Well, having a pony just wasn't enough for me so I bought another horse. Chloe, whose always been in a herd, looked lonely and anxious so we decided she needed a friend. I just didn't think I would find a horse I wanted this soon. If I believed in fate I would call it that because I found the horse on the Internet two days before Christmas and used the money I made working on Christmas day to buy the horse. So thanks to my client for buying me a horse! If you're interested in details, he's a 7 yr old Thoroughbred gelding who just ended his race training in October. He has two wins under his belt but his owner/trainer decided he'd make a better saddle horse than a race horse. He's 16 hands high which means he's TALL. He's very gentle and sweet. Thoroughbreds are known for being high strung and ancy but he was very manageable when I rode him. He needs some additional training to fine tune him but I don't think it's anything I can't handle. And I can always call in a professional trainer if need be. His registered name is Private Prospect and his owners called him Private so that's probably what we will call him. We have pictures of Chloe the Pony and Private at Chloe and Private
Speaking of Chloe, Kyrielle was very suprised to get a pony for Christmas. She seems to be a bit intimated by the pony but I don't blame her. Kyrielle is only 8 and the pony looks big to her. Just wait until she sees Private! Chloe was very excited to get a buddy. When we put Private in the pasture for the first time, Chloe galloped right up to him and hasn't left his side since. They were so pretty running around the field together although it was kinda of funny watching short little Chloe trying to keep up with the big lanky Thoroughbred.
I need to wrap this up. Our friends from Seattle are coming over tonight for dinner so we have to run into town and buy some things. I'll post again soon.
We got the pony delivered last week. Things seemed to be going well. She has a pleasant disposition but you could tell she was nervous about being all alone in a strange place. Like I said, everything was going well enough until the doorbell rings at 7:15 this morning right as I'm heading towards the shower. It's the neighbor lady who stopped on her way to work to tell me our dear sweet pony was half way down the street. I quickly changed into some jeans and a sweatshirt, grabbed the halter and ran outside to see if I could see her but she was no where to be found. Fricking great I said. I ran back to the house, hopped into the truck and took off down the street looking for her. Luckily she was only about a 1/4 mile down the road just standing nonchalantly in the neighbor's yard. I pulled off the road, walked right up to her, slipped the halter on her head and walked her home. Oh, and by the way, it was below freezing outside and I forgot my gloves. Ouch. At this point I had no idea how she got out because I was certain I latched both gates last night after messing with her. Then I noticed she had skinned the inside of her back legs and that told me she jumped the fence. That's bad. An unlatched gate is a simple problem to correct; make sure to always latch the gate after using it. I don't know how to stop a horse from jumping the fence. What's even more amazing is the size of the fence she jumped. It's at least four and a half feet all the away around but that's still a huge height for a horse her size to jump. Olympic level show jumpers jump five foot fences in the ring and their almost twice her size so I'm kinda excited she can jump but this is a bad way to find out. According to Larry, who was petting her about 15 minutes before she escaped, the neighbor's horses were running in their field when he left for work. I think Chloe got excited by seeing the other horses running and she wanted to join them. Anyways, I put her back in the pasture and called the office and told them I wasn't coming in because I don't want her running off down the road when no one is home. We're very lucky I was home when she did it the first time. The only way I know to fix the problem is to put up a hot wire. Luckily the house came with a unit which we've been using for the dogs so we just need to string some line along the top of the fence and plug it in. It will make her fence shy which means she won't come up to the fence to meet us like she does now but it's better then her running off down the road and getting hit by a car. Since it appears she didn't quite clear the fence and scraped up her legs trying I'm fairly confident she won't try jumping it again for awhile but the hot wire will keep her away from the fence all together. I think the real solution to our problem is to get another horse so she has company but the hot wire will work as a short term solution. And, to add to the excitement, today is the day Kyrielle gets to see her for the first time. I just hope Chloe behaves herself while Kyrielle is here. Animals! Anyways, I just had to get that out of my system. It was actually very scary for the 15 minutes she was out. Of course all the worst case scenarios were running through my mind. Thank god for my neighbor! I'll post later this weekend and report how Kyrielle liked her present.
