A New Year and New Goals

Technically, it is just a new 4-H year. Today was the first meeting of the new 4-H year. New goals were selected, trips planned and officers selected. Whew, glad that is out of the way.

But, the fall seems to be an appropriate time to start planning my goals for the next few months too.

Towards late summer my horse goals start getting a little random and it never seems like I get much accomplished with any particular horse. In some ways the randomness helps me to figure out who might work well in a particular area and I can start gearing their training toward an event that they will excel at. Some horses get stalled out due to issues other than training, such as teeth, chiropractic work needed or in a few cases, they are just burned out and need a few weeks/months off hanging out in the pasture.

In most ways it is really nice to have so many horses to chose from. No one horse works so hard that they suffer from mental or physical strain and stress. I don't ever have to worry about getting bored with doing the same thing over and over with the same horse. The only downside is that sometimes I get to jumping around too much and don't particularly accomplish what I want to with any one horse.

With the showing end of things over for the winter and just a few barrel racings scheduled, I can focus on some of these that need to be added to the list as saddle horses. As far as competition horses, I am really only going to focus on Leo for barrel racing...

Sandy needs to get back on the barrel pattern and taken for some exhibition runs...
Moon needs a break. He is crabby and would love to go to the pasture for a bit. He has never been a horse that particularly cares to be kept up and pampered...

On the other hand, my buckskin, Frosty, loves to be fed and pampered. He needs to come back to town to get some miles and training on him.

As does the red-head...

The guy we had hopes for to put the first few rides on this horse decided he preferred not to ride an older horse. I'm over worrying about it. I have asked a friend to be my "snubber" and will get the job done myself.

Of course there is the two sisters that didn't get past the saddling stage a couple years ago...


I have no qualms about going on with these two girls. They will be easy-beans. By the way, Leo is their full brother. Hmmm-genetics sure can vary from year to year.

We cannot forget about my pet project, the now super-sweet Roan Dog...

I love this horse. His confidence is coming around, his nostril healed up better than I thought it would and we are just going to continue on with baby step confidence building tactics. I think the key with this guy is inspiring his curiosity. Once he is curious about something, he willingly comes to inspect it and then it is no big deal. Not sure how to translate that to riding, but we will figure it out.

Last, but certainly not least is the 3y/o bay gelding, VooDoo. He is the one in the middle on the header picture. For some reason I don't have any other pictures of him. His size is intimidating-he is surely 15.3H, and not done growing, but his disposition is sweet and curious. I do not think he will be a problem, except for his size.

So there the ones who will replace the "summer" bunch. The only goals are really to get them running or riding. Frosty will be the "slo-mo" horse. It's a handful for sure, but what the heck else do I have to do with my time-LOL.

Oh and remember those trees I was so POed the electric company was going to come cut down? They never did come back and cut those down or trim off the dead branches they said they would. After the 4-H meeting today, one of the leaders stayed to visit for a bit and a huge rotten branch broke off the big cottonwood tree and fell on her pick-up hood. Messed it up good. I was almost in tears I felt so bad...she laughed it off. My mom carries property liability, but we don't know if it will cover something like that. The owner of the pickup said not to worry, she has full coverage. I am sick. At the very least, I will have to give her something toward her deductible. Jesus, I moved my pickup, so people would have room to park in the yard and she parked where my pickup usually sits. Chris would have shit a brick it I had called him to tell him that a tree branch fell on the pickup. Without a doubt, I will have to bring the tractor to town and use the bucket to get up there to cut the rest of the dead crap off some of these trees.