our adventures at ro-no ranch

2012-01-25T12:02:00.004-05:00

It's a productive day. We did have two RNRS calls last night, so I took care of finishing that work this morning, then after taking the truck and trailer to the car wash I headed to Hamlin for a couple of round bales, then hit the bank and grocery store. Got back to the ranch and the gals had all the stalls done, so we worked on filling tanks and Julie hooked up to the 2-Horse to get some loading training in on her Paso gelding Cowboy. He did pretty good, and we'll do a bit more with him later. Barn isles are swept, Julie is working Sneak, Erin is finishing up lunch hay and water, and it's just barely noon. Good morning!

This afternoon we will have a full house, Nic, Alaina, Robbie and I will practice with the four horses going to the expo, and Conni is coming to ride Jet. Then I've a scrumptious dinner planned. Not a bad day.

This pic is the ad going onto the PFHA e-news, Catherine King did a great job on it.

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2012-01-24T06:08:00.002-05:00

40 degrees at 5:30 in the morning in late January! Hope to make it a good, productive day. Should be picking up some counter tops and a stainless steel double sink today for the basement project, had another inquiry on a breeding to Calif so I need to be sure to have my 'lab' up and running so that we have no issues come breeding season.
Had good rides on JQ and Pastor yesterday, Erin got Al ridden and Achilles worked. Julie has lesson today, and I hope to get several ridden this afternoon after my work/errands are all completed. Yesterday was a lot of running, round bales, bank, grain, library and so on, and Rob and I had to go on a Removal Service call in the evening. Makes for an long day, but at least the Hubby and I got some time to sit and chat.
I've faxes to send for the Horse Expo, so I am off to get that done before the monster..er..Hunter wakes up!

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2012-01-22T16:08:00.002-05:00

We got home just in time. Drove through the snow all day on Thursday, wasn't too awful bad until it started to get dark, then the roads really slicked up. We were close to where Shanna goes to college, so we ended up staying at her apartment for the night. ( though we first hung out with a few of her friends, college guys who happened to be brewing beer that evening- they and Hunter got along great! :) ) Left the next morning, drove 3 1/2 hours to a barn near Sunbury to do teeth, and made it home by around 5 or so. I was exhausted!! It was a very long but productive trip. Woke up on Saturday to a good amount of fresh snow, was very glad we didn't have to drive in it.
Spent all of Saturday morning helping Rob with snow removal, then helped Julie finish stalls. Fit in working a horse or two, and then went to the house to collapse! I was very much in need of a day off.
Today ( my day off ) Rob and I went for a nice breakfast out, spent some time ( and Money ) at Sams Club, came home to unload groceries and started cleaning house. I've just finished unpacking my suitcase, and now I am done ( other than making dinner ) I'm planning on relaxing for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow will be nice out, a high near 50 ( so they say ) and we will get plenty of horses worked. I'll make a feed run, maybe get some round bales too, and go from there. Looks like a nice week ahead.

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2012-01-17T07:28:00.002-05:00

One good thing about being on the road is that it gives me a bit of extra time to think. ( Though I suppose that can be a bad thing as well! ) Had a great talk with Rick Shaffer while working at his place on my way to Illinois, and what he had to say really encouraged me to get back into hosting some Gaited Horse Clinics, so here is what I have planned;

RO-NO
Ranch Spring Clinic Series: The Gaited Horse. February 18,
start
time 9:00 a.m.

3-24-12 and 4-28-12 are the dates for the 2nd
and 3rd clinics.

Gaited Horse Trainer Nola Haupert-Keill will
work one-on-one with horse/rider teams on a variety of topics/issues. Group work
at the end of the day. Please RSVP to reserve your spot. More info to follow.
Please contact us if you have any questions. Coffee and donuts will be provided.
Bring a packed lunch and a chair. $50 for horse/handler team, $20 for
auditors.

570-351-7966
www.ro-noranch.com

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2012-01-13T07:30:00.002-05:00

It's 7:30 a.m. and Shanna, Hunter and I are in a hotel room in Indiana. We hit the road just before noon on Wednesday, headed for Somerset PA to work at Rick Shaffers doing some horses teeth. Spent the night in Somerset, as I had more work at a neighboring farm on Thursday. Left there around noon and headed towards Chicago, directly into a snow storm. We made it all the way into Indiana before the roads got too bad to continue. We're only about 150 miles away from my sisters, and I hated stopping when we were so close, but it would have been insane to try to continue. It is still snowing, but we will probably try to hit the road in an hour or so. Trucks are moving on the highway, so we'll see how it looks in a bit.

I've work to do outside of Chicago today, and fortunately they do not mind that I'll be behind schedule. Tomorrow is a super busy day, Sunday is busy, but I will cut it a bit short as my brother and his girlfriend will be coming to my sisters for dinner. Monday I will take one of my nephews along for a bit while I work, and Tuesday the other nephew will join me.

Gotta run, Hunter knows that there is a waffle machine in the breakfast room, so we need to go feed him!

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2012-01-10T06:01:00.003-05:00

After a few hours of work on Sunday at Liberty Reins Ranch, Rob, Robbie, Jim, Jeff and I successfully got fencing fixed and horses moved to a different pasture; Jim got a good part of her turnout scraped; the guys fixed some lighting issues; and two stalls were put in. Felt very good to help gather this group and help out a friend. We will hopefully find another Sunday in the upcoming months to do more for her. Deb has done so much for us here at RO-NO, it's nice to be able to reciprocate and help her further her plans in her outreach towards our Veterans.

Yesterday I was running-running-running all day. Started out getting a ton of paperwork done and bills paid. I'll be gone so I have to make sure all is in order her at the ranch before I go. Then I hooked up the dump trailer, dropped it at the feed mill so that I could more easily get all of my errands and work done. Went on a dentistry call, hit the library, gas station, bank and grocery store. Then back to the feed store to load up on grain, hooked up trailer and went for a load of sawdust. Home to unload groceries, grain and sawdust, then back to the house to do more paperwork- and poof! the day was gone. Never enough time to get everything done!

Today will be more of the same- perhaps a little less hectic. ( or perhaps not- now that I think of the long 'to-do' list sitting on my kitchen counter!)

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2012-01-08T08:21:00.003-05:00

Made pancakes with bacon in them for breakfast ( Robbie loves bacon- so we were experimenting- they were very good.) In an hour Rob, Robbie, Jim, Jeff and I will hit the road, headed to work at Liberty Reins Ranch for the day. Deb B needs help getting some stuff done, so we got a little group together to go help out. After that the Keills are off to a family B-Day party for Rob's nephew.

My trip preparations are nearly all set. Shanna, Hunter and I will hit the road late Wednesday morning. We'll head to Somerset PA to do teeth, stay over and hit another barn the next morning then proceed on to Illinois. My schedule is jam-packed for the week, and we will be home on the 20th. The weather is looking pretty good for the trip, and it looks like it will stay half decent here as well. Monday I will get a big load of grain, hopefully a load of sawdust as well. Will hit the bank and the library ( have to have books on CD for the trip!) May also see about checking out a couple of DVD's for Hunter, give him something new to watch during the long truck ride. Tuesday I'll finish up all the preparations to hit the road ( laundry! ) and we should be set to go.

Yesterdays weather was fantastic, Maribelle even came out for a ride on her Torey. Lots of us hit the trail, and all in all it was a very nice, productive day. We keep calling this the winter that wasn't! Even if it starts to get cold and nasty now, it wont seem as bad as past winters, simply because we all know that March is only 7 weeks away!!! Next month we have the Horse Expo, then I head to Florida in early March, we may hit a Paso show in VA in April, and we've the family trip to work/visit my folks in AZ in April as well, then the shows start in May! Wow... I think the Dillsburg show will be here before I turn around twice!!

We saw that Pastor was ranked high up under the PFHA # 1 Stallion. His sire, Profeta, has been the Top Stallion for several years, and for several years our Pastor has been ranked one of the top stallions under him. It was so nice to see his ranking ( # 5 ) Makes us very proud of our little fino stallion. JQ did well also, ranked #12 under Jarenero, who was #8.

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2012-01-04T05:54:00.002-05:00

Bbbrrrrr......It's 4 degrees this morning. Am not looking forward to suiting up and heading to the barn, but I do want to go give everyone fresh water, so down to the barn we will go. Hopefully it will end up being a little bit warmer out today than it was yesterday. It wasn't too bad out early, I headed to the barn at 6:40 to start hay and water and it was 22 degrees and no wind. By 9 the temp had dropped to 18 and the wind was up, and that is pretty much how it stayed all day. We did not work horses, just too cold.

A week today Hunter, Shanna and I will be on the road. Still don't have my schedule totally set, but I think we will end up working in south-western PA on our was west. My schedule has already really filled up for the time that we will be in Illinois, and I have work in central PA to do on the way home.

We are getting an area in the basement cleared out to get our 'breeding lab' set up. I stopped by 'Green Demolitions' yesterday to look at some sinks and counter space. Not sure yet just what all I want to get set up, just know that I do want a sink in the basement, that will be handy for all types of stuff. Spring will get here before I know it and I want to be sure to have everything all set for breeding season.

Today Kokomo goes to his new home. Sabine V. is a local gal who has mules, and she is adding him to her herd of 'knuckleheads'. I'm very pleased that he is going to her, as she is knowledgeable about mules and will give him the work and TLC that he deserves.

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2011-12-31T06:35:00.003-05:00

2011 comes to a close. What a year it has been too. I wish to all of you a very wonderful New Years weekend, and a joyful, prosperous and fulfilling 2012!

We've had a fun week, even with the ups and down of the weather. A highlight for me is that Jess has finally decided that maybe she will pull the cart after all. We've been working hard with her, and while she really has no fear of the cart ( or of pulling the tire and make-shift shafts ) she does seem to think that this type of work is beneath her and she only will tolerate so much of it. She pulled the tire well a couple of times early this week, and then Forrest and I had three days in a row with her pulling the cart very nicely, both in the indoor and outdoor arenas. She looks great and we are very pleased with her. I'll just ground drive her today to give her a break from harder work, and she will have Sunday off.

Jet is doing very well also, as is his owner- both are learning in leaps and bounds ( not literally thank goodness ) She and Barb will be here today from NJ to ride, and the days weather is going to be accommodating.

Robbie made it home on Wednesday evening from his 'wilderness trip'. He really enjoyed his time out at 'snowcamp' and came home with a new found appreciation for running water and indoor toilets!

We will have three stallions on exhibit at the PA Horse Expo!! I'm quite excited about this years demo's. Lori and I will be working towards having another fun demo made up, and we will have a nice representation of the breed there, Pleasure, Performance, Fino and Specialty! The people involved with helping out are wonderful too, so it looks like we are in for a fun expo weekend. ( Feb 23-26- Harrisburg)

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM RO-NO RANCH!!!

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2011-12-27T06:19:00.002-05:00

What a whirl-wind weekend! Friday we had tons of friends stop by, had a wonderful lunch with Deb, Pam, Robbie and Melissa. Then Amy stopped in to ride, and Rose. Just a fun, hectic day. Erin had Sat. and Christmas Day off, so Robbie was my main helper all weekend. Sunday morning he and I get the horses fed and watered, then we were off to the in-laws for a wonderful Christmas breakfast. Then we hopped next door for the rest of the day, lots of food, fun and family. ( and margaritas and brandy alexanders! ) I ran home to feed, then back to the family.

Yesterday we slammed through stalls, then hit to road to take Robbie to visit with Richard and Nina. We got to go up to the 'snowcamp' and it was a really neat visit. Had to take a 20+ minute ride on a 6-trak ( with chains on 4 of its tires) up a mountainside to get to the camp. Richard was 75 when he built this cabin, and it is a beautiful thing!

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2011-12-23T06:27:00.002-05:00

Oscar, my Jack Russell/Basset Hound cross dog, has not been feeling well. He's always a bit loggy, not a bouncy dog, but lately he's been even more sluggish than usual. I made an appointment to bring him in to the vet, thinking perhaps he had Lymes disease. ( We just had a horse w/ Lymes symptoms, and he responded very well to a treatment of doxycycline.) They did test Oscar for Lyme, and he does have it. So, easy enough, onto doxy he goes to treat that. But that wasn't all my poor puppy is suffering from. When the vet examined him, she thought that he looked unusually pale in the gums. She pulled a bit extra blood for tests ( had a hard time finding a vein- turns out there was a reason for that ) and discovered that his CBC was 15.4, very low. ( at 12 they want to do a blood transfusion! ) His blood was very thin, and very weak. He has Auto Immune Hemolytic Anemia. Her thoughts were if he had gone a few more days without treatment his system would have crashed and we would have lost him. Unfortunately, we still may. Said he was in a bad enough condition that there was still a 50/50 chance that his system will crash. He got a shot at the office, and is on Prednizone now, and will be for the next month ( along with the doxy for the Lymes) She did say that if he makes it through this next week his chances are much improved. The treatment that he is on is all that we can do. Steroids ( the pred ) aren't helpful with Lymes, but the Anemia is a much larger danger to him right now than the Lymes is. No idea what is causing the Anemia, most likely a different problem entirely from the Lymes, though it is slightly possible that the Lymes triggered it. Hopefully the underlying cause isn't a tumor of some sort, which is a possibility. We'll take it day by day and see how it goes. We'll ( hopefully ) be back at the vets office next Thursday to re-check his CBC.

