Living Nativity...

A friend of mine asked what I thought about her doing a Living Nativity at her barn...I told her I thought it was a great idea and she ran with it.  The next thing I know she has an e-mail going out to a few friends with a list of things she needed to make it happen.
This was a fund raiser, plus a neat thing for people to come visit.  If they could not donate, it was not a problem.  Sharon just wanted everyone to have fun.  And in reality, people coming to visit was a donation even if it was not monetary.
Donations went to the Sturgeon, MO Ministerial Alliance to assist families in need through the Sturgeon Food Pantry & it’s other outreach ministries. 

I donated Chase the llama, a tom turkey and two of his hens, the two new mini's Hershey and Tripplette, and Jester the donkey.  Sharon had big horses, friendly goats, chickens and bunnies that you can pet, plus the barn cats that hung around loving on everyone.  The tack room was heated and had hot chocolate, cider, water and snacks.

The Live Nativity was three days and it was a huge success.  We had many visitors and the smiles and giggles from adults and kids both made it totally worth it!

Barn during the day...






Barn at night...the star was lit up and you could see it for a long ways on your way to the farm.

 


 
Chase shared a stall with the turkeys.  The hen turkeys clucked a lot, and the tom did a lot of gobbling.  The kids would laugh and egg him on, and he would gobble again!  I think by the end of the last day his gobbler lost its gobble...

Characters were volunteers...friends and family...  Day 1 Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.

One of the tame bunnies for kids to pet...

Chase and the tom turkey....

The first day Jester shared a stall with Hershey and Tripplette...

When you walk in, the stall directly ahead was the manger area...

The hay is stored above, and Sharon's husband Jon was on his way down from dropping a couple of bales.

The kids loved petting the bunnies and the chickens.

Maddie and her newest baby bunnie.  Maddie doesn't have a critter that you can't love on.

A friend of Sharon's wrote this on a 'scroll' and it was put up outside of the stall where Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus were...

Shephards in the parking lot making sure everyone had a place to park. 

The tom stayed puffed up the whole time.  The first day was 1 - 4; second day was 11 - 7, and last day was 1 - 4.  That is a lot of puffy hours!

Cute bunny visiting baby Jesus...

Chase wondering what was going on...

Another one of Maddie's chickens.  This one is named Eagle and she is a doll!

Sharon fell in love with Jester the donk.  I had never taken Jester anywhere since we have had him, and he did wonderful!  He loved getting his face rubbed and when he got to share stall space with the goats the following two days, he was great about it. 

It isn't that Jester didn't have enough hay to eat.  They were stocked thru the whole event...but there is something about sneaking a bite where you shouldn't...it just tastes better.  :-)

 Self portrait with another one of the petting chickens and Sue...

Me and the baby bunny...

Self portrait of me and Maddie getting ready for Day 2...

Trying to get barnyard critters to cooperate when you want them to is a laughing affair!

The stable where baby Jesus was born...

Mary, baby Jesus, and the mini's...

With the doors and window openings closed, it stayed dim enough in the barn to get the feel of what it would have been like, and the sun coming thru the slats gave another neat effect...

Mary showing off the new baby...he was such a quiet boy...

If you look close, the bunny is on his back.  He was like a cat and loved it!

Mary looking up at the star...

Shephard shadow....

In between visitors there is still work to do...

Two shephards coming out of the house after putting in another batch of cookies...

 Ready to greet more visitors...

Sue and Jester....

Me and Sharon with a pretty sunset...

At the end of the day the head piece comes off!  I am not ready to put my chicken down yet.  :-)

We were trying to set the animals up for a picture, but being the thinking creatures they are with minds of their own, they gave us more laughs than cooperation...

Me and Jester...

Sharon and Jester....he was such a sport!

Christmas music was playing in the barn, and the CD player was in the loft.  Sharon was on her way down and it looks like she is falling.  She isn't....

There were a few different shifts of volunteers to play Mary and Joseph...

End of a fun three days!

Jester didn't mind the chicken sitting on his back, even when the chicken was sliding around trying to find just the right spot to relax.

It was a fun three days!  This was the first year Sharon has done this and we had a lot of requests for her to do it again.  I am game!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, no matter what you celebrate and how you celebrated.  I hope it was great!

Karen and Tripp who says he would have loved visiting with kids too!

Finally got my stuff for the treeless saddle...

I got a treeless saddle this summer but didn't have the breast collar, girth, or stirrups for it.  I had other plans and was going to wait to order the stuff I needed to make it work, but there were Black Friday sales I could not ignore. 

The buckles on side of the breast collar that go to the saddle will be moved to the ring up by the pommel.  I still have a few adjustments to make, but this gives you the general idea of what my set up will look like.  I can't wait until this weekend to try it out for real.  Yay...
It was almost dark and just too muddy for me to want to try it this particular evening.

