Time Flies...

July has slipped away some how, I didnt realize it had been this long.. Might start loosing my very few followers if I dont stay up to date on here! :)

July in recap:

4th of July - Nothing exciting this year, we opted to stay home as usual. Although we did get in a ride at Lords Hill with a few friends, but the ride didnt go along as smoothly as we had hoped. We ended up on a trail that is supposed to be closed apparently, and a friends very young horse was going along really well when they came upon a hole in the trail, the rider thought he would step over, but as he stepped into the whole, the ground was washed out and it became a much bigger mess than anticipated. Horse went up, rider went down... :( Kathy ended up with a broken rib or two but is OK. Willie did pretty good that day, for having to stand on a pretty steep trail quietly for 15 minutes, he didnt kill me so all was fine. I noticed he was a bit carefree with his legs though and occassionally I would feel a hind leg sluff off the damn trail.. he needs to get over that MUCH sooner than later!!

July 7th - We hosted a BBQ at our place for dads birthday, had a nice time and was able to talk with Eric & Andrea about their recent Germany trip. I am SOO excited they are back home because they indicated earlier this year that they might start trying to make a baby after that trip, so I am in waiting on eggshells from now until they tell me they are pregnant!! lol

Mid July - Derek & I just finished up a 27hr course called "Pride" training for DSHS. Another step in getting licensed for Foster/Adoption. The training was VERY beneficial and even if we never adopt a child, we learned a lot from this class that will remain with us forever. This was not a parent training class, but more a class on what to expect but it also focused on abused children and what to expect as far as emotions and behaviors you might deal with etc. Not much on how to deal with those, that training comes down the road. We met a very nice couple from Marysville that we hope to maintain a friendship with. They were quite hilarious actually... very similar personalities and sense of humor as us. :) Now that this training is done, we need to finish with some things around the house so we can get our home study completed, which is on the to do list soon.

July 14th - Derek & I volunteered to help with the big fundraiser ride up out of Sedro Woolley. We were drag riders.. No that does not mean Derek dressed in drag and we rode horses.. lol We basically are the last riders to head out on the trail to inform the people that have stations set up on the ride, that they are done and no more riders will be coming through. It was HOT, 85, but muggy and Willie was drenched in sweat. I was really proud of him though, he did much better than I anticipated. It was over 3 hours of riding on a fairly technical trail at times. When I take him out on a ride, I always anticipate the worst so that I am not dissappointed when he acts up. But he has been so good on all our trail rides that by expecting the worst, I am VERY happy by the end of the ride because he is doing so much better than I had hoped. He is pretty damn close to being the type of green horse I was hoping he would be... nothing better nothing worse. I am OK with that!! I really do like him and feel much more optimistic that he will work out long term.

July 21st - Our last dog training day of the year with our retriever club. Its been an interesting year with Cooper, we've learned a lot, he has learned a lot. We will still train him, dont get me wrong.. but the club will not be hosting any more training days until early next year, after hunting season is over. We have a hunt test to take Cooper to in August, in hopes of him getting his Started title!! We are now seeing his anxiety over picking up birds is finally subsiding and we dont see a timid behavior associated with the birds.. but unfortunately because of the timid factor and how he picked up birds, it has now become a pattern and he thinks that he doesnt need to pick up the birds.. we've now moved from timid problem to training problem... Which is OK.. We had to give him the time and experience to get over the timidness and now we'll work with a local trainer to work through the training issues.. I'm not 100% convinced he is over his anxiety yet with birds, so I look forward to meeting up with Pat for some 1 on 1 advice and help.

Nothing comical or exciting really going on, probably why I havent been writing.. we've been very busy, but boring busy to those of you that are reading is my guess! The near future includes a road trip to OR, I am headed off with a friend to pick up her horse down there on Saturday, should be fun! She is a new friend, someone I have known for 20 years but only as an aquantance. Our friendship has started to develop in the past year over the phone and internet and it will be my first time seeing her on Saturday since we first met about 20 years ago... :) I am excited to spend time with her. Gotta love FB actually, as that is how our re-connection started...!!

More riding in the near future as well.. we dont get out and ride as often as we probably could and I try hard to be OK with that in my brain... :) We have so many things going on around us so I have to take a breath sometimes and just accept that life is not all about the horses and riding anymore.. As much as I sometimes wish it was, I also really enjoy the other things we do with our time and maybe when we are retired, we will feel satisfied that we can spend enough time with every aspect of our lives..

Who needs hay, just feed poop!

Suzi, the neighbor girl came over yesterday to work with Oakley and I took advantage of the decent weather and let her ride. Thought I would jump on Willie bareback, see how that went.

I told Suzi that she might see a rodeo as Willie had never been ridden bareback to my knowledge and I was not sure how he was going to be. He did OK, not great. He wanted to buck a couple times but I kept him under control.. had to spank him on the neck a few times and he did attempt to buck/kick at Oakley so I went a little "monkey-on-his-ass" and smacked the heck out of him and atop his head between the ears.. Not sure if it hurt his head or my hand worse! lol

As we walked around the little round pen, all the sudden Oakley started to act up. He spun around and was acting very flighty. I was nervous for Suzi at this point because Oakely was not himself. I looked off to the woods, didnt see anything that could be spooking him. So I jumped off Willie and grabbed hold of Oakley. By this time he is really worked up about something and I told her to just hold on, I would get him under control so she could get off. I realized that Oakley was getting worked up over the pile of poop that Willie had just dumped a minute earlier. So I led him over to it and let him sniff it out, but then he went right to eating it! WTF!!! I jerked his head up and he got pretty mad that I was not going to let him eat the poo.. I got him halted long enough to get Suzi off, gave her Willie to lead away and proceeded to spank the hell out of Oakley who was acting obsessed about this poop. He wanted that pile so badly, he was going to battle me over it and I really had to work to keep him focused on me and not the poop. After a couple minutes I got on him and rode him around, he was still battling me when I rode by the poop and he tried to buck/rear, I had no stirrups so I about came off but I worked it out and finally after 5 minutes, he calmed down and would walk past the pile w/o making a bee-line straight to it with his face!

Once we got back up to his corral, his attitude was back to care-free, so I asked Suzi to get back on and ride him around for a few minutes. I did NOT want her to end her riding session on such a sour note, she needed to have a good ride on him so she wouldnt focus on the bad. I am thinking it is time I consider having her parents sign a waiver because you just never know when a horse is going to be so stupid over something so unpredictable! Who would have thought??

It only took me a few seconds to realize why he wanted that poop so bad! I have been feeding Willie alfalfa pellets every day to help him put on weight, but Oakley gets none of it. Well apparently fat Oakley thinks he is starving and MUST HAVE ALFALFA, and is willing to do whatever it takes to eat it! Damn horses...

Atta Boy!!!

Yep, that's right... 2 ribbons means 2 passes for the weekend!! We are so proud of our little Coopey! :)

The Hunt Test was down in Deer Island OR which is about 20 minutes SE from Longview.. the same general area where Cooper was trained last year. We decided to take all 3 dogs with us, even though we knew it was going to be a hassle but we wanted Ellie & Russell along to keep Cooper company and assure him that this was going to be a fun trip and not a stressful one. We pulled into the test grounds at 11:05 pm on Friday evening! There were other campers there, we hoped we made a quiet enough entrance that we didnt stir up dogs and wake anyone.

It poured almost all night and was still raining the next morning. The week prior I was having some anxiety about doing the tests with Cooper, I was a little nervous and felt a bit awkward about it all. But as the morning got under way, I was feeling just fine. I was prepared with rain pants and a poncho; ready to run our dog, hoping for the best but expecting nothing!

