased that no one got kicked or hurt.  These friendships are not being built overnight, but in time we will all learn to trust and depend on each other.

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

stamp: 25 kopeyka

year: 1959

mammal: horse

This rider clearly should not be allowed anywhere near horses. This horse though is FANTASTIC! Look at how poorly this guy was setting the horse up. And yet the horse jumps. Gennyral’s massage therapist sent me this video in an e-mail with the title “I hope he wasn’t wearing a up”. All I can say is that I second that!

Raymond, OH ~ Late November usually means a little snow in our area and the “T” family and I were hoping we WOULD have snow for our photo session together.  They wanted to get the four wheeler and snowmobile out, plus take the horse out in the snow.  But, Mother Nature had a different idea in mind.  It was sunny and 50+ degrees the morning of our shoot.  We shed our coats, got some great photos, but promised to try and get together later in the season for some snowy shots. 

Their property made a perfect background for the session.  We used the pastures, pond and even the hay loft as props.  Here are some shots of our day:

Big thanks to the “T” family plus Sampson, the horse, and Gunner, the dog, for making this session fun!!  Can’t wait to see you after a big blanket of snow hits our county!

Rapidement aux avant-postes, accompagné par Misérable, Rubi Ball a négligé certains obstacles faciles mais il s’est bien appliqué sur les gros (rivière des tribunes et gros open-ditch). Détaché en compagnie de Mail de Bièvre dans le tournant final, l’élève de Jacques Ortet s’est montré le plus fort sur le plat mais son rival s’est montré coriace. Rubi Ball a réalisé une superbe année. On devrait revoir ce petit alezan à l’oeuvre cet hiver dans le Grand Prix de Pau.

Rapport gagnant : 1,8/1. Rapport placé : 1,2/1.

A demain

Rubi Ball saute la rivière des tribunes dans le Prix Ferdinand Dufaure 2009 (photo APRH)

Incontestable numéro deux de sa génération derrière le champion Long Run, Rubi Ball a donné une excellente réplique à son grand rival le 8 novembre dans le Prix Maurice Gillois. En l’absence de ce dernier aujourd’hui dans le Prix Morgex, le représentant de Madame Patrick Papot devrait s’annoncer difficile à battre s’il a bien récupéré de sa dernière sortie. Révélé l’hiver dernier à Pau, ce demi-sang un peu spécial à monter s’entend parfaitement avec Christophe Pieux. C’est la base de la course.

Walking by George’s Lake was always different.  How high was the water, what color? Were there dead fish in the spillway?  Was the seaweed growth expanding out of the water like an alien?  Then there was the soft lime green colored sea foam floating around.  It looked beautiful but too gooey to touch.

Once old enough and long legged enough to jump across the spillway, why would anyone walk around it?  Why would you ever walk when you could run and feel the wind in your hair?

Startled by the scraping sound of a car bottoming out, I turned.  An old beat up, unfamiliar station wagon stopped beside me.

Boys, mostly boys, dark haired and swarthy complexioned, mysterious looking boys peered at me.  They were not blonde like my brothers or brown haired like most of the neighborhood.

“Oh, Father Micheals, how are you?”  I asked, exhaling a big one as I spied a familiar face.

“Good Jeanne, would you like to go horseback riding?” Father said directly.

Startled again, a “yes” came out of me.  Who said that? Before I could back out, Father said, “Go ask your mother and meet me back here in an hour.”

“Okay,” the voice said.

As Father pulled away, I was back alive, running home.  “City kids, they must be city kids,” I muttered to myself, “Father was transferred to Carson.”

“Ma, I feel funny in this tummy top, you know with a priest and all.”

“Nonsense, its fine, wear it.”

Later, packed into the car, my neck and shoulders were tensed ready to spring to action to protect myself.  My elbows tucked back at my sides, What if someone touched my bare midriff? All my energy was in creating a wall around me, why couldn’t I have a shirt on?

At the stables, a gigantic brown horse was brought to me.  Once on, I grinned; being so high tickled me.  The fur was coarse and flat, not fluffy.  It was not like silk unless your silk was burnt, melted and hardened again.

We clopped along, the horse and I bouncing out of sync, changing perspective with every step.  Spindly Sumac branches whipped me, Were they poison Sumac?  Too late!

Horses before and after me, I was alone in the world of my horse.   Daring not to squirm, elbows in to get a better grip, I felt prickles of coarse horse tail flicking my calves.  The horse smelled warm and ‘horsy’.  He didn’t smell like dog or cat.  He smelled more like deer.

We broke into a clearing: my horse joined the others ahead galloping.  Oh my, wind blowing in my hair, blowing my eyes to slits.  Laughing out loud, our bouncing meshed — the horse and I were one!