I love the hunter orange breast collar.  I have plans for the pad too...just need to find the right material to make a few adjustments.  When I find it and get things put together, I will be sure to share with everyone.  I had to get a dressage girth so I got a mohair roper style along with aluminum endurance style stirrups.  I ordered all of these items from Action Rider Tack and am very happy with the quality.

http://www.actionridertack.com/default.aspx

The only thing left to get at this point other than some hunter orange rope to make a riding halter with, is hoof boots.  I am planning on getting Renegades in orange. 
http://www.renegadehoofboots.com/home.html
They are made in the U.S.A. and have been used and tested by many different disciplines.  I hope to get them this Spring.

Until later....Karen and Tripp who says God Bless the U.S.A.

Wyoming and I playing before our first clinic...

I have never ridden in a clinic before but have wanted to.  I finally have the chance to go to a Harry Whitney clinic...so I signed up.  Woo hoo...
Someone from our mustang club has seen him, and took a private lesson from him.  She could not say enough good things about him so I checked out his web site.

http://www.harrywhitney.com/index.html

He sounded like the kind of person I would love to work with, so I signed up and decided to take Wyoming instead of Tripp.  Tripp would have done great; but I knew I would learn much more with Wyoming.  I started getting back on him this summer, but all my rides were short and bareback.  This is the second or third time the saddle has been on him in two years.  He is six years old now and more nervous than he used to be.  He used to be so brave (and so was I) but now he seems to need other horses more than he needs me.  I know the old ways I learned to get his attention, but after reading about Harry and reading stories from people who have taken his clinic, I got to thinking there was a better way...and I wanted to learn that way.

Before we left, I tried to get Wy out and about a bit.  A friend of mine has an indoor and outdoor arena, and she said I could use them whenever I wanted.  I took Wy over there a couple of times before the clinic....

I did a little bit of ground work to see how well he is paying attention.  Wy is a multi-tasker.  He can do as I ask and pay attention to the other horses at the same time.  I really don't think that is how it is supposed to work, but it does.  Ha ha...

 I decided to use the rope halter with mecate reins that I have been using on Tripp.  I used to ride Wy with a halter so that should feel no different to him.  

Wy:  "Okay, how hard can it be to get the reins and mecate untangled?"

 Wy:  "Oh geez...how embarrassing...I hope my new horse friends are not watching this."

Wy:  "Good grief!  We are going to run out of daylight before she figures this out."

Wy:  "Finally!  Let's just mosey around the arena a while..."

Wy:  "Now let's go over to my new horse friends...yeah, there they are, over there..."

Wy:  "Or not...I can take a hint....(you just wait...)..."






Wy:  "Yep, let the girl think I am all relaxed while moseying by my new horse friends...."

Wy:  "WOO HOO....SURPRISE.... (snicker snort snort)..."

Wy:  "Now to let the girl get her heart rate back to normal, pet on me, and think it was all just a silly accident (snort whinney snort...)..."

 



 Wy:  "And the girl gets off after us walking across the arena without any more 'accidents'....nicker nicker snort..."

 


Now the girls version. Wyoming is very reactive to things.  I know he has a reason, but I don't always know what they are.  I really don't know what caused the spook you saw here, but let me tell you what, in a split second I knew I was going off then told myself to drop my legs, sit my butt in the saddle and HOLD ON.  He turned all the way around then stopped on a dime.  My right foot was out of the stirrup because of my initial reaction to the spook, so I was very glad he stopped.  I am still convinced him stopping saved me.  The funny thing is he was standing there trembling, and I was sitting there trembling.  Then I heard this voice from the other side of the arena yelling "PET HIM.  PET HIM AND BREATHE.  YOU BOTH NEED IT."  That was about the time I started laughing because I was too scared to pet him.  HA HA...every time I moved Wy would jump a little bit.  I finally got myself scooted back in the saddle and was centered again, I petted on him,then asked him to walk along the rail and across to the other side of the arena away from the horses; then I would call it a night.  I figured that was ending it on a good note.  He didn't give me any trouble at all....whew.  Thankfully Brian was at the other side of the arena  to shout at me about normal body functions...such as breathing.  Ha ha...  He also told me the spook didn't look that big.  I told him it didn't matter how it looked, it only matters how it felt.  Ha...

We have a lot of work to do but that is okay.  It will be worth it.  At this time my plans for Wy are endurance riding.  I just need to get into gear and make things happen.  I really think he will be good at it and like it.  And if he doesn't...well, we will find something else he likes to do.

Until later...Karen and Tripp who says it is a good thing Wy will be the endurance horse and more power to him...