3 G Girls

3 G Girls, originally uploaded by torri_g.

The girls rode in their first J-6 riding event this past Saturday, and oh what a great day it was! Being Mom I could not have been more proud of my girls than what I was Saturday, and not just because they brought home a ton of ribbons. Their support of each other over the course of the day, their support of the other competitors, and just watching how much they have grown in ability over the course of the last year. WOW is about all I have for that.
The flip side of it was the photographer in me was in pure joy overload with all of the beautiful horses to photograph. Over the course of this week I will post favorite pictures of each of my girls and share how each on of them did, and of course post some of my just favorite pictures of other horses and riders.

Sibling Sunday

IMG_0600, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I once upon a time used to be able to snap pictures of the girls together for this post, but it seems that those days are very long gone. Any time I'm hit with the thought that I would like a picture of them, by the time I get my camera one to all of them have left. It is a busy life with them all anymore and it just seems to be getting even busier. Oh well, it is what is supposed to be after all so let's do some updates about things going on with the girls.

Cheyenne was off this past week for fall break and the end of the first quarter has happened. Which mean just one more quarter of her being at Buena. Due to her unhappiness with class sizes this year, and my overall just not happy with the school, we have talked and decided that it is time for the run there to come to an end. With the start of the new semester in January she will be heading to new start at Tombstone. In the mean time there is a list of DECA activities and other that will be added I'm sure in the next couple of weeks. She had a great birthday Friday though and I'm sure that I'm about to start hearing the count down of 6 months till she can get her learner's permit. Outside of school stuff there are her riding lessons which she is just oh so very good at and in her spare time aside from that telling me hourly that she is just oh so very bored.

Stephanie is still in the busy routine of work, school, work, school, riding lessons, work, work. Although she has found that having her own car is a great freedom that she truly enjoys having. She has found that she now has the ability to spend some of her sparse free time with friends, which is something that she didn't have before.

Paige's routine is picking up here slowly now that she will be primary trainer of Kisses 4 days a week, plus her classes. Yesterday I got a call from our neighbor about hiring Paige to travel with her for a horse competition in Phoenix as a groomer. It is a two day event and with it is the youth expo which Paige would have the ability to attend during her down time. It will be an all expenses paid deal for her, and sometime here this morning she will need to give an answer as to whether or not she wants to do it. I'm pretty much fingers crossed that it will be a yes because I think it will be a great opportunity for her to network with some people. Heck just to be given the opportunity is great.

I think that is about it for this weeks update about the girls. I hope that everyone has had a great weekend so far and that today is one that brings lots of smiles and laughter.

Horse Training 101

IMG_0602, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Wednesday started the girls and Kisses training. The girls were taught how to view the horse and look for any conformational flaws or trouble areas. They quickly learned how to spot training flaws and their first training issue to work on is working with the lunge line with Kisses. Everything is fine with the lunge line till you actually get it to close to her hind quarters, then she kicks. There was a correction to her age because she is 7 and not 4. Overall her submissive training for things like backing up, lowering her head, lifting her hoofs, and moving to the side were all very good. The girls have tons of reading material, and even some dvd's to watch over the course of the next 5 weeks.

They have also set up with their riding teacher Redhead to come out to the property and do some waste management for her during this time period or other odds and ends jobs. We are going to be heading out there tomorrow for a day filled with nothing but horses and work actually since Friday proved to be a difficult day to get Paige's riding lesson in. You know the scene from the Scorpion King in the desert with the sand storm? Or from any western set in the old west with the dust storms? Well we had that happen yesterday. This was no little dust devil that came up it was full blown sand blast your face dust storm followed by torrential down pouring of rain! So tomorrow Paige will go for her lesson, and while she is doing that the other two are going to put in some time working and then they will all get their next lesson on working with Kisses. Sounds like a great way to end the weekend to me.

Kisses

IMG00790, originally uploaded by torri_g.

For the next six weeks the girls get to say that they have a horse. This is Kisses a very beautiful 4 year old Quarter horse. Yesterday they got to learn about what it takes to load a horse on a trailer and get them out safely. Over the course of the next 6 weeks they are going to learn about feeding, care, training and about everything else that there is to learn. Paige will be learning the most since she will be spending 4 days a week with the horse but Steph and Chey are going to be over also when their schedules allow them time. They were happy that they were allowed to rename the horse because she had a not so great name. Thought was if it makes them blush to even try to say it, then it really needs to be changed.

There will be better pictures of Kisses coming in the following weeks. I only had my cell phone available since I was part of the crew for loading and unloading.

