Sunday

Am going to try again. Something went wrong and it would not publish nor would it upload my pictures.

So, yesterday we went to the Lincoln County Fair at Davenport and watched Dusty Roll pull on a demo with his EMM horse Telford. He is doing a great job and has about 3 more weeks until they are off to Ft. Worth. I sure do wish him luck and a safe journey. I am going to try to add pictures. Also at the fair we met Arlene who has Wildairo and Echo. That was so much fun.

Also, I will try to upload some pictures with our grandson Tyler and Liberty. Libby was left in our care by our neighbors who moved to Wyoming. They adopted her when she was 2 and just turned her out. She is 10 now. Tyler has been working with her for about a year and I think this is the week that he will get on her. He loves her. And she loves him.

Am going to include a picture of Sierra in her new home. Haven't received any others yet.

No pictures today of Rusty but Bob rubbed all over her face. She wasn't sure of it but stood there and let him, sort of. And, I rode Dixie for a while. My knee hurt so I did not ride long but wanted to ride for a bit. I had never rode her in the arena and wanted to see what she did. I did find out what she would do - nothing. Just did the trail items in there and went on about her business. I tried a mechanical hackamore on her today. That worked better. I do think we need to get her to the vet and have her teeth done. She is too thin for what she has to eat.

A good day

The first picture is our pretty girls face. Rusty is doing very well. I can not handle that long pole well and she let me get quite close to her so I ditched the bamboo pole and went to my Handy Stick or whatever you call it. I rubbed all over her back and neck with it. I picked up the rope and was able to touch her nose without too much of a to do and then I scratched her neck. She gave to the rope and took a couple of steps toward me. Bob has been sitting in a chair in the middle of her pen. But he and his leg are still incapacitated and doing more is forbidden. He did touch her nose last night as she was eating her hay out of his lap. She doesn't want to be scared but can't help it.

The last picture is our grandson Tyler ground driving Liberty. She is the 10 year old mare that our neighbors abandoned. At 9 she had never been touched. She takes a little more to get things done but is trying. Tyler has done it all. He had never done anything with horses except when they came to visit. He is learning and loves it. We love it too.

Had a long talk with Tracey last night. That was a good visit. I sure wish we lived closer. She lives in Bellingham over in the NW corner of our state. She has a real passion for mustangs and I do think she could sell ice to the Eskimos. Enjoy her friendship so much.

I am hoping to go to the Lincoln County fair tomorrow morning to see Dusty Roller give a demo with his Makeover Horse 08. He is a good trainer. Would really like to watch him and see what he has accomplished with his horse. He is a QH guy.

Rusty

I received pictures of Sierra at her new home in Nevada. She looks happy and is doing well. She has another yearling filly to play with. Made me feel good to see though.

So on to Rusty. She is a 3 year old filly from Beauty's Butte. She has been at the corrals in Burns for about a year. She was a 3 strikes horse so we bought her outright. Bob fell in love with her at Pasco but did not adopt her and then she did not get adopted in Albany and that was her third strike. I guess she was here in Spokane but we were not there so I did not know that.

Bob has been doing a lot of sitting in her corral. He can do that on crutches. She ate her dinner out of his lap this evening and he touched her nose. I had the bamboo pole all over her today too. I took ahold of the rope but she said nope. So back to the pole. She has a good mind I just know.

Bob wants to be able to do more with her so bad. He goes back to the doctor in about 10 days. He wants to walk so bad. Even a cane would be better. Then he will do more with her. I will too though. I have more confidence now.

I never said I was very computer smart and uploaded the same picture twice. Will do better tomorrow.