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2011-12-21T19:25:00.002-05:00

Julie headed home to Ohio this morning for a weeks visit with her family. Haven't heard yet if her trip was uneventful, but I do know she made it safely there. It's very hard to believe that Christmas is only days away! I have managed to get all my presents wrapped, and I think I am actually ready for the Big Day! :) My boys are excited, and I've finally been able to relax a bit and enjoy the Christmas Spirit! It's been so nice down at the barn, everyone seems to be in the Holiday Spirit!
Got a nice, big load of shavings in on Tuesday, so we are all set for a few weeks on that. I always enjoy getting the sawdust bin filled, generates a similar feeling to getting the feed room filled up, or hay put into the barn. Of course, it doesn't take very long for the coffers to empty again.
Between Erin, Julie and myself, we are well caught up on all the training horses.We've even been able to get one or two of our own worked too. Got to enjoy a trail ride yesterday, saw a couple of buck while out, so we know that a few of them made it through hunting season.
Today Erin and I blasted thru chores, had all the stalls done well before noon, and a new round bale out for the herd. Dan cam to visit, he brought a ton of homemade goodies!! :) He hung out for a bit, and then rode Sebastian while I got JB worked. Then he was off, I schooled Jess with the cart while Erin worked Al. It was neat to have full siblings at work together in the arena. Alaina got to RO-NO at 3 and put a good ride on Jose, then on Calif. My lesson came to ride her Tenn Walker Jet who is here for training, and we had a very productive time. All in all a very good day. Now I am sitting on the couch with my lap top, supper is cooked and eaten, Hunter is sitting next to me playing with a piece of string and a plastic fork ( doesn't take much to entertain a 3 year old!) Robbie is reading a magazine, and Rob is finishing a piece of pecan pie. Life is good!

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2011-12-19T06:51:00.002-05:00

It was a good weekend. Saturday I spent most of the day cleaning my house, had a party here in the evening for all of the boarders and RO-NO Crew. Melissa came up from Philly, got a couple rides in on Val, Nic and Jenna got some riding time in this weekend, as did Pam. Spent a good portion of the day yesterday helping my hubby bring firewood up from the woods, then got to spend time in the house trying to get more Christmas stuff done. The boys worked on building and decorating a gingerbread house, and I got my Illinois dentistry notices made up and ready to go into todays mail.

This morning I'll get a few things done in the house and head out a bit late. Hunter will go to my MIL's, and then I'll head to Hamlin for a couple of round bales. Then back to the ranch to get to work.

The weanlings seem to be doing well. We brought Scratchy and Charlie up to Maribelles on Thursday, took Dually home. She and London will ( hopefully ) go out to pasture later this week. All five youngsters are up at Maribelle's now! It's baby land up there.

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2011-12-16T07:40:00.002-05:00

Maribelle and I had quite the adventure on Wednesday. We left early ( early for Maribelle- it was 8 a.m. :) ) and we hit the road headed for Tunkhannock. I had a new horse dentistry client to visit and all went smoothly there. From there we headed north west to go visit Richard G. He is the gentleman from Alaska who had bought a young Paso mare named Nina from me several years ago. ( that is a separate story that I'll have to write about soon ) He had given me directions, and we found his place with no trouble. Along the way Maribelle and I witnessed some of the horrible devastation that was caused by this past years flooding. Roads still out, bridges gone, houses destroyed. It was sobering.

We got to where Richards cabin is, with the small barn on the hillside above. Nina's fencing encompasses the cabin, and she ran down the hill to greet us. In the few years that Richard has owned her, they have traveled all over the north and south west, and into Alaska! He has sent me pictures of her in Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, North & South Dakota, Arizona, Alaska and more!! He has travelled solo with his horse and his dog. He is 81 years old!!!!! He has lived in his cabin since 1946, no running water, an outhouse about 30 foot from his home. There is a beautiful wood cook stove that both heats his house and his food. He is happy and content ( as is his horse ) and loves the life that he has. We had a wonderful visit and I'm looking forward to returning.

I'm writing an article about some of his journeys for our Paso breed magazine. I'll try to remember to get back on the blog with the story of how he came to my ranch to get Nina, and some pictures of his travels.

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2011-12-11T18:46:00.002-05:00

Have had a couple of productive days here. Friday was a work as usual day with Erin. We mucked and shuffled horses and so on, getting a few worked here and there. Forrest was out and ended up having a great time with Jess, even driving her around our outdoor arena for a few laps. We were very pleased. Pam rode with us, Sneak is a good girl and doesn't at all mind the cart. Robbie and I got in some Christmas shopping that evening with the new neighbor, and Hunter stayed the night with his new friends, with plans to go have breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning.

Saturday I got an early start, up again to cook breakfast for the hunters. All in all the group got four dear, two doe, two buck. Our freezers are happy. Barb and Conni came from NJ for their lessons, and Michelle got her lesson in the afternoon from Julie. The boys had a 2:30 appointment at the photographers in Lake Ariel to have pics taken with their Pop-Pop, and from there I stayed in the house when I got back to work on the driving article that I have to have in soon to the Paso Horse World Magazine. When my eyes got tired of writing I worked on Christmas presents. Plenty of activity went on down at the barn, Nicole got in some riding time, Amy went trail riding with Erin ( she rode Al- he has been an absolute awesome youngster- gaits like nobodys business and is bold- loves to go out) Rhonda came and rode too, so it was a good day.

This morning Rob, Jim and I went to the Cherry Ridge Airport to meet Lori and Tom. They had a fantastic flight in- and we had a lovely visit. Lori and I got some pow-wowing done to do with the upcoming demo's at the PA Horse Expo. From there Rob took me home, picked up Robbie and went to hit Sams Club and get some Christmas shopping done. I worked on finishing the driving article, doing some house cleaning, Christmas present wrapping, ( I also sewed two cute/funny camo Christmas stockings for Hunter and Robbie) and then dinner ( tilapia, carrots and homemade oatmeal/raisin/chocolate cookies! :) ) Now, it's time to relax, eat some dinner with the family, and not think about work until tomorrow morning!

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2011-12-08T05:26:00.002-05:00

Time is just flying! Cannot believe that this week has gone by so quickly. I look back at the days past and am amazed at how much we accomplish every day ( and yet every day I feel as though nothing gets done!! ) Still have barely put a dent in to what I need to have done before Christmas gets here. Not just Christmas stuff either, I need to have one ( hopefully two ) articles put together for the Paso Fino Horse World Magazine ( they had asked me to write an article, with pictures, on breaking a Paso in to drive. Jess has been our photo study ) Notices have to be made up and sent out to all of my Illinois clients ( I still need to figure out my dates for that as well) Then there's just the regular everyday 'stuff' that keeps us so busy. But... I'm glad to be able to do it.

Jess was driven independently of a handler for a bit yesterday. Progress is slow but steady with her. She looks gorgeous under harness and I'm excited about her future driving career.

Bobby brought a load of hay yesterday, stacked in a trailer. We had him back it in to the indoor, up along side of the breeding dummy. I never gave that spot a second thought, until my hubby said to me this morning, 'You have a horse really hollering down at the barn'. I stepped outside to listen, and could tell from the sound that all was not well. Now, it did snow a fair amount last night, and I didn't want to take the time to change out of my jammies, so I rolled my cuffs, put on boots and headed down. Got to the indoor, saw that the gate had been broken open and Kat was standing by herself behind it. She obviously was the good girl of the herd, because all the rest of them were nowhere to be seen. Hay was pulled off the trailer and strewn about the indoor, and I did see hoof prints outside in the snow. Went to investigate, found the whole herd down by Rusty and Coloso. Thank the Good Lord that Coloso is such a good stallion. He hadn't tested the fence, just stood by while the herd teased him. I caught up Sneak by her mane and led her back through the indoor, knowing that the rest of the herd would follow, and put them all back out to pasture. So much for getting up at 4:30 to get a bunch of stuff done at the house!

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2011-12-04T06:29:00.002-05:00

It's been a great couple of days. Had a full day on Thursday, working horses and just general stuff around the farm. Hit the road late to drop Savanna off at Rose's, pick up Carbi and Achilles, then head south to York to pick up Sebastian. Didn't get back until nearly 2:30 in the morning! Up and attem early ( though not too early ) on Friday. Had people coming from West Virginia to check out RO-NO. The raise Rocky Mountain horses and were coming to visit to see if they wanted to use us as their training barn. Had a wonderful day with them. ( thanks Angie and Jim for helping out) Worked quite a few gaited horses so that they could see our training style and simply had a nice day. We did get Jess harnessed and hooked back up and did some driving with her, she was a bit stubborn but good.

Up early again Saturday to cook for my three Robert's before they headed out to the woods. A few hours later they were back, with two buck!! Glad I had a pot of chili ready for them, so they could have lunch when they were all finished. Got plenty of horses worked as well, and had a great lesson with Barb and Conni. Rose made it out too, she rode Pastor, watched me school JQ and she rode him to cool him out. Alaina had a couple of good rides on Calif and Jose, and Nic got to enjoy rides on her boys too. Rachel and Audrey were out for a visit too, it was great getting to spend time with them.

Today I will clean the house, work on Christmas stuff, and for a few hours this morning I'll have the neighbors twin three year olds over for a play date with Hunter!

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2011-11-30T05:43:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday to my Hubby! It's 5:45 and he left for work a good 10 minutes ago, but he is hoping to get away this afternoon to get some hunting time in. He saw a huge buck on Monday, but it was moving fast chasing a doe so he was not able to get a clear shot at it. The guys all saw a few deer, but none taken yet here.

The new Tenn. Walker ( Jet ) has been a gem. He needs a lot of work, learning to give and flex and settle when asked to work, but he is willing to try and I like that. He also wants to know what is going on! He's been ridden once or twice a week on trails and now he is hard at work every day in the ring.

Sebastian is coming back to RO-NO. He is a lovely Paso gelding, everyone here always liked him, and he is re-joining us as a boarder. He does have Cushings ( mildly I believe ) and will have to be managed with some meds, but the hope is that with a bit of exercise he may thrive and may possibly be able to cut back on medication. ( that's your invite gals to take him for a spin! ) I'm hoping to help his owner out, and possibly find someone to on-farm lease him.

I'll hit the road either tomorrow or Friday night to drop Savanna off at Rose's, pick up Achilles and Carbi, and then go get Sebastian. Achilles needs a bit of ground work, and we will go ahead and start fitting a saddle to him, do some lunging work and get him ready to be started under saddle. He has really grown, and this new work he will be getting will most likely boost a growth spurt. Carbi is still for sale, we've been going back and forth with a gal from TN about purchasing her, but are still waiting to see if she will be able to follow thru.

We had to pick up a horse last night ( RO-NO Removal Service ) This lovely old guy had EPM, and had some wasting of muscle in his hind end. He'd fallen a week or so ago and the owners knew that the time had come to euthanize him. Never any easy decision for people to make, but they knew it was the right thing to do for their gelding.

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2011-11-27T06:41:00.002-05:00

Fantastic day yesterday!! The weather couldn't have been any better. The girls had stalls done very early,so we got going on other projects. Today should be nice and smooth for them down at the barn. We should have visitors tomorrow, folks from Virginia that own Mountain Horses are planning to come visit to see if RO-NO will be where they send their horses for training. I'm looking forward to meeting them.

Today I will clean the house, work on getting food prepped for tomorrow for the hunters, get laundry caught up, and maybe help Rob and Jim with getting some firewood in. After all that is done, if there is still some daylight, I may just take a horse out for a spin!