Saturday Catch Up

IMG_0474_edited-1, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Alright let me play catch up from the last couple of days. Due to paving being done on a bridge in Huachuca City, our contractor and the seller of the house could not get a permit to transport the house Thursday. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the topic because the whole thing just triggered a great irritation for me. Fingers crossed for Tuesday since the paving project was finished as of last night.

Kittens had appointment last night and it turned into the marathon appointment of 2 hours! Great news though they tested negative for FLV/FIV! They got round 2 of their respiratory immunization and got their first round of the FLV/FIV immunization. In three weeks we go back and finish up. Dr. M was amazed to see how very big they have gotten and was oh so very happy to see them all. By the way we love Dr. M because she is just the best ever! They all weight about 2.8 pounds now which is huge difference from their just barely 3 onces when Dr. M first saw them at 4 weeks old. All three kittens spent time loving up on Dr. M last night and I think it was done in hopes that she wouldn't give them any shots.

Todd got back home from Colorado yesterday and I'm looking forward to having him home for what should be the whole week because of all the hours put in during this TDY.

Chey is happy that this coming week is fall break and is going to enjoy having the whole week off plus her birthday come Friday.
Monday Paige and Chey are going to go help their horseback riding teacher move a horse. A horse that we are renting for the next six weeks! Paige is going to be learning all things needed for training and working with a horse. Four days a week for 4-6 hours a day this is what she will be working on for the next month and a half. She is very excited about learning and working with this horse. I think her bigger hope is that maybe this could lead to a more permanent thing with this horse.

I believe that is all that I wanted to catch up on for this post. I will try to get my camera and get some pictures and get back into the everyday posting for this week. Have a great weekend everyone.

Random Monday

IMG00745, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I'm trying to keep posting on a regular basis, but before I over kill it with kitten photo's I guess I can pull from the cell phone photo file.This picture is from the day that we marked the placement of the house on the land. I have tons more pictures of the land and pictures of the house but since we are in a state of limbo waiting on banks to finally do title releases for the sellers, I just don't want to post those yet. What is funny about the waiting game is everyone said things like "Oh VA appraisal can take long time", there was the added worry about job status for Todd with the shake up of the contract world on base, but no one saw this hold up coming. It is an issue of one bank putting a lien on the land that should not have been put on it, and another bank not wanting to do their partial release for the well easement. My excitement about the house has gone up and down with each weeks updates. We are very scary patient about waiting for this though. It is one of those things that no one could have seen coming, and everyone has been working very hard to get this cleared up. The awesome news about this whole thing though is because our contractor owns the land, he has been working steadily getting the foundation done and everything else that he can while we wait. I think a great anniversary gift this Thursday would be to hear that the releases are done and then the house can be set on the foundation. This is actually one move that I just can't wait to make, for now we wait in limbo.

I hope everyone has a great Monday.

Simple Friday

IMG_9708, originally uploaded by torri_g.

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

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!

Close up

image, originally uploaded by torri_g.

What happens when you take to many pictures of one horse? Well, the horse that isn't getting their picture taken comes over and shoves you in the middle of your back through the fence around the arena. She got my attention and I made her happy by shooting a couple pictures of her. Then she wandered off to a different area of the paddock. All I will have to do is remember to point the camera at her a couple of times each lesson and hopefully I won't get pushed from behind again.

I hope that everyone has a great Thursday!

Riding lessons

Riding lessons, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Today was the girls first day of riding lessons! They have a great teacher and Sweetpea and Binky Sue were thrilled to get started. Little Bug will be starting just a little later because her Mom is a big mean Mom. I'm happy that we didn't have anyone falling off of the horse today, but we did have one fall while trying to get on the horse. Watching one try to put the saddle on the horse was very funny and I'm not sure the horse will ever really trust her to get that saddle on without lots of help. We have next lessons set for this week and very much looking forward to it.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Saturday and that there is lots of laughter for you today.

Friday

IMG_8864, originally uploaded by torri_g.

It has been a while since I posted any animal for Friday, heck getting to the point that it is just a while since I posted anything at all. I will keep this one simple though and just post a picture of one of our new animal neighbors. I still don't know this one's name, but I can tell you that she is very pregnant and getting a bit on the tempermental side. I think since I didn't have food in hand she really didn't care for me standing out there taking her picture. That or she just didn't want any photographic proof of just how big she is.

Anyway, it is Friday and that means time to share photo's of your favorite inside or outside fur or feather covered friends. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Friday and a very blessed Easter weekend.