Home

The last post was done by our daughter. We got home late yesterday afternoon in the midst of a terrible wind/dust storm.
Reno was an experience of a lifetime but I don't think I will do it again. For a couple of reasons. First of all my age, next was the heartbreak of giving up my special baby, and we just could not afford to do that again. I received a lot of support from a lot of people, money, services and so on but it cost us about $l,000. to go to Reno twice, food, etc.
We arrived Wednesday afternoon and got settled in the 12 x 12 panel stall. I put her kind of in the middle so neither the the morning, nor afternoon sun would be on her. It was hot enough without being in the direct sun. She settled right in and drank a lot of water. We put her banner up and sponsor board up. Thursday, she got her bath. She never did learn to like a bath much. We had our trainers meeting and got the pattern for the obstacle course. My big thing was, I did not trot with her in circles around cones. We did serpentine etc. She would trot to the right with me just fine but to the left she barreled her shoulder into me. A young lady next to us named Jaci took her and worked with her. I certainly appreciated that.
Friday morning we first had the conditioning competition and they painted our number on each hip. #310. I got dinged .5 because she was too heavy. No ribs showing. That amounted to -4 points. I did not know they were judging her on manners and she moved away from the person painting her and got knocked 2 points there. That is 5 points. In the actual obstacle competition, she walked halfway around the 2ND. circle. I could not run fast enough that way. She did the square perfect. She got marked down a little at the trailer because she did not just follow me in but stopped and smelled before she stepped in. And then when I was picking up her feet, on the last foot she was a little off balance and I took it away from me so I picked it up twice. My fault there. She did the rest of the course very well, nicked one pole.
When all the points were tallied, I came in, in the top 10 and 7Th overall. 6.5 points out of first place so you see the competition was fierce. Only the top 5 got to do their freestyle in the big arena.
I cried myself to sleep Friday night because I was so afraid she was not going to be adopted and they told us if they were not adopted they would go back to Palomino Valley Center and I could not stand that. She trusted me. However, she was adopted by a lovely lady from Reno. They picked her up Sat. afternoon. I did well then, she loaded right in their trailer but when she left she looked out the trailer window and whinnied at me like she was concerned why I was not going. I lost it.
Only 4 of the babies did not get adopted and they did not go back to PVC but to the prison program at the Nevada State Prison in Fallon, NV. They will do very well there and help a man get his life in order.
We met some wonderful people, will never forget them nor will I ever forget a young bay filly that gave me my confidence back and pulled me out of a depression that I could not seem to shake since last Jan. Sierra, I will always remember you, will you remember me?

We stopped in Burns on our way home a picked up a 3 strikes filly that is 3 and we have named Rusty. Will post pictures tomorrow.

Hi All.... We are in Reno. It's bloody hot here and the AC went out on the truck. We stayed last night at Andi & Tom's in Burns. Sierra did just fine on the ride down here. Tomorrow is check in and some meetings and then Friday it all starts. Until then.

0 0 0 0 0 0 Days to go.

Well here it is. We leave early tomorrow morning. We have had a very busy day. Getting everything ready. Just have the food to pack and the ice chests ready and my "show clothes" ironed and hung in the trailer and I am going to go to bed and put my head under the pillow. I am tired.

Sierra was not good today. She did the obstacle things very well today and that was OK. However she did not want a bath, did not like it and was mad at me for doing it. I tried to lead her to the front lawn for some pictures and she bucked and tried to jerk free. Did get a couple but not what I wanted. Oh well, she will be pretty tired tomorrow evening when we get to Burns. So will we.

I will not have Internet access in Reno. Don't have a laptop. I will probably be be back on Monday the l8Th. For all my sponsors, friends, family I can't say thank you loud enough or long enough. You are all very important to me. THANK YOU.

One day left, l, ONE, Uno

Our garage sale ended today and we did awesome and got rid of a lot of stuff, tack, farm equipment, clothes, etc. What was left we boxed up and a lot of it will go to the Salvation Army when we get back. Anything western, left over tack etc. got boxed up to store until next March when the tack swap is. Our granddaughter helped us and she made a little spending money and we got to play with Liliana, our great granddaughter.

The airshow also concluded today. I love watching the airplanes flying in precision. Don't want to do it just like watching. Got some nice pictures. The Blue Angels were the planes this year.

I put Sierra out in her little pasture this morning and she began to tear around like a crazy horse. That is what she was doing when she jumped the gate. I called her and she came to me and I put her in the round pen and she loped and trotted for a long time before she began to listen to me. We just kept at it. She did whatever I asked her minus halter/lead so I put her back out and she went to eating. So I thought it was a good thing to have done. Later she and I worked with the music and obstacles. She did pretty well. I will give her a good work out tomorrow and then Tuesday we are off. Whew. Can't believe it.