Our first session on Saturday was water. The first bird he did well... his second bird he started to swim out to where the duck landed but then he veared off course and started swimming towards the decoy ducks. I thought to myself "Oh shit! This is going to get ugly"... He approached the decoy, sniffed it out, realized right away it was not his bird and he literally did a 180 and bolted over to the real bird. Which showed me he knew EXACTLY where the bird was, he just needed to trust his own judgement and trust the straight line I sent him on. I was super excited because overall he did better than I had hoped!

In the afternoon, our land retrieves were okay.. He marked the birds perfectly, meaning he watched the bird until it hit the ground and upon release, he went straight to the birds. BUT he did not want to pick them up. I had to really work to get him to pick up the first bird, LOTS of praise and encouragement and I kept saying "Cooper Fetch it Up".. When I would say that, he would look at the bird and then pop his head up and look at me as if it say "Repeat Piper, I'm not sure I understood the command" so I would say again "Fetch it up" and he would look down at the bird and quickly back up at me... "Really?? You want me to pick up what?" .. "Cooper, Fetch it up" .. "Nah, how about I go walk around a little and leave that for the next dog".. When he did that, I took a deep breathe, and stood there in silence for a few seconds. I didnt want to be harping on him and I needed the break to gather my patience (which I was not loosing at all, I just was trying to figure out what else I could say to him to get him to WANT to pick up that damn bird!) LOL He didnt wander for long or very far, just a few seconds is all.. It took him a minute or two to FINALLY pick it up and bring it to me. The second bird was not quite as dawnting of a task, but he still needed the encouragement.

I was so excited because we felt pretty good about the possibility of getting a pass.. and sure enough that evening during the awards ceremony, Cooper received his first pass and ribbon! Derek and I were very proud of him... He did so good and he was happy. The other exciting part of the awards ceremony that night was that Coopers daddy Earl had earned his 1005th point that day!! which is a MAJOR MAJOR accomplishment. He is the 1st dog (of all breeds) that was born, raised and started in our region to achieve 1,000 points!!!

Earlier in the day we were all pooped and needed to dry off, so we layed down and napped for a while, waiting on our fellow dog friends to finish with their tests.

Sunday was a semi-dry day and this time we started with Land first. Pretty much the same scenario as the day before with our land. We had new judges this day so they were seeing our dog for the first time. He needed a bit more encouragement to pick up the bird on Sunday but he did it!! On his first retrieve he stopped to pee on his way back BUT he kept that bird in his mouth the whole time. And on his second retrieve he stopped to poop on his way back, again keeping ahold of the bird which is a huge accomplishment for Cooper. He KNOWS what he is supposed to do, but still has issues with fetching up birds.. :)

Our water retrieves which I thought would be easy-peazy were not quite what I expected from Cooper. By this time the birds are getting pretty well used and I became quite concerned when I realized the birds were sitting VERY LOW in the water. So on both his water retrieves, he did not trust the line I sent him on and he veared off course, searching all around trying to find the bird. The exciting part of it all was that the water was not very deep so at times he was walking in belly high water and because he couldnt see the bird, he started to use his nose to find the bird. It was really cool to watch him sniff the top of the water trying to catch wind of the bird! and sure enough, he did! It is hard to explain the excitement and joy of watching your dog accomplish things you were not sure he would.

We were a little concerned he might not pass Sunday's test, because it was sloppy on both land and water, but the objective is for the dog to "mark" the bird and bring the bird back. He did that, although not perfectly. Actually during the water test, the judge was standing behind me and when Cooper veared off course away from the bird, the judge grumbled under his breathe because he saw what I did which was a very low bird in the water and he knew it was going to be an issue so I believe they gave some lee-way in their judging based on the difficulty of the birds. But at the end of our test, he qualified for another pass!

We were SOOO happy with Cooper over the weekend and I was proud of myself for doing it. Once I got Cooper to the line to run his retrieves, I had NO nerves or anxiety at all.. I was calm cool and collected actually, which was a little bit of a suprise. I was a little nervous waiting my turn in line, but at that line it all dissappeared and I just did what I had to, to get Cooper to retrieve those birds. Cooper's original trainer Butch was there that weekend, although he didnt get to see Cooper run, he seemed quite happy to hear Cooper got his first 2 passes!

We have some work to do and will probably try to get Cooper in another hunt test in August or September. Our goal is to get his Started Title this year so we can focus on Seasoned for next year. He will need 2 more passes to get his title. :)

The newest silly thing for Cooper is car rides.. He used to hunker down and travel laying down, never wanting to sit up and see the sights. Now that almost every car ride we take him on leads to water retrieves of some sort, he spends the entire ride looking out the windows, moving back/forth from left to right rear windows, waiting to see water! And when he sees water, whether it be a pond, lake, river, puddle.. He gets over-excited!! He has yelped, but typically he perks up, stands on the window ledge and digs/paws at the window to get out.. He is SO excited to see water and thinks we should stop at EVERY water he sees! It's quite comical..

I see Light!

It is so easy for frustration to take over your mind that you have to work hard to take a deep breathe, take a step back and be okay with it all.

I was concerned that working Cooper so much this week was going to set him back but it appears I was wrong and as the week goes on, the drive in him seems to be increasing! We've been doing little tricks that may or may not be the reason he is doing better. From information we have gathered via web threads online and then our own ideas on how to work our dog, its paying off!

We've had him out at the pond every afternoon and he is really doing great in water. He brings the bird all the way out of the water up to us, he wiggles and prances around us, happy to show us what he's got! In the mornings, I throw the bird around the yard in a more playful manner and progressively every day he is getting better at just picking up the bird and bringing it to me. I've even let Ellie & Russell out while I am doing this because that seemed to help, he has competition for getting the bird and it put more desire in him to keep the bird from Ellie. Ellie is MORE than happy to pick up the bird, it is funny to see my little Aussie try to steal his bird and get angry at him when he gets it away from her. They are not fighting over it, but using the other 2 dogs really seems to be helping.

At home with his bones, when he is super excited to show us his bone, he whines.. Just this morning for the first time, he whined just a tiny bit when he was showing me his duck. THAT was an amazing difference in him because he is finally getting excited about the birds in his mouth. Yesterday we were throwing a water logged bird and on the 4th water retrieve, he swam right to the duck but it was 95% under water and when he got too close, the bird went under. Cooper kept circling and circling the spot where that bird was but I think he was then pushing it further and further under water and it never popped back up! It took a long time to get Cooper out of the water, he was not about to give up on finding that bird and I think he finally got so frustrated that he found a stick in the water and brought that back to me instead... It was not a good way to end the session (we had no other birds to throw for him) but it was great to see him so eager to find that darn bird.

I did talk with the local trainer who is on the same page as us, I liked him very much over the phone and feel he will be a great tool for us to move forward. He wants to get Cooper on some live birds and thinks the adrenaline of a live bird will really jump start his drive and get him to finally have that "click" moment we've been trying for.

Frustration....

We are trying very hard to not get frustrated, but it has not been easy! Ever since that hunt test, Cooper is really struggling with picking up birds.. We are not sure if it was the stress of Saturday that was put on him unknowingly or if he is just being stubborn and defiant or if he has just realized he hates the taste, texture, smell of ducks! Not knowing is not easy.

My guess is that the stress did not help and he has realized he doesnt love to pick up birds. I am worried we are working him too much with birds now and he is reverting back to his training memories. That is the LAST thing I want to do, is bring back bad memories because he is sensitive. Or is it that we saw him traumatized at one time, so we dont push him like we should?

Either way, I think its time to seek some professional advice. We are not willing to just put him in training, but mabye an outsider can provide some guidance for us as we try to navigate through this problem. Since he retrieves much better in water, for now we are going to only work him in water. Plus he LOVES to swim, so its a bonus and he always picks up the bird in the water.. He doesnt always bring it all the way out of the water, but its usually within easy reach.

