Horse Stuff

Hello.

Romeo had this weird thing going with his mane, so I decided to look it up. Basically, there's this one spot on his mane that looks like really bad dandruff and has lost a little bit of hair. Fortunately, it's not a very big spot. Anyways, I looked it up and I think it's either dandruff or something else that I can't remember the name for. Either way, both happen because of lack of care! Well, at least lack of grooming and stuff. Apparently I need to brush/wash his mane more often...=\ Maybe it's not dandruff. Maybe it's some super rare disease that no one's ever heard of and I'll get to name it something super random and weird(I wouldn't name it after myself, that'd just be boring.)! Of course, I should probably just wash both of the horses manes and tails regularly and brush them whenever I ride and see if it goes away.....

Oh. We don't have Bourbon anymore. We decided not to buy him, and I think his actual owners may have found someone else to buy him. I'm not sure how I actually feel about this. We parted on good terms though. In some ways, it's really nice just to have 2 horses(and those 2 be the R team), but then of course only 2 people can ride at a time. And Bourbon was really smooth. But he was stubborn and old... oh well. Just thought you should know. Not sure why.....

Goodbye.

Ok, here's a few pictures of the horses. I will try to take more sometime so you can see Rylee too.

This is Romeo. He's "Dad's horse."

He's really pretty in real life.

 Romeo and Bourbon(This is before the girl came).

 Pretending to be best friends.

Rylee

I was over at a friend's house for a couple nights last weekend and Dad decided to surprise me!I had previously been bugging Dad to call our friends that owned Rylee to tell them we were still interested. So, while I was gone, w/out telling me, he did call them! He said he wanted to have her here when I got home, but it ended up that they brought her on Tuesday. I was so excited!!! When I got home I asked him if he'd called them and he said "Yeah." "Well, what'd they say?" "They said they could bring her over on Tuesday." "!!!!!!!!!" Then I gave him the big hug he deserved.=) Sometimes I like being surprised, and sometimes, my Daddy's a pretty cool guy.=)

I'll end there. I will tell you more later though. Sometime.

~A very happy girl.

Andy

Well Andy's home for the summer. It's kinda funny how he got all excited about riding the horses.=) I always forget, but I think out of the 4 older kids he's the one that likes animals the most(after me of course). We went riding for 3 days in a row, so I decided since the horses aren't quite in shape, we should give them a day's rest.=) They're doing pretty well though. Bourbon enjoys being a brat about the bit though. I'm working on it, but it's pretty frustrating. Did you know that horses are really strong?

Romeo

For those of you who haven't heard, we actually bought a horse! His name is Romeo but he's a gelding. As Daddy puts it, "His 'Romeo' days are over." Anyways, he's super big(16hh for those of you who care) and really pretty. He's a bay(my favorite color-brown w/ a black mane & tail) and he's pretty easy-going. He's about 15 years old and is much more eager to go than say, Bourbon. Dad and I went on a ride yesterday I think and we came to the conclusion that both horses work a lot better when another horse is there. Oh, as of now we're still keeping Bourbon but haven't quite come to a final decision about him. He gets along fine w/ Romeo, so that's not really a problem, but we're not sure how B. will react if we bring a mare on the scene. I'm 85% sure Romeo wouldn't do a thing, but B. is another story. Oh, did I mention that we got Romeo mainly for Dad? So yeah, I still don't have a horse for me yet. Wow. That sounded really selfish. I guess I'm just kinda confused at why Dad still wants to keep Bourbon. He doesn't need 2 horses and while I don't mind riding B. once in awhile, he's definitely not going to be my horse. The horse that I would love to get is a mare and she's really sweet. Plus, we know the people who own her and they don't want to just sell her, they want to make sure the right person buys her. Sorry to ramble on. I'll try to keep y'all(I love typing that=]) a little more up-to-date than I have been. I've really been slacking for a few months.....sorry.=( Oh, and I'll try to get some pictures of Romeo sometime.

~Abby

Ok guys, I know I haven't posted for what, a month now? Yeah....sorry 'bout that. I will try to be at least a little more umm....argh!!! Don't you hate it when you can't think of the right word and you know that there's one particular word that you're trying to find so you sit there for like 5 min trying to think of it and by then you've forgotten what kind of word you were trying to think of in the first place and.......well, that happens to me a lot. It's annoying. Kinda like Zeke! I mean, ....... never mind. Anyways, I'll try to post more often(or something like that), so like, hopefully at least once or twice a month?=D

We get to start doing dissections in Biology soon! I think we get to dissect a worm next week.=) I'm excited. I must confess though, that the part that'll be the funnest(yes that is a word; in my book at least...) is grossing out my girl friends.=D Yeah, that's fun. Of course, I'm a girl myself, so sometimes I have to pretend I think it's gross, and some things are gross, but most of it I find extremely interesting.=) I got excited just reading the instructions. Just think how awesome it'll be when I actually get to make incisions and figure out exactly which guts are which...anyways...=)

Umm, so some of you might possibly be wondering how the horse is doing... he's good. It's weird though, because I really don't talk about horses much because most of my friends aren't really into them (or if they are they've learned too) so I don't ever bring the amazingly awesome creatures that God created to help fulfill our longing to fly into the conversation. I used to, but then I learned not to. I really don't know very much about horses considering how much there is to know, but it's so weird to think how little even my fam. knows. Like today, Isaac told Zeke that he knew more about horses then Zeke did. So I started quizzing them w/ super easy questions like: What's a stallion? Describe the color 'bay'(the best color btw).