1. List your five favorite beverages.
milk, water, beer, wine, cocktail
2. List your five favorite websites.
I don't get around much on the Web but here's where I most often go - epicurious.com, silveriafamily.com, cooking.com, uspca.net, barnesandnoble.com
3. List your five favorite snack foods.
cheese & crackers, hummus & pita bread, Larry's popcorn, mixed nuts, chips
4. List your five favorite board and/or card games.
I can't think of five. I like Trivial Pursuit (any edition) and we play Uno with Kyrielle. We have a game called Crack the Case that's fun to play with a lot of people. I also like Scrabble although we don't play it very often.
5. List your five favorite computer and/or game system games.
The only computer games I've played recently, as in the last couple of years, have been MSN games like Bejeweled and TextTwist.
Yet again I find myself too busy or too preoccupied to make a post. It’s actually quiet in the office today so I thought I would get in a quick one. We had a busy but enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend. Thursday we had dinner at Tony and Trina’s and ended up staying the night because Trina and I started drinking Red Bull and vodka at some point during the evening and we were just having too much fun. Nothing like being hyper AND drunk. The following night we went to a surprise birthday party for Trina and Sunday we did some more work on the loafing shed. Speaking of the pony, she’s being delivered Saturday morning. I’m just excited to finally have an animal out in the pasture. What’s the point of all that land if you don’t do something with it? Our chicken flock has decreased in size. An animal was getting into one of the coops and killing the chickens. We lost five or six birds in one week before we were able to correct the problem. Also, the chickens have stopped laying eggs. I read that some chickens will only lay during the spring and summer so I hope its just a seasonal thing and they’ll start laying again. In the meantime we’re back to store bought eggs.
Just in time for Christmas and all the expense that involves we have to buy a new TV. On Thanksgiving morning we had an unexplained power surge which fried the TV in the living room despite it’s being on a surge protector. The TV wasn’t that old either. We bought it in 2000. We looked at TV’s on Sunday and of course the TV’s I especially liked, the big screen plasma ones, are all ri- god damn-diculously expensive. We found a 36” Toshiba something or other at Best Buy that I liked but of course our existing entertainment center won’t accommodate it. I’m so tempted just to say the hell with it and buy the new TV, an armoire to put it in AND a new sofa sectional since our existing furniture doesn’t fit the room very well and just charge it all but I’ll hate myself for it in the morning. I already have a laundry list of other things I’d like/need to buy shortly: saddle and bridle, round pen for horse training, old pickup for ranch work, new clothes. Also, next Spring I’d like to get rid of the Neon and get a newer car (not brand new) for Larry to drive. I’m thinking a Jetta or a Camry. Something with four doors and reasonable fuel economy. Of course if I want to buy all this stuff that means I need to put in more hours at the office. Yuck. Why is it the more stuff we get, the more stuff we need to get to go with it? The house we live in now is almost twice as big as our previous house and I’m already beginning to feel like it’s too small. I have visions of completely gutting the interior, pushing out the back wall and adding a second story. I love where we live so remodeling the house is my only option if I want more space. That, of course, will require a bank loan of some sort and we’re not ready for that yet. I’m thinking within five years as long as our income level continues to increase which, with the current state of the nation and the economy, is nothing to count on.
Just one more note to my “short” post. Larry is graduating from college next week. I’m so proud of him. It’s a pain in the ass, not to mention stressful and hectic, to work 40 hours a week and go to class two or three nights a week. I know. I did it. It’s taken him about five years, starting at the local community college, to finish all his classes. My friend Tracy just recently started taking college classes with no set goal to graduate because she can’t foresee that far into the future. I told her you just have to take it one semester at a time. It becomes part of your life and you just know you will spend every Monday and Thursday or whatever night woefully tired and hungry in some insanely boring classroom. But sooner or later you’ll graduate, and unlike me, hopefully do something useful with your degree. Larry actually likes working in the corporate environment so I’m sure he’ll put his education to good use. We’re waiting to see whether or not he got accepted into the MBA program at Oklahoma State. Well that’s it. Back to work!