We have him entered in a hunt test this weekend, I actually would like to drop him out of it, but Derek does not agree. I am worried he is not ready and why waste the time and money to fail. I personally think once it all clicks for Cooper, the exposure of going to new places etc will not even be an issue because he'll be so happy to be doing it. I am thinking that because we are working him daily at this point, it's just too much and we need to work with baby steps instead of setting him up to fail. We've had opinions cast at us from both sides.. some agree with Derek, some agree with me.

I do see in Cooper though his willingness to shut down if we try too hard to force the issue. Some opinions to us have been that he needs to redo his "force fetch" program, but thats exactly what it is... Force! You force the dog to pick up & hold something until you tell him to let go. Its an issue of obedience in the eyes of many. But I dont want to force him to do anything (although when I reach my highest frustration levels, I feel like shoving that damn bird down his throat)! :) He should WANT to do this and should do it because he loves us and loves all the positive attention he gets. It is not the fastest route to go, it definately is the more frustrating route but I dont see any other options that Cooper will respond to. Maybe the local trainer will have some better ideas...

Big Willie Style..

I've had Willie home for 2 weeks now, I can hardly believe time has flown by so quickly! He is laid back, mellow and easy going.. just like I had hoped he would be when I first decided to buy him. He might actually be the horse I envisioned.. Only time will tell but so far so good.

He is a little thin, so I'm working to build his weight back up. I LOVE Shannon to pieces, but she keeps her horses thinner than I like so my focus is letting him have a mental break so he can really appreciate his new comfy life! He is an asshole at feeding time, kicks the wall if Oakley gets too close and almost every day at about 5am, he and Oakley must get to playing a little between their stalls because he kicks the barn wall and wakes me up damn near daily! :) His ground manners have been really great though. He still has some young horse attitude about a few things like picking up his feet, but that will all come in time and is easy to deal with.

We hauled up to Mann Rd on Sunday to go on our first trail ride since having him home. I hadnt been on him in over a month and my last ride on him was at Shannons, a windy rainy night inwhich he was a huge asshole.. so I was a bit apprehensive about my first ride on him even telling Derek on the drive to Sultan that if he doesnt work out by the end of the year, I'm not keeping him. Even with my slight nerves, he did AWESOME!! He tried to act a little green a couple times, but nothing I couldnt handle... He was not the same horse I had ridden a month earlier. We had a very nice 1.5hr ride with Kathy & Leanne, I cant wait to get out again!

Willie doesnt love the goats, he tolerates them normally but at feeding time, they have learned they cannot go anywhere near his stall if they want to keep their heads.. Literally!! I've seen him kick out at them when they've crossed the feeding line, scares the shit outta me that he's gonna kill one but goats are not dumb and they have quickly learned where that invisible line is!

Coopers First Hunt Test

It was a last minute decision to run Cooper at the Quilcene Hunt Test on June 9th, but we wanted to see how he was going to do; unfortunately 3:30am was not exactly what I had in mind for a Saturday morning wake up, but thats what we had to do to get to the ferry terminal on time!!

The tests are run in 2 sections, Land & Water with 2 retrieves per section. You have to pass both sections to get an official PASS on the Hunt Test. Cooper was entered in the "Started" Division and will have to get 4 seperate Passes total, to earn his Started Title and then move up to the next level. You can only run your dog one time per test and there is only 1 test per day. We had paid just to run Cooper at the Saturday test and had not planned to run him on Sunday.

On Saturday, As the first duck was thrown for the Land Session, Cooper's attention was all in when the bird hit the ground. Upon release, Cooper ran straight to the bird, picked it up and started to come back to Derek..... BUT.... Then he stopped! The small crowd of spectators took a gasp of breath and said things like "oh no" "common Cooper" (under their breaths of course as to not interfere with the test). He was very reluctant to pick up the bird again, he is now plucking feathers out with his mouth, he starts to gag, he is shaking the bird, he then pukes on (or right next to) the bird... about 7 minutes into this, Cooper FINALLY brings the bird back to Derek!! Good boy!

As the second bird is thrown, Cooper again watches very intently and runs straight to the bird when released... He picks it up right away (YES, I am thinking in my mind) but then he veers off course and heads over to the area he had the first bird, he drops it and proceeds to start the same shinanigans all over again... At this point, Derek realizes he's not gonna get Cooper back in a timely manner and has to walk out and get the duck, therefore disqualifying his dog from the test.

What a bummer! We were pretty dissappointed but our new Boykin friends assured us that it was OK and that you cant expect perfection with the first test. Derek decided to go ahead and run Cooper in the 2nd section anyways, Water.. we had already paid our fees for the day and it was good practice at this point. Cooper did AWESOME in the water! He swam to both birds and brought them straight back to Derek. It was encouraging to see since the morning land session was so terrible. Many encouraged us to come back the next day and enter him into the Sunday Test, so we did.

Sunday was a new Day! We left our stress and worries back in Saturday and decided there was no pressure or outside influences to frazzle up the day and we were just going to have some fun. Cooper was eager to get going that morning, he wanted to go!! On our ferry ride and as we drove over a huge bridge, Cooper was antsy in the back seat as he stared out at the water, he wanted to swim!

Sunday's test was in a new location and this time they did the water session first. Cooper retrieved his first water duck perfectly; however the second duck was not thrown well and the bird got sucked back up against the shore, making it difficult for Cooper to see the bird once he started swimming.. so he lost the bird and swam in circles for quite some time. Derek started to instruct Cooper on where the bird was located, therefore again disqualifying himself. Because we are new, we didnt realize the manner inwhich he instructed Cooper was not good enough to pass their standards and although Cooper did find the bird and bring it back, it was too late. In our minds, Cooper passed and we felt it was an unfair scenario that Cooper was put it, but oh well.. Derek decided to run the Land session with Cooper and he did that okay, retrieving both birds with only minimal issues.

So it was a frustrating and dissappointing weekend, but Cooper learned a lot and got his first tests under his paw and we learned a lot as well on where we need to focus our training with him. We met a lot of new people and grew more excited about future tests with our dog.

A week later our Hunt Club had a practice day (they are held in Monroe, which is REALLY great!!). He did OK on land retrieves, he was still very reluctant to pick up the birds, and needed Derek to walk out to encourage him to pick them up. I ran Cooper for the water retrieves because Derek was helping to throw birds. It was a little exciting for me to get to run him.. Cooper did really good in the water! Amazing because the trainer that had him for 3 months told us that Cooper did not like water and he never was able to get him to retrieve a bird in water.. 8 months later his best retrieves are in water! :) Anyways, thats a big huge kudos to Derek & I, we have worked very hard to get Cooper to where he is at and will continue to use patience and understanding as our training guides and not force.

Cooper's drive is growing every time we get him out, his instinct is all coming back to him and sooner than later, we wont have these problems. Cooper did seem to respond better to my voice than to Dereks so at this point we have ordered me some camo clothes as I might be running him in future tests.. After another week of training, we'll evaluate who he seems to respond better to and go from there. We have taken away all his toy balls and are no longer practicing with plastic training bumpers. He ONLY gets to retrieve ducks at this point until he KNOWS and LOVES to pick up birds!! :) We have some frozen birds in our freezer and although they are more difficult to pick up, he is learning that if he wants to retrieve, he better get that bird!! Ideally the birds should not be frozen but sometimes it is easier than trying to defrost them every other day.