Yeah, so Zeke ended up knowing more and Isaac kept telling me to ask different questions, but I'm not quite sure what all he knows. He didn't really answer any of the questions....oh, he did know what a saddle blanket was/is?. But Zeke only kinda-sorta knew what a gait is and.....I guess I should do a better job educating my family huh? Fail.

I miss you Becky!!!!!!! I'm glad you can go to college and learn stuff and all, but I miss not being the oldest at home and (not) doing dishes all the time and being lazy...=)jk I miss you for reasons besides that too.=) While I think I am getting a little bit more responsible and don't complain most of the time I still feel bad because the thought of, say, unloading the dishwasher just doesn't occur to me till Mom asks me to do it. You're good at that stuff.=) I just kinda try to catch up w/ school and dream about the days it won't be muddy and I can ride Bourbon every day and stuff.

Well Daddy just informed me that I need to get off the computer so I guess I'll have to get off now. See y'all later!=)

A Horse!

Well, I finally have a horse in the pasture.=) We don't own him yet, right now we're just "trying" him, to see if he'll work for us. I think Mom said something about how this came about, so I won't tell you the whole story over again, but I can tell you about the horse. First of all, his name is Bourbon(apparently like Bourbon Whiskey), and he's a registered American Paint Horse. He's about 19, but still young at heart. I guess he used to be a stud till they gelded him a few years ago and that's why (as Mom said) he doesn't get along w/ other horses. Actually, it's just other geldings that don't work, he gets along w/ mares just fine...till you try to ride him away from them. That's pretty common though. When our friends brought him over, Linnea(the guy's granddaughter) and I rode around the property a couple times, the first time just walking, then we cantered some. It was fun.=) He hasn't galloped yet, but I don't think he's up to that quite yet. He's kinda out of shape right now, but then, so am I.=] Today my entire family wanted to ride of course(they were being kinda weird about it too, but I guess that's what families are for), so I walked them around one at a time. Then I got to ride and B pretty much took off as soon as I got on. Not super fast, but I could tell he wanted to go. Btw, sorry if this is really boring for you, but for those of you who like horses...

Anyways, he didn't listen super good the first time around and he wanted to sprint around all the turns(did I mention he's done barrels?) in the brush area, which is not very safe, so I got him a little slowed down on some of them, but as soon as the path had a section(no matter how short) anywhere near straight, he'd shoot off again. It was kinda thrilling, but I'd rather he listened to me a little better. When I got back after a short, very quick ride I let Dad go for a bit of a ride. Same thing happened to Daddy. I think Bourbon was feelin' frisky and wanted to explore...quickly. When Dad got back, Mom was going to ride, but I think we kinda scared her off unintentionally when we told her he wanted to go, explore, and wasn't listening amazingly. She decided to wait till another day. So I got to go again. Again, I didn't go very long or far because he's not in shape, it was the first day, and it was starting to mist cold. He listened a whole lot better the second time around. I took him at a walk(he even walked around the turns!) through the brush trails so he could start to learn them, and then after I let him canter along the back stretch, he slowed right down when I asked him to. It was much more fun when he listened to me.=) We'll see how he does tomorrow.

The little kids love 'im though.=) Especially Isaac. He's out there all the time petting him or something, probably picking some ticks off to. Bourbon is loaded w/ ticks! He also needs a bath...I think I might save that for Tuesday depending on the weather. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this works out for us. Keep your fingers crossed!;)

Fun w/ Horses

**WARNING** All about HORSES!

Well since I've gotten back, I've gotten to ride once and just be around horses twice. I went on a Thursday and got to brush both stallions(their manes and tails needed it bad!) and ride a mare named Little Lady that I'm kinda helping train. I foxtrotted for the first time on her! Oh, the foxtrot is a gait specific to Missouri Foxtrotters where the front legs walk while the back legs trot. It's super smoooooooooooth and really fun to ride. I love horses!!! Then Tracy, the lady I work w/, mentioned that the vet would be coming over the next day, Friday, to give a bunch of horses their shots and also to geld one of her colts. Well this sounded like a great opportunity to see if I might be able to handle being a vet in the future. So I went over Friday and got to watch him(the vet) give the horses their shots, do some random checking on some stuff, and I got to watch the whole process of cutting the colt. It was very interesting, but I will spare you the details because, according to my family, not everyone wants to hear about that kind of stuff.......If you do happen to be interested in that stuff let me know and I'll give you the gory details.=) It actually wasn't that gross. Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring the camera....=( O well, perhaps another time.=)

