Top Floor Please

I was going to put all of the pics of our "rooms" on one post, but it's just too much...kinda like the room itself.

Remember I said that Vegas loves My Honey?

I had NO IDEA!

When we arrived at the Monte Carlo...which is our favorite place to stay...we were received like royalty. Bell hops swarmed the car, removing our luggage, opening doors and assisting us out of the limo. My Honey was greeted by his concierge, who after introductions, introduced me to my concierge.

We were taken by the arms and led to the elevators.

The PRIVATE ONES!

The only way to get to the floor where our room was by inserting the door key. It was the top floor. The penthouse suites!

When we arrived, we were escorted around the commons area and shown the 24hr concierge desk. I guess we could call that desk at any time, for anything. Off to the side, was a "break" room that provided snacks and beverages. We never had time to ever go back there and check it out.

Then we were escorted to our room. When they opened the doors, it was rather like walking into a movie. Seriously, even though we were trying to act all cool about it, I'm pretty sure the slack-jawed disbelief showed in our faces.

The foyer...

The Living Room...

Part of the Dining area and looking into the Living Room...

The Kitchen...
While My Honey's concierge briefed him, my concierge walked me around the penthouse and gave me a tutorial. Even the freaking coffee pot came with a tutorial. Actually, I don't think you could call that a coffee pot. It made coffee, espresso, lattes and cappachinos.

Everything in the room was digital. There were 4 t.v.'s in the "common area" alone. The t.v.'s, the lights, the curtains...music, the Internet and even the showers could all be accessed, stopped or started with those controllers. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.

Our view during the day...


And at night...


The best thing about the Penthouse?

The bathrooms!!!! Wait until you see the bathrooms....

The Fastest 3 Days EVER

Literally!

Doesn't it seem like I just posted that we were heading to Vegas?

We're back...Got back to a miserable snow storm. Kinda wished that the pilot did more than casually mention we might run into some snow BEFORE we left. We might have stayed another day if we had known. ;-P

Pilot, you ask?

Oh Yea................

Meet the co-pilot...

My Honey decided for the first time ever to use the company plane. It's actually owned by business partners, but they always told him he could use it whenever. He just never really felt comfortable with that. It's a frivolous luxury that doesn't really jive with our lifestyle.

But this was kind of a special occasion, so he splurged.

You know...with it being the holidays and taking Megan and a friend. It just seemed like a fun thing to do.

Talk about arriving in style...

It's sick how easily a person could get used to that kind of lifestyle. But not near as sick as our rooms...

When The Man Makes A Call

Well, it isn't Arizona....Looks like Meg and I will have to sneek off for a weekend after the New Year.

The Man made a call this morning and we are headed to Las Vegas for a couple of days for some R&R.

He loves Vegas....Vegas loves him.;-)

I love Vegas. We should be hitting it at the right time too. We've spent Christmas in Vegas before and didn't enjoy it that much. In spite of the fabulous holiday decorations, it's hard to get in the spirit when you are surrounded by people who do not celebrate that particular holiday.

Can't imagine trying to spend the New Year there either. Besides, MH does not celebrate on New Years. He says it's amateur night-LOL. So the lull in between should be perfect.

Megan has not been yet. This will be her first trip. There are so many things I can't wait to show her.

And just so My Honey does not find himself surrounded by too much estrogen, he invited a friend of his. Those guys can do their thing part of the time and Meg and I can do ours....

A little shopping, getting manis and pedis, haircuts and 6 hours of spa treatment for meeeee. Ohhhh yea! That is going to piss Meg off. You have to be 18 to get the spa treatments.:(

Guess she will have to get done what they will do to her and hang out in the penthouse or at the pool afterwards. Hey, 50 degrees is a heat wave for those of us that are happy when it hits 25 degrees on a warm day this time of year.;-)

Damn, too bad they didn't come through with all of this during the NFR! I'll have to mention that to the concierge.

It sure beats heading east. Holy Crap...SD is getting slammed. Sorry mom! That has to suck. Other than a little arctic air, we aren't expected to get anything here.

Oohhh...I have a feeling I am going to need to go on a diet after the first of the year. I can literally hurt myself on the food in Vegas. Buffets everywhere you look and with the most scrumptious food found anywhere. I'm drooling just thinking about it...and I'm still miserable from hurting myself on Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas

What?

You said there were presents!

Merry Christmas to all of my wonderful blogger buddies!!!!!!

So Exciting...

I have to tell you, we are soooooo looking forward to the New Year. This last one was pretty damn tough. Pretty much everyone has felt the pinch and if you hadn't been affected directly, I'm sure you kept your fingers crossed that you wouldn't be either.

