The Judge vs the judges

As most of you know, I like to hit a few horse shows per year.  I do this mostly because I have a fun time, but it is also good training for the horse and for me.  In doing so, I meet a lot of nice people and alot of not so nice people.....which is typical wherever you go-not just at horse shows.   Anyway, I'm the competitive type and don't like to lose if I don't deserve it!  I hate my competitive side and I love it at the same time.  It's handy to have on those days where RA tries to get in your way, but it's a pain to have it on those days where you get a judge who hates your horse and decides to not place your horse no matter how good they do!  This seems to happen a lot....judges and shows are so liberal......it can be depressing especially since I know how hard I've worked and how hard my horses try for me and how they should have placed comparing how others made mistakes and we actually didn't. Well....I was thinking the other day about all this and was thankful to be reminded of the one and only Judge that matters or should matter to me.  Yup, you guessed it--JESUS!  Jesus is the one I should be worried about.  And thankfully, he doesn't mind if I'm not the prettiest horse out there, or if I'm on the correct leads, or if I'm doing the pattern without making any mistakes. He just cares about if I'm doing my best for Him.  I can rejoice that Jesus is my Judge because he only judges my heart and I don't need any registration papers, halter points, or championship saddles to impress Him.   I can just rest in knowing that my Judge knows best and if I place last, He doesn't care as long as we did our best.  So the next time those judges make your blood boil, just remember to be thankful that they really don't have the last say in the matter.  Their opinion just doesn't/SHOULDN'T matter!  So next time you're misjudged, remember to RELAX and smile because the True Judge is watching and what He sees is more important than what they see!  So please...smack me, remind me, and settle me down the next time I get too competitive because we're only down here for awhile so let's let everyone see His light on our faces even when we are misjudged!

  

Thanking God for a perfect opportunity.....

While driving home from Iowa on Wednesday I noticed I had a new message and when I finally arrived home I checked it again to find out that Lindsay Kieser wanted to bring a group of city kids out here to watch us do some of our tricks!  I guess, they had tried His Ranch, but they were busy and then they tried Alamar Acres (where I work) and they suggested me! Aww...so it's pretty interesting that I got the job of entertainment when 2 others were in line for the job!  (God thing)  So..I immediately got into my "alamar acre action mode" (um...that means I cleaned the place up on Thursday really good since we were gonna have company...)  But I wasn't able to work my horses tricks for a while now, so a bit of self-doubt crept in--thankfully I was on such a high from the Iowa trip and on such an adrenaline high for the cleaning that I never really had time to think!  So when the kids arrived...screaming I should say--I guess they all don't like dogs, but for some reason aren't scarred of a 1000 plus pound horse!  It was all we could do to keep them away from the hind end and pulling on lead ropes, climbing fence posts and well, you get the idea.....

Turns out that I had most of their attention for the first 10 minutes then they were whirling around from one place to another...My horses did extremely well!!!  I was VERY proud of them and I also performed for my family (grandma and Aunt Jana (she lives in Japan now)) so Aunt Jana was able to get a few pictures in the chaoticness and we all really did have fun just thankful the horses behaved so good!  Praising God for another opportunity to share my talent! Take a look at this action:

This is a new act they all seemed to enjoy!  :)  

 Loads of happy kids!!!

My girls just don't know when to quit acting!  :)

Hay, Hay, HAY!!

So happy to have hay in our barn!!!!  Beautiful horse hay too!  Hay prices went up around a dollar this year, but I'm just happy to have the barn full especially with all this dry weather and little grass.

Psst....And don't tell anyone, but Karl was tired after helping us unload hay.  Now I thank him for helping us, but he was so wiped out that I'm pretty sure he's gonna pull "I'm sick." next year!  ;)

After hay it was time for a week of vacation!!!  I went to Iowa to ride at River Valley Campground with Ted and some friends plus Mom and Dad and the air conditioned camper--which was sooooo needed!!  We ate drumsticks or root bear floats each day to help cool us off and the horses were hosed off after the rides--it was just so hot and dry (no to little water in creeks and corn is looking poorly).  We had a blast though.  I brought Missy and Ted rode his Chica.

The group minus Ted

Of course, we had to try the obstacle course! 

Sorry, Mom!  Ted learns fast by watching his older sister--they always seem to pick up on the dangerous things rather than the smart way of doing things--why is that?

Haley and I standing on our girls!

This is what happens when you have a pedestal trained horse...you get off to step on the rock and they follow you right to the top!  I'm flattered!  :)

A Big Road Ride

Some pictures of a long road route we like to do occasionally..just never taken the camera along! 

 Here we are under the railroad!

 I just love this BARN HOUSE!!!  Too much house for me though!  :)

Lots of goings on around here!

I realize I've left ya'll wondering what I've been up to......  Well!  I'm excited to say that I have been able to go horse camping twice (since I took a week off for that), gone to 4 horse shows, been on the news channel and been scarefully (I don't think that's a word) sick!  To tell you the truth...I'm exhausted!  But at least I'm having fun inbetween!  Let's break it down with pictures for you:  First we (Ma, Pa, Ted, me, Missy, Chica and Autumn (our dog) went to Leroy, IL to Moraine View State Park.  We had an excellent breakfast--bacon, cheese, and potatoes!  Nummy!