Ecuador!!<3 Part 1

For anyone who didn't know before, my all the family on my mom's side(except for Uncle Chee) got to spend 2 weeks in Ecuador for a family reunion!=) It was a ton of fun, though traveling almost constantly wears you out. Jane Bloom graciously drove us to the St. Louis airport so we wouldn't have to leave the Hickle's van there.=) After being delayed a couple hours in St. Louis, we flew to Miami, met my grandparents and my mom's older sisters and her 2 boys, and flew to Ecuador the next morning. The Rogers met at at the airport in Quito and we split up and stayed at the Senior & Junior Rogers' houses. O, btw, the Rogers are a missionary family in Ecuador. They fly into the jungle in little planes and preach the Gospel as well as setting up schools for the Waorani natives there. We got to go into the jungle and see one of the villages, but because of our super busy schedule and other stuff, we could only stay for the afternoon.=( I really wanted to stay longer and actually help out w/ something instead of just going to gawk, but I guess I'll have to do that another time. Actually, we might have been able to help out w/ something as it was community workday, but it rained while we were there so everyone had to stop working for awhile. We thought we might get stuck overnight and I wouldn't really have minded..........but, after raining about 45 min., it stopped. and the air cleared enough for the pilots to get through. My Dad just commented that it was a LOT of rain for the short time period. Aparently this happens often, but Dan Rogers(the son who went in w/ us) said he's never gotten stuck for longer a day.

We stayed at the Roger's a day or 2(I don't remember) and saw the equator and went on the cable cars up the mountain, then we went to Cuenca(which I thought was spelled Quenca for the longest time....) and did some stuff......then we got a bus and drove to a resort in the middle of nowhere in this big bus on some really small roads around some very sharp turns and through some super tight places, like only and inch to spare on each side. Seriously! We made it to the resort alive and we were all very thankful that we had such a good bus driver!=)

At the resort we played lots of pool, ping pong and of course euchre. For those of you who haven't heard of that game it's super fun and it's pretty much a Douglass family game.=) According to my cousin Nick, I'm really good, but I think I just get lucky, like in pool.=D There was also a zip-line over a pond at the resort, which was a big hit. Of course it turned into a competition of who could do the coolest most creative thing and I'm not sure who won. O, it was kinda like a swing seat, so there were more options. I was the first to try 'superman'(or woman) and that got me lots of points even though I didn't put it far enough down on my body so I had to bail before I hit the dock.......O yeah, we were doing all of this in our clothes w/ life jackets over. Even though it's Ecuador, I suppose they do have some rules.=) I can't remember all the other cool things everyone did except for one. Zach(my cousin, about 12) would lean back and dip his head in the water while holding on w/ his hands. Being that it was a competition, I had to do him one better by dipping my head back, hold on w/ my feet and sticking my hands and arms in the water too. Unfortunately, I couldn't get back up, so I had to bail before I hit the dock w/ the back of my head. Everyone thought that was really funny of course, but it wasn't too bad. The water was pretty nice temp-wise, but the wind was cold when you got out...brr.....also at the resort, they had a concrete slide that went down the mountain a little and was super fast! The ending was a bit dangerous the first time, but then you learned real fast how to stop. You definitely have to wear shoes though, the ground is a bit rocky and hurts when you fly off the slide and land w/ bare feet. O, there was a swing too. It went off the mountain. Apparently, when my cousins went last time, there was a bigger swing that went off a cliff and was a lot higher up. I gathered that either they took the tree out, the tree broke, or the swing broke or something......... Wow, this is getting really long! Congrats if you made it all the way to the bottom!! I think I'll save the rest for another time. Of course I'll probably forget...... O well. Good night.=)

June!

Wow, this year's going by really fast! Last time I checked it was February and we were just starting PoP practices. Now everyone's starting summer activities and the weather is super nice! Let's see, PoP is over, and we've finished band, basketball and soccer are done, I'm still getting to work w/ horses a bit which is always super exciting. Actually, one of Traci's(the lady who's teaching me) mares foaled(she had her baby) 2 days ago! He is super cute and I got to play with him a little bit today. They haven't named him yet but they's come up w/ something soon.=) I love baby animals! They're always(well almost always) super adorable and so soft...........we watched the colt and his mother running around for a bit after we let them out of the stall. He took off kicking his heels and having a ball. Duchess made sure he didn't get too far away.=) After that I got to ride a really tall black horse named Midnight. He's a sweety.=) But one thing I'm not used to is horses w/ soft mouthes and curb bits(which put more pressure on their mouth) so when I started I was keeping the reigns too tight and he started pulling his head up. If I'd of kept pulling back and up he might have gone right over backwards with me on him! That wouldn't have been good. But, I finally heard Traci yelling to release tthe reigns and he calmed down. But I felt really bad about that. Now I know not to do that again though!!=) After that ordeal, I was much gentler with him. For some reason I tend to ride with my hands up higher than I should and my elbows bent too much. I'll have to work on that.=) Anyways, I think I've bored you enough for now so I'll go do something useful, like maybe help my mom w/ the quilt we're finishing for Camp David, or maybe I'll go to bed.......well as Tiger in 'Winnie the Pooh' says, TTFN!(Ta Ta For Now!).