Here are two of Lori's mares that are for sale. The pinto is really cool, she's sweet and mischievous and is ready to go under saddle. She is a 2008 model and her name is Cinema Sin Par. The bay is Cerveza Sin Par. We started here this past summer and she was a breeze. Easy and gentle and wanting to please. She is a 2007, and will make someone a great partner.

www.ro-noranch.com

It's not quite 6 a.m. and I'm sitting on the couch enjoying my second cup of coffee. What I'm not enjoying is the very sore throat that I have, and the nasty headache that has accompanied it. Every fall anymore I seem to get sick after I get home from Nationals. Not sure if it's the time of year, or if my body simply lets its guard down once the hecticness of the season is over. Caught a cold as soon as I got home from Nat's, thought I was over it, but am run down again now. Sigh....hopefully it will soon be gone and I'll be able to really enjoy the fall. It's my favorite time of year.

This morning I have to head to Clark Summit to do teeth, and I will hurry home, as John ( our farrier ) will be here today and he has a long list, and I have a driving lesson with Forrest and Jess.

Had an old friend stop by yesterday afternoon. She took lessons from me years ago, and had become quite the accomplished young horsewoman. Time and life happened and she hasn't done much with horses for the past few years, and she's hoping to get back into the equestrian way of life. She took an interest in our little Mojito, and she'll be back soon to ride him. Julie got him out last night and hopped on him to show him off, and he was a very good boy. Julie has done a very nice job with him.

Speaking of doing a nice job, Erin has been riding Al and he looks great! This little guy can really gait and he is enjoying getting to strut his stuff. I'm looking forward to getting him into the show ring next year.

Tomorrow I have more teeth to do, horses to work, and possibly a Halloween party to attend.

www.ro-noranch.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIBELLE!!!!

It's been just over a year since Calif and I ( and Rachel and Amy ) were in Kentucky at the World Equestrian Games. Looking back, it was a busy and exciting time. ( I was on the road for over 20 days in Sept. and Oct., between the Paso Nationals and the WEG ) So much work went into preparing for both events, and it was certainly worth it. Calif hasn't been overly busy this past year, though the last couple of months he's had a bit more to do. He's been being used for some Mounted Shooting, and now he'll be helping me with two different driving projects. Project 1.- Forrest wants to learn to drive, and wants to teach Jess to drive. We pulled the harness out of storage and cleaned it up, and one day last week threw it onto Calif for what was going to be a harnessing and ground driving lesson for Forrest. ( Calif hasn't been driven since the WEG, so I figured it would be best to ground drive him a few times before hooking him up to the cart.) Well, Calif was so good I figured what the heck, and with Julie and Forrests help we hooked Calif to the cart. And....he was perfect. :) I drove him around for a bit, showing Forrest and Julie how to manage the lines, then Forrest hopped in next to me and I drove him around for a bit, then handed over the lines. He did great, and so did Julie when she took a turn. I do love Calif, he was his usual tolerant self and just worked for us.

Project 2., Catherine King, the editor of the Paso Fino Horse World magazine, has asked me to write an article on training Paso Fino's to drive, so Calif ( and hopefully Jess ) will be photo subjects for the article. ( the article will be in the February PFHW )

www.ro-noranch.com

Here are some dates for next years Paso Fino horse shows.

Dillsburg- May 5th & 6th.

Lexington- June 8th -10th.

Cobleskill- July 14th-15th

Nationals- Held at the Kentucky Horse Park- Oct. 7th-13th. Hard to believe that we are already marking our calendars for next season, but it helps to plan ahead.

www.ro-noranch.com

We had a great weekend at Malibu Dude Ranch. The owners made us all feel right at home, and boy did everyone get some riding time in! The day started with some gymkhana games, then moved on to an Arena Trial/Extreme Cowboy Race. ( the real extreme cowboy race had actually been demonstrated earlier in the games by Angie- she was racing back across the finish line, kind of forgot how quickly the gate was coming up and came to an abrupt stop/flying dismount off of her Arabian Azi. ) After the mornings fun we broke for lunch, then tacked back up for a 2 hour trail ride. We pretty much relaxed after that until dinner, though we did have our choices of things to do, ranging from fishing, archery, rifle range, rowboats, volleyball, games/billards room, and a few other things. Sunday morning we played in the arena for a bit, then Tom and I got in some Mounted Shooting practice, then lunch out by the pond, then another trail ride. All in all a pretty enjoyable weekend.