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2011-11-26T08:07:00.002-05:00

Beautiful day yesterday. Erin and Julie had off, so Robbie came down to the barn with me to help with chores. Got down there to find that Jim had already hayed everyone, done a few stalls and was in the process of watering the horses in the old barn. He and Robbie had all the stalls and turnout done by 9:20!!! How nice! I had to leave early for a chiropractor appointment ( don't have to go very often, but really needed to yesterday) came back to the barn to find Nicole getting JB in. She had a ride on him, I schooled Jess with her driving ( wont be long and I'll have her hooked to the cart! ) Barb came for her lesson and a bunch of us ended up going out on the trail. Had a lovely ride, so nice to have this type of weather in late November.

Today will be gorgeous as well. Christina Fehlner is coming over this morning with one of her horses, and we have a training horse coming in mid-day today. Tenn. Walker gelding that needs work on his gait. Jim and Alaina ( and Shanna? ) will come out as well, hopefully we can get in another nice trail ride.

Our new tenants pretty much finished moving in yesterday. I didn't have time to bake cookies as a 'welcome' gift, but I did stop at DD's to get a 50 pack of Munchkins!

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2011-11-24T18:53:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving. My wonderful girls gave me the morning off, Erin and Julie fed, did chores/stalls, made up evening grain and had everything all set for me for this evenings chores. The horses are all happy and well fed, and the day went smoothly. ( pretty much we are all happy and well fed too! Had a wonderful day at Rob's sister Alisons house with the family)

Rob and I finished cleaning up at the tenants house this morning, they will finish moving in tomorrow. It will be nice having neighbors again, and nice for Hunter to have a few kids around that are his own age. ( The folks moving in have 3 year old twins!!!)

Tomorrow I am going to have the whole barn to myself for the day, Julie is off, and I told Erin to take the day off too. Robbie will help in the morning, and Jim may be by to pitch in as well. Folks will be by around noon time for gaited horse lessons, and on Saturday a new gaited horse is coming in for training.

Well, have to get off the computer, my little boy wants to get in my lap for a snuggle, so duty calls!

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2011-11-21T16:11:00.002-05:00

We had a productive weekend, full of good weather, nice visitors and plenty to do. On Saturday Jim helped me get another paddock cleaned out. Nicole and Alaina got to trail ride a little, the Jim and Alaina headed out. I had a few folks come from NJ to ride Paso's and we hit the trail as well. Got Pastor out after we returned for them to experience Fino. Sunday was busy too, more paddocks got cleaned, ( some excitement was added when Kokomo the mule got loose while Maribelle was riding, but he never came near her..phew....) Maribelle, Pam, Katie ( and maybe one or two more ) went trail riding. Earlyish in the day Julie texted me to say that Al had cut his nose, would I please come and see if I thought he needed a vet. It was bad enough to need a few stitches, so off to call the vet I went. Dr. Hank came out, and as I watched him draw some tranq to sedate Al for the stitching, I asked if he would mind gelding him while he was at it. Dr. Hank is great, he didn't have any problem with that, said 'might as well not have to tranq him twice', and a short time later Al's nose was stitched up and he was no longer a colt. ( he's doing just fine today, doesn't even have any swelling yet).

Today was eventful as well. I headed out early to do teeth. Pretty neat place. They raise Longhorn Cattle, a couple batches of pigs, ( I'm thinking of buying one or two of this latest batch, they are about 8 weeks old right now), and they have about 9 horses, most of which were rescues. Very cool people that run the place, I enjoyed getting to talk with them while I worked on their horses teeth. From there I went and got feed, went home to un-load it. Forrest and Maryann were both riding, and Julie was getting ready to school Sneak. Erin and I put out some round bales, then I went to harness up Jess for some driving training. Unfortunately as I was nearing the end of my training session with her, I took a bad step and went down hard, twisting my ankle pretty badly. Drat! :( Not much to be done, I tried walking it off for a bit, then went to wrap it up. As I was sitting and getting the wrap on, a gal came down to the barn asking if we had seen a loose black pony. Guess a few miles up the road a small black pony had gotten loose and run off, not a good thing on any day, worse when it is bear season! Erin and I both kept our eyes open for it as we went to town. ( she was off to the bank, I was off to go on another dentistry call) I hobbled through doing a couple of older TB's teeth, and then sent a text off to the owner of the pony to see if they needed us to saddle up a few horses to go searching. Shortly before I got home we received word that the pony was safely back home. Just another day at RO-NO...we'll see what tomorrow brings!

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2011-11-18T20:13:00.002-05:00

Today was a good day. I'm sitting with my feet up ( my foot still hurts, had a cortisone shot in my heel yesterday ) and it's 8:20 p.m. Dinner and dishes are done, my glass of wine is empty and I'm relaxing. We had some visitors today , here to look at some of the studs and try some Paso's and they had a good time. I worked with Jess on driving and she was great, spent a good half hour having her drag a tire around the arena ( which of course did my foot no good, thus the ice on it right now ) then had a phenomenal ride on JQ- best ride he ever gave me. It was a good day :)

2011-11-18T06:51:00.002-05:00

Today Karen and a friend of hers are stopping by to see Calif and Cardillo as potential studs for an App. mare. The 'Tiger Horse' ( a cross between the Paso Fino and Appaloosas ) is a breed growing in popularity, and this gal has a lovely app mare that she would like to breed. We have one App X Paso here, Erin's horse DJ, and he is wonderful.

Tomorrow Barb from NJ is coming back for another gaited horse lesson, and she too is bringing a friend. This gal has two Tenn. Walkers that she may want to have some training done on.

We may be getting in some Rocky Mountain horses soon for training as well, they are a breed I enjoy working with.

John put some 'snow shoes' on a couple of the horses yesterday. No snow yet, but it is coming and I'd hate to have these that he just shod have to go without. Over the next couple of times out here, John will get everyone who is shod transitioned over to pads and studs.

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2011-11-16T05:39:00.002-05:00

Our new heifer is doing well. She is getting friendlier and has realized that she enjoys being scratched/rubbed. Charlie ( London's colt ) has also been doing well. London throws beautiful but stand-off-ish babies, so we have our work cut out for us with him. I can get a halter on him without help, but it takes a minute. Jim went into the stall last night to handle him some. It took Charlie a few minutes, but he settled down and enjoyed ( well, maybe tolerated is a better word) the attention. Scratchy of course loves attention and doesn't understand why we would pet anyone but him.

The last section of the arena wall got fixed on Saturday, thanks to Jim. I need to set aside some time to really water then harrow before winter comes. So far we've been pretty fortunate to maintain good footing all winter ( for the most part ). Out next project is sprucing up the wall by Cardillo's stall. The wall is sound, but needs a little TLC.

Another project that I am working on is getting a 'lab' set up in the basement. I've got all the equipment for semen collection and shipping, but I need a good lab area. I'm working on clearing an area in the basement to have a utility sink and some counter space, and room for all the accouterments. Easier access to the microscope means we can do fecals more often ( though so far we have been pleased with the results that we have here) and having a comfortable lab area will be handy when breeding season gets here. We have breedings booked and I want things to run smoothly when we get the calls that we need to ship.

Today I head south to do teeth, and I hope to be back by late afternoon. Jess is officially in training for driving, and I'm looking forward to really getting her going.

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2011-11-12T06:35:00.002-05:00

Our two steers have ( unfortunately ) been going walk-a-bout too often lately. They don't wander far, but I really wish they wouldn't wander at all! On Wednesday- as I was going up the road with tractor and round bale, I saw the steers out in my yard, then saw that there was a truck coming the other way, then saw MaryAnn in my driveway on Torey! Pretty much the only ones free to do as they pleased were the steers! All went well- I pulled over, the truck went on by, Erin hopped off from where she was riding the tractor to let MaryAnn know that Torey wouldn't freak from the steers ( which was good as Lars seemed to want to lumber over to say hi) and we all went on our merry way. Once the bale was put out to the herd, Erin hiked back up the road to chase the steers my way- and back thru the gate they went. Situations like this are pretty much a daily occurrence...

Got a new heifer a couple nights ago. Half sister to Terry ( so now we have Terry and Barb, short for Terriyaki and Barbecue ) Rob and I managed to get her into a stanchion in the old barn, where she will stay until she is a bit friendlier, then she will join Terry out in the pasture. Lars will soon be, well.... meeting his destiny.

Things are looking to be a bit busier here. We've had a few new folks in for lessons, someone is coming here today from NJ for a gaited horse lesson, may have someone stopping out to see if they want to board here ( and truth be told- them visiting is my chance to see if I want them to board here) I've a ton of dentistry trips scheduled too.

We got another paddock cleaned out yesterday ( I saw we- pretty much it was all Jim ) and today we may be able to start fixing up the last section of the arena wall that I want repaired before winter hits. Feels very good to get all these projects completed.

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2011-11-10T05:31:00.002-05:00

Loving this quiet weather. We have all taken a vote here at RO-NO and have decided that this weather must stay just like it is for the rest of November. ( wish it was that easy!)

Calif has been a good boy, have had the opportunity to harness him up and drive a few times over the past week. Young Jess is progressing well too, wont be long and she'll be pulling the cart as well. Little Al is riding wonderfully ( if he is still mine come spring- he'll have to attend a few Paso shows). Mojito is doing very well also- still hoping that he has a new mom. Will hopefully know for sure this weekend.

Heard from Richard Gregory this week. He is the older gentleman from Alaska who bought a young filly from me a few years ago. They have since traveled the southwestern and northwestern states, Canada and Alaska together. He occasionally sends photos and notes of their adventures. I'll post some of them soon.

Wonderful Appaloosa Mare For Sale Cute 14.2h 16 yr old mare. Val is an incredible jumper. She has placed well in hunters, jumpers, pleasure & equitation. Has been used as a lesson pony. Great on trails & jumps 2’6”with ease. Would be a great cross country mount or a wonderful Pony Club or 4H project. Would be great for games & gymkhana too. Absolutely loves baths. She loads, trailers, clips & stands for the farrier like an angel. She is barefoot & always has been. I hate to sell her, but I have really outgrown her. Serious inquiries only. Please email xfranklinx3@aim.com for more information. $3500

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2011-11-04T05:55:00.001-04:00

Here's some info from Kerry B- she has this filly for sale and she would really like to get her off to a good home before winter sets in.

Cheyenne is an Arab/Saddlebred and still growing. She is 3 years old. She green to walk trot. She loads, picks up all four foot, works on lunge. Bare foot, easy keeper and shes a love bug. This horse has a great future as a trail horse .... Has a phenomenal jump too!
Here's some info from Kerry B- she has this filly for sale and she would really like to get her off to a good home before winter sets in. Cheyenne is an Arab/Saddlebred and still growing. She is 3 years old. She green to walk trot. She loads, picks up all four foot, works on lunge. Bare foot, easy keeper and shes a love bug. This horse has a great future as a trail horse .... Has a phenomenal jump too!Here's some info from Kerry B- she has this filly for sale and she would really like to get her off to a good home before winter sets in. Cheyenne is an Arab/Saddlebred and still growing. She is 3 years old. She green to walk trot. She loads, picks up all four foot, works on lunge. Bare foot, easy keeper and shes a love bug. This horse has a great future as a trail horse .... Has a phenomenal jump too!

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2011-11-03T06:52:00.002-04:00

I'm really hoping that today will be just like yesterday. We had such a nice, productive and enjoyable day it would be great to have a repeat. So far it's not looking too good though- Rob came back in the house when he was leaving at 5 this morning, said he just saw one of my mules running down the road in front of one of the neighbors trucks. I went down, it was Edgar, caught him and put him in a stall. Went back to the house to work on my Spanish ( taking a Rosetta Stone course on the computer ) and got a call that another neighbor just saw a mule in the road in front of the house, guess Jack is loose too. They have been jumping out every day- but they mostly stay down in the hay field or in the barnyard. Sigh...

Plenty going on today. Kendra is stopping by this morning to pick up kitties Piper and Lance to take them to a spay/neuter clinic going on in town today. A new potential client named Wendy will be stopping by. She is interested in Mounted Archery, and we are happy to accommodate ( Forrest has a strong interest in this as well, so I think we have a new goal to accomplish this winter ) Our new neighbors will also be coming by today, a lovely family that will be renting Grams house from us. ( she has 3 year old twins!! Hunter will love it) Forrest is coming for a driving lesson, and there will be a few other things going on as well. I'm thankful for the nice weather.

Kendra, the gal picking up the cats for me today, is possibly interested in getting Mojito. She rode him for about 2 hours yesterday and they really got along wonderfully. He is ready to have someone take over with his training and she would be a fantastic 'Mom' for him.

Tomorrow will most likely be more of the same- nice weather and a productive day.

