Motivational Monday

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. -Mark Twain

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Its Monday already?

You cannot train a horse with shouts and expect it to obey a whisper.- Dagobert D. Runes

Riding Mazzy on one of our evening rides

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Happy Easter!

'Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees
Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Friendship

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I had a fantastic visit with my best friend Jenn who flew out from Chicago, the best Christmas present I could ever imagine. We got to spend Christmas together and a couple of days afterwards.We went to Santa Anita for opening day. The crowd enthusiastically cheered Jerry and Ann Mosses' undefeated Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) winner Zenyatta who was paraded in front of the grandstand and into the winner’s circle by jockey Mike Smith after the day's sixth race. It marked her last scheduled public appearance before heading for the breeding shed in Kentucky. It gave me chills.


“A friend is someone who sees through you and still enjoys the view.”

“The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch swing with, never say a word, then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation that you ever had.”


“A friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself.”

“I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me, I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as you have meant old friend of mine, to me along the way.”

“Real friends are those who, when you feel you've made a fool of yourself, don't feel you've done a permanent job”
“Good friends are like stars.... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there”

“A friend is a feeling of forever in the heart.”

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Chocolate Goodness - Baxter and Murphy

Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really. ~Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Labradors [are] lousy watchdogs. They usually bark when there is a stranger about, but it is an expression of unmitigated joy at the chance to meet somebody new, not a warning. ~Norman Strung

My sweet Mazzy

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Quote for the day

Its never too late to live happily ever after

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Rest in peace my sweet angel

Today we had to say goodbye to our beloved Kora. I lost a special friend today the kind you can't replace. She will be forever in my heart. Although I knew this time was coming, and she's in a better place, I am grief stricken.

Those of us fortunate enough to love and be loved by animals know the exquisite joy and quiet fulfillment that comes from animals living in our hearts. We know there is no turning back from loving animals intensely once we experience this bond. Animals and their love stay in our souls, once we've let them in. And we are better for it, more complete, more whole, more compassionate, and often transformed. Loving this much, we also know the searing pain of losing them.

DOGS IN OUR LIVES:
We aren't house-proud. If we were, we wouldn't abide the scratches on the door-frame, the holes in the screen, the darkened shine of worn spots on the chair. We would wince at the mottled carpet and fret at the hair clinging to our clothes. We don't. If anything, we lovers of dogs are a tolerant lot, finding greater value in the unabashed affection of our friend than immaculate sofa's.
Shoes can be replaced, but heroic retrievers are timeless. Without dogs, out houses are cold recepticles for things. Dogs make a fire warmer with their curled presence. They wake us, greet us, protect us, and ultimately carve a place in our hearts and our history. On reflection, our lives are often referenced in parts defined by the all-too-short lives of our dogs.
- Paul Fersen, Orvis Associate

Treasured Friend
I lost a treasured friend today
The little dog who used to lay
Her gentle head upon my knee
And shared her silent thoughts with me.
She’ll come no longer to my call
Retrieve no more her favorite ball
A voice far greater than my own
Has called her to his golden throne.
Although my eyes are filled with tears
I thank him for the happy years
He let her spend down here with me
And for her love and loyalty.
When it is time for me to go
And join her there, this much I know
I shall not fear the transient dark
For she will greet me with a bark.
-Author Unknown

"Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really."
-Agnes Sligh Turnbull

MEMORIES
"Not the least hard thing to bear when
they go from us, these quiet friends,
is that they carry away with them so
many years of our lives. Yet, if they
find warmth therein, who would
begrudge them those years that they
have so guarded?
And whatever they take,
be sure they have deserved."
--- John Galsworthy ---

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Evening Ride

Riding with my friends in the dust...where's that water truck?



I am surprised how much energy Kylie had tonight. It was about 90 degrees, I would have thought she wouldn't want to move to much in the heat...wrong.

After sitting at a desk all day it is so nice to be outside.


