Happiness is.....

....many many things!  But the past couple days happiness has been pooper scooping out the pen and not feeling like I am scooping wet pairs of jeans!  The mornings have been cooler and I have been scooping normal manure piles!  It is the little things...

There are a couple of quotes I have found the past few days that I really like.
One was on Linda Parelli's personal blog - “Personal growth is rarely comfortable or convenient.”That was by her mentor Glynn Braddy.  Isn't that the truth? 
And the other was "It’s not about how hard you get KNOCKED DOWN. It’s about how hard you get knocked down but still get up and keep moving forward." --Rocky Balboa.  This one was listed on the Facebook page of Jane Savoie - Solve Horseback Riding Fears.  She always has some neat stuff listed on her FB page.  I have been so busy I might get on FB once a week or so unless I have something specific to look for, but I always look to her page to see if she has something new.  

Saturday was our make up day for the mounted shooting class.  I will start by saying it was fun, but it would have been MORE fun if I could have ridden.  My inner thigh muscle is still causing problems so I chose not to take Tripp.  They did have a couple of extra horses and I found myself thinking "If I just walk the pattern and shoot, I will be fine...." but I know me.  If I walk it and I feel 'ok', I will want to trot it....then I will want to trot 1/2 and canter in on the final stretch.  
We started out by learning about single action .45's, which was something new for me.  I have a double action revolver but it works a bit different than these do.  We only got to shoot 5 shots before they moved on to the horsemanship part, so that was a little disappointing, but I will be able to do more on practice nights.   
Here is our instructor for the firearm part of the class.  I only got a couple of pictures, which is not normal for me.

 Here is Kristin and I getting our holsters on.  Both of these were special made.  The ones I was wearing was very simple...I like them a lot!  The guy made his wife a holster also, and he did such a great job.  I don't know if he makes them for other people, but if I decide this is something I want to do I will inquire....he does beautiful work!

It was interesting talking to the competitive shooters to find out how they like to wear their guns.  Some like them close together, others like them on each side of the hip, and some have them on their saddle because they don't like the feel of the belt around their waist.



Sunday Brian put together my Cowboy Curtain with pool noodles.  I had Boom close by to watch, and he had to stand next to me when I lifted up a side.  There was snorting going on, but he did not try to escape me. 

Hmmmm, what is going on?  I know it is a trick!

Introduction to the curtain.  He walked right up to it without hesitation....until he got to the 'wall'.  Once I opened a noodle hole for him to peek thru he slowly poked his nose thru.  When he came thru the first time there was no charging thru as the things touched him.
I have to say that this is one of the things that amazes me about him, and also makes me ask questions.  He handles so many things well and without drama, so his blow up on the trail still  surprises me.  I am paying more attention to his actions and really hope I can stop a mental overload before it happens again. 
Anyways......here he is being told his is doing GREAT!  :-)

 After a couple times of being led thru, I could send him....from both sides.

We have a couple of blue barrels and I have been sitting on one of them to stretch my thigh muscle.  For a while he was not so sure about the barrel...especially when it chased him.  Now he snorts and leans way back, but doesn't move his feet, and he also noses it a bit.
I think back to the beginning and he would not explore much of anything....he did not care, had no use for exploring and he acted like he just wished I would go away.  Now he likes me (sometimes) and he explores a lot more.  Good...that means he is thinking. 

I can walk him around with the rope around his butt and legs with no issues (until last night...that will be a separate entry after seeing what happens tonite)

After working I let him in the yard with the others.  He and Wyoming get along pretty good.  In this picture Boom looks huge compared to Wy, but he is shorter and stockier. 

Ahhhh, the barrel....not as scary as it used to be, but still not his friend.....YET!

He has worn a tarp all over him and on the saddle while moving around, but he has never walked on it.  Brian got me a new small tarp just for this purpose.  When I had it folded up skinny he sniffed it and looked at me.  I was asking him to walk over it and he looked very bored.  He then took one foot and set it on there, then looked at me like "There, happy?"

He walked over it and nosed around on it a while, then bit it.  He was standing on it so it did not come up to 'attack' him.  I am hoping we do that soon so we can get that out of the way.  :-)  I still remember one of my first times on the trail with Tripp.  He thought he had to eat a leaf of a big dead branch.  He bit the leaves and the whole branch came at him....he backed up and tried to get away, but it kept following him.  I just held on hoping for the best.  He eventually set it down and walked around it like it was a trick......I laughed so hard!  I really want Boom to experience that bite it and it follows you thing BEFORE we do it on the trail.  His mind is different than Tripp's was.
 

 He wanted to show off....he can multi task.  Walk the bridge AND mess up the tarp!

 Doesn't smell like Smurfs......

This is the horse that amazes me!  He might be afraid but he handles things so well, then something gets him nervous and he shuts down.  I am trying to learn more about him so I can help him thru those rough times.  

This is his first time walking thru without me opening a space first.  He just sashayed thru there like he had done it a million times. 

 He even went thru sideways....I was not so sure about this at first because I don't want him getting hung up if he goes around the post the wrong way, then I came back to my senses and let him go for it!  If he gets hung up, we fix it, right?  

 Trailer loading is pretty good.  I wish I had dividers so I can teach him to stand and be 'locked' in his space, but it is open and when I send him in, he turns around.  April, who had the misfortune of seeing me hit the ground on trail ride day, steps up inside the back door of her trailer and asks her horse in.  I thought that there was no reason I can't do that too (I have been trying to send him from the ground, which worked most of the time, but not always).  I have started doing that and then keeping him facing forward until I ask him to turn around.  It makes him nervous, but he does what I ask.  He still won't back out.....well, he did it half way once, then Wy came up to check us out.  I quietly asked Boom back inside so it all stayed positive.  I was hoping Wy would hop in there with us but he has a busy little mind and had to move on to something new.  All in all I am happy with our trailer loading, and if I have to lead him out instead of back him out at the EMM, I will.  In the past all the judges had different opinions on what they wanted to see, but the ALL said to keep it safe, and do what we know how to do.

 This pretty girl has made a home in the doorway to the chicken house!  So every night I have to take down a couple of her strings so I can crawl in to get eggs.  Those who know me know that spiders give me the heebie jeebies.  So bad that sometimes I feel sick to my stomach....ugh!  I love garden spiders and think they are so pretty, but I wish she would have made a home in the garden.  Maybe she doesn't like weeds....

After I took down a couple of strings I reached in and took a couple of shots....kinda cool in an icky sort of way, eh?

  Yay!  I finally got a blog entry done!  It has been so hot and there is only so much you can write about.  Yep, it is hot, yep, I got bit by more horse flies, yep, Boom and I are doing ground work, yep, it sure is hot, yep, I overheated myself again, yep, it sure is hot!

I am headed back out to push some of Boom's buttons.  We did some button pushing last night - totally not intentional!  It just happened and I was glad because it was stuff we needed to start dealing with.

Until later....Karen and Tripp who is glad he didn't have to go to mounted shooting.  It was too hot!  :-)