We have a good thing going with Cooper and are very optimistic that his next hunt test will be more successful and we might get a pass or two for him! :)

Memorial Weekend

This is not how we had planned Memorial Weekend, but it's just the way it worked out!
The original plan was to haul the car on the flatbed over to Beavercreek (Twisp) to go camping with some horse club friends; we wanted to explore the area with no horses or dogs! Well the trailer floor is pretty weak these days and we couldnt get the lights to work (bad connection on our truck) so this is how we got there.. Derek drove the truck/camper and I followed in the car! lol I did get GREAT gas mileage though as a bonus! I thought this was going to be my top MPG but I actually got up to 44.3 MPG. The car has only been getting about 27 city miles, but the other day I got a flat (damn screw) and Les Schwab checked all the tires.. they all had about 50lbs of pressure; factory settings indicate 35 is best, so they dropped the pressure and I am now getting 30+ city miles.. :)We arrived on Thursday afternoon.. the next day Derek, Scott & Barbara hiked up a trail to do some clearing. The picture above is of the trail overlooking camp down below.. It is the same trail we rode 2 years prior, that had a lot of sage brush in the way and since it is a very steep trail with NO room for error and no real good options to get around the brush, they wanted to cut it out. If you are wondering why I did not go with to help, just look at that picture!! I was not about to hike up that hillside to get to them! :)

As they were hacking away, they came across a rattle snake! We've been told rattlers are in the area, but not very active in late May. This was Derek's first encounter with one, and he was determined to kill that snake! When they got to it, he threw some large rocks at the snake but was uncertain if he had killed it. And since he didnt have a safe way to shoot the snake at the time, they all hiked back down to camp. Derek and I drove to town and he purchased some shot shells for his pistol and later that afternoon he hiked back up the trail, determined to bring back a dead snake!Sure enough he did! The snake had moved down the trail further under some brush but Derek managed to safely kill it.. I wanted him to cook some up (not so I could eat it but thought he might enjoy eating some) but cleaning and skinning it seemed too difficult to attempt so he chopped the head off, put it in the fire, chopped the rattler off and kept it to give to his boss, then threw the body over the hillside. :) He had told his boss that if he came across a rattler, he would bring him back the tail... never imagining he would actually have the chance! lol

The next day we drove over to Twisp River Horse Camp.. I've heard of it for years, wanted to see it in person. Beavercreek is on the North side of Twisp, up in the hills.. TRHC is on the South side of Twisp, up in the mountains! There were no campers there, apparently it is a bit too early in the season as there is still snow at that level.. not a lot, just patches here/there. It seemed nice though and we look forward to riding there some day.

We came across a few deer on our drive up the mountain and then also came upon a pile of poop in the road that was so big, I made Derek pull up to it and open the car door, so we could determine if it was sasquatch shit or bear or ??? We took a mental note and once back at our camp, asked the others what they thought it was and we now know it was Moose Poop! Dena & Paul have a cottage up North of Twisp in Oroville, an hour and a half from us. And since Jen/John and Dena/Paul were all at the cottage that weekend, we decided to make the trek up that way to see the place and say hi. We didnt stay long, just long enough to see the house and the ammenities at the little community resort. Its a cute community, makes you feel like you stepped back in time or into the movie "The Truman Show" with Jim Carrey, where everyone smiles and all seems too nice to be real... :) Guess I could have taken a picture of the community, but all I seemed to get was a pic of this quail.
We were having a great weekend... a lot of driving around, got in a 45 minute post-dinner walk one night, Derek is pretty excited to start doing more hiking.. We ate VERY well, our dinners were all foil dinners and delicious. There were only 4 other camping that weekend in our little group, but we knew a few others camping/riding there that weekend. I'm always suprised that the campground is not fuller as it is a really great place to go for a Spring campout, with excellent riding and camping!

We tried to do some fishing, that was a bust! Too difficult to fish from the shore at the local lakes as they all have weeds around the shoreline and you can only use artificial lures, so no cast and wait with bobbers fishin! :) The weather was perfect, but I definately was missing my kids (Ellie Russell & Cooper).

Sunday started out well, but ended poorly. It was the day we attempted to fish, with no luck and a lot of backwoods driving, we ended up back at camp and laid down for a nap. My cell phone rang at 2pm, it was Barbara... I attempted to answer and there was no response on the other end.. I had a feeling something was up but I couldnt reach her via phone or text and had no idea where they might be. At 3:30 we decided to go hike the pipestone, jumped in the car to go but saw a Search & Rescue truck drive past us at camp, so we followed it up as I now realized it was late and the 4 horseback riders should have been back by now. We learned it was our group that was in trouble.. :(

Long story short, Steve Williams and his wife Bertha were riding with Scott & Barbara. As they were leading their horses up around a downed log, Bertha's mare refused and ended up stepping off the trail and falling down the cliffside. The guys got to her and attempted to lead her back up the hill but she again refused and ended up going down again. Steve took off on foot after her and the 3 others stayed put waiting for Steve to return. After a couple hours, with no indication of where Steve was, they luckily were able to reach 911 to call in help.

It was a very long day and after a lot of searching and coordination, the group of 3 were found and made it back to camp around 6pm, then Steve was found and brought out of the woods on horseback by other friends at 7pm. As for Bertha's horse, according to Steve, she unfortunately had a 3rd tumble down the hillside and died at the bottom of about a 500' fall..

A few lessons learned even by Derek & I, even though we did not ride that weekend. We tried to help, we were at the command center for hours and out driving the roads, trying to see if Steve had come out anywhere. We felt helpless but did all we could. The horse was not an experienced mountain horse and the trail they were on was more difficult than I think she should have been on.

There are a lot of very easy trails at Beavercreek to take, so it is too bad that this tragedy had to happen. Over the years, I have heard stories of many different trails and horses going over hillsides and cliffs, some making it out.. some not! Brings thoughts to me and reminds me to NEVER push beyond my comfort zone or my horses skill level and that its is OK to take things more conservatively and slowly. It is far better to do that, than to be walking out of the woods without your horse.

The weekend reminded me of a time that I experienced a horse going over a cliff while out riding. This was way back, 20+ years ago when I still lived at home. My sister and I had taken the horses out to do one of our trail loops.. we were having a good ride but as we got close to home, we came across a log across the trail. We literally were just 5 minutes from home and the only option we knew of was to either cross that log or turn around and go back the way we came, 90 minutes to get home if we went back. It was starting to get to dusk and we'd never get home before way too late to be out and on the roads so over that log I was determined to go. We got off the horses to lead them over, the log was lowest on the downhill side of the trail and my horse jumped over easily. I tied her up as my sisters mare "Darrell" was unwilling to cross. She was still young and fairly unexperienced on the trails. Her mare just refused and refused to budge.. We were spanking her, pulling, coaxing, nothing was working. My sister was ready to head back the long way but I was determined to get that damn horse over the log! Well the mare reared up in frustration I'm sure but when she came down she twisted her body and her front legs came down on the downhill slope and she fell, falling down the steep embankment to the bottom. It was probably only a 30' drop but it was far enough to panick my sister!

We quickly realized her mare was wedged upside down in some downed logs at the bottom. She was not going to be able to get up with her saddle hung up on trees. Carrie started screaming, I cant remember if I consoled her or just told her to calm down and go get help.. or maybe she stayed and watched me.. But I climbed down the hill and get down to her horse who THANK GOODNESS was not thrashing around.. She was very calm for a horse pinned on her back! Risking life, I was able to reach the cinch and get it off of her, then encouraged her to move to get up, she did and walked out of the hole with just a few scrapes.

It was then that I realized I had the mindset to get things done in a panick situation and was the cool headed one and not the panicker! Something I have held onto all these years because although I've been very lucky to have that experience be the worst of what I've had to deal with on the trail so far, I wont always be so lucky.We ended the weekend with a nice drive home, a stop along the way to get a great view of Ross Lk and then very happy children greating us at home!! We had wished at times we had the horses, but it felt great to just get out camping. Looking forward to more trips this summer!