We had alot of fun playing in this creek since it was the only one big enough to play in!  Plus it was really hot and I was getting sicker... :(  Ted is such a cute cowboy in this getup!

Here we are back from the ride!  Missy was quite overly excited to be going trail riding!  She was a handful, but settled down eventually--or maybe it was just due to her allergies and coughing!

Did I mention Missy loves water!?  

So then we went home for a day and it was a good thing for me cause I was pretty sick with a cold, sore throat, and cough!  But I refused to let my cold get the best of me and we took off for Jubilee the next day (which was actually their first day open for a very l  o   n   g time!  So I left Missy at home and brought Kitty with me this time.  Monica joined us for Friday which was very nice!  :)  Here are some pics:

 The 2 beggers!  We had loads of fun in the creeks and had perfect weather!  Hope the trails get ridden more though---tons of stinging nettles and my horses buck through that stuff!  (It seriously is like a mini rodeo!)  

Tada!  I had made it through my vacation week--ALMOST!  As I had mentioned above, I've been fighting a cold for about two weeks and still have one!  The scare came when I experienced 3 throat closures (stops your breathing for 30 to 60 seconds) in a 24 hour period!  Once I did it right in the middle of a Charity Horse Show I was showing at!  I thought I was gonna die at a CHARITY show of all shows!  I told Mom that I was prolly gonna need an ambulance--and if you know me you know I am NEVER one to say that!!!  Made it through that show alive and no 911 was needed, but it sure got my prayer life together!!!!!  So that convinced me I needed to see a doctor.  Went to a nurse practitioner and she said it could be an allergic reaction to something cause there are lots of allergies going around I guess.  I never thought I had bad allergies.....?  Hoping that's all this is so please pray for me and that we can get this figured out!  Right now I'm on predisone and will be switching to an allergy medicine tomorrow so hope it works!  Thanks for the prayers!  

The Rainy Memorial Day Weekend

Well...like I said in previous post, we have yet to go horse camping this year.  We were gonna take all 5 horses and ride at Jubilee!  Dustin and Karl were willing to be the extra riders.  It was rainy again on Saturday, but we decided to try to do a short ride in the rain with everybody anyway.  Dustin is on Missy.  Karl on Colty.  Monica on Eisis.  Me on Kitty.  Ted on Chica.  It was certainly a wet ride, but we had to do something when everybody is off work at the same time!!!!!  We did alot of other fun stuff too--just no camping or horse trails.......where is the off switch to the rain?

Patience.......

It seems I'm having trouble with being patient again...but how long must I wait?!  Here is it--two days from June and I haven't been able to horse camp--let alone just trail ride.  Okay.  Usually, I go trail riding at Jubilee at least once a week starting end of April and have been on at least one camping trip by now.  I feel like I've been pretty patient--waiting for almost two months for the trails to get open, but it keeps raining, raining, and raining!  Of course, not riding bothers me alot!  But there are more concerns--like hay!  Is there gonna be enough dry hay to get around?  Can I afford it? Yes...I'm not very patient.  This year has not been easy for me, but God reminded me that He does care and will work things out the way He wants them to go.  

I was really frustrated with myself today....At 2:30 this afternoon it started looking really rainy and started thundering..so I asked the boys to help bring up the horses from the pasture.  We brought them up and it cleared up within a half hour=Sun!  "Oh brother!"  So about 2 hours later, I figure whatever!  I'm going riding!  Tacked Missy up and headed off!  Weather was looking fine.  I get about a mile and a half out and decided to go through the woods (less windy) since the weather was appearing not to rain.  I get about a half mile when one of the friendly neighbors stops and we chat a bit--next thing I know I hear her truck behind me again this time she's telling me it's getting pretty dark and ugly out and I should prolly head back! :)  Sure enough!  I made it to the clearing and it was looking yucky!  Missy was being her usual laid-back self and was in no hurry to get back, but I made her speed it up a bit!  I get back and it's looking bad--I get everything off and...wallah!!  It's not threatening at all anymore!!!  My second..."Oh, Brother!"  

Of course, I was twurped a bit--afterall I made two poor calls that interrupted my plans but then when I went over the facts again, I began to understand that maybe I was BLESSED instead of "Cursed."  Fact one:  I had a very caring neighbor looking out for me.  Fact two:  I prayed that God would let us both get back safe.  Fact three:  Missy was VERY good even in the gusty, torpedo winds and distant thunder.  I have a longer list but I won't bore you with further details. I just want you to see that everything could have gone a different way and I would have deserved what I had coming to me, but God spared this impatient little temper-flared, complaining blonde again.  If God cares so much about this sinner, I'm sure He cares alot about you too!  Still wish I could more more cheerful about all this rain.....:( glad God could give me some encouragement today!  I needed some!