The horse slowed before I said my reluctant “Whoa” and pulled on the reins.

Clinging to the saddle, belly to belly I slid my reluctant legs to the strangely still ground. Why would you run when you could ride?

Placé parmi les derniers dans une course plutôt régulière, Skins Game a pu se dégager facilement de la course à l’entrée de la ligne droite finale. Venu au niveau de son compagnon de couleurs In Chambers à cent cinquante mètres du but, le partenaire de Ioritz Mendizabal a ensuite créé la décision facilement, sans un coup de cravache, et il a rallié le poteau en net lauréat. Ce trois ans aura sans doute des ambitions au niveau des listeds ou des groupes III l’an prochain.

Rapport gagnant : 1,5/1. Rapport placé : 1,4/1.

RETURN TO  OFFICIAL MEAN MARY WEBSITE (HOME)

Well I had a blast making this video – there was so much to do. The video didn’t include half of the scenes we shot – I think we could have made a full length feature with all the footage! I’d love to tell everybody I was the diva in this video but I have to say the star of the production was my baby Apache – a Tennessee Walker/Thoroughbred mix. He spent most of the shoot munching on marshmallows (he requested the pink ones) and relaxing in his trailer while catching up on the script. I, however, was busy doing the grunt work and spent most of the time shoveling the aftermath of his marshmallow binging. When the time came for Apache to do his part though he came in like a real professional and never missed a cue. Thank you, Apache.

My brother Frank also starred in the video and did in the shoot what most brothers do best—ruining their sister’s life. My mom Jean did the majority of the camera work and co-wrote the script with me, she also did what most Moms do best—making sure everything runs smooth. So thank you, Mom, and you too Frank (I guess).

I also want to take this time to thank everyone who worked on this song with me. My Mom (again) who co-wrote the song with me, Allen Marshall on drums, Gary Jaworski on bass, Jennifer Brown on back-up vocals, and Frank (I guess you again too) who did guitar and back-up vocals.  Jim Brown who mixed the whole mess! And VisionSound for the final mastering. And last but not least I would like to thank my pink paisley Stratocaster – I know I neglect you sometimes while playing around with all those other instruments like banjo and fiddle but you are my guy and someday soon we will spend quality time together. In the meantime, I’m a player and a players gotta play – so my upcoming album (which I now hope to release in Spring 2010) I will be back playing the field with all my acoustic beaus.

Take care everyone and have a happy holiday season! Hope you enjoy the video!

Good evening one and all it’s Motoko Blogging tonight. As my blogs title says the weather is indeed starting to change and it’s about time too. The flooded lane at the bottom of our drive way has started to drop and the distance that the lane as flooded has decreased dramatically. Me and Jenny geared up and put our canoe on the flooded lane to check how far the flood was now, and that’s when we found that the water level had dropped. So we paddled back slightly happier knowing that things are changing for the better at last. It’s still raining here but that doesn’t matter, its Cumbria after all isn’t it! Below is the new forecast for our area of Cumbria.

We are still unable to leave the stables and so on so we are still working the mornings that we normally have off, but it’s not as bad as I could have been. I made a good call saying that our staff should wear our 66N waterproofs we use for hacking out and leading treks, rather than our Ocean Crewman waterproofs while the flooding is on. As it’s been so mistily with fog and hard rain and its very slippery on the yards and the fields are potted. Anna sipped up and twisted her ankle, it was hard and raining hard, but we found her as she showed up well. Once the harsh weather has stopped we will use our Ocean Crewman for working in and our 66N for riding and stuff in. Still I and Jenny took our doggy out for a stroll around the yard and we chose to wear our Musto gear for a change, some of our Musto gear is pictured below.

If you want to know what 66N looks like this is a photograph of our stuff. As for our Ocean crewman is Orange and Blue bib pants and smock, and they are sort of hi-viz but you will have to look Ocean Crewman up s our gear has our yard name on it and I am too lazy to edit the name out off them hehe.

Tonight I am going to make homemade spicy potato edges, with fresh carrots and broccoli. This will all go with my homemade stake and ale pie, which is currently in our Ray Burn and it’s making an awesome smell as I type this. Jenny is curled up on Sofa next too me reading one of her favourite books “The Wind In The Willows” she hasn’t head it for years. I my self have been playing Uncharted: 2 online, below is a score walkthrough from one of my co-op matched I played this evening.

Cumbria has updated its Flood Bulletin made by Cumbria’s public sector organisations, click on the picture below for the 27/11/09 update.

Click the banner to learn about our wonder paradise in England, which Is Cumbria.

I am still going to show my support for the RNLI, as they have done so much good work in Cumbria.