Stepped over a couple of jumps

The moon is 96% of full tonight (this was a couple of nights ago), it will be a full moon on Saturday. The bird is a giant white Egret. She is a resident at the ranch and frequently soars up and down the river looking for fish I assume. Some of the horse are not too fond of her, especially when she glides on past the ring during a lesson."For one to fly, one needs only to take the reins." ~ Melissa James

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Dogs smile with their tails

When I come home from a long day, these two faces always cheer me up.

"He is my other eyes that can see above the clouds; my other ears that hear above the winds. He is the part of me that can reach out into the sea. He has told me a thousand times over that I am his reason for being; by the way he rests against my leg; by the way he thumps his tail at my smallest smile; by the way he shows his hurt when I leave without taking him. (I think it makes him sick with worry when he is not along to care for me.) When I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself. He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me understanding where before I was ignorant. His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. He has promised to wait for me... whenever... wherever - in case I need him. And I expect I will - as I always have. He is just my dog." - Gene Hill

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Quote for the day

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

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Dog Quote

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Unknown

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Quote for the day

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. -- Aesop

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Riding is for those people who see not a horse but a spirit next to them.If you have it, it is for life. It is a disease for which there is no cure.You will go on riding even after they have to haul you on a comfortable wise old cob, with feet like inverted buckets and a back like a fireside chair... when I can't ride anymore, I shall still keep horses as long as I can hobble about with a bucket and a wheelbarrow. When I can't hobble, I shall roll my wheelchair out to the fence of the field where my horses graze, and watch them.
- Monica Dickens

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The Value of a Smile

Happy Friday Everyone!

The Value of a Smile
by Author Unknown

A smile cost nothing, but gives much.

It enriches those who receive,
without making poorer those who give.
It takes but a moment,
but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.

None is so rich or mighty that he can
get along without it, and none is so
poor but that he can be made rich by it.

A smile creates happiness in the home,
fosters good will in business,
and is the countersign of friendship.
It brings rest to the weary,
cheer to the discouraged,
sunshine to the sad,
and is nature's best antidote for trouble.

Yet it cannot be bought, begged,
borrowed, or stolen,
for it is something that is of no value to
anyone until it is given away.

Some people are too tired to give you a smile.
Give them one of yours,
as none needs a smile so much as he
who has no more to give.

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When I am old.....

"When I am Old...
I shall wear turquoise
And a straw cowboy hat that
doesn't match and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my social security
on white wine and carrots
And sit in the alley way of my barn
And listen to my horses breathe.
I will sneak out in the middle of a summer night
And ride the dappled mare
Across the moonstruck meadow,
If my old bones will allow.
And when people come to call, I will smile and nod,
As I walk them past the gardens to the barn
And show, instead, the flowers growing there.
In stalls fresh-lined with straw
I will learn to shovel and sweat and
wear hay in my hair as if it were a jewel.
And I will be an embarrassment to my only child
Who will have not yet found the peace in being free
To love a horse as a friend,
A friend who waits at midnight hour
With muzzle and nicker and patient eyes
For the kind of person I will be
When I am old."
PATTY BARNHART

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Maori proverb

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.- Maori proverb

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"No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle"--Winston Churchill

What a wonderful day so far.....I had a lesson this morning to get my last fill of riding before my trip to New Zealand, and Kylie was stupendous! If I was trying her to buy her, I would have bought her today! I think that was the best she has ever been. Not a cloud in the sky, 70 degrees, it couldn't have been better. I hope this is a taste of what's to come....next stop New Zealand.

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A strange stillness dwells in the eye of the horse...

"A strange stillness dwells in the eye of the horse...
a composure that appears to regard the world
from a measured distance...
It is a gaze from the depths of a dream."

~ Hans~Heinrich Isenbart

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Happy Easter

Chad and I went to see Mazzy this morning, she is getting so big. She is 22 months old and BEAUTIFUL! It was a gorgeous day out. Her new pasture mate is a Smarty Jones filly - 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, not too shabby.


God forbid that I should go to any Heaven in which there are no horses. ~R.B. Cunninghame Graham, letter to Theodore Roosevelt, 1917

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For my mom....

If I Had My Life to Live Over - I'd Pick More Daisies By Nadine Stair
If I had my life to live over, I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax, I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.
You see, I'm one of those people who lived sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.

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