Anyway...a couple of years ago, My Honey came up with a very cool idea. It took a year for that idea to be built. And the very month that his company took delivery...the oil "patch" economy tanked. So, a very expensive piece of equipment has been sitting for the last year...not making money for us or for the organization My Honey built it to benefit.

Well, 2010 is a New Year and the Pink Rig is going to work. The guys brought it to the new yard to go through and get her all prepped for her inaugeration sometime in January...


It was pretty neat today watching them "stab" the unit and start going over her. Everyone is pretty excited and wants to be part of making this a success. You would think that the rough, tough manly men associated with working in the oil field would be a bit hesitant to work on a bright pink unit, but it really seems to be the total opposite. I've teased them that I have ordered them all pink coveralls to match and not a one has even blinked-LOL.

As soon as all of the promo stuff has been okayed and we know the date, I'll be sure to fill you all in on the rest. Looks like 2010 is starting off with a bang!

There Is No Arizona

Well, I was hoping to post the video to this song...but there really must be no AZ, because I cannot even do that!

Right about now, we were hoping to be basking in the warmth of The Valley, making plans to catch up with and visit my dearly missed friends over the next couple of days.

As usual plans had to be put on hold. What is it with me getting back to Arizona? It just doesn't seem to be in the cards. Something always comes up.

This trip's little malfunction came about courtesy of my oldest brother. Thankfully, he is alive and recovering. But it was close. VERY CLOSE!

The story of what happened is very sketchy and dear brother is in no shape to recall exactly how the events played out. So the only clear way to tell it is short and sweet...

Dear brother was out and about in single digit weather. Got the pickup he was driving stuck in the middle of nowhere. For some unknown and as yet, unexplained reason the pickup started on fire and dear brother was stranded for 24 hours, with the temperatures dipping into the sub zeros overnight. It was the next morning before a full scale search was started and even then it took them about 6 hours to find him.

We pretty much thought they would find him dead. My mom was prepared for that. The search party members were prepared for that.

But he is alive...and in a lot better shape than any of us expected. The first few days was touch and go as to whether he would get to keep his feet. So far, it's looking good. It will be a long while before he is out of the woods in that department though. The doctors told him no caffeine and absolutely NO TOBACCO. The slightest amount of reduced circulation and he could loose at least his toes, if not parts of his feet. His hands are burned from trying to put out the fire in the pickup. His coat burned up too. No one can believe he survived that long without a coat or gloves. If anything...I would say, he got his Christmas miracle.

Mentally, he is in no shape to talk about his ordeal. He knows he stared death in the face. Physically they have him on some strong, strong pain-killers. He's pretty much out of it most of the time. It's the only way to deal with the pain.

I could not rush back when the first phone call came. Megan was in the middle of semester tests. Now, I do not dare go back. I am furious at him and his wife for being so stupid. For the last few winters, mom has warned them and warned them about being prepared for such weather, don't go out "driving around" and always let someone know where you are headed. They called her a "worry wart" and phoo-phooed her. It will be a long time before I can look those people in the face again and not see red. No, now that the fear he may die is over, I dare not go back.

His daughter is home for Christmas break and will do chores until college starts back up. Thankfully, all she will have to do is pitch hay to the stallion and open water for the rest. I doubt she could handle more than that. A couple of weeks will max her out anyway, she's not real big on the whole "taking care of stuff" part of being a ranch hand. At least she wasn't when she actually lived at the ranch. Mom thinks she can work it out with a neighbor to come over and do chores after that. Dear brother will not be doing outside chores the rest of this winter...that is if he wants to keep his feet.

If need be, mom and I have discussed moving the stallion to town so she can take care of him and all the neighbor will have to do is open water for the herd. We will just have to see how things go and take it one day at a time.

So, after all that...hopefully we will be able make it to AZ for a few days of warmth and visiting before Megan has to start school again. First we have to make it through Christmas! I'm so not ready.

Meet My Neighbor

I had to share this newsworthy bit of info with you guys...

Nancy Fichtner

And another little article

Loma Woman Wins

A little inside info on this...Nancy had proposed this idea to her local department and they shot it down as insignificant. I don't know what world these people live in that saving 71 MILLION dollars a year on wasted medications is insignificant...but doesn't it just make you giggle that the idea won a National contest?

Go Nancy!!

Nancy's thoughts on winning?

