HA HA! That was a good one. :) :D

yeah, imagine that...me requiring a woman to have no facial hair. Im so shallow:o

Hi, BuffyM!

I'll send you additional horse pictures from the trip after I shrink them down. You would really have enjoyed the trail rides.

Oh, Kev, go on the blind date. It's just one date. Worst case scenario, you can't ever visit Florida again. And that's not so bad, is it? My husband doesn't even miss Texas anymore... :)

most likely going to FL the end of Jan.

no blind dates...if it goes horrible I want to be the only person to blame:D

Nicole, those pictures are beautiful and your horse is adorable too... I'm glad you had a good time. :D The only place I've been to out of this country is Cancun. :o And all of you guys have me beat... I've only been to 17 states.

Barrilito is a cutie, isn't he? The first day I rode a horse named Santo (Saint, which he certainly was), who was a QH mix, but the second day they were nice enough to let me ride one of the Argentinian breeds (I think it's crillo). As they told me, very short, very wide, and very strong, and he was. It was slow-paced riding, but strenuous-- lots of steep ups and downs and a lot of the indiginous plants evolved to keep nibblers away-- very thorny, so I was glad I had my half chaps on. I still have a couple of burrs in my thumb from a stumble during a hike! Not exactly the souvenirs I intended to bring back...

Oh wow... that stinks! I hate those burrs... I've got scars on my calfs from them (riding with shorts and no chaps. :o )

Doesn't have to be a blind date kev. Just a meeting of friends. I am going to be there ya know. I don't think I will make the end of January though. We have many horse shows that month. I will see if I can get a picture of her. Once ya see her you will want to meet her. :)

I would LOVE to see them Genuine. I am jealous. I want to go now. And that horse is adorable!

One of the girls at the barn just got a beautiful 17 hand Hanovarian/Holsteiner cross yesterday. Solid white with a grey mane and tail. He is a HUGE and BEAUTIFUL horse. Once I get a picture, I will send it to you. My digital camera broke so I need a new one. I am pretty sure one of the other ladies at the barn took some pics or will today.

Oh and the friend I wanted to have kev meet is the one I told you about before that was looking for a nice guy. :) He would be crazy not to atleast meet her. They don't have to hook up, but she would be nice for him to look at while he is here. :)

Kev is a picky guy... Buffy, send me some pics of your friend and I will make sure that Kevin looks at them. :D

Excellent idea, Cajun; I second the notion of Buffy sending you the pix.

(Kev, just sit back and let us run your life for you. Consider it practice for the next time you take the plunge. ;) )

Can't wait to see pix of the new horse, Buffy; sounds like a beauty!

Well Kev: looks like you have an Excellent "crew" to back you up!:D

I sent the pic to her Genuine.

Cajun make sure he sees it. I won't be able to meet up with you guys in January, but maybe if you can talk him into coming back for the FL Derby. :)

He doesn't trust me I guess. I wouldn't steer him wrong. She really is a nice girl with looks to boot. :)

I'll work on him... I can be a "convincing" sort. :D He doesn't stand a chance!!! HAHA!!!

I'm trying to regard them as mementos from the trip-- you know, every time I look at them I think of Patagonia. One of them looks like it's growing out, but the other two are really embedded.

Did you have shoes on, at least? :)

Yep, sneakers! :D We did some stupid stuff as teenagers... the horses had to put up with a lot. We used to race them on an old airfield that someone had (private planes used to land over there.) One of my best friends fell of her arabian mare and got trampled (broke her leg) by my horse who took off out of control back towards the barn following Sugar (the arab mare)... that had to be the scariest experience that I've ever had. I stopped him, but this was AFTER he crossed a 4 lane highway at a full gallop with me on him. I don't think I've ever been so afraid... :(

Wow-- I remember my first riding teacher talking about racing her horse with friends, stirrups shortened as far as they would go, and when they finished, without thinking, slapping her hands down... right on the horse's kidneys. Horse threw her several feet in the air. Ah, youth...

Did your friend keep riding after her leg healed?

You two sure did crazy things... Hee hee. Like I should be talking. :) But I never got hurt that bad (broken legs, etc...) KNOCK ON SOME WOOD HERE, but I have only broken toes from being stepped on. THANK GOD for the mare that I rode when I was a kid.

Worst thing I ever did was run across a golf course (sorry kev) but I HAD A BLAST!

She probably rode another two times after her leg was healed, but she quit riding mostly because of outgrowing it... I was the only one out of all of my friends that didn't sell my horse. I miss the good ole days, but little girls grow up and turn into shopping monsters. I just never did. :D

Not all little girls grow out of it. All the girls at the barn laugh when I tell them "BOYS ARE BAD! STICK WITH YOUR HORSE! A HORSE WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER!"

And thank goodness for that. Yick. Shopping monsters.

Some of us had to wait until we were grownups, and that sucks when you're a teenager, you have no horse AND you don't like shopping! But then again, it's nice to get to discover it as a grownup, I guess, though I doubt I'll ever be as good a rider as you, Cajun. :)

Not true, Nicole... practice makes perfect and I'm far from perfect. I enjoy riding, but I'm not as heavily into competing anymore. Too expensive... :eek: I was lucky that my Dad bought me a horse when I was 13, but as soon as I turned 16, I got a job to pay for him and my car. :D Worth every hour I worked too... I miss my horse so much. :(

Yeah, but there's something about learning when you're a kid, you know? When your body does it instinctively. When you're a grownup, you have to understand it intellectually, THEN you can process it through your body.

