A New Tag

***I did this while I was in Colorado, but didn't get around to posting it then....

Ezra_Pandora over at the Wacky and Wonderous World of Ezra tagged me with this fun and most importantly, new tag...

Now since I am not at home, I had to look around the bedroom to see what Chris had for books laying around. Chris is an avid reader, but no books were handy...very strange for him. Luckily for me, I had just been shopping and I could walk straight to the living room coffee table and pick up one of the new books I had just purchased as Christmas presents for my mom and Megan. Of course, you know I have to make sure they are worthy-LOL...and have been purusing them for the last couple of days. If I was sitting at my own computer, you would have gotten an excerpt from a barrel racing training book, an equine chiropractic manual or a pole bending training book-no big surprise there right?

For Megan, I picked up "Schooling With Ground Poles: Flatwork Schooling for Every Horse, Every Sport" by Claire Lilley. Just from flipping through it, I think I will have to go home and try some of these excerises out.

For mom, I picked up "Legends: Volume 7" produced by Western Horseman. I love these Legends books. They have been Christmas staples for many years. I buy them for my mom and she buys them for me and my brother. I picked up the first Paint Horse Volume, when it came out and now I see they have another. I bought the King-P234 Volume, read it and then gave it to my mom for her birthday. Strangely she wrote in the cover that she received it from my brother for Christmas...???. No wonder she thinks I never do anything nice for her-LOL.

So anyway, the Legends book is the one that was on the top, so according to the rules of the tag...

The rules of the Book Tag are as follows:

1)Grab the nearest book

2)Open the book to page 56

3)Find the fifth sentence

4)Post the text of the next two to five sentences

5)Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one,Pick the Closest

6)Tag five people to do the same.

From page 56, the fifth sentence-Parker's Trouble, the Lewis-owned sire of Big Step, ws a 1949 chestnut stallion, by Ed Echols(see Legends 4) and out of Little Nellie Bars.

The next 2-5 sentences-Ed Echols was, in turn, the legendary son of Zantanon(see Legends 4) owned first by W.D. "Dink" Parker of Fort Huachucha, Arizona, and then by B.F. Phillips of Frisco, Texas. Little Nellie Bars was a daughter of Three Bars(TB)(see Legends 1) and bears the singular honor of being the first Quarter Horse to be sired by this most influential of all stallions. Parker's Trouble was himself a AAA-rated racehorse and the sire of 36 Register of Merit racehorses and 9 AQHA Champions. Also known as a top broodmare sire, he was the maternal grandsire of 190 ROM racehorses and 17 AQHA Champions. Included among his top second-generation descendants is Boston Mac(see Boston Mac chapter).

Of course, I was particularly interested in this book because among those showcased were two of my favorites. The blue hen mare, Teresa Tivio-an unfriendly, tightly wound little mare, whose cutting career ended at her first show(chronic emphysema) but her get helped to change the entire cutting industry. No one who has anything to do with QH's can fail to recognize names like Fizzabar, Boon Bar, Doc's Haida, Cal Bar, Nu Bar or Doc's Remedy. Teresa Tivio and the Doc Bar cross was pure breeding magic. That magic is still predominant when you stop to realize that her grand-get and great-grandget are cutting and reining household names-Reminic, Royal Blue Boon, Peptoboonsmal, Boomernic and Dual Pep.

And then there is the beyond gorgeous, I drool over his pictures...Otoe...
Pretty and fast, Otoe's legacy isn't as prominant or as well-known as a lot of other Legends. He produced multiple AAA-sprinters, a couple of AAA-AQHA Champions and his get were winning in the show world too. He produced AQHA Champions in very diverse fields-Halter to Barrel Racing and Calf Roping and even an AQHA high point Jumping Champion. Interestingly enough, a halter champion by Otoe, named Hard To Beat is the one that piqued my interest as several of his get had made their way to South Dakota and were predominant in not just the show horse world, but were really making their mark in the arena. Several ranches that raised horses actively sought the Hard To Beat bloodline for their broodmare band. Of course, all of this was long before I was ever old enough to know about such things, but in the 90's I was still seeing these bloodlines being referenced. Most noteably Hard To Beat, Otoe's Wonder and his full brother, Wonder Otoe and Me Otoe. I think if Otoe was around today-he would be a top barrel horse sire. Many people who specialize in arena and barrel horses still actively seek out mares that carry his bloodlines to cross on their popular barrel horse sires. Isn't that a strange thing to know about a horse who actually contributed dramatically to the modern halter horse?
Since Otoe was promoted and shown exclusively by Jerry Wells, it isn't a big surprise that his daughters and grand-daughters were the cornerstone of Wells breeding program that eventually focused entirely on Halter Horses. How ironic that Wells thought so much of Otoe as a Halter horse sire because he consistently produced a taller, stretchier type of horse. Halter horses that consistently rode...what a novel concept. Of course, it is only novel to us because before the Impressive bloodline took over, everyone rode their halter horses.