She feels vindicated and she isn't that excited about meeting Obama. LOL-She didn't vote for him, but since she gets to take the kids with, she thought it would be a wonderful experience for them. She promises to be on her best behavior for her kid's sake. Obama should be thankful for that!!! LMAO

Saddle Shopping

I have been on a mission for the last couple of months...I NEED a different saddle for running barrels on Moon. Right now I am running him in my roping saddle because that is only one of two saddles that I have that fit him. Running barrels in my 16" cutting saddle just doesn't work. I slop around like a rag. But now that Moon is firing around the barrels, the roping saddle isn't working too great either.

I finally found a saddle that I liked and was bidding on it on ebay...
And some butthead outbid me at the last minute. I mean the very last minute. I was so POed! These older Billy Cook All-Arounds are hard to find and they are awesome saddles. I rode one for a year when I worked for a paint horse trainer and I have begged him every since to sell it to me. They have wood trees that are rawhide covered and the horn is heavy enough to break-a-way rope in and even a little light heeling practice.

Now, if Moon was ordinary, I wouldn't even be looking for a saddle, because I have a barrel saddle that I love and it has fit every other horse I have had. But noooooo....Moon, for as streamlined as he is requires not only full quarter horse bars, but a very wide gullet. At least 7-1/2 inches to fit over his very wide shoulders.

Now I know there is a lot of junk on ebay. There is always that little bit of "what if" when purchasing stuff off of there. But so far I have had very good luck with the tack and saddle that I have bought, so I'm pretty comfortable buying like that. I have a very specific set of requirements and do not deviate.

But as I have been looking, I keep finding must have saddles. Like this Dick Pieper reining saddle...
Honestly, if Megan wants to get serious about reining, she needs a saddle specific to that event.

Just as nice is this Bob Loomis reining saddle...
I just wished they hadn't used a leather darkening oil on it. I'm still considering bidding on this one though. It's a high quality saddle at a fraction of the cost of a new one.

Then I found this custom roping saddle...
It's a 15-1/2" with full QH bars and a 7-3/4" gullet. It would fit both Meg and I.

And then I run across this nice show saddle. It has about all of the silver I can stand...
Finding a show saddle that is only a 15" seat and has full quarter horse bars(with a 7-1/2" gullet) is hard, hard, HARD. Ninety percent of the show saddles out there have semi-QH bars and 16" seats. Not wide enough for any of our horses and much too big for Meg and I.

My Honey looked at me kind of funny when I showed him my list. I think he is a little nervous that I am planning on buying all of them. But since I lost my barrel saddle in this round, I am really only leaning heavily toward purchasing one of the reiners. I think I need to show him the price tag on a new one. That'll make him think it's a much better deal...right???

I just won't mention that I still need a barrel saddle for Moon.;-)

It Warmed Up

Not that you could tell that by how bundled up I am...

Once I start wearing my coveralls...they usually stay on til spring. My "work" clothes are ugly as sin, but they are warm and it doesn't matter what I get on them.

The brothers...

It just doesn't seem to matter what angle I photograph Shooter, he is just a dark blob this time of year.

Of course Megan would be in the middle of a bunch of horses...

Frosty usually stands back. But he couldn't stand it anymore and had to come investigate too...

Frosty is a bit of a timid horse anyway, but Moon is a bully and rules with an iron fist. Everyone else stays out of his way. Shooter is giving Moon fits though. He is his mother's son just as much as Moon is and wants to be just as dominant as his big brother. Another couple of years and I think Moon will have met his match.

Meg and I also got this accomplished this morning...

It went very smoothly and quietly with Shooter in the stall with her. He is very kind to his little sister and nuzzles her all over. Megan simply held Shooter and pushed his hip over to create a wall behind Beretta and I slid under his neck and slipped the halter on with absolutely no fuss. After that, Meg took Shooter out of the stall and I spent a little time moving Miss Beretta around the stall and asking her too look at me with the leadrope. Hopefully very soon, pictures will show a much more relaxed baby girl, cause so far they all show her looking fairly uncomfortable and crammed into a corner.

The Rodeo Song

Does anyone remember that song?

"Wellllll, it's forty below and I don't give a f***, got a heater in my truck and I am off to the rodeooooo....

Gee mom, that's fairly inappropriate

Okay, so it's not 40 below...it's only been 20 below the last couple of nights, but OMG! It can warm up already. The ponies haven't exactly been suffering. Besides a good bit of blubber to protect them, I've been putting them in the barn at nights.

This morning Moon and Frosty were feeling pretty spry...

Shooter(gee how did I miss getting pics of him?) made a couple of laps to stretch his legs and then stood by the gate. That horse loves his stall like no other horse I have ever raised.