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2011-11-01T06:23:00.002-04:00

I love our homebred horses! ( and my boarders!!) Forrest has decided that he would like to train Jess to drive, and we are well on our way. Jess is a feisty and spirited Paso, but she is also very sensible and level headed, and is used to all the funny things we humans like to do with our horses. She took to the harness like she had always worn one ( didn't even cringe at the crupper! ) and Forrest is happily ground driving her around. In our lessons this week we will progress to having her feel some weight being pulled behind her, from there we will get her to drag a tire around, we'll put make-shift shafts on her and go from there. Before too long we'll get to see Forrest and Jess driving the cart around the farm. Love it!

2011-10-31T06:43:00.002-04:00

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.

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2011-10-27T05:56:00.002-04:00

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.

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2011-10-24T06:30:00.002-04:00

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 )

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2011-10-19T09:15:00.001-04:00

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.

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2011-10-17T13:02:00.002-04:00

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!

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2011-10-15T04:59:00.002-04:00

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.

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2011-10-10T15:21:00.003-04:00

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!

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2011-10-08T07:07:00.002-04:00

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.

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2011-10-06T19:44:00.002-04:00

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)

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2011-10-06T06:50:00.003-04:00

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

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2011-10-03T17:44:00.005-04:00

Here's a couple pics from the show.

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2011-10-03T16:41:00.002-04:00

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! )

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2011-09-24T09:59:00.002-04:00

Memphis! We made the drive here in about 19 hours. Left the farm at around 7 at night on Thursday, got here in the early afternoon on Friday and got all unloaded. Horses took the trip well, we will school a bit later today.

The facility is not quite as snazzy as Perry, but it's just fine and we are going to have a great week. I hope to get a little mounted shooting practice in later today.

Have to get to the showgrounds now and get to the office to check in. Nicole has two classes tomorrow.

Wish us luck!

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2011-09-22T05:59:00.001-04:00

Hopefully by this evening we will be loaded up and on the road. It's about 1000 miles for us to drive to Memphis. We've decided to leave as soon as all is packed up and Nicole is out of school. We'll drive thru the night and arrive at a decent time in the afternoon tomorrow. There is one slight hitch to our plan though... Lori called last night, one of her horses got cornered in a stall and got herself kicked up pretty badly. Lori says the filly is a bit of an instigator, and she must have bothered one of the other horses a bit too much. Got beat up badly enough that Lori had to have the vet out... so we'll see what the mare looks like this morning, that will decide when Lori can get here, so that we can get the trailer packed. Hopefully all is well this morning.

Julie took one more step towards leaving her 'flat-lander' roots earlier this week. She had quite the eventful day, helped Rob wrangle the steers back thru the fence, then stood guard while he got the chainsaw to fix a downed tree that was on the fenceline. She had to keep a gun with her, as Rob had seen a good sized bobcat while in the woods. She received ( and enjoyed ) a brief shooting lesson too... Go Julie!!

My folks arrived last night. They will stay here and take care of Hunter and help out here, making sure Robbie gets homework done, help with dinner and all that. I so do appreciate their help. They do find our weather a bit chilly, no Arizona heat here!

Wish us luck! We'll finish up packing, set things up here for while I'm gone then we are off. I'll try my best to post updates on how we are doing.

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2011-09-18T19:46:00.002-04:00

Time has just been flying by! Before the week is over we will be on the road to Memphis. Our horses are as ready as can be, so now it's just time to get everything at home in order and get ready to pack up the trailer. Over the next couple of days I will hit the library ( love having books on CD for long trips!) get groceries for the house and grain for the barn, clean the house more ( I did some today, but then helped put hay in) My folks will be here Wednesday evening, Rose is coming Wednesday as well. I have my own packing to do, and various things to have done in the house before we leave.

Rob cut hay on Friday, tedded it yesterday and today we were able to get it all baled and put into the barn. 475 bales of second cutting hay! Makes me very happy to have that done! Thanks for all the help Erin and Jim!!

Nicole was a huge help today as well. She went through our trailers and organized a lot of what we will need to pack, made lists of what we have, and what we need. That will go a long way in helping us to be ready to go on Thursday. Our original plan was to leave very early Friday morning, but now it looks like we will hit the road Thursday evening, as soon as we have everything loaded and set to go.

Well, Hunter is ready for his night-time story, so it is off the computer for me and time to read to him.

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2011-09-13T05:55:00.003-04:00

Been up and spinning my wheels since 4:30 this morning. The mornings tend to be my most productive time in the house ( when I come in at night, once supper is made and I've sat down, all I want to do is spend time with Hunter and relax- so not much gets done in the house) and a productive morning sets a good trend for the day.

Yesterday I picked up alfalfa cubes ( for JQ ) and lime ( for the old barn ) after dropping Hunter off. Then back to the barn to help Erin with morning chores, had coffee at Maribelles and got some paperwork done, back to barn to do turnout and stalls, then on the road to get a load of sawdust. Took lunch and did some computer work, back to barn and work some horses, then time for chores. ( no wonder I appreciate my time in the house in the morning!)

Today I'll hit the road by about 10 to go to Duck Harbor to do teeth. I'll go to Agway and Pet Central while I'm in the Honesdale area, and perhaps grab a few groceries too. I've two horses ( at least ) that I want to get to work today, and I'm hoping to start going thru some of the stuff that I will need to bring to Nationals. We ( RO-NO ) have a nice set of stall drapes, and we always have a nice table set up in the ailseway at Nationals, advertising the farm. I tend to just pack everything up willy-nilly at the show, and I need to go thru stuff to see what we need. Space is limited, so only the necessities should go.

Here's a pic from the shooting competition last month on LI.

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2011-09-08T05:53:00.002-04:00

School closed again! This is just not fun, was already down to the barn this morning, flooding not any worse than yesterday. Folks west and north of us really have been hit hard. Was on the phone with Lori ( out near Sunbury) last night. She said that the flooding there was the worst she had ever seen. They had to move their plane out of it's hanger as the water was rising there. So many people having to evacuate their homes due to the rivers overflowing the banks. I'll keep a nervous eye on our creek all day, as in the past it has risen higher and quicker that we like to see. So far though all is well.

We worked on fixing the arena walls again yesterday. Over the years the kick wall has bowed out, and we now have the project over 2/3rds done. It's a good feeling to be able to accomplish some constructive work while all this goes on.

I've an interesting dental case to work on today. Got a call last night about a horse that has suddenly developed a swelling on the side of its face. They say it has a hard lump along the side of its jaw, though seems to be eating well. I'll let you know tomorrow ( or whenever I next get to get on here) about what I find.

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2011-09-07T08:39:00.002-04:00

Rain, rain go away.... this is what we've all been thinking, but the rain still comes down. We've more water in our fields right now than we did with Irene. The sound of the rushing water from the creek was so loud this morning that I went down to the barn at 5:00 a.m. just to check that all was well, that we didn't need to start evacuating horses due to rising flood waters. It will be a long day, water is still coming up, and the rain is still coming down.

We had planned on trailering horses to Malibu Dude Ranch yesterday to get some schooling in. ( We've 16 days to go until we leave for Memphis!) Had to scratch those plans though, and todays as well. So much water and flooding that they have closed all our local schools! Nicole and I did manage to trailer over to Lake E in the afternoon yesterday, just to get three of the Nationals horses out and about at a new arena. All three (b JQ, Tappy and Cardillo ) did very well and I was glad that we made the effort to get them there. No go today though, too much flooding. I may try to get Cardillo over to Malibu this weekend to get some shooting practice in.

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2011-09-02T19:40:00.006-04:00

Here are a few pics from the Aberdeen Show the day before the hurricane. I think we are already drenched in the pictures.

The horses were all very good, it was a great schooling opportunity for the horses going to Nationals, plus a lot of fun and another way for us to support everyone from Over the Hill Farm.

eb B's mare Shadow is coming back here tomorrow for a months tune-up. Deb is hoping to find her a good home and wants her as set as possible beforehand. If anyone out there is looking for a companion horse, please let us know.

2011-08-31T06:05:00.003-04:00

I'm so thankful that we never lost power here with Irene. I was on facebook earlier, read a lot of posts from folks who do not have power. ( Thank goodness for cell phones and car chargers!) It's hard enough dealing with ab house with no power, add to that a barnful of horses really makes it a challenge. Hope everyone gets power back soon.

Our day trip to Rose's yesterday with Tappy, Pastor and JQ went smoothly. They loaded right up, Rose had stalls waiting, we schooled and then headed home. Next week it will be a trip to Malibu Dude Ranch, and I'll be able to get some mounted shooting practice in on Cardillo. They are talking about having some evening practices this fall, I'm all for it.

Today I hit the road for New Milford. Have horse dentistry to do there, then back home to try to get some hay moved. Robbie starts High School today!!!

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2011-08-30T05:49:00.002-04:00

Goodbye Irene. Some rain started here on Saturday afternoon. We did make it to the benefit show at Aberdeen ( it went great, there was a fantastic turnout. ) We got sandbags set out, stuff tied down, horses put away and then we prayed. The rain really got going at about 3 Sunday morning, and tapered off around 12:30 that afternoon. The wind pretty much went on all day long. We watched the water rise, and then thankfully watched as it stalled and started to go down. All in all, we did not get hit badly at RO-NO.

Julie left early on Saturday morning with her horse Mambo for the Aberdeen Show. She was very pleased with how he behaved and performed for her. This was her first trip by herself with the horse to a show, and I'm so very pleased that she had a good time. Erin, Robbie, Nicole M, Hunter and myself set off for the show with 5 horses at around 11. We hit a little rain on the way, but it settled and we got started without a hitch. Erins Mom Peg was along as well ( thank goodness, as she watched Hunter a good bit for me) About halfway through the Western Show I noticed some pretty nasty looking black clouds rolling in. I hollered to my crew that we needed to scratch our horses and leave. We didn't even make it to the trailer when the rain hit. It poured! We loaded up as quickly as we could to bet out of there. They had us parked in a grass field and we were way at the bottom of a big hill. I knew it would be tough getting out of there. ( They had already had someone else get stuck in the driveway!) Off we went, me in the lead. I made it up to the road and went back on foot to see how Erin was making out ( she was driving Maribelle's truck and trailer) She was stuck, but after a little help from Glen ( the hubs hadn't locked in all the way- so he did that) she backed up and tried again and pulled out onto the road. Phew...

We got back to the ranch and started getting things settled for the storm. The rain started for real early the next morning, and all we could do was wait to see how bad it would get. The creeks started rising late in the morning, but fortunately never got really bad. The wind was pretty significant, but again, at the Ranch it didn't seem to do to much damage. We kept power the whole time ( lots of folks around us did not, so we were fortunate with that as well) and things are pretty much back to normal here.

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day on the road in NJ doing teeth. Lots of damage there, had to keep re-routing, as my GPS tried to get me where I needed to go. Trees down, rocks and debris across roads, or simply no road at all everywhere I turned. Today I'll be bringing a load of horses to Rose's to school, tomorrow doing teeth up in New Milford.

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2011-08-27T06:52:00.002-04:00

A few more hours of calm before Irene hits PA. We'll probably spend too many hours playing today, and not enough prepping things for the storm, but we hate to not go to Aberdeen to support Over the Hill Farm. So, today I'll feel a bit more like the grasshopper and less like an ant. Since this will be an exception and not the norm, I'll try to not feel guilty about it. :)

We are taking four Pasos and one Quarter Horse to the gaming part of the Aberdeen show. A slightly nervous Julie left a little while ago with Mambo in tow, headed out to the earlier English classes. This is the first time that she has taken off on her own to a horse show. Go Julie! We will meet up with her near noon time, with Pastor, Tappy, JQ, Cardillo and Scotch.

Once we return to RO-NO however, the fun and games end. We'll be getting horses in, setting out some sandbags, putting away anything that could blow away, latching all the barn doors and so on. I'm really hoping that it wont be too bad, and that it leaves as quickly as they say it will

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2011-08-25T06:31:00.002-04:00

Good Grief, 4 months until Christmas!!

Spent the last two days on the road alot, doing teeth up in New York and in Equinunk. Enjoying the weather before the hurricane brings rain our way. Rob has spent this week finishing up the haying at the neighbors farm. We got it all in yesterday, 6 wagons or so of gorgeous hay. Glad to have that done. Now we just need another nice stretch of weather so that we can tackle our own second cutting. I'd love it if we could fill the left side of the loft with sweet second cutting, we use that to keep the stallions happy all winter.

Today I get to stay home ( at least that is the plan right now) We had the farrier here all day on Monday, I managed to bring home a load of sawdust on Tuesday, so hopefully today I'll stay here and get some extra horses worked.Nicole schooled Pastor and Tappy yesterday, I did get to work JQ on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and will get to him and Cardillo today. I've a few trips planned over the next couple weeks to get the horses that we are taking to Nationals out to different rings to school.