Rose had extra horses all weekend, later today I'll be headed down to deliver some hay to her, and bring the ponies home. Tomorrow, after I get some horse dentitstry calls done, I'll be taking Shadow to her new home ( Deb is still hoping to re-home this mare if anyone is looking for a companion horse- she's fine to ride, would be best if she could just follow another horse)

Just think- only about 9 more weeks until Christmas! Yikes!

www.ro-noranch.com

JQ is doing just fine after his little incident earlier in the week. He is something else, not many horses could get in and out of the predicament he was in.

Dusty, Torey and Pastor are off on an adventure. Rose has some company in for the weekend, and she needed a few extra horses to have on hand, so I trailered them down on Thursday. They will come home on Monday.

Tuesday Shadow and Deb's horse Cheyenne will move to their new home, the new location for Liberty Reins Ranch. We wish Deb every success at her new place.

This morning we are off to Malibu Dude Ranch. Gymkhana and Trail Trial, dinner at the ranch, hang out in the saloon afterwards, then Trail Trial and Mounted Shooting Practice tomorrow. Rob, Robbie and Jim hope to get some target practice in too, on the rifle range. I've promised Hunter some swimming time, the indoor pool sure has looked inviting when I've been past it, so in we will go.

Tuesday and Wednesday I have horse dentistry scheduled, Friday too I think. Showed the rental house to two sets of people yesterday- we've really had a lot of interest in the house, now it is just a matter of getting references checked and going from there. A woman and three of her four kids stopped by yesterday, and I really liked her- she took a rental application, and I'm hoping to hear back from her.

I'm rambling this morning! Woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep, figured I'd get on here for a quick blog. Soon the whole house will be up, and then we'll all be on the road.

www.ro-noranch.com

I've been in the house all day, working on typing up the lease form for our rental house ( left our house twice to show it to family's) working on the web site4s ( very frustrating- I've got the Royal Flush web site all updates, and now my site seems to be totally down. My computer does not like my web site!) Also got some other paperwork done, made a few transportation arrangements and so on. I was in the computer room when I hear Erin come into the house saying she needed my help. Said that JQ had gotten cast some how in his turnout. She said he had his legs away from the pen, but that he seemed to be caught between the pile of hay in the pen and it's panels. ( if you are reading this Rose before I get a chance to tell you, don't worry- he is fine) Erin hops in the truck with me and down to the pen we go. I can just see the top of his head sticking up from out of the hay. I walk around the outside to check things out, and see that his legs all seem to be unencumbered, not sure why he isn't getting up. I have Erin hand me his halter- and reach down to try to put it on him so that we can attach a rope and open up the panels to flip him over, thinking that the hay is just too steep for him to roll up onto to get his legs under him. Only thing is, I can't get the halter on him, his head seems to be stuck. Now, there is hay everywhere, and I cannot see his head clearly, so I run my hand down his face to go to cup his jaw so that I can lift it to get the halter on. Nothing budges!!! He has gotten the panel between his upper and lower jaws, and it's stuck fat! It went in past his teeth and is resting on the bars, and he now cannot open his mouth wide enough to get loose, and his neck is all kinked around! It's totally wedged, and at an angle, it's pretty freaky. I slip my hand into his mouth and twist his head just a little and get it popped off! Whew!!!! He sat right up and got up, was a little unsteady on his feet for a second or two, but then literally shook it off and walked over for a drink. Now that it was over my heart started going, he could have broken his neck or jaw- just like that! He even had the bars bent slightly from the pressure his mouth had put on them- what a freaky think to have happen. Would never have been able to imagine that in a hundred years. Thank goodness for Erin. She had just put him out, had walked back to the barns and heard the panels rattling. She looked out and couldn't see him, so she went down to check on him, then ran up to the house for me when she saw him cast. She and I both thought at first that he had simply 'turtled' himself. Other than a little tearing at the edges of his outer-upper inscisors he seems totally fine. Other than making sure he doesn't get any swelling or have any issues eating over the next few days- I think we got off easy!