Since I procrastinated and didn't get this posted last week-I think everyone has been tagged and already done it.

Home Again

Back in South Dakota...it gets harder and harder to leave My Honey, every time.

I finally got a couple of those fall pictures I promised last week...


Courtesy of my birthday present from Chris! Finally, a new camera. I am just so bad about actually picking electronic stuff out. I never really know just exactly what to get. Chris is much better at it...must be that "guy" thing. Bless his heart, he bestowed on me a Canon PowerShot SX110 IS with 9megapixels and 10X Optical zoom.
Thanks to a rather severe little thunderstorm that rolled over us, I didn't get down to the river to get the really awesome shots I had been planning on all week.

Sadly, I came home to a total fiasco...my darling, teenage daughter thought she could get away with having a "little" party at the house on Halloween night. The entire story is still not clear, as to whether she and her friends planned this or if word got out that I was out of town and a herd of kids converged on the house. Either way, Megan did not handle it in a responsible manner and has to go back to about the same rules that applied from when she was five. Of course, you know that once the word gets out about a party, the cops aren't far behind and they all got busted.
My mom feels responsible, although we all discussed the "okayness" of Megan staying at the house with one friend on Halloween night and we have never had any problems with Megan following the rules before. The rules of conduct were clearly stated before I left for Colorado;
1)Do not tell people that I was out of town...especially the kids at school.
2)It was okay for ONE friend to spend the night on Halloween.
3)There were to be no boys at the house...I made a special point of the fact that the visiting friend's boyfriend(who is usually welcome at my house) was NOT to be there, since I was sure that her dad would not like him there with no adult supervision.
and in a hardy-har-har...I specifically told her no parties or alcohol.

The brats broke every single rule in one fell swoop. I am particularly disgusted because the group that all got busted by the cops is a certain bunch that I do not welcome in my home anyway. For the most part, I have always welcomed Megan's friends and am okay with them coming over. I have been getting a bit more strict with it because some have started coming across as it's okay to just come over, hang out, eat everything in the house and spend the night whenever their parents need someplace for them to go. That I am not okay with. There is a particular bunch of boys that I certainly would not want at my house. I believe that kids will be kids-but I draw the line as smart-mouth punks, who think they can act anyway they want. They can...at their own house, NOT mine!!

The one funny as hell spot out of the whole mess(now that it is over and everyone and the horses were not harmed) was when several of the boys made a dash for it when the cops showed up. They ran around the back of the house. One ran into a hay bale, two more ran into the rather dinky barbed wire fence(that I have yet to replace) and flipped over. One made it over that fence and thought he could run around behind the barn to hide and ran smack dab into the hot fence that separates my pastures. I bet that punk got a hellava zap-LMAO. The next day my mom found a cap by the hay bale, a chunk of denim in the barbed wire and a coat hanging off the far fence(one must have made good his escape).

Obviously, our trust in Megan is shot. Whether she intended for as many kids to show up as did or whether they were supposed to bring alcohol in is now a moot point. Eight kids, several of them athletes, now have to appear before the judge on minor under the influence charges. One bright spot is that the cops, somehow had been tipped off that certain kids had the booze with them and they cannot come after me for having the liquor in my house. Sheez, the fun just never ends does it?

I guess I should probably add-that Megan had spent the rest of the week at my mom's house-like she usually does when I go to Colorado.

The Return Of The Seventies

Oh, my man was big pimpn' last night...

He looked hot!!

And then there was Johnnie Disco...

No one who knew Johnnie thought this was actually a costume-LOL. Apparently, Johnnie Disco has a thing for the 70's.

Big Mike, mugging for the camera...

I soooo tried to get him to dress up as Fred Flintstone. That would have suited him perfectly...as you can see...he didn't think much of the idea!

Me...I missed out on the Go-Go Dancer outfit I wanted to go with my Pimp Daddy, so I ended up as a French Maid...

We still had a blast...

We went to a house party and holy cow, those people knew how to throw a party...a keg of beer, food stacked everywhere and a full liquor bar. Had we not been on the far side of town from home, I think we would have inbibed freely, but you just can't take a chance anymore, so I mostly pigged out on the plethera of awesome food and enjoyed a cup of beer.

Hope everyone else enjoyed their night too...Now I gotta go check out Mikey's page and see what her an Wade cooked up...I can only imagine!!!

**TW-We started out with the correct date stamp, but everytime you change the batteries in the camera, you have to reset the damn thing and I forgot to do that. Honey is changing the setting so it doesn't show anymore!!