We are hoping to take about 7 horses to the Over The Hill Benefit Show at Aberdeen on Saturday- let's hope it doesn't rain!

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2011-08-22T06:04:00.003-04:00

Whew...it's been busy here. We've all been working hard and playing hard too. :) Nicole M has been riding away on her Scotch, and she did very well at 4-H Districts yesterday, placing well in 3 of her 4 classes. Erin took three days off to head out for some R & R with her boyfriend, Amy did the same, Rose has been working, riding here, coordinating horse soccer games at home and so on. Rachel has been riding her horse Yorkie, Jenna is enjoying the freedom of having her licence, Pam has been here riding, Forrest, Jim and Shanna and Alaina, everyone has been able to come enjoy the good weather we've had. Julie's been keeping busy giving lessons and working horses, Kerry has been enjoying her driving freedom as well-

The township has been working on our bridges, so we never know what road will be open and what one will be closed. We'll see how things go with that this week. Keep this in mind when coming out here. The workers couldn't let me know just when they would be out again to work, so just watch for the road signs ( if they put them out- apparently that was not mandatory last week!)

Spent the day on Long Island yesterday. Took Cardillo and Calif. For once, Cardillo outshined his older brother. Calif was good, but seemed to get a bit fed up with the shooting and didn't always run as straight as he could have ( but his rider handled it very well and she shot great!) Cardillo really came on, getting better and better throughout the day. We had 5 runs, and ended up second in our division! Then the highlight of the day for me, the Cowboy Challenge. This was a timed shooting and obstacle event, kind of a combination Mounted Shooting and Extreme Cowboy Race. Cardillo rocked!!! He was super settled for the two shooting runs, and he flew thru the obstacles, never even hesitating at obstacles other horses wouldn't even attempt. He was great. Our end time was about 1/2 half of what the second place riders was, and there were 10 entries in the Challenge. It was a great end to a very fun and challenging day. I'll post pics when I get some.

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2011-08-17T06:26:00.006-04:00

Here's just a few photos from our fun evening on Sat. Jim, Pam and Erin are displaying some of the 'Extreme' part of the evening!! Thanks again to everyone for such a great day! ( We're still eating Erin's cupcakes!)

Monday was spent on the road for me, working on horses ( and mules ) teeth all over the Montrose, New Milford areas. Came home whooped and was very glad that there were plenty of leftovers. We had tons of help here yesterday, started getting things put back together here. I'd moved all of our trailers up to Maribelle's to make room here, so with Kerry's help we have them back in our own barnyard. The girls got all the garbage cleaned out of here on Sunday, so things are pretty ship shape now. I'm actually here all day today, a rare thing anymore. Rose plans on being around tomorrow to school, only 5 weeks till we are on the road to Memphis!

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2011-08-14T19:07:00.002-04:00

Thank you, thank you to everyone who attended our fundraiser event for Over the Hill Farm. We had a fantastic turnout for the Extreme Cowboy Race. 17 riders and over 50 spectators joined us in our effort to raise money and collect donated items. All in all, we were able to collect over $500 and the amount of donated items more than fill the back of my pick up truck! Rachel brought T-Shirts and bracelets and sold all that she had. Everyone was so very generous, so again, thank you for your help and support. It has been wonderful to see how our Equine Community has come together to help fellow horse owners in their time of need.

Our indoor obstacles ranged from pushing a 3' soccer ball through a chute, going through a water obstacle, a teeter-totter, a bridge ( sounding board ), an archway hung with ribbons and more. Outdoors riders had to ride through an upright round bale feeder, go through two creeks, over logs and through an archway with pool noodles sticking out of it. Everyone had a great time and we had fantastic food. All in all it was a great big barn party. ( we should have some good pictures soon).

I have horse dentistry to do near New Milford tomorrow, so I hope to stop by at Over the Hill Farm in the morning to drop off the items that are here still.

Next Sunday brings another mounted shooting competition. This one is on Long Island. We'll bring Calif again, as he seems to be a good influence on Cardillo. After that we will have one last month to have the horses ready to go to Nationals.

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2011-08-12T06:47:00.003-04:00

Kerry and Erin- the mighty hunters!

One day left to have everything ready for the Extreme Cowboy Race! I've had so many people tell us that they will be here, it's going to be a great day.

I've the obstacles nearly all set and ready to go. We've a few odds and ends to finish up, but so far all looks to be in pretty good shape for us for tomorrow.

Yesterday was just beautiful. The weather couldn't have been nicer, and we got so much accomplished. Tons of horses got worked, we got in a load of hay, we did some more clean up for tomorrows festivities. Ended the day with a nice trail ride- it doesn't get any better.

Today we'll get a few horses worked and start marking trails and such- get stuff all set for tomorrow. It's an awesome day!

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2011-08-09T20:51:00.002-04:00

Good, long day. Robbie had an early orthodontist appointment, so we hit the road, got that done, then got a haircut for Robbie, glasses picked out and ordered for both Robbie and myself, some grocery shopping done, new chainsaw blade for my chainsaw, some other odds and ends of shopping done, and we were back at the farm by noon. Rose was here with Madison and Brooke, both girls got to ride, and Rose got in good rides on both Pastor, JQ and Azura. Robbie schooled someone for me, and ended up hitting the dirt! An uncommon occurrence to be sure. I got several good training rides in, Tappy, Jose and Scotch were at the top of their game! And then....

I was made very proud by my two studs. It was getting late and I really wanted to get both Calif and Cardillo schooled, at least get them some good exercise. So... I decided to work them both at the same time. Got them both tacked up, left a halter on under Calif's bridle with chain attached, and left him in the cross ties. Took Cardillo into the arena and warmed him up a little, then rode into the barn and popped Calif out of the cross ties while still mounted on Cardillo. Un-looped the lead from the saddle and ponied Calif into the arena. It took a bit for Calif to catch on that I needed him to follow/keep up with Cardillo. I think at first he was a bit leery of being asked to keep so close to another horse when in the past this has always pretty much been taboo. After a bit though he was following quite well, good enough that we could gait and canter!! I was so pleased with both of them, especially Cardillo- he never hesitated- he was great. Not studdy- not annoyed that Calif was right at his side, he just worked. I was so very pleased. We even grabbed the flag from Jim and carried it around the arena, neither of them minded at all. Then went up to the pedestal, which both will step up onto, and I managed to get both of them up side by side on the pedestal, twice! We also went side by side down the board. It is so nice to have such good boys!

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2011-08-08T06:16:00.002-04:00

Wow, time is flying by! I still don't totally feel like I'm 'home' as it seems every day I'm off and running on one errand or another. But, all is well at RO-NO, we're keeping busy and are looking forward to this weekends event.

Took Nicole M and Scotch to their 4-H County show on Saturday. They did well, and we now know just what we need to work on to be ready for Districts! Unfortunately, I wont be here for that show, as it falls on the same day as my next mounted shooting event. But, we'll have her all ready to go and she will do well.

Took Robbie and Hunter fishing yesterday morning. Had a blast, Hunter got to reel in a number of blue gills and sunny's, and we brought them home to release into our pond. Robbie found a couple of snakes as well, but seeing as we both thought they were water moccasins we left them their space. Came home from fishing to find Jim out in the outdoor riding arena weed whacking, so I grabbed my gloves and went to work clearing brush and branches, we'll hopefully have it better then ever back there soon. Went to work then on my landscaping at the house. I'd picked up a load of mulch last week, and yesterday ( with Robbies help) I got my entire project completed ( for now) Everything is mulched, and I think it looks great. It felt great to get that job completed.

Today I'm off this morning to do teeth at Happy Trails in Mt. Pocono, from there I will go pick up feed and then head for home to work some horses. We've plenty to do here, day to day work of chores and training, and ad to that getting the place prepped for Saturdays Extreme Cowboy Race, gonna be a fun week!

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2011-08-03T07:34:00.002-04:00

OK, so when I wrote the blog yesterday I thought the new steer was in the corral still with Lars. I was wrong. Looked out the window to see how Lars and the new steer were doing, saw Lars pacing the corral and then saw the herd running. Dang it that steer hadn't scaled the wall and had gotten loose. Jack, Robbies 17 year old mule, believes that the pasture is his domain and does not care for intruders. He'd chased the steer, who jumped out of the pasture and into our hayfield. So much for getting a new steer to help make things less complicated ( we got him in hopes that he would settle Lars down and stop Lars from going to visit the neighbors cows.) Robbie headed down to try to get the steer back up towards the barn while I called Terry ( he's an neighbor- he sold us the steer) to see if he could come and help. I'm at the house with Hunter, watching Robbie slowly maneuver the steer closer to the barn. Just as they got out of sight, I heard a horrible commotion, metal panels banging and clanging! I though, 'why would the steer jump into the panels?' then realized that it wasn't the steer, but two horses that were turned out in those panels and the steer must have spooked them. Yikes!! I left Julie in charge of Hunter and I went racing down to the barn. Fortunately the horses were fine. Long story short, both Terry and Rob had to come to get this guy caught. We tried for awhile, but he kept running back into the grove of hemlocks next to our outdoor riding arena. We opened up some panels on a corral nearby, and finally got him chased in there. Then Terry and I both got a lasso on him, made a headstall and frog marched him to the old barn, where he is now residing in a set of stanchions. Hopefully after a week or two we can turn him out with Lars again, and when they go to pasture Jack will have to wear hobbles for awhile.

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2011-08-02T05:53:00.004-04:00

After lots of time and ink and copying and sorting ( most of which was done by Maribelle) all the paperwork for the Paso Fino National Show has been completed and sent in. Also completed and sent in yesterday was all of our stallion write ups for the Breeders Sweepstakes Catalog. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get to spend time at the barn today!

The countdown is pretty much on for our National Show in Memphis. We will hit the road early ( very early!) on the 23rd of Sept. Yikes, that's just over 7 weeks from now! I remember at this time last year I was doubly busy, as I was also prepping Calif for his performances at the World Equestrian Games.

We had a new steer delivered here yesterday. Lars, the steer we already have here, was really getting a bit lonely being the only bovine on the farm, and had gotten into the bad habit of going walk-about and visiting the neighbors Holsteins. Hopefully he will settle down and both of them will stay in the fencing. We have both corraled next to the indoor right now.

Here is the list of items that Over the Hill Farm could use. Gift cards for Lowes,
Home Depot, Agway, TSC, Dover Saddlery, Stateline Tack. English saddles, bridles,
grooming and first aid supplies, IHR helmets, half chaps, boots etc in junior
and adult sizes. They do plan to re-build, but in the meantime the donation of these items will help them to continue with their lesson program and help get them through this very hard time. Anyone wanting to drop off items to be donated may drop them here, either myself or Rachel will take them to Over the Hill. I will also make another run out to them after our Extreme Cowboy Race on Aug. 13th.

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2011-08-01T06:49:00.002-04:00

Happy August! I'm so happy to be home again, with no plans of going anywhere for awhile. Traveling is enjoyable, but being on the road for so long gets tiresome. It's great to be home.

This weekends CMSA Match went very well. Joe and the Island Long Riders hosted a wonderful match at the Malibu Dude Ranch in Milford Pa. I competed with both Cardillo and Calif and both stallions did very well. Calif hasn't been shot off of in a very long time, and he took it all in stride. Cardillo and I ended up winning the Ladies Level 1 Division in the 2 Stage Match! Cardillo has really come a long way, and we're looking forward to our next match on Aug. 21st.

Rob managed to get all the cut hay baled up before yesterdays rain. We were busy unloading it while keeping an eye on the sky. Dark clouds came rolling in when we were nearly done, and we managed to get the last wagon pulled into the hayloft shortly before the rain hit. Wont be long and we'll start putting in some second cutting.

As a reminder, we will be hosting an Extreme Cowboy Race here on Aug. 13th. Start time will be 4:30. No entry fee, but please bring along a donation for Over the Hill Farm. Either monetary or donations of needed items (b we'll post a list soon of stuff that they are in need of) lease bring a covered dish to share, as we will have a pot luck meal. Bring your neg. coggins papers too, and chairs. This is a very fun event, for both riders and spectators, so come join the fun.

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2011-07-30T19:58:00.002-04:00

Cardillo was the man both Friday night and today! Last night we headed to the match, got there to find out that they had to cancel due to the storm. The guy running the match is a friend though, and he set up anyway so that we could get both Cardillo and Calif into the ring and getting in some practice shooting. Cardillo surprised me in how good he was. We did two full stages of 10 shots, and he was great. Calif hasn't been shot off of in at least 18 months ( probably closer to 20-21 months) and he was typical Calif, took it in stride and was fine with it.