Cascade Training Day

May 19th was another training day for the retrieval club we belong to.. I had received a phone message asking if I would be willing to help with lunch and I was, so when Anne called back the next day and asked if I would help, I said sure.. not realizing the next words from her would be something like this "Oh great!! Well you can fix whatever you'd like, just let me know if I need to pick up anything at Costco for you..." Well wasnt I suprised that I was not helping with lunch, I was planning it! LOL What a great way to trick someone into doing something they were not sure they wanted to do. BUT it worked out great and I planned sandwhiches for lunch.. I had all the bread, meat, condiments laid out so everyone could make their own, plus I made potato salad and had some watermelon.. It seemed to be a pretty big hit, so I was relieved as it was nothing like the typical hamburgers and hotdogs they normally have.

Since we were able to stay all day, we were able to run Cooper in the water and land retrieves, first starting with water in the morning.

Waiting his turn for water...

It was going to be his 1st attempt at retrieving a bird in water so we were anxious to see how he would do. I was skeptical at the distance he had to go, as he was going to have to cross weeds/grass in his swim and I wasnt sure if he would get side-tracked since he LOVES water so much!

Here's the video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn5WJlwM-Fw&feature=youtu.be

I would say he did GREAT AWESOME SPECTACULAR AMAZING.. we are so proud of our Coopey.. Once again another aspect of his traning has finally started to click and although it took about 9 months to get to this point (post pro-training), atleast we got here!

Look how happy that dog is! :)

He did pretty good on his land retrieves as well in the afternoon.. Here he is waiting his turn behind the blind.He loves his job and we are excited to get him to his first real test to see if we can get him some points and work towards a "Started" Title!

Willie Update

Have to post a couple pics of Willie. He spent about 5 days with Shannon down in Mossyrock WA at a ranch.. He was exposed to cows and did some sorting, apparently he was a little cowy so that is exciting. He also got out on some real tough trails, steep banks, lots of water and he did awesome! :) Shannon is super happy with his trail time, he's a trooper.

He's been getting barn/arena sour is the main issue left in him. Doesnt want to work in the arena, picks areas of the arena he throws fits in, doesnt want to leave the barn area while under saddle, so his training was just amped up a little to accomodate for the latest attitude issues! ;) He has gone up a few times, meaning he is thinking he can rear to get out of doing what he doesnt want to do.. wrong answer! Has he not learned anything the past 7 weeks from Shannon.. lol

Shannon is doing amazing work with him. Funny (well not really) but the damn horse wouldnt even tie when I brought him home.. He pulled so much she had to double halter him and had him in a draft type halter even, just to keep him from breaking it! Now he stands fairly quietly, although he is still getting daily tie up lessons. When I bought him, I never thought he would not be a horse you couldnt tie.. those sellers never mentioned a word about him pulling back, but then again, maybe his life was so cushy down there in OR, he never had reason to pull back!

I'm excited to get him home soon...

His vision is fading fast....

Pour Russell.. I am so sad for him. He has had bouts of eye issues for the past year or two, phases where he doesnt seem to see very well and then his vision comes back again. He's back in a phase of not seeing and actually bumping into things =(

This morning he ran into the gate in the barn, he didnt see that it was shut and then when he was climbing the stairs on the back porch, he didnt see the obstacle that was on the step and ran right into it.. I guess we are going to have to be sure to keep things in order around the place and not have random items left in random spots in the house and yard.

Yesterday he was running around the yard chasing Ellie & Cooper and today he is running into things. I hope his vision comes back again, but I know some day it will become permanent and our little buddy is going to go blind...

Funny Signs

Felt great to be out/about and have an active weekend! Unfortunately did NOT get in ANY riding... The weather was perfect, but my horse was a couple hours south for the past few days with Shannon so he was not around.

The neighbor girls did come over and ride Oakley on Friday. I really need a covered arena!! I would have been able to let the girls ride much longer, but since I need to be there to supervise, I couldnt take the bugs any longer and after about 20 minutes, I had to tell them time was up. It is disgusting!! The little damn no-see-ums were all up in my face and nostrils and behind my sunglasses.. Maybe I will start going out there with an umbrella, those little bugs dont seem to bug ya when you are under shelter... Might have to try that.

Oakley's been a little bit persnickity, his energy level is up and I am not trusting him 100%. The girls are doing fine with him and I'm not worried about him bucking or anything, but he walks pretty fast and doesnt always listen to their light subtle cues.. I want to be able to guide them and teach them how to ride him better, but these damn bugs.... GRRR, frustrating.

Saturday I spent half the day working on the garage and organizing my tack and horse gear.. This is only about 1/2 of the job. Still have more to do, I think I underestimated how much space I was going to need.... Might have to get even more creative on organization as I have to figure out how to fit the rest of my stuff in this small area! Finished picture to come, if I ever get it finished.

I'm also growing tomatoes for the first time ever! My boss gave me 6 plants (Cooper destroyed 1) so I am down to 5, planted them in the topsy-turvy upside planters and HOPE to have lots of yummy tomatoes down the road. My deck looks nice with the hanging baskets, makes me think I should put in more effort with plants and flowers and such! Only time will tell if that will ever happen.

Yesterday I saw a couple hand made signs that made me laugh. As I sat in the truck waiting waiting for Derek at the Storm Lk Grocery, I was glancing at the bulletin board up on the deck and noticed a sign looked funny, so I got out of the truck and sure enough the sign heading (which was hand-written) read "Lawn Work and Lawn Mainenance" So apperantly this guy will come do mainenence on your lawn, whatever the hell that is!

Then later that day as we drove home from a Mother's Day BBQ at Eric/Andreas place, we were on the back roads and as we passed another hand-written sign stapled to a pole, I asked Derek "Did you just read what I think I just read?" We both laughed because the sign heading read "Hand Man".. so I guess if you want to hire a hand man, you can.. not really sure what a hand man does but if you need the # I'll tell ya where to find it!

I just found those to be quite funny.. There are so many people unemployed right now, that the last thing I would do is hire someone that cant take 2 seconds to ensure his signs are spelled properly!!!

This past Wed was our last night of bowling, Derek ended the season on a very high streak and I ended mine badly.. barely able to break 100! Oh well, glad its over for now. Well my brother had called to discuss Mother's Day plans and ended the conversation by telling me that he/Andrea were fostering a Jack Russell. Minutes later I get a picture text from Andrea of a cute little wire haired 14mo female JR! I told her she was evil with the temptations but that we were not wanting to add a 4th dog to our herd! When I mentioned it to Derek, he was very quick and stern with a "NO!"

All I can say is that its a darn good thing that Andrea loves that little Jack Russell girl, cuz the minute Derek saw her, he wanted her! Her name is Cabella (they call her Bella), she is super sweet and cute and LOVES to be held and cuddled.. Derek has a soft spot for those JR girls.. Andrea is 100% sure she is keeping the dog and according to Eric, he is only 25% sure he is keeping her. So we almost could have come home with a 4th dog last night. We, by no means, need another dog, but we just couldnt help but fall for that sweet little girl! Makes me almost want to see if Andrea can hook us up with one of her sister siblings... ;)

Spokane Vaca...

Not sure 3 days is a vacation, but I'll take it.. We headed over to Spokane Friday morning to visit with family and friends, spent the weekend at Rick & Kristens place. Got to see Rob & Alicia as well as Derek's brother Dee and his wife and daughter who happened to be in town at the same time. We attempted to go bowling Friday evening but the bowling alley was pretty dumpy.. the house balls were dented, dinged and scratched SOO badly, they actually made wobbling, warped noises as they rolled down the alley. We started out using our own balls but soon realized they were all coming back with scratches so ended the first game with house balls then left.. it was not a good place!

Saturday we ran some errands, the guys did a little target practice at an indoor range, we met up later with the whole gang to do some bowling at a much better bowling alley, but i'm not sure what was up with me, cuz I bowled the worst I've ever bowled in my life! I couldnt even break 70!! it was really sad and pathetic, I had to go back to my old light ball because the other one was just feeling too heavy. Saturday night we met up with Toni at the races in Airway Heights.. Really enjoyed that track and had a good time there.. It was COLD and Windy, but the races were pretty good and only $4 to get in!!