I took judo as a small kid and even now I usually can fall safely (knock on wood), because the first part of every class was devoted to falling. Now, the instinct does it for me. Not so much riding... sigh.

Who was it who said youth is wasted on the young? :)

I disagree with you I think...kids learn with their bodies instinctively because they don't understand it intellectually...adults seem overthink everything so they are usually incapable of just letting their bodies learn....

Of course, no longer being made of rubber doesn't help, either. :) (Says she who got thrown again tonight, but by a different horse, who no one informed me, tends to choose to go crazy when he decides he's done with the lesson. The one who tossed me four weeks ago, by the way, started rearing with the instructors on her so she's gone... :( )

I'm starting to think I need a new stable-- too many crazy horses at this one!

Um Buff....about this friend of yours....Jamie showed me the pic....OK...you talked me into it...I will meet her:D

she looks young...how old is she???

I think she's 27, Kevin... :D

damn nicole...you OK? I remember when I first bought my horse...it was january and after a very mild december the temp dropped below zero and stayed there for 3 straight weeks....Needless to say I did not ride during that period...but when I did start up again my sweet (if hot) horse was a whole new animal...and he totally had my number...I didn't know him well enough to anticipate the bad behavior and I loved him too much to really get after him and make him behave...We went through a long period where riding him was no fun, I only came off once but every ride was like getting on a wild animal...finally I had my friend Scott (who outweighs me by close to 100 pounds and used to ride saddle bronc on the rodeo circut) get on him and piss him off...and school him for me...(I needed someone who could ride and had no affection for the horse so wouldn't forgive him for any bad behavior)...after an hour both horse and rider looked like they could be wrung out, they were so exhausted....neither one wanted to give it up...it was a long time before Oscar and I came to an understanding...but now I rarely see that beast from that winter...
I guess I don't really have a point except don't give up riding cause it will get better...:)

HA HA! She is 27. I wouldn't tell you she was beautiful if she wasn't.

And even if ya don't like each other, you can hang out with her, Cajun and myself. What more could a guy ask for than to hang out with three hot chicks?

P.S. Hubby may come too so you may have to share me.

shes very attractive...you were right.

Thank you for the encouragement, Bethani; it's much appreciated. Today I'm trying to figure out if my knee is bad enough to need a doctor-- I can stand and put weight on it and squat without pain, but I can't lift my leg and bend my knee in front of me, if that makes any sense-- I can't bend it if my foot is not braced against the floor, in other words. And I'm trying to decide if I need to switch to another riding stable, which will add an hour onto my commute time to my lesson (each way). :( After I came off last night-- the horse took off at a full gallop and leaped into the air, according to my classmates-- the teacher asked, "What did you do?" and I told him, this time, nothing-- no stick, and I'd actually been pretty clear in my canter signal-- one of the other instructors taking the lesson with us said, "Oh, he does that sometimes." Great. Thanks. She added that he's more respectful with heavier riders, and I thought, well, then what the f*ck was up with putting a 115 pound novice on him, you know? I can only ride once a week (all I can afford) but at this point I'm not progressing as I should (I look like an old lady hunched over at the canter) and I think it's a combination of not feeling safe on half the horses there, and of the other horses, most of them you have to really work at to get to do anything, and then I don't learn how to give clear, consistent signals. Which I blame on A) it being a not-ideal situation for the horses (no outdoor turnout) and B) the owner buying cheap, cheap horses- either they are sound and crazy or sweet and unsound.

And I see the other instructor get on my recalcitrant mount and work him for the next 15 minutes and while I know she's been riding for 14 years, and I can see she's half-halting him every two seconds, I'm still frustrated that he doesn't take off with her because I feel like I'll never, ever get to that point. Sigh...

But no, barring any serious injury to my knee that would prevent me, I'm not stopping. :)

I am so sorry to hear about the horse situation and your fall. How many falls is it be a "REAL" rider? Any horse can act like a screwball every now and then, but you do seem to be getting a lot of them lately. NO TURNOUT for the horses? What is up with that? They switched one of the lesson horses to day turnout instead of his night turnout and I noticed a HUGE difference in his personality. He wasn't getting out enough during the day because he would come in for lessons. (Didn't make much sense in doing that since he does about two 1/2 hour lessons on most days but after the first one stays inside until the last one is done and they don't put him back out.) Turnout is a big thing for horses IMO.

I know you won't quit riding, but how about that other stable that you took rode at before. I think you took a lesson there. Didn't you like that one?

I am so sorry to hear about the horse situation and your fall. How many falls is it be a "REAL" rider? Any horse can act like a screwball every now and then, but you do seem to be getting a lot of them lately. NO TURNOUT for the horses? What is up with that? They switched one of the lesson horses to day turnout instead of his night turnout and I noticed a HUGE difference in his personality. He wasn't getting out enough during the day because he would come in for lessons. (Didn't make much sense in doing that since he does about two 1/2 hour lessons on most days but after the first one stays inside until the last one is done and they don't put him back out.) Turnout is a big thing for horses IMO.

I know you won't quit riding, but how about that other stable that you took rode at before. I think you took a lesson there. Didn't you like that one?

Nicole, I'm glad you're not giving up and please never do... I've been riding since I was 5 years old and I had a thoroughbred take off with me a couple of weeks ago. It happens to everyone and it sure hurts your pride when it does! :eek: I haven't fallen since I started riding again, but I'm having a tougher time than I thought I would. Keep your chin up...

You may be right about switching barns too. If you don't feel comfortable riding where you are, that's never a good situation. My fingers are crossed for you. *Hugs*