Today I headed out on the early side to go watch Alaina and Jose show at her 4-H County Show. Jose was very, very good. He and Alaina looked great out in the ring, they did a fine job representing the Paso Fino breed. After she was (nearly) done I headed toward home, picking up feed on the way. The CMSA match was on, so I started getting Calif and Cardillo ready to load up and go. Jim and Alaina joined me ( they had returned from the 4-H show) so we hit the road. Nicole and her Mom met us at Malibu Dude Ranch in Milford PA. We had no sooner pulled in and parked when they hollered that if I hurried I could make the 3rd stage, so we quickly tacked Cardillo up, I hopped on and I was in the ring shooting! He was fantastic. He did 4 stages today ( each stage is a run of 10 balloons, set in a pattern) and he really was good. Any mistakes that were made were due to rider error, not to the horse. Calif got his turn as well, competing in the 2 stage match that was help after the rifle match. Before that competition though, there was a bit of excitement. Someone hollered out that there were loose horses. Two horses came running toward the arena, having come out of the woods. Both were saddled, and the folks at Malibu quickly realized that they were two horses that were supposed to be out on a guided trail ride! Two of the wranglers hopped onto them and went to head out into the woods to find the riders. The first horse quickly disappeared down the trail, but the second horse wouldn't leave. I asked the rider if he wanted a lead out, and when he said yes I took the lead and we went out into the woods, through a creek and toward where we could hear the dismounted riders. They had unfortunately encountered a ground hive of bees and had to bail off the horses. All was well with them fortunately, so we all went back to the arena.

Tomorrow will be my first day off in over three weeks, if you can count a day off being house cleaning, weeding the garden and helping put in 4 wagonloads of hay.

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2011-07-28T19:19:00.002-04:00

Finally home! It's been a long trip, lots of hot weather. We left my sisters on Tuesday afternoon to head to western Illinois. Stayed over and got up super early to go load up the three Pasos. We were on the road then, headed for Indiana. The weather was with us, 70's and drizzling, so the horses stayed comfortable. (I really dreaded the idea of trailering three horses in 100 degree weather!) Worked on about 10 horses in Indiana and then continued on toe central Ohio where we had stalls waiting. (Brecksville Stables is a great place to stay if any of you need a layover in central Ohio right off of 81!!) We got the horses unloaded and set for the night, and then headed back out as I had several barns to stop and work at. Didn't get done until 11! Hunter was an angel, that was a really long day for him. Since I knew that the horses were well tended to, ( again- kudo's to Brecksville Stables) and I knew we only had 7 hours driving to get home, I let us sleep in! Going for 19 hours the day before made for a long, long day. We got back to the Ranch at about 4:30 today. The girls had the stalls all set for us, and the horses gladly settled in. These are some very well bred horses, ones that I will enjoy working with and selling. With bloodlines including Prometido, 222, Plebeyo and such, it will be enjoyable to work with them.

I will have to hit the road again tomorrow! There is a CMSA match close by this weekend, and Friday nights practice rounds seem to make the most sense to attend, so it's on the road again. Sigh...I can't wait for Sunday, it will be my first day off in weeks!

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2011-07-25T08:38:00.003-04:00

Tragic news. Our friends in Waverly Pa, owners of Over The Hill Farm have had a devastating loss. Their barn burnt down yesterday evening, and most of their horses were lost. There were a few that escaped un-harmed, some that were burned and are now at a vet's, a few that escaped and are still at large, but approx 20 were lost in the fire. This is a horrible thing, the entire equine community, and the community in general, have rallied around to help. Wish I was home to lend a hand. Please keep them all in your prayers.

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2011-07-23T08:09:00.004-04:00

Big storm here at my sisters last night. Tons of rain and lightning and thunder. Hunter slept through it all, even with the house shaking from the booms. Hope it keeps things a bit cooler today. Yesterday wasn't too bad, didn't really heat up until after 2. Long day scheduled for today, I've about 5 stops to make. Tonight Hunter and I will have the house to ourselves, Robbie, Carol and the boys are going camping with the boys Scout troop. Hope there are no storms tonight!

Todays extra job will be working on filling out the PFHA Stallion Service Auction forms and sending in text and pictures. ( No, I will not be including Bg Rb into the Auction!!) I've other paperwork to attend to as well, but these are due by the end of the month so they get priority. Once I get home, Nationals paperwork has to be taken care of, forms and money have to be in by Aug 15th!

I'm quite excited about the three lovely Paso's that I will be bringing home from Illinois. They are well loved, well bred animals and I hope to do their owner justice by them. She has spent years cultivating a good breeding program and now finds herself in the unfortunate position of fighting illness, and has to sell her horses. Most of the bloodlines include Jarenero, 222 and Prometido!

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2011-07-21T19:25:00.004-04:00

Yesterdays travels went well. We drove about 4 1/2 hours and started work. Robbie and Hunter well soon wisked away to the B & B that we woukd be staying at that evening to eat and watch tv. I worked on nearly 20 head, then got to go right inside to shower and cool off. The B & B at Horizon View Farm ( outside of Somerset PA ) was very nice, we had an extremely comfortable stay.

By 6 this morning we were back on the road. Had about 10 hours of travel to do. Hunter was great until about the last 45 minutes. Thank God for portable DVD players!! As the day went on, we watched the temperature go from 75 to 82 to 92 to 98 to 105!!! Chicago is hot!!

Heat is supposed to break tomorrow, and I hope the weathermen are right. My schedule is pretty full and I've already got waterbottles in the freezer in preparation for tomorrow.

Here is a picture of Azura, the new Paso mare. She's settling in just fine back at the ranch.

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2011-07-20T04:37:00.002-04:00

It's just after 4:30 in the morning and I'm up and running. ( well, more like stumbling around the house waiting for the coffee pot to finish brewing ) Robbie will be up soon and we'll finish packing and be on our way west. Hopefully Hunter will travel well. Our first stop is a bit north of Pittsburgh, there are about 18-22 horses for me to work on there. The folks that own them also own a B & B and have asked us to stay over. Thurs morning we will continue on to my sisters in Illinois. After that I'll work for about a week, head to north-western Illinois to pick up some new Paso's that I'll be bringing home to sell, head for Indiana and Ohio for a bit more work, stay over in Ohio then head for home. Phew...

Got in a new Paso mare yesterday. She is 12 years old, was shown Fino in her younger days, and is now hopefully going to make someone a nice regional show horse and trail mount. The gals will enjoy riding her while I'm on my trip. I'll have her up on the website soon.

Rob will start tackling more hay fields while we are gone, he'll be at your place soon Michelle! The heat wave that is going on here is happening all across the states, looks like I'm driving through and into some record breaking heat! But, it will help dry the hay quickly.

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2011-07-19T06:08:00.004-04:00

Cobleskill Show went very well. It was a small show, but there were some very nice horses showing and lots of spectators. We had a wonderful time getting to chat with folks that we only get to see when we are in the North East and it was a nice time.

One highlight for us was that Maribelle showed!!! She got up on Torey and was back in the ring. She's been riding a fair amount at home, we keep Torey at my barn so that she can have help right there for mounting and dismounting whenever the urge to ride hits her, and she looked great dressed up and out in the show arena. Great to see you out there Maribelle!! ( Good boy Torey!!- I've extra treats for you!!)

Another heat wave is upon us, and will be in the Chicago area the entire time that I'll be working out there. The boys and I leave tomorrow, we'll work in western PA tomorrow, then finish the drive to my sisters on Thur. Full days of work scheduled there for a week, then work in Indiana and Ohio on the way home.

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2011-07-17T06:08:00.004-04:00

We are getting set to check out of the hotel, and head back to the show grounds. Nic and I went over at 5 to feed and water, and now we need to warm a couple of the horses up in preparation for the show. It will be a fast paced day, not too many are here at the show, and there is only one judge, not two like yesterday. If our day goes half as well as yesterday it will have been a very successful show for us.

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2011-07-14T05:56:00.009-04:00

Almost ready for Cobleskill. Got a lot of packing done yesterday, as we have a ton of hay to put in today and time will be tight. Got all the horses clipped, trailers cleaned out, hay and some tack loaded, some tack cleaned, some horses worked and lessons given. This morning I'll be taking Starfire home, then getting feed. We'll finish packing and start putting in hay. Here's a few pics of babies and new Paso gelding.

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2011-07-12T06:04:00.003-04:00

Hot-hot-hot!!! Long but productive day yesterday. Picked up Scotch's owner Nicole yesterday ( will do today as well ) so that she could be at the barn for the day while her mom was at work. She helped out at the barn, and got to ride her horse too. ( he did well for her, so we are very pleased.) Went to do teeth for a client in the late morning, took Nicole along as I was picking up a lovely Paso Fino gelding from them as well, and Nicole wants to practice loading horses. Desi, the Paso gelding, is a wonderful trail horse that is now at RO-NO to be sold. Jenna took a few pictures of him yesterday, I'll post one on here as soon as I get it. Julie rode him for me to try him out, and she wouldn't get off of him! Guess he is one of her new favorites.I think he will be a favorite for everyone as he is a sweet little thing, well gaited and responsive. His owners need to downsize thus he is for sale. I owned him years ago, had him gelded and broke him to ride and he is just a great guy.
Took Chuck along to Honesdale when I went for feed. We hit Home Depot for more side wall and stuff, as work is progressing well on Grams house. Hope to have it ready to rent out by August.
Rob finished baling at Maribelles yesterday afternoon, and Robbie and I ended up unloading the wagon. It wasn't overly full, so it didn't kill us, but boy were we feeling the heat! Julie and Erin got tons of horses worked, and I fit a few in as well, so heat and all, we got it all done!

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2011-07-11T06:17:00.007-04:00

Good weekend. Saturday was a whirlwind of a day. Had people drive up from Bethlehen PA for Paso lessons, Scotch's owners came and rode ( and were pleased with his progress- it makes me happy to make people happy!! ) Lots od folks in to ride their ponies and take lessons. Rob cut hay at Maribelles ( we put some of it in yesterday- the rest goes in today) Hunter turned three on Saterday, took him to the Firemans Picnic in LA in the evening, he really enjoyed getting to see/hear all the firetrucks. Also went to Rachels to see the baby ( which we didn't get to do- she was sleeping ) and to do teeth on Rach and Chris's horses. Yesterday I got caught up on some housework, made covers for the couch's, did paperwork, put in hay, and had friends stay for dinner ( least I could do since they had helped put in the hay! )

Here are some pics of Desi and her baby. The girls have named him Spock due to his tipped, turned in ears!

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2011-07-09T06:41:00.003-04:00

Woke up this morning, ready to drag myself to Maribelles indoor to see how Desi was doing, and saw this note on the counter;

'Desi had a bay colt! 1:15 a.m. Placenta looked normal. Foal had umbilical iodine dip. As of 2:30 a.m. he was standing, walking and working on nursing. Desi has taken to him nicely. So, as of 2;30 colt has not yet nursed or passed meconium yet. Yay!'

How cool is that! I haven't had a chance to talk with her yet this morning ( hopefully she sleeps in) but from the sound of the note I think she got to see the foaling. I headed out there, and saw the lovely little boy. He is tiny! Can already tell that he will grey out. Has a stripe down his face and a little chrome on his legs.He's drinking and gaiting! Desi seams quite pleased with herself.
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2011-07-06T06:18:00.004-04:00

Still no foal. When i checked on her at 5 this morning, the sides of her tail head are all sunk in, her tail is very loose and she really looks miserable. Wont be long!

Hot day today, the weatherman says it may be in the low 90's, good for drying hay! Maribelles barn should be filled up pretty good by days end.

We had a brief bit of excitement at the barn yesterday afternoon. Kerry's Mom had come to pick her up, and while she was waiting Kerry's Pit Bull ( a very sweet, playful dog) accidentally got out of the car and ran at Herman the goat, who was tethered nearby. Herman freaked ( Madison just wanted to play- but Herman did not know that) he ran, ended up breaking his tether and bolted for the barn isle, where Itty Bit was cross tied. I hollered for the girls to dismount ( Jenna and Julie were riding Starfire and Bristol in the arena- I really didn't want them up on those green mares when a goat and dog ran into the arena!) Itty was great- he stayed in the ties as goat and dog ran under him, and off they went into the arena! Fortunately the girls had heard me yell and were off their mounts before the goat and dog lapped the arena. Kerry and I were running after the dog and goat show, as did Julie who had handed Bristol off to Pam. Herman ended up taking care of the problem. He apparently got tired of being chased, remembered that he had a pretty impressive set of horns, stopped and turned and rammed the dog. Poor Madison was a bit shocked, after all this was just a game right, no need to get violent. She turned tail and ran, right back into the arena and right up to me. Poor dog was shaking, goat was panting and by then we were all laughing ( except for Kerry- she was a bit mad at her Mom for letting the dog out)

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2011-07-05T05:47:00.003-04:00

No new foal yet. We're waiting for our 5th and final foal of the year. When I checked on Desi at 5 this morning she looked at me as if to say 'What's going on? I'm SO uncomfortable!' She's been waddling around for the past few days, I noticed that she had just been laying down before I checked on her this morning. Udder is full and tight and she could go anytime.