Visited more with Toni then my x-coworker Greg Sunday morning and then headed back home. A short visit, but much needed time away. One thing we have realized about Cooper (and possibly Ellie as well) is that they LOVE paper!! A couple weeks ago we came home from work to find shreds of cardboard.. there was one small piece that said "Fed" on it, so we knew it had been a fedex priority envelope that was sent to us. As I was not expecting anything, I had to call Fedex to find out who sent me a package, come to find out it was our home loan bank, and upon calling them they had no idea what was sent to me! Whatever it was, it was delicious as there was hardly a trace of it ever existing at our house!! :) And apparently while we were gone, the dogs must have eaten the instructions I had left on the counter because mom said they were there Friday evening, but GONE Saturday morning..

Everything Else..

Took Cooper to another practice this past weekend. Didnt expect much from him. Before it was his turn to go, we took a dead duck and played around with it, asking Cooper to pick it up and hold it in his mouth.. he didnt have much interest in the duck nor in carrying it around, so when Derek went to the line to run Cooper in the practice, we had zero expectations that he would bring back the duck. In the past practices, he would run to the duck, sniff it and then keep going!
As Cooper ran out to find the duck that was thrown for his practice, he got a little lost and couldnt find it so after a minute or so, he stopped, sat down and looked at Derek for direction! We both at this point had a little pitter-patter in our hearts because he looked so damn cute and he was doing what he is supposed to do! Derek rose his hand up and said "Back!" and sure enough Cooper ran back in the direction he was supposed to, found the duck, PICKED UP the duck and ran back to Derek with it! OMG we were just amazed that he did it.. All the hard work we had put in after his training is paying off and we see for the first time real possibility that this sport could be one we stay involved in.

The 2nd duck was thrown for Cooper and again, he ran out to it, found it and brought it back to Derek. We could not have been happier!!! There have been so many issues and problems we've had to work around and through after Cooper came back from training so it was a huge relief to see this happen. The second practice run I actually got on video, bummer I didnt get the first one as it was a much better run, but he still did great!!

In the video posted, he dropped the first bird on the way back and didnt want to pick it up, it had been a live shot bird within the past 30 minutes vs the other ducks were long dead and frozen. He apparently wasnt too sure about the fresher bird, but he did bring it back eventually!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeIWaSyO6fw

We also went to a DSHS adoption class last week.. learned a lot and are moving forward with getting approved through the state to foster. In order to adopt, you have to become approved to foster, meaning we will be taking a 27hr course in July and then within the next few months, we plan to submit for our homestudy. Once both of those are completed, we will either be approved or not approved and once approved we can start looking for a child. :)

This past weekend was our annual horse club Dutch Oven Day! Derek had been talkin about Seafood Gumbo for over a month, so that was what he made and it was delicious. A little spicy, but very good flavor and his first attempt at gumbo. Someone took this cute picture of us standing over our dish. Dutch Oven day is always one of my favorite club events, lots of good food you wouldnt expect to be cooked outdoors! Next week is our last week of bowling for this league.. we will be glad when that is over.. we love bowling, but it is an 8mo league and we kinda feel that is just too long! :) We might look into another league maybe at different lanes.. will suck to not bowl with Jen/John, but we also want to be on a smaller team. We have 8 people on our team and only 5 can bowl each week so there is too much rotating and not enough bowling! :)

Time to Ride..

I've been out and on my horse Willie a few times now, he is doing good. The more I ride him, the less I question my decision on buying him. Slowly but surely he's comin around! He still has issues and gets spanked, but nothing I am too concerned about anymore. Yesterday we got out for my first trail ride on him, he was very relaxed and easy going, carried his head level and seemed to pay attention to what he was walking over, through and around. A little ouchy on the rocky areas even with shoes on, one little spook but otherwise a nice hour ride. I think in the next 30 days he really is going to be an old pro and just about what I had hoped he would be.

Here are a few pics of him when Shannon took him out on his first ever trail ride. He was ponied at first, then ridden by her son Klay for the second half of the ride. I am told that he is more relaxed on the trail than in the arena, a good sign!

Shannon says he is always posing for the camera, the only f*ing vein horse she knows.. as she says it! lol

Derek & I also went out and watched some cow sorting down the road from Shannon's.. Definately something we plan to do with our horses!! Derek is excited and wants me to find a used rope so he can start playing around with that.

Just as I am thinking all these positive thoughts about my horse, I get a text that he kicked another horse.. He's not real keen on being around other horses, have had to get after him for threatening to charge another while under saddle.. He just likes getting his ass kicked I guess! :)

Looks like I'm spending the money...

Yep, Willie is gonna be in school for another month! I had hoped it wouldnt work out this way, but he needs more life lessons and in the long run, Shannon can get so much more done and quicker than I can. I am thinking in another week I will start going out and riding him as well while he is in training. He should be going out on his first trail ride this week, I'm anxious to hear how that goes.

I continue to second guess my decision to buy him, a little dissappointed I spent so much on him when he turned out to need so much more than I had hoped, but I still have a glimmer of hope left in me that it will work out in the end. And Shannon keeps reassuring me what a great horse he is and how nice he really is... Its just tough hearing and seeing the negative and not being able to see his progress like she does. I brought him home the other day for a couple hours so the horseshoers could put new shoes on him.. he was an ass!! He wouldnt stand still or hold his foot up, kept pulling it away. He got spanked a lot, but as he has proven so far, once he gets a serious spanking, he behaves much better! The shoers even noticed that... And I have to remind myself its been not even 3 weeks so far and much of his BS is nothing too serious. Patience is the key thing I think he needs to learn right now.

Oh and just for the record, I officially have changed the way I spell his name as of 5 minutes ago! I decided that Willie seems like a slightly cooler way to spell it.. lol

A couple weeks ago I borrowed my friend Molly's draft horse Dozer, we hauled him and Oakley out to Shannons and her son Klay took us on a trailride behind their house. We had a good time. Dozer has a lot of forward movement and I held him back most of the ride, to keep him off Oakley's heals.. I paid for that mistake that night as I woke up in the middle of the night hardly able to move my arms they hurt so badly! :)

We've been pretty busy on the weekends.. that same weekend we rode, the day before we did a work party up in Arlington, along with about 40+ other people. We helped build some gravel bridges. I always enjoy doing what I can with trail work. Although my back doesnt hold up so well, I do the best I can and always leave feeling really good about being so involved. Cant wait to get up and ride this new trail that we helped establish.

This past weekend was Derek's birthday weekend.. again a pretty busy one with amazing weather! :) I think Spring is here to stay... I had taken Friday and Monday off work, we had originally planned to go camping that weekend, but without my horse, opted not to go. Friday started off with us buying 2 new goats!!

Meet Splish & Splash
They are 1yr old Nigerian Dwarfs, just like our other kids. Its been about a week now and they are all getting along pretty well together, the new boys fit in well and add a little color to our herd. We've been wanting to get a couple more for some time and I found these guys about 20 minutes from our house on CL.

We had planned to ride again this past weekend, but it seems Oakley has injured himself, darnit! He either injured his hamstrings or his groin muscles.. not sure which, I just know the base of his butt cheeks is swollen and warm to touch so he gets massaged and hosed almost daily. I'm not spending the money for a vet, just gonna watch him and work it out on our own.. He most likely did it when turned out on pasture as he ran his little heart out!! My bad.. I dont think the recovery time will be too long and I think he will be okay with some light easy arena riding for now and work back up to trails.

