Happy Easter!!

Hope this day finds everyone happy, content and relaxed. It's been sunshine and 80's-90's everyday here! We've had a heavy work schedule- long days- so today we are enjoying staying home at my folks house and relaxing. I've one more day of work then we head home on Tuesday.

Yesterday Robbie went for a 5 hour trail ride with one of my clients, they trailered over to a trail head that goes all the way from Utah to Mexico!! Tomorrow while I work Rob will not go with me as he has all the days prior- he and my dad will fire up the motorcycles and head for the mountains!!

I'm looking forward to getting home and getting prepped for Dillsburg! The horses have all been working great and we are really planning on enjoying ourselves at the show. I talked with Lisa G., and this years fun event after the classes on Sat. ill be a bit different. We are going to have our very own version of the Extreme Cowboy Race!! I have 8-9 obstacles planned, they will be set out in the arena, and each participant will be both timed and judged on how they negotiate the trail trial!! It's going to be a blast. This will be followed up by a brief horse soccer game.

www.ro-noranch.com

We made is safely here to sunny ( and hot! ) AZ. All of our travels went smoothly, no problems getting o Philly- made it to the airport on time, checked our bags in with no trouble- the line at security was short- and then...... Hunter kept setting off the metal detector so they put him and I in the glass booth for a full pat down of Hunter!!!!! TSA workers must really love their job- having to pat down two year olds. They were very courteous- and apologetic as well. Note to self- do not put pants with metal on them on a baby when flying!

Had a very nice time catching up with relatives yesterday. We had the memorial service for my Grandmother- got to see Aunt and Uncle and cousins and their kids. Today Robbie and Hunter will get to spend time with my sister Carol and her family. Rob and I are off in a few minutes to go work. Tonight will be a nice family meal and margaritas on the back porch- looking out on the mountains.

Waiting to hear from home about mares foaling! Wont be long.

www.ro-noranch.com

Four suitcases are pretty much all packed and ready to go. Somehow it took me most of the afternoon to accomplish that- and I had to really, really work at not packing more. ( I've never been good at packing lightly!)

The girls all worked hard this weekend. Every time I looked down to the indoor I could see them working one horse or another. Ali came up from NJ to ride Cesar, Nicole was here both days working 3-4 horses each day ( or maybe it was 4-5 ) Alaina got her Jose ridden, all the Paso's that are going to Dillsburg have been doing so well.

No foal yet from Carbi. The three of mine that are getting set to foal are all bagging up a bit more each day. Can't wait to see what Calif has thrown for me.

I'm happy to say that I am learning a bit more about keeping my web site up and running. I added a new sale horse today, along with his picture. Lori's Pinto Performance Gelding Tapistero Sin Par has really been doing well, and I've been wanting to get his ad up on the website. So it is up along with a pic of him beg ridden by Nicole at Harrisburg.

www.ro-noranch.com

There are ducks swimming around in our pasture! They've left the pond and are exploring all the new little ponds freshly created by yesterdays rain. We had better have the best spring flowers ever in May!

Lars is lonely. Phantom got out of the fence one too many times- Rob and Erin trailered her over to the butchers on Friday evening. ( Erin is the cow whisperer- When Phantom sees me coming she bolts- did that with Rob as well- but she and Lars followed Erin to the barn from the back of our pasture- then let Erin push her up into the barn. ) Lars has been walking ( wading?) around the pastures lowing- we'll have to get him a new buddy or two soon.

Trailered 60 bales down to Rose in the pouring rain last night. Had it well tarped so we got there pretty much dry- until we unloaded! Carbi, who is due any day with a Pastor baby, is huge. She isn't really bagging up- but she is a maiden mare so we'll see what happens. Rose and her hubby take turns checking on her.

The three mares up at Maribelles are all starting to bag up some- I'm sure they will all wait to foal until I am out of town!

www.ro-noranch.com

Four days left to get all my lists made. Have to start packing for our AZ trip, and have to start packing the trailers for Dillsburg. Need to sort out what will be needed at the show, what will be needed for the trail trial and games, which horses the girls need to really focus on while I am gone and so on. I've always been the one to get the horses all clipped up for the shows- but I'm going to hand the job off to Erin, Julie and Nicole- ( no pressure girls! ) Also have to write out the farrier list- he will be here on Thursday.

Picked up a small load of sand yesterday and filled in the depression in Valaras stall and laid some rubber mats. Also used a little sand to sturdy up the far end of our sounding board- it's gotten dug up a bit over time. With Jim and Rob's help we also got the load of sawdust put up into the bin. Rob worked on fixing some fence yesterday- we've unfortunately been having some bovine breakouts- the other day Rob and I had to hike thru the swamp- chasing our two cows back out of the undergrowth and back thru the creek to get them back on our property. I think we will be having a BBQ soon!

www.ro-noranch.com

Have had some trouble loading posts- so it looks like I'm starting over with my daily ( or nearly daily) blogs.

Cardillo performed beautifully at the Mounted Shooting Clinic. I now know why they call Long Island Long Island! The clinic was a good 50 miles in- fortunately we had nearly no traffic to deal with on both our drive to and from the clinic. The event was very well run, and before long I was riding Cardillo at a corto and canter while shooting off his back, hitting the target balloons. He really took to it well and I'm looking forward to more practice with him, and a competition on May 28th in CT. We show at Dillsburg in two weeks- so I'll hold off shooting with him until just after that show- but then we will be working hard to get him ready.

This very wet week has held us back a little at getting 'spring cleaning' done around the farm- but boy have we been getting plenty of saddle hours in. We will have 13 horses at the Dillsburg show and there is plenty to do to have them all as ready to go as possible. Everyone has been very dedicated and have been getting as much training time in as possible. We had a very fun schooling session last night, with five of us riding around the ring- going thru mock classes.

Foals will be arriving soon! There are three mares up at Maribelles that will be ready to drop quite soon- and two more due later in the spring. I'm so very excited to have some Calif babies on the ground! I will post pictures. Carbi is down at Rose's, and she is due to pop pretty much any day, and she is bred to the Fino stallion Pastor.

Keep an eye on the RO-NO website, and the Royal Flush one as well. We are making changes/improvements.

www.ro-noranch.com