Sibling Sunday

Gypsy Rose, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I don't actually have all that much new to tell about the girls today. Riding lessons, work, summer vacation and a few school things have been filling their week. So instead let's follow Miss Gypsy Rose's example and just have a lazy lay around Sunday! Everyone have a great day.

Simple Friday

IMG_9708, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Isn't he just a very handsome horse? A very wonderfully well trained horse too!

Something that doesn't scare me

IMG_9712, originally uploaded by torri_g.

After the spider and lizard scare marathon here this morning, I'm trying to find my happy place and not think about the creepy crawling things of Arizona for a little bit.

Get Back Up

IMG_9765, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Riding lessons for Paige and Cheyenne on Tuesdays is about to get renamed "Tossing" Tuesday or something similar to that. In the last two weeks they have made sure that my lungs are working fine and I can attempt to gasp in all of the air in Arizona.

Let me start with Cheyenne and last week. Since she started lessons she has done great except for whenever the horse makes a miss step in the arena, then her fear of falling would kick in and keep her from doing real well. Never fear though Cheyenne came up with a solution to that and last week I heard the words come out of her mouth to her teacher..."Push me off of the horse!" Yes when asked what she could do to help Chey get over her fear, Chey asked her to push her off of the horse! Hmm...yeah something not real right about that. They talked back and forth and then suddenly my cell phone rang with a call that I had to take, but keeping an ear on the back and forth conversation about being pushed off of the horse. Probably a good thing that I had my back to what happened next because Chey won and she got pushed off of the horse! Now not a mean push, it was a push of measured control, or at least that is what I keep telling their teacher. Cheyenne just went with the fall in a huge way! Scraped up arm, small bruise on thigh, some tears and then a funny thing...a determination to get back up on the horse and ride, oh and ride she did. There have been no fear of falling looks on her face since. She sent pictures of her battles scars to her friends and told them all what she did because she is very proud of herself for having the guts to do it. Side note to all of this is their teacher who I think is just wonderful, called several times that day to make sure Chey was alright, and several times in between the lessons to check. I think she may have some emotional scaring from the whole thing last week but of course Paige had to add to it this week.

Paige's was not a "push me off" thing, it was an "Oh Crap!" thing. I'm going to back up just a little bit with Paige for a minute. In one of her first lessons the horse got spooked and she had to do what their teacher calls the "Emergency Exit" off of him, and she did it perfectly. Even better was she did that move without even having been taught it by the teacher yet. So yesterday and her falling really just came out of the blue because she knows how to get off that horse without having to hit the ground. Their teacher is spending time introducing them to all kinds of riding right now and bareback has been the lesson the last couple of weeks. They do half of their lesson in saddle and then bareback. Paige loves the bareback riding. I can see her face light up as soon as she hears the words it is time to take the saddle off. Paige loves being close this horse and bareback gives her that connection that she loves. Bad thing about bareback if you are the second lesson of the day, the horse is getting really slick! All was going well till getting the horse up to a trot and doing leg muscle building by doing posting while bareback. One slip of Paige's grip with her legs, one bounce to many over trot polls and Paige was unseated. She tried like mad to get settled in her seat again but it was to late. She went from slipping up top to being kind of on the side of the horse, to the ground under the horse in less time than it takes to blink an eye. Paige did hit hard on the ground but immediate fear was they had been in trot mode when this happened and she was laying under the horse. Ever see a 1200 pound, 16 hand horse stop on a dime? Well, I did yesterday...and not only did he stop on a dime he self backed two steps with look of fear that I'm sure was greater than anyone else's out there. Paige on the other hand wasn't wearing a look of fear...she was laughing! She got up and let all of us know that she was fine, and then spent some personal time face to face with the horse telling him he did nothing wrong it had been her mistake, and thank you for not stepping on me. Then she got a boost back on the horse and went right back to what she had been doing.

Right now today thinking about these two and the fact that they keep pointing out that they have raised the bar for falling has me worried about lessons on Saturday with Stephanie, but we will go and will keep going. I am starting to think that come lesson days I might need some medication to help keep me calm and breathing though because yesterday there were words like learning to do jumps and barrel racing! Oh my!

Catching on Thorns

IMG_9349, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I did it again, got one week of every day posting done and then blew it last week. To be fair to myself though I don't really remember my feet touching the ground all that much last week and I don't think the idea of signing on ever crossed my mind. What could keep my feet from touching the ground? Well we are in the process of buying 5 acres and having a house built on it! The great news and the speed at which so many things have already gotten done blew my feet right off the ground. It is still at the point where there are many miles to go till a moving day can be set, but after waiting for so many years I'm finding each small step right now to be very exciting!

Today is riding lessons for Paige and Cheyenne and I think I'm going to try to remember to take my camera out with. I really need some "focus" on calming my speeding mind this week and some time behind the camera should do the trick.
I hope that everyone is having a good week so far and that there are many good days for everyone.