Right I must be off to finish off dinner, and then relax before our mornings work tomorrow morning.

Jenny and Motoko Carter

Our Online Gaming Playstaion 3 ID

(This is a happy post. I’m getting sick of myself and the emo posts. Sheesh.)

Playing on  iTunes: Gitchy Gitchy Goo from Phineas and Ferb

Diane and I went out today for a much needed break from our monotonous lives (yeah right) and the pressing urgency of having to complete our Christmas shopping lists before the holidays hit. It seemed like a new experience to me, even if we always go shopping together – maybe because this time we actually shopped together and it wasn’t the usual ”let’s-just-meet-back-here-in-two-hours” routine we usually had.

Anyway.

We hit the NBC tent bazaar first which she happened to score tickets to.

I never go to bazaars and such thinking that they’ve got it all at SM, and between the busy-ness and the laziness (and sometimes my lack of funding), I’d rather go to the nearby mall than bargain hunt at faraway places. OH THE THINGS I”VE BEEN MISSING! I think Diane and I have both pledged to go to these things more often. I had so much fun that my bank account is crying.

Favorite purchase from this bazaar:

It’s a horsey necklace!

“OhmygaaawdDianeIwantthisnowdontletgoofit!”

Good friend that she is, she didn’t, even when I started to walk away because it was a wee bit pricey. Glad I bought it. Couldn’t stop smiling for a good 30minutes.

Also bought a shawl-ish thing and a fruit flavored rope for my Murphy, and got some checks off my Christmas list as well.

After her own purchasing and a bit of yanking me away from the pretty pretty things, we went and hit the Rockwell Moonlit Bazaar:

(Wrong dates on this one, but that’s ok, you get it.)

Diane and I had to pull each other away a lot to keep ourselves from buying totally-unnecessary-but-completely-essential-to-me-because-I’m-me things. She kept eyeing dresses and shoes and I was eyeing a gigantic woven hat, a small pink abacca top hat with feathers and glitters, , organic products, throws, cameos, rings, collectors items (records, cameras, coins, basketball figures) and did i mention the irresistible hats!!!?!

Anyway, here are my favorites from this bazaar:

A fringey wallet and a pocketwatch weee!

Been obsessing about fringey things for a while  now but this is the first one I’ve wanted to buy. I was looking for a similar bag but didn’t find one. Oh well. The pocketwatch I’ve wanted since forever, but most of the ones I’ve seen are either ugly or too expensive. This one is just perfect and I love it. *hearts* Got to check off some names off my Christmas list again, but the hats will have to wait as at this point I was already over budget and was getting tempted to go to the nearest ATM.

Diane got a bit light headed after a while so we stepped out to grab some dinner,  and then went straight on home, to prevent each other from financial turmoil and irreversible regrets. ‘Twas a good day, though, and I really enjoyed the spending spree. Although during the latter part of the drive home I got into one of my moods and started looking for realizations (I really must stop this, I know).

I did come up with some:

• I like vintage things.

• Money DOES play a big part in the happiness of people. I realized that when I bought Horsey. Horsey made me happy, but I needed money to go buy him, which I had and which I did, so I am now happy because I have Horsey. So every time I see or use or remember Horsey, I’m happy. But if I had no money and didn’t get to buy Horsey, then I’d be bitter now and unhappy everytime I remember it. This is all on a superficial level, yes, but people are all superficial to a certain extent, aren’t we? So no wonder rich people seem all the happier – they get to but what they want, do what they want… YES, there are other things that matter like love, family, yada yada, but like I said: superficial happiness. It counts too, you know.

• I can be too effin’ emo, YUCK.

Thanks for getting me to go, Dee, and for making me stop. Let’s go again on December ok?

I love my new favorite things. <3

Today it is windy. Like 40 mph wind gusts and consistently blowing over 20 mph. It is also only in the 40s so it is cold. It is one of those days that makes you think twice before walking out the door. The kind of day where you think to yourself, “I don’t really need to ride today”. The kind of day where you make all sorts of excuses and justifications for not riding.

I will be riding today though. I got the extra push I needed yesterday. I was at Phoenix’s place and went to put him away in the field. It was then that I saw a  family who lives near the farm. This family clearly had a bunch of extra members in town for the Thanksgiving holiday. These people were so excited to see horses, to be near horses, that they were even taking pictures to capture the moment. It was so sweet to see little kids to thrilled to pet one of the minis that they kept talking about it, long after the minis had wandered away.

It was one of those moments that remind you how lucky you have it. I get to see horses, my horses, everyday! Most people can only dream riding off into the sunset. I do it…several days a week.

So what if it is windy and cold today. At least I get to ride. I am so lucky.