Still making progress with Miss Beretta...

Don't even need big brother in the stall anymore for her to let me pet her. I don't realize how big she is getting until I see these pics. She's not quite seven months yet. Which reminds me, I better get busy getting those registration papers sent in...hopefully her registered name will end up being...Fastdraw MeA Bug.

It won't be long and I'll have her haltered. I've tried a couple of times, but she is still not having anything to do with letting me get the noseband on. May have to bring big brother back in to facilitate that. This has been a learning experience for me. I honestly haven't handled very many babies of this age that aren't halter-broke. For the past 12 years I have imprinted my foals, so haven't had to deal with this. Everything else we have raised were halter-broke by my brother, who is 6'2" tall and weighs around 200lbs. If he was here, he would just push little miss thang into the corner and slide the halter on her and that would be that.

I wonder if I can convince My Honey to come up and help? Sometimes big, strong men are so helpful to have around. 'Cause my booty-licious little girl isn't getting any smaller!

We Got Snowwww.....

Lots of it!

Know how I talk about how neurotic The Red Dog is?

Here's proof...



Sadly, in their little pea brains...they think they are helping...or working...or something like that.

The Difference Between Knowing and Understanding

With so much information available these days through trainers, clinicians, books and the internet, it doesn't surprise me that many, many people have picked up terminology and theories that they banter around with authority.

Knowing these things is not a bad thing. But there is a big difference between knowing something and understanding it. And then there is the application. If working with living animals was easy, we would be able to learn something, understand it and then apply it with every horse we work with and it would turn out like textbook...every single time.

Yeaaa...that doesn't even work when it comes to mechanical projects. Ain't going to work with living animals.

So let's talk about one of the things that pretty much every horse person has had drilled into their head for about the last 20-25 years...

Horses are prey animals, they have a built in Flight Or Fight Response mechanism.

Okayyyyy???

I could be mistaken, but I think Ray Hunt was the first to actually verbalize that particular phrase. But it could be even older than Ray Hunt.

Irregardless, that phrase is only a single piece of information in regards to the whole puzzle that people have to put together to learn to work around and with horses. It only works as an individual piece of information when someone does something really dumb...like walk up behind a horse without warning him and they get kicked for their lack of knowledge or Duh! moment. Can't get pissed at the horse...they are a prey animal and they were simply defending themselves.

Under more ordinary circumbstances...say when you are actually working with a horse...just how relevant is that single phrase in the general scheme of what you are trying to do. Really it's a morsal of information and doesn't take into account the many other factors that may be going on.

For the most part, ordinary horses that have been raised around people and handled regularly have a weak Flight or Fight Response. We(People) have spent a significant amount of time reducing the prey animal survival instinct in our horses. I've got some that I'm pretty darn sure wouldn't survive 24 hours in the wilderness with real predators.

But let's be completely honest with ourselves here...the Flight Or Fight Response can almost always be overcome in ALL horses. If it wasn't, people would have almost no success taking mature, unhandled horses and turning them into respectable, serviceable citizens. Particularly with mustangs or range-run horses, who, of any of the "unhandled" horses out there would be the ones most likely to have a real Flight Or Fight Response.

So my question to people is...Just how much to you acknowledge or contribute actions/reactions to the Flight Or Fight Response when you are working with your horses?

Oh and yes I know...most times it is called the Fight Or Flight Response. But if you really think about it, a horse's first instinct is to get away(flight), for the most part a horse will only fight if they can't...so shouldn't it be called the Flight Or Fight Response?

All For A Good Cause...

My Honey had asked me earlier in the week if I wanted to go on the annual Harley Owners Group(HOG) Toy Drive. I was rather thinking I was going to make it to the last barrel racing on my list for this year. Since I spent the week putting out fires in the office and only got to see the horses just long enough to clean stalls, I told My Honey that I would Luuuvvvv to go with him on the ride.

Little did I know...

It was a brisk 16 degrees when we left this morning. We were layered and leathered up to the hilt. It didn't help. We froze our asses off.

But it was still fun...

There were over a 1000 people who registered for the ride. Obviously this is only a tiny portion...
They figured over 700 bikes made the jaunt from the Harley shop to the drop-off point...
There will be lots of toys for kids who otherwise might not get anything for Christmas. Makes suffering the cold for a few hours all worthwhile!!

It's That Time

ROUND ONE OF THE NATIONAL FINALS RODEO...

Guess who is glued to the tv?

We had planned on being there for a few day this year, but the tickets did not come through...damn the luck.