www.ro-noranch.com

Many thanks to Catherine King and her Hubby for taking these shots and sending them to me. Catherine is the editor of our PFHW magazine.

www.ro-noranch.com

We have the original farm house on the property nearly all renovated and ready to rent out. Yesterday I called two papers to put ads in, and I also put an advert on Craigs List. Today the phone was ringing off the hook! We have one woman coming over Sunday ( she's flying in from Florida to house hunt) and we had two other sets of people want to come out tomorrow to see the house. One other woman wanted to come out this afternoon, but I did not hear back from her.

We finally sit down to dinner, and get a phone call from one of the sets of people wanting to come over tomorrow- they were in the area- could they please stop by. We said sure, they said they'd be by in about 30 minutes. We sat to quickly eat, five minutes later the phone rings again, poor connection, it's a woman wanting directions. They are close, so we walk down. Turns out it was the people that I had expected earlier in the day- they finally had made it over, so we still had the other folks coming over. Ahh!! All went well enough- the first people were just leaving when the second set arrived. We now have to start going through the process of finding the right people to rent to I guess. It would be great if we could find someone who was looking to stay long term, and were good tenants. ( both sets of folks that stopped by seemed nice- so fingers crossed)

www.ro-noranch.com

Nicole on the big screen while riding under it.

Cardillo being tortured in his stall.

Schooling Tappy

Nic and Pastor with their ribbon!

Cardillo and I getting the mail in Trail Class

www.ro-noranch.com

Here's a couple pics from the show.

www.ro-noranch.com

After too many hours in the truck ( we had two 'breakdowns' on the way home) we finally made it back home from Memphis. Our Nationals Show was fantastic, all the horses were great, and for me personally the fact that Rose rode Pastor and won 3rd National Champion A/O Fino Stallions was just phenomenal! I'm so proud of her, and of Nicole ( 4th National Youth Fino Stallions!!)

Other wins include JQ, 6th National Chmp 4 Yr old Performance Stallion, and a 4th Place Nat. Chmp in Versatility for Nicole and Cardillo. Cardillo also did very well for me in Trail, we were Honorable Mention ( 7th ) and for Cardillo to be there in Trail Class at the National level was just great, already looking forward to how well he will do next year. His behavior at the show was excellent, and he really excelled in the Mounted Shooting. This was an official CMSA Event, held strictly for Paso Fino's, and Cardillo and I were 3rd National Champ. in Mounted Shooting. His times were fast enough for us to have been Reserve, but I missed one balloon! ( but hey, one miss out of four runs ain't bad!) and that miss knocked us down out of second place. He was excellent though, all that hard work paid off. I'm looking forward to getting more shooting in on him, and maybe hitting a few more matches before the weather really gets bad.

Tappy was excellent. He did get a bit strong in Nicoles class and they were DQ'd. In my class he was perfection, just didn't make the cut. We had 20 in our class, and he really showed everyone that Pinto Paso's can excel in the show ring. We received dozens of complements on him, and lots of people, including several PFHA judges, thought he should have made the cut and placed. All in all we were very pleased with his performance.

On Friday evening the President of PFHA, Lee Vulgaris, walked up to me and asked me to go with him. He took me over to where they had Profeta standing after his demo ( Profeta is a legendary Paso Fino Stallion, one of our very best in the history of the breed) Lee asked if I'd like a photo taken of me and Profeta, and just like that had one of the professional photographers come over for the photo op. I'm not usually one to be thrilled by this, but it was a neat opportunity, and Profeta is the sire of Rosanne's Fino Stallion, who had done so well for us.

There's so much more to tell about our trip to Memphis, hopefully I'll get my head together and get more of it on here. Right now I'm going on too little sleep ( I was at the showgrounds until 2 a.m. on Friday, was back there by 8 a.m. and that was the last sleep I got until last night!) and my brain is foggy. There were some awesome photo's taken of the Mounted Shooting, I'll get some up soon.

( Robbie just told me that he was elected to be Class President at school! )

www.ro-noranch.com