Amazing Grace

This one's for you Patti!

We headed out to one of the pastures for a little photo shoot. I always forget though that all they want to do is eat when surrounded by grass!

eating...

eating...

more eating... gotta love his soft little muzzle and wrinkly old man lips.

Then we walked back up to the barn and he just stopped in the driveway and stood all tall, ears forward. Just looked like he was taking it all in. There was a pretty sunset in front of us.

Then we got silly and Grace wanted to be a giraffe for Halloween.

Grace: Knock knock!
Patti: Who's there?
Grace: It's me Patti! Let me in! (as he tried to see into the peep whole)

Thanks Patti for bringing Gracie into my life! :)

Here comes the herd!

I happen to have my camera in hand when Grace's herd was on their way in. Here they come!

Coal leads the herd followed by Doc, Skye, and Lea.

Here comes Gracie!

He's so cute!

In to the barn he goes.

My favorite time of year again...

I thought I'd be horseless...

So I was in NY for the last few days and thought I'd totally be horseless. NOT! I found every horse in Manhattan I think. The first thing we did was go for a carriage ride through central park. This was Ricky. We picked him because he had purple glitter on his hooves. :)

This would be a horsey statue that we passed by in the carriage.

This is my cousin and Ricky.

FAO Schwarz had huge stuffed horses!

Then I found an officer on horseback in the middle of Times Square. Just chillin'

Riding Lesson

So my last post about my lessons showed a video of my first few jumps. Well I've been working on my jumping every week now and thought I'd post a new video of my progression. Gretchen keeps adding on every week, and I love it. Grace loves it too. He'll be all poky when I first get on and then we go over that first x and he's like "oh! ok! it's go time!" He was really good in this particular lesson. I could easily control him and his speed. He wasn't pulling me through the jumps at all. And we were getting the extra stride on the line like Gretchen wanted, which is usually impossible to do. Fun stuff!!

non-horse related...

Sorry this has nothing to do with horses, but I wanted to put it up for everyone to see. I got to walk on the grasses of Wrigley Field this weekend!! Here is me in the outfield with all the ivy behind me. I was photographing a wedding and they held their reception at Wrigley. Guess what was for dinner?! Hot dogs and Chicago-style deep dish pizza! yum!

Flashback: June 1992

I found this picture the other day of me and my first horse, Scooter. We went to the Springhill NIHJA horse show and did very well. We got three 1st place ribbons in Novice Adult Hunter and were Champion of the division.
I was thrilled, especially since we cantered through part of an evergreen tree during the flat class. But that also means that a) there may have only been about 3 other riders in the division or, b) the other riders were terrible if I could canter through a bush and still place first, or c) the judge was far-sighted since I did it pretty much right in front of the judge's box.


Now move forward to September 1993 and we have...Tanya and Great Scott! This was the Morton Grove NIHJA horse show. I showed there and Patti and Grace did as well. First is the picture of Tanya, who never showed without her lipstick. And then there's me again with little Sarah behind me riding Tuxedo, that sly pinto pony.


We didn't do as well at Morton Grove. I remember chipping every fence in one of my O/F classes and someone said that the announcer said, "chip, chip, chip" every time I did it. I don't think that was true, but it still embarrassed the hell out of me.