We started the much dreaded garage project this past weekend as well. It was getting ridiculous, the path to walk through was getting smaller and smaller by the minute! Derek (with my assistance) built a really great shelf and then a fishing pole holder and a couple other small shelves. It is nowhere near done yet, still have organizing to do, but now we have some place to start. I cant wait to get it done! :)

This is the pole holder that Derek came up with
On Derek's birthday we got to go to the new Cabela's that was not open yet to the public! My brother knows an employee there so we got in on the family/friends night. I had no idea it was going to be that busy!! OMG it was ridiculous. We spent almost 3 hours in the store and not because there was so much to look at.. almost an hour of that was just waiting in line to check out, 45 minutes spent just trying to make your way through the crowd to get from one area to another and maybe 45 minutes actually looking at products! We bought a few things, Derek had some gift certificates to spend.. I think I'll wait til the novelty of it all dies down before I attempt to go back to that store!

And I have to throw in this picture of Cooper.. quite the character. When I go potty, I use the spare bathroom typcially and he always follows me in. And when he comes in, he always jumps in the bathtub and sometimes will lick the faucet or bite at it, trying to get water to come out, sometimes he will just sit and stare at the faucet. Well this day, he did a new thing and he just layed down in there.. He was content to just hang out in the tub while I was doing my business and I had to get a picture. :)

Another Embarassing Moment..

This past Saturday night was our Hunt Retrieval Club's banquet Potluck in Monroe... Derek and I are still pretty new so I still feel a bit uncomfortable at these events.. Everyone is very nice and social, but I tend to get a bit introverted.. Is that the right word? I dont insert myself into conversations well, so I stand back a bit..

Anyways, while we are eating dinner, about 12 people are sitting in a big circle and then about 8 of us are sitting around a table. I was sitting in a wood chair, not a great chair, but it felt sturdy. I tend to wiggle myself just a little when I first sit in chairs like this, get a good feel for leg wobbly-ness! This chair felt just fine. About 20 minutes or so into dinner, most of us have finished eating, we are just bs'ing.

Well I hear a loud CRACK! Oh SHIT.... yep, heard and felt the chair break and in slow motion form, I went from sitting to flat on my back with a crumpled chair under me! I was MORTIFIED!!! OMG, I cant believe the damn chair just snapped under me. Well I guess I can believe it, its not like I'm a spring chicken... I got up and the chair seat had just split right in half. I was sooooo embarassed, I'm sure I was bright red and of course everyone had quit talking and was staring at me... I will now be remembered not as Piper, not as Dereks' wife or as Coopers mom, but as the girl that broke the f*ing chair!!

Oh and I was just fine physically... Derek says "I heard the crack, why didnt you just get up real quick?" Yeah, cuz its real easy to get up when the chair has snapped and is dropped out from under you, yep real easy to jump straight up in the moment as your momentum is already falling.. LOL So much for staying in the background that night..

Willy is Home

Well not quite home, but he's in WA and I can go see him whenever I get the itchin to do so.

My friend Rachel took the trip with me down to OR, we left on Thursday around 10:30 and 8.5 hours later we were finally in Redmond. We had to take the long way down (avoiding all the mountain passes) as a storm had come in and it wasnt safe to attempt them. Rachel called me Thursday morning and told me she had a problem.. my heart sank as I thought she was bailing on me, but she started to say something like "well my dog Mojo..." I cut her off and told her to load up the damn dog and get her ass over to my house! LOL I already had known she is very attached to her spoiled pooch so we snuck him into our hotel room. We also snuck him into the restaurant for dinner because he was attempting to bark when we tried leaving him in the room alone.

Rachel was a GREAT choice to take to OR with me, she likes to talk and she kept me wide awake the entire drive down and back. It was an issue I was VERY afraid of, I get really drowsy on long car rides and struggle to stay awake, even when I am driving. But we just had such a great time all the way down there, laughed a lot.

I had told Rachel she was going to have to tolerate my snoring, she said it would be no problem. Well at 3:30am when I woke up, I look over and she's still wide awake!! Damn.... My snoring was out-of-control and the wind was gusting outside which was causing a loud whistle through the window and she couldnt find any cartoons to put her to sleep... I felt SO bad, she did finally fall asleep but only got maybe 2.5 hours. The drive home took 10 hours, we did go over Santium Pass, it was the only one that was bare/wet, the others had started to accumulate snow/ice. It was a REALLY crappy road.. the entire highway practically was rutted and it was either pouring or snowing so it was a long slow drive up and over. And then of course we hit Friday afternoon traffic up around Fort Lewis... I did get a bit drowsy by this time, although I got a lot more sleep than Rachel, 18 hours of driving was taking its toll.

We made it safe and sound to Sultan 8pm Friday evening. Willy was ready to get out. He loaded in the trailer just fine, but hauled Wild-Eyed the whole drive and he was nervous so I didnt interact with him much on the drive home. I knew he was in for a rude-awakening.. life was about to hit him over the head and his cushy spoiled life was officially over the minute he stepped in my trailer! :)

I just didnt realize just how spoiled he was and was a little suprised yesterday when I went out to see him, just how naughty he's been! His previous owners never ever ever pushed his buttons apparently. Unless they are very good liars, I didnt sense they feared Willy at all, but did feel they weren't the caliber of trainers they indicated they were. I could tell when I rode him that he hadnt been asked to do much except walk and trot circles in the arena. But he seemed willing to try.

Shannon has seen the worst of him come out in the past 5 days.. A little discouraging to hear these negative issues coming up about him, but she still feels he's going to be a solid trail horse for me... she just needs to get him over this hump. The horse has been babied and never asked to do anything real, so now that he is being asked to do these things, he doesnt understand what the hell happened to his old life and why he's got to do what Shannon wants and not what he wants. So he's been a big ass bully this week, but he's learning the harsh reality that his BS is not gonna fly. He will come around, I know he will... Even after he gets punished, his ears perk right back up and he's happy again.. so he's not pinning his ears and hating life, he's just testy.

I know with all certainty in me, that Shannon is the best trainer around!! :) I love that girl... she knows exactly what I want out of Willy and is heading that direction with his training. She doesnt just collect her paycheck and then take him out once a day and put 45 minutes on him, then put him back up in the barn.. She works him 2, 3, 4 times a day, just depending on how it all plays out. And I dont mean riding work, sometimes he is ponied, sometimes he just gets some ground work, other times he is left tied in his stall for hours, teaching him patience and acceptance.... Noone else would be this committed to his training or do a better job!

So although I still own a beautiful horse, apparently I have a very naughty spoiled rotten baby and he's requiring more work than I thought, but I am confident he will get where he needs to. Even though he's been a handful this week, Shannon still finds great things to say about his personality and willingness and how he rides. She says for a big bulky horse, he is very smooth and rides real nice. I am hopeful he will come around in 30 days, if not Shannon will be keeping him with her another 30.. if he knows what's good for him, he'll start behaving sooner than later! :) Willy is an investment.. not a financial one because we all know you dont make much money on these animals, but an investment into my future happiness and recreational life.. so I'll spend the money on the potential to get what I want in the end..

It was a LOOOOOONG Day!!

Friday was a crazy day! It actually started Thursday evening, I was a bit amped up in my brain and I knew the next day would be hectic, so I stayed up way too late getting things done around the house and getting the car loaded for our road trip to OR. Finally at midnight, I fell asleep.

3:40am comes awefully early on that little of sleep!! Got up, showered, dressed and out the door to drop Derek off at work. Then drove to Freddy's which suprisingly is not open at 5am! Damn. Thank Goodness Haggen was open that early, shopped for the supplies I needed to make cinnamon rolls and then drove home. Fed all the critters and got to work on making the rolls. Our annual horse club cinnamon roll ride was the next day, so it is tradition for me to make all the rolls... LONG ago, it was gramma that made the rolls, so I have restarted and now carry on the tradition. However, I am NOWHERE NEAR the baker that she was, so for the next hour, I struggled with my dough, particularly the damn yeast.. It is very sensitive and I killed it on all 3 of my attempts...