Speaking of foals, I realize that it has been awhile since I've blogged about Scratchy. He will be two months old on this Thursday!! He is fat and sassy and has been very healthy. We couldn't be more pleased. He is also well adapted. Often orphan foals get too coddled and grow up hard to manage because they think of people as their herd mates, making them difficult to handle as they want to 'play' with people like they would with other foals. Scratchy gets in to play with Charlie ( London's foal who is about 2 weeks older than Scratchy) several times a day, plus they all get turned out together. London never totally accepted Scratchy as her own, but she is very tolerant of him, and is the mother figure he needs to grow up well adapted to horse life, giving him the social guidance he will need to know how to behave as a herd animal. He also gets turned out with the yearling filly Savannah.

Charlie is recovering well from the wound he got on his fetlock. He is able to be turned out again ( though we were stalled a bit by the latest downpours we got on Sunday, I really don't want his nearly healed leg submerged in mud!) He is still rather stoic about being handled, he tolerates it but would rather be left alone. ( just like his mom!)

Rob dropped a ton of hay at Maribelles yesterday. Our fields are a bit too soggy to drive on, but hers are up high so we'll get it in while we can. Hopefully we'll get another dry stretch soon so that we can get the rest of our hay done. Things aren't looking too good for us as far as getting much of a second cutting.

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2011-07-02T18:35:00.003-04:00

Quiet night here. I came up from the barn to an empty house, Hunter went off for the weekend with his Auntie Gretchen and Rob and Robbie are working at the restaurant. I got to come in and sit down unmolested, no children to tend to, no supper to make- it will be nice for one night, but I'll be glad to have my hectic home life back...

Good day at the barn today, lots of riding done, horses have been very good. It's been nice to have a few dry days in a row, we did get a fair amount of hay into the barn yesterday.

On a very sad note, the RO-NO Crew lost an important member, Lexi Wombat, Rachels wonderful Border Collie, had to be put down last night. She had been sick for a day or two and had been at/in the dog hospital, then had a bad collapse yesterday evening. A return trip to the clinic ended with a verdict that she could not be saved. We are all so very sorry, Lexi will truly be missed.

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2011-06-30T06:07:00.006-04:00

So here's a few pics from our Extreme Cowboy Race. Looking forward to the next one!

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2011-06-29T06:20:00.004-04:00

I was going to let the pictures speak today but blogspot isn't letting me load them.- I'll try to post pics later. Julie put up over 100 pics of our Extreme Cowboy Race up onto facebook- there are some really good ones.

Picked up a new training horse yesterday, lovely QH gelding that needs work on loading, and picking up his leads. Nick, the newest training Paso, is coming on nicely- had a saddle on him yesterday and did a lot of ground work again with him, hope to be riding him by this time next week. Tappy is coming on strong, as are all of the show Paso's.

Rob hopes to have the hay bine up and running later today- we need to get more hay in!

Well, Hunter is up, I need to get moving and get some house stuff done. Have to send mailings to my Illinois clients with dentistry trip dates, and have to dig some holes in the yard for some of the plants that Angie brought me yesterday. One is a beautiful ornamental tree that I love!

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2011-06-27T05:51:00.003-04:00

With any luck ( and a little sunshine ) we will put in a small amount of hay today. Rob had cut some on Saturday, he'd planned on dropping a whole field but had some equipment problems. Hopefully that will all be fixed later and he'll drop a bunch more today/tomorrow. With all the rain we have had it's been tough for us to get the hay baled and in the barn. This week is looking good though, so fingers crossed!

My yearly summer trip to Illinois is scheduled for July 20th through the 28th. I'll be making stops along the way in south-western PA and in Ohio. I can be available to transport horses on this trip as well.

Before heading west we will be headed north. The Schoharie Valley Paso Serenade in Cobleskill NY is being held on July 16th and 17th. We've a whole load of horses headed there, and we've been busy getting them ready. Only 90 days until Nationals!!

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2011-06-26T16:45:00.004-04:00

The Extreme Cowboy Race last night at RO-NO was a hit. We will definitely be doing this again soon. We had over 10 riders, ( more if you count the ones who rode more than one horse) Obstacles ranged from rope gates, water hazards, pushing a huge soccer ball, jumps, jousting and more. We all had a great time and some great food!! Thanks to everyone who participated- lets plan to do this again!

Jeff took a ton of pictures, so keep an eye on facebook for them. I'll put one or two up on the blog when I get them. Oscar even participated, as did Georgie the Pony and Buttons the goat. The only ones to accidentally part ways with their horses were...myself and Robbie! :)

It's a hectic week ahead. I've teeth to do nearly every day, and a new training horse to pick up. Nick, our newest training Paso, is a super smart little guy, I'm having fun working with him.

For now I am off to the barn, I want to practice the CMSA with Cardillo.

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2011-06-24T06:14:00.003-04:00

Thought for a bit yesterday that I'd have to bring all the critters up the hill to the house! The rain was coming down so hard that water was flowing through the barnyard as quick and heavy as if it were part of a river. It flowed away pretty much just as quickly thank goodness.

John, our farrier, was here for most of the day. We had quite the list for him, and fortunately everyone behaved.

Nick is our newest training horse. He is an absolutely adorable Paso Fino gelding that is here to be trained, broken in to ride. I'm itching to get on him, he just has something about him that's telling me he is going to be a really good ride. Had quite the time getting him here. I had to run my brother to the Syracuse train station, so took the trailer along as Nick was about an hour east of there. It would have been an easy three hour drive, getting Nick and then heading home. Ended up not getting home until nearly three in the morning! Fog was so heavy the whole way there and home that it took forever. I was a tired pup, especially as I had to be on the road by 5:45 to pick up a load of hay.

Today we have lessons to give, horses to work and mud to deal with. I've a back section of the arena wall dug up, we've a few spots that need to be repaired and hopefully we can get that section done tonight.

We are hosting an Extreme Cowboy Race on Saturday evening here, along with a pot-luck cookout. Everyone is welcome- just bring a covered dish to share, and bring chairs.

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2011-06-22T06:23:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple of saddles that I have for sale. They are very good quality gaited horse saddle, and are in excellent condidtion. Priced at $550 each

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2011-06-22T05:53:00.003-04:00

Long hot day yesterday.Felt like I was chasing my own tail for half of the day. On a good note, we had plenty of help, lots of horses got worked, and I got in a lovely load of shavings for here and at Maribelles. Today will be a lot of the same, work horses,, give lessons, move some hay...

Tonight I will be driving my brother Dave back up to Syracuse to catch the train to Chicago. He has been visiting here for a few weeks. We've had a great time catching up with each other, and Robbie has really enjoyed getting to go fishing with his Uncle Dave. I'll have the trailer in tow, as once I've dropped Dave off at the station I'll be headed east to pick up a new training Paso.

Schooled two horses with the mounted shooting yesterday. Michelle has expressed some interest in participating in this sport, so yesterday her horse Dodge got his first lesson in dealing with shooting. He was a super-star, and next time that we work with him she will most likely ride him in the round pen while I shoot while standing in the center of the ring. Cardillo did well also, started out a bit rough, but was working well for me by the time we were done.

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2011-06-19T21:29:00.003-04:00

Four weeks from now we will be on our way home from the ( hopefully very successful ) Cobleskill show. Everyone is already raring to go, the horses are doing well and we're all working hard.

It was a good weekend. All the horses got worked, we had lots of help and lots of fun. Sonata and her foal are also doing very well, and Desi is thinking about bagging up. We have a full crop of foals this year, and so far each one is as nice as the last. One downside is that little Charlie, Londons foal, got hurt. He somehow managed to slice open the front of his fetlock, so now he is on antibiotics, which means he also has to be on Pepto and anti-ulcer meds. We did find out last week that he likes to drink Scratchy's formula, so giving him the pink stuff and the ulcer meds is now easy, we just mix them into a quart of formula and he drinks it right up! Scratchy continues to do well, he is growing like a weed and is very hearty and healthy. With Charlie on stall rest for awhile, looks like we may have to halter break Scratchy so we can get him out for some exercise. It will be interesting to see if London throws a fit or not when we take him out for exercise. They are still stalled separately, but are basically together all the time- so this may be an interesting exercise.

Cardillo is doing well, we were able to work him twice this week on the mounted shooting. I hope to school him at least twice more this week, and if all goes well we will be at another competition on Saturday. Jim has continued to work Jose with this as well, and even shot off of him a few times earlier this week. Cardillo is going to have a busy time at PFHA Nationals. He will be shown in Versatility and Trail, and he will compete in Mounted Shooting, a Trail Trial and will try out for the Soccer Tournament!

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2011-06-17T22:17:00.006-04:00

Boy does time fly! Between the show, coming home and trying to catch up on things, and trying to get my laptop back into working order I simply have not made the time to get on my blog.

We had a great show. It was hot, there were some ups and downs, but all in all everyone had a great time and the horses did very well. Amazingly enough the horses survived the heat well and all performed beautifully, as did their riders. Good job everyone!!

We hit a snag on the way home from the show. After a hectic day of showing, we all worked hard to load up and head for home. We left for the 7 hour drive at about 2:30, and got home at midnight!! One broke down diesel slowed us down, but we finally made it safely home. Now we have a month to gear up for the next show, it will be here before we know it!

Scratchy continues to thrive. He is eating well, and seems to be keeping up growth wise with the other foals. Sonata had a lovely bay colt on Tuesday morning. I had headed to the barn at 1:00 a.m. to check on her, and when I went back at 6 she had him up and standing and nursing. He is super gaited, and already shows signs of graying out. We've just one baby to go, Desi is due in about 3 or so more weeks.

This week flew by. Monday passed in a haze, just wiped out from the heat and the show. Tuesday I had to take a very cranky three year old boy to the Dr.'s ( ear infection) Wednesday I got lots of critters worked, Thursday was Robbie's 14th B-Day, and today was working horses pretty much all day long- didn't get in until late. Tomorrow we do it again! :)

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2011-06-11T22:40:00.002-04:00

Hello from Virginia! We've had a super busy time here at the show. All is well- everyone is working hard and having a good time. I'm too tired to think of what else to write tonight- have to be back up and at the show grounds in 6 1/2 hours!

Do have to add that Rose won A/O Fino Championship!!

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2011-06-08T21:12:00.003-04:00

Hopefully we've remembered everything for the show. All the critters are bedded down for the night- and soon we will be bedded down as well. I've a very full house tonight, Rose, Madison, Willow, Nicole, Dave, Julie and the four of us. Made for a fun household but everyone is ready to crash for the evening.Early tomorrow Lori and Megan will be headed here, we want to be on the road with all four trailers by 7. I'll try to post from the show to let you all know how we're doing!

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2011-06-07T06:02:00.003-04:00

June 6 and Rob cut hay! That's early for us and I'm loving it. Putting hay in does add to the hecticness ( if that is a word ) of these next 2 days, what with getting ready for Lexington- but it's worth it.

Scratchy is still doing well. I'm waiting for the shipment of formula for him ( love how I received the receipt for it before I received the product!) Robbie and Julie will be in charge of him while I'm gone, as Erin will be away as well. All in all things are progressing nicely. He will be a month old on Thursday.

Today my brother Dave and I will run errands, get feed, go do teeth in Clark Summit then return here so I can give lessons and help put in hay.

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2011-06-06T05:54:00.003-04:00

Drove to Syracuse yesterday morning, accompanied by Hunter, to pick up my brother Dave who came in by train from the Chicago area. He'll be here for a few weeks and I'm looking forward to getting to spend some time with him. Got a call on the way north that my lap top was ready to pick up, they had gotten the data transfer done. So now we have to go thru setting this new pc up to run ( hopefully ) like the old one. I think I will save my pennies and send the old one off to Compac to have them install a new screen, seeing as Robbie will be in High School next year and he will probably need a laptop.