Friday

IMG_9621, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I have just about gotten back into a daily posting here! Of course having the pictures of the new baby girl to kind of helped get me to the desktop here this morning. Mama and baby girl are doing great and last night when we ran trash out to the cans they were out in the main paddock with baby girl checking everything out, of course she was staying very close to Mama while doing it. The really great part about the paddock that they are in is that it is right out in front of my place instead of up near the owners house. Which means that I can head out at any time to shot more pictures of this little one. I'm sure if I ask I can also head in any time to take pictures of the other baby girl to though. I'm thinking about trying to get a good picture of the proud Papa of both of the girls today also.

I hope that everyone has a great Friday!

June Baby Born

IMG_9627, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Just real quick there was a new baby born this morning! I was so happy to be able to get out and take the first pictures of Mama and new baby girl!

Two weeks later

IMG_9524, originally uploaded by torri_g.

It has taken me two weeks to get this picture posted, but at least I'm finally getting it done. Graduation night for Paige was to say the very least emotional, and I think this picture with her Dad pretty much says it all.

Two weeks later she is settling into life after graduation. There is a list of places she wants to go to put in job application, she wants to head to the college to check into taking a few art type classes, and she will be finishing up her thank you cards for mailing by Saturday.

I hope that everyone has a great Thursday.

When the horse puts you in time out!

IMG00584, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Paige and Cheyenne had riding lessons this morning and I am completely blown away by their progress! Chey with only three lessons has just about caught up with her sisters, and Paige stepped it up a couple extra notches today too. Bob...who is the lesson horse...did have to let Paige know one time that she wasn't as in control as she thought she was. Instructor had Paige drop the reigns and do nothing but use leg to control Bob and the first couple of tries led right back to the same area of the arena...the GATE! See Bob by this point in time would have loved for the lessons to be over and since Paige wasn't using enough leg he picked his own direction and what he wanted to see done. The exercise was great for Paige though because she finally got the legs going and made Bob do what she wanted him to do.
Both girls were introduced to show maneuvers today and I can say that parking the horse on the bridge looked very difficult but both girls got it done. Paige was happy about being able to get to take Bob up to a cantor today with no lead line today, which was a huge deal for her.

Tomorrow Ms. Steph gets to go for her lesson and I can't wait to see the look on her face with how much her sisters stepped up the game today for lessons.

Early Monday Morning

IMG_9528, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I'm just going to use another of the baby photo's since I haven't sat down at the desk top computer to upload any other pictures as of yet. But how could you not love looking at pictures of this tiny little girl? I'm still waiting to get a phone call about the birth of the next baby, which I hope will be sometime this week. Of course I will have to take some pictures of the first baby girl just to update her growth.

I think we have the start of our summer routine going, and I'm hopeful that it will find me with more time to get out with my camera. Today is going to be a lazy start day here though after a long weekend of just about all girls working. I hope that everyone has a great Monday!

Taking time

IMG_9548, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I'm back again to play a little bit of catch up. Seems like I'm always playing catch up here anymore but hopefully I will learn to get that balanced back out this summer. Let's start with the picture first then I will move on to all things "G" country.
One of the two expected baby horses arrived this past Saturday and I was thrilled when I got the phone call about it. Paige and I rushed over to see the 10 minute old baby girl and loved watching her get acquainted with those very long legs of hers and her Mama. Mama horse is a first time mama and did a perfect job of helping her new little one get going, and protecting her.

The end of the school year came last Thursday and graduation was that night. I have pictures to post from that, including a very emotional wreck Paige getting a huge hug from her Dad. Project graduation was skipped because she just couldn't get past the emotional state that the whole thing left her in.
The busy last week of school lead to a very busy weekend and finally this week there was a bit of a crash and catch our breath. I think on Monday this whole family redefined doing nothing and being lazy people.

Yesterday Todd left for Atlanta, Ga for his TDY and the girls and I went out and did some summer wardrobe shopping and dinner out. Today is the day that we all try to get into a summer routine. Steph is working every day and Friday will be her last day at one of her two jobs. Paige is taking this week and next as a break and getting herself focused before making phone calls and getting in contact with some people about doing ride alongs this summer with horse vets. Thanks to some new friends she has a good list of people to contact and see about learning more about the field she really has a passion for. Cheyenne is is going to keep me busy running this summer with a baby sitting job that anyone would love to have...well the pay is what they would love to have. She also has some DECA activities that will be going on and there is a summer AP reading list that we need to get the books for.

The rest of summer is going to be filled with horse back riding lessons, hopefully some swimming and whatever else I can come up with. Since we are looking at Todd having to travel every month this summer I'm thinking about planning some day trips with the girls when they aren't working to help pass the summer time. Oh and hopefully sometime this weekend the second baby horse will make its appearance so we can enjoy seeing that one get going in the world too. It has been a crazy last couple of months and I have never so looked forward to summer vacation as I have this year. Even with the busy of still having to keep on schedule it will be far less than what it has been.

Opps I almost forgot to mention something...Steph got another scholarship from her Lion's Club so now it looks like her first two years of college will be taken care of with a little bit of help with books from us. No student loans! Just so you know try riding home in a car with her after she gets that news! I'm still pretty sure that the car floated home with her in it that night.

I hope that everyone is doing enjoying their week and have a wonderful Thursday!