Got my garden put in yesterday evening! I'm so pleased. Jim took the time to bring his tractor back over from Lake Ariel to move the top soil for me, and Angie was here with tomato, pepper, squash, pumpkin and cucumber plants. It looks great. Now I just have to keep critters out of it.

Today will be hectic, have to drop off sawdust trailer on the way to do teeth up in Montrose, have horses to work, have feed to pick up, hopefully today the next order of foal formula will arrive. Nicole got the trailers cleaned out and organized yesterday- and made up a list for me of what I need to get before we leave for the show. Only 3 more days and we hit the road!

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2011-06-04T22:28:00.003-04:00

Another long day at the ranch. My morning started out poorly- when I went to boot up my laptop, I discovered that a spoon had been laid on the keyboard, and the lid slammed down on it. Bye-bye screen. The warrantee just ran out ( of course ) and to just replace the screen would cost anywhere between $300-$600 plus 5-8 weeks of waiting. Sigh....So at 6:30 after chores were done I ran off to town to shop for a new one. Ended up spending more that I wanted to ( of course- I didn't want to spend anything-) got a new Compaq and have left the old and the new ones at Staples to have the data transfered. I hate-hate-hate having to learn to use a new system- I'm simply not adept at technical stuff. Now give me a new horse to figure out, that I can deal with!

Scratchy is still doing well, as are the other babies.We have Bristol ( lovely Morgan filly ) back for a months tune up, and Mayo is here as well. Just a few more days and we will be off to Lexington. Only 12 head going this time. Today Erin cantered Starfire for the first time and the mare did very well. She's coming right along and I think she is going to be a very nice trail mare. ( she did try to kick me today while she was in the cross-ties- rotten filly! :) ) Rachels lessons went well today, as did mine. I was also able to run to pick up a load of top soil for my garden. ( I'm hoping that my very good- tractor owning friend will put a bunch of it in the garden tomorrow- hint-hint :) )

RO-NO Removal Service had to pick up two horses last night. The first was a very well cared for TB cross that had to be euthanized. He was no longer comfortable in his own skin and his very wise owner knew it was time to let him go. The second was a 23 year old mare who fell asleep and that was that. Her poor owners were so distraught, they had owned her nearly her entire life. We do meet some very interesting people doing this. Sad to say, but this was the longest time I got to spend with my hubby in over a week. It's pretty bad when 'date night' is going out on RNRS calls!

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2011-06-03T06:00:00.003-04:00

Here is Margaurite de Calif, pinto filly. Sandy wanted a filly and she wanted color- it's fantastic!!

I got to take a quick peek at her yesterday morning. Ginger is being a great mare and Sandy and Evy are already totally enthralled with their new little girl.

Good day but long day yesterday. I ended up staying down at the barn until 10:00 with the farrier. We simply had a long list of horses to get done, and all got done at Maribelles as well. Today may not be much better- have to go on a removal service call this evening- and I'll be a bit short handed at chore time. Not a big deal- we'll get it all done one way or another. Robbie has been a huge help, coming down to the barn every day after school to pitch in. We've lots to do to get ready for the Lexington show next week. We'll have 12 horses going-

Have to bundle up a saddle and pair of chaps to run to Ralph R this morning- and probably need to hit the bank and run some errands too. Toby, the paint gelding that I mentioned in a post earlier this week, has a new mom- and he will most likely be headed t his new home today. They had him shod all the way around yesterday- I think he is going to work perfectly for them. He's been a joy to have here.

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2011-06-02T06:02:00.002-04:00

Gorgeous morning! It's 58 degrees here. So much nicer than the humid 70+ we had yesterday morning. All the horses will be feeling much better as well.

Calif has sired another gorgeous pinto- a filly this time. Sandy B's mare Ginger foaled last night- can't wait to go see this new arrival.

John will be here today and we have a rather daunting list for him. So glad that it is cooler out. Later today we will get momma and babies out- let them frolic in the sunshine. We've someone coming back out to try Toby again- they really liked him when they rode yesterday- so he may have a new mom soon. He sure is a sweetie.

Yesterday was quite the whirlwind day. I headed out on the early side to go south to Tannersville to do teeth, then headed home to hook up to the big trailer- took it along to do a few more horses teeth on my way to pick up Jackie's mare Bristol for a spring tune-up. Then home with her- and lessons to give, plus Toby to show. Certainly made the day fly by.

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2011-05-31T05:52:00.002-04:00

Forgot to mention in yesterdays posts, we've a horse in for a week that belongs to a client. Very nice, well built Paint Gelding. He is 15 HH, 10 years old. Very good trail horse. He's been with them since this past August- they want to find a large gaited horse instead. This is a 'husband safe' horse. Asking $1200.

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2011-05-30T20:09:00.002-04:00

Good day! Lots of horses worked- even with the heat. Lori came for a visit- got to see her Tappy work. Stayed to see several others go as well. She happily departed with her new round pen!

Scratchy continues to do well. Erin gave him a 'butt bath' this afternoon- just to help keep him clean- this last bout of the scours got him a little messy. In a few minutes Robbie will be heading down to the barn to give him his evening batch of mare milk formula. He is eating and drinking well- so with luck he will continue to thrive.

Luck- that is the wrong word. I was told ( again- as I've been told this several times before ) yesterday that I was lucky to have what I have here- lucky to have done so well in the horse industry, lucky to have stayed busy and productive in this down economy. I will admit that I have been very fortunate in all of this- but it isn't due to luck. Hard work ( a.k.a. many wet saddle blankets- literally and figuratively ) is the key to the success at RO-NO. Luck insinuates that it wasn't earned- that it just happened. We all work hard here, we try our best to make sure our horses are properly cared for, properly trained. I go out of my way to help my clients, and to try to find new ones. It isn't luck- it's persistence and hard, hard work. And having a wonderful crew here sure doesn't hurt! :)

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2011-05-30T07:38:00.003-04:00

Busy weekend!! Kerry and I both had competitions to prepare for on Friday- along with all the regular work. Kerry had a good show- first time out on her Zip and she placed well- I'll have to get some photos to post.

Cardillo, Touche, Robbie, Nicole and I hit the road early on Sat. morning for our Mounted Shooting Competition in Conn. All went well ( other than a bit of construction in Conn. ) Cardillo

took everything in stride and improved as the day went on. People at the match were very friendly and helpful- and they all thought he did quite well for his first time at a competition. We certainly didn't win any prizes- but I was very pleased with his performance.

Scratchy continues to do well, though he does have the scours again. Yesterday Erin and I got him, London and Charlie out onto the grass in a good paddock and let them run for awhile. Boy did the babies have fun!! It was great seeing them out there stretching their legs.

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2011-05-25T06:35:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post his morning. All continues to be well on the baby front. Carbi and her little black colt ( Royal Flush Lightning Bolt aka Lightning ) continue to thrive. They will get to venture outside this morning. Wish I could be there to see the little guy run.

Scratchy continues to do very well also. Still eating like a champ. Erin and I hope to get him out of his stall for a bit today- not quite sure how we are going to manage it- but we will figure something out. Want to let London and Charlie out to run also-we'll see how it goes.

I've been letting Scratchy stay in London/Charlies stall a bit longer every feeding. Trying to get him playing with Charlie, and getting the mare more used to having him bouncing around her. Still hoping that I can get her to accept him as her own.

Cardillo did well with our shooting practice last night. Robbie rode Touche too, and did some dry firing from his back. Touche does well with the gunfire, but we have yet to shoot from his back- maybe later today. I'm planing on bringing both of them to the shoot in Conn. on Saturday.

Touch will return from New Bolton tomorrow. Rhonda took him there to have a growth on his eye treated. It did turn out to be cancerous- but they say that it is very treatable and the prognosis is good.

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2011-05-24T06:13:00.003-04:00

What a couple of days we've had!! Scratchy, the orphan foal, is doing very well. He is eating/drinking his formula like a little trooper, and we still put him on London ( the nurse mare) 5-6 times a day. We call it 'releasing the beast' when we open the door for him to go to her to nurse- he dives right in and goes at it- he knows already that he has a limited amount of time to get his fill from her. She has her own foal- and she still is not totally on-board with this whole ideas of adding a second foal to her care. He has been on Zantac, Pepto and Pro Bios, and as of last night he started passing some solid manure instead of the scours that we had been fighting. Each day that goes by feels like a mini-victory to us. I'm planning on adding some hydrated alfalfa pellets to his diet, along with the fol lac pellets.

Other good news, Rose's mare Carbi FINALLY foaled- and all is very well. She was horribly overdue- to the point that the vets were pretty sure that she would have a stillborn foal. She was producing absolutely no bag/udder- that and the amount of time she was overdue were both signs of a problem that some mares can get ( from ingesting a plant with a certain type of fungus on it) that can cause them to have an overly thickened placenta that prevents a normal birth and causes still born foals. We had been very worried about her- and it's been a couple of long. frustrating weeks waiting for her to foal. The vets said to just wait, inducing really was not an option- so wait we did. Yesterday morning I got the call at about 6 a.m. that the mare was foaling. I never showered and dressed so quickly in my life. She is over an hour south of here- but after all the waiting and stress I just had to go to help with any needed follow up. I arrived to a barn full of very excited people- half of which were in the mares stall with her. Carbi was a bit stressed out by this- so I ( hopefully politely as it's not my barn ) kicked them all out. Rose had still been at work in Philly and was on her way, so I got folks to calm down and quiet down while we waited for Rose. With all the people out of her stall, Carbi settled down and started taking interest in the new arrival - and after about 15 minutes he ( gorgeous and refined black colt with a lighting strip down his face) began to nurse. She passed her placenta a few hours later and all has gone very well. So glad this is over- she was so overdue that we were concerned about her own safety- 373 days!!!!!

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2011-05-21T19:40:00.003-04:00

Sadly, we sent Misty to the big horse pasture in the sky yesterday afternoon. When she was down we could see just how badly her shoulder had been broken- this wonderful, strong old mare had done her very stoic best to stay up and eating to give Scratchy a few more days of her milk. I then spent a very long ( and frustrating ) night last night trying to get the colt, Scratchy, settled and eating. He went nearly 13 hours with no food. Refused to nurse from a bottle, refused to drink from a bucket, refused to swallow when I used a large srynge to put formula in his mouth. I read countless articles online, have been given great advice from dozens of colleagues and friends, all seemingly to no avail. He simply refused to eat. Finally this morning ( after what was basically a sleepless night) Erin relieved me of foal duty ( I really needed a shower- had been doused in formula numerous times throughout the night) After a bit ( much to the relief of all of us ) she managed to get him to drink some formula. I decided to bring London and her foal Charlie down- I just had to make sure that we would be able to get enough food into little Scratchy. We got them into the stall with him and restrained her so that he could drink. He took one look at her udder and was on her lickity split. We did end up having to tie, blind fold, twitch and tranq her for a few hours- but then could relax a bit. Thee is not a lovely temporary partition up in the foaling stall. 5-6 times a day we will let him in to nurse off of her ( she still has to be pretty strongly restrained) but he is also eating the formula very well- so things are looking much better than they did at midnight! Well- I'll post more later- for now I need to head back down to the barn to feed him, and I'm going t0 try to get some rest- did not get but 2 hours of fitful sleep last night!

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2011-05-19T06:10:00.002-04:00

We have sad news here. Misty, my wonderful old brood mare, is not going to be with us for much longer. Several months ago she lost her eye-sight, but she successfully made it through foaling last Thursday. She has been dealing pretty well, though every day she has had a new mark on her face from running into the arena wall and such. It has been miserable to see her dealing with he lack of sight, and I knew that she probably would not make it too long before a decision would have to be made about her. Well, the decision has been made. Yesterday morning when I went to give her her morning water ( we go to her about 5-6 times a day to hand offer her water as she hasn't always been able to find it herself now that she has a foal to tend to ) I found her standing in the corner of the arena favoring her front left. Looks like her shoulder is broken. We will try to keep her up and comfortable for a few more days ( at most ) to try to give her colt, Scratchy, a few more days of having his mom, a few more days of natural mares milk. I'm absolutely devastated about this. Misty is one of my first Paso Fino horses and she has been a wonderful horse, plus she has given us some fantastic babies.

If anyone has knowledge of a nurse mare please let me know. I am planning on bringing Rose's mare Kat back in from the pasture to see if she will take the foal- it's going to be a long haul- raising an orphan foal is no easy feat. Any advice from you all will be very welcome.

Another bit of news that hopefully will not be bad news, Rose's mare Carbi still has not foaled. She is several weeks overdue. She is absolutely huge! with foal- but is showing no bag yet. Hopefully she will foal very soon and not have any problems. She will be having an ultrasound on Tuesday- or possibly sooner- to see if there are any problems.