I was hopeful the 3rd try was a go, and I had a few other things I needed to pick up from the store, so at 7:30 I left my dough to rise and ran to Freddys', then picked up mom on the way back home for her to help me out with finishing up my rolls. Darn if that damn dough did not rise an inch!! THANK GOODNESS I bought more yeast when at Freddys.....

So the 4th round I just handed it over to mom to get it right because if that 4th batch didnt work out, I was going to have to go to the store 1 more time, as I was OUT of the other supplies used to make the dough!! :) Whew, round 4 was a success.

My dough only made enough for 6 batches of rolls.. enough for the ride, but not enough for leftovers. The first 3 went in the oven to bake and came out lookin pretty good.. maybe a little soft in the center, but last year I over-cooked the rolls and didnt want to make that mistake again.. When they are eaten cold (no microwave available at the trailhead), it is better to be under cooked than over! We put the last 3 rolls into the oven and 20 minutes later I opened the door to check on them..

They were flat and uncooked! SHIT!! Somehow the oven got turned OFF after the 1st round of rolls was cooked, so with the dropping heat, the rolls un-rose and flattened out.. we turned the oven back on and proceeded to cook the rolls. They baked just fine, but they were the flatest rolls I'd ever seen! LOL

So my baking days could use some work and experience! I ate one of the rolls fresh and hot, it was delicious, then boxed them all up, typed up a note for the club members, apologizing for the flat rolls, but that they better eat 'em and like 'em.... :) I couldnt be there for the event, I was headed out on a road trip.

As soon as the rolls were done, I squared things away in the house, grabbed my overnight bag and headed out the door. Dropped the rolls off at a friends house who was going to take them the next day to the horse club ride, drove to town, fueled up, picked up Derek from work and we hit the road! We left Everett at 2pm and headed to Enumclaw to pick up his saddle that had come in a few days earlier. His saddle looked great and it was exactly what he wanted, so we put it in the car and continued our journey to OR. Weather was great, clear sky's, dry pass and we had a long but safe successful drive to Redmond OR, checking into our hotel at 11:20pm... I struggled to stay awake in the car on the drive down, but as soon as I hit the pillow, I struggled to fall asleep... excitement, anticipation, exhaustion was all kicking in but 20 minutes later I was out!

Willy

We woke up earlier than necessary Saturday morning.. we were not due to be at the farm to see Willy until 10am. But we got up and out, ate a delicious continental breakfast, drove past the farm and then spent the next hour driving around the Redmond OR area.. went to Sisters OR, an area many friends have been to for an annual big Rodeo down there.. Finally returned to the farm at 10 to see the horse I've been anxious to see for the past 2.5 weeks!

The seller, Christy, is very nice. She does not ride, she breeds and raises halter horses. Her son Matt is the one that trained Willy so he was there as well. We chatted for a bit and then went over to Willy. OMG, he was frickin HUGE! I mean, I figured from his pictures he looked pretty big, but I think he had gained weight since those pics and he was just huge. He didnt look fat, but definately the WIDEST non-draft horse I have probably ever seen! His back will hold water! :)

He looked great though.. he has a slightly dainty head compared to his body, its a bit girly! :) I think the purple halter wasnt helping him look more manly. I watched him free lunge in the arena, wanted to see how he moved without a rider, check for any visible lameness etc. He looked sound and sane, he definately has been worked a lot with lunging commands!

I asked if I could saddle him at my car instead of in the barn, they seemed leary of doing that since he had always been saddled in the barn, but my point was to do things outside of his comfort zone to see how he reacted to new situations. I had told Christy and Matt this before I drove down that I would be doing odd tests to him since he is an unproven trail horse.

He handled the saddling just fine, but apparently he had never had a back cinch or breast collar on before, but again he didnt seem too fazed by them. I asked Matt to ride him first. He seemed to be a bit rusty, Matt only walked and trotted him around which was fine as I already knew he didnt have much loping work yet. Willy is not even 6 yet, so he is still green. Derek gave me a bit of a boost and I got on. I was only the 2nd person to ever ride Willy and it was only his 3rd ride in the past 6 months.. the first ride was 3 days prior and then Matt riding him that day before me! :) He was doing okay. I was a bit nervous I have to admit, because Willy didnt feel 100% relaxed under me. At the walk, he started to test me in one corner of the arena, he kept wanting to stop there and after a few rounds, he did stop and refused to move. With a little bit of nudging he reared a tiny bit but he did not win the battle and after that he was a lot easier to ride because he finally started to relax and just listen.

It was funny because although Matt knew I was an experienced person, he kept wanting to chime in when I was riding Willy and trying to tell me how to handle this or that.. if Willy sped up to a faster walk or tried to trot on me, Matt would walk towards me and start to tell me how to ride. His mom Christy kept telling him to stop doing that, that I was just fine! :) I think it was a little weird for him seeing someone else on his baby... He did apologize for doing it, he wasnt trying to be a know-it-all, he just couldnt help himself.. I finally worked up to trotting Willy around the arena, it was VERY smooth and comfy. Willy has been trained to do that slow western pleasure, drag your feet type jog and it was nice. He did break out of that into a faster job which was comfy too.

Willy is very responsive to WHOA! Matt says it very sharp and stern.. to much so in my opinion as he is WHOA and I am whooooaaa. Willy didnt know whoooaaa! lol I tried backing him and he refused, Matt then told me he had never backed the horse. WHAT! I didnt say that, but was thinking it... the horse has 30-40 rides and has never been backed.. odd. But by the 3rd attempt, Willy was backing perfectly and with little pressure. I also turned him into the wall a bit, it was making Willy a bit testy but he was fine. Matt had never done that either.

I got off, content that I had not loped the horse. I was feeling very iffy about him though, as I knew he had a long ways to go with training and work. Basically he has been babied.. Matt didnt use pressure on him and I think he worked more on getting that slow jog than on anything else. Willy wasnt sure why I was putting more leg into him and didnt like it.. swished his tail mostly. He never offered to buck and I wasnt satisfied with the bridle setup he was using either. Once I got off, I put my saddle bags on him, he was very uneasy about that. We turned him loose to lope around with them on, and at the trot, he seemed ok, but once he loped, he got to buckin. But it was a very controlled buck, he was not bolting nor out of control because as soon as Matt said WHOA, that horse quit bucking and stopped... impressive! :)

He didnt love the plastic bag I put on him either, but he wasnt panicky, just uneasy and uncomfortable. Christy by this time was feeling like Willy had been put through enough as everything I did with him was new to him. I didnt feel like it was too much, but I could sense that Christy was starting to worry about her baby!

We unsaddled him at the car and I led him out around the driveway.. the other horses started to get excited and amped up so Willy do too. He actually reared, never struck, just reared in excitement and danced around me a little.. but after a minute he settled back down to earth and was calm again. He is not real respectful on the lead, he walks infront of me and not with me, so he needs some work on that. When he would stop ahead of me, I put my fingers on his chest, asking him to back up to where I was at and he didnt like that. He actually at one point reached over and nipped by arm.. didnt get me badly but he definately made contact. I punished him! Felt kinda bad for doing so because I think that was the first time he had ever been "spanked".. lol the next time I put my fingers on his chest, it was funny because he looked at me and wanted to nip me and I just looked at him and said noooo and he actually thought about it and decided he better not! I was laughing because I could see his thought process, which told me he will get over that. He just has never had his buttons pushed by anyone and he doesnt understand why this stranger is doing these things to him.

I put him away and told Christy I needed time to think on him, that Derek and I would go for a drive and either call or come back. 30 minutes later I called her and told her I needed a day or two and that if she sold him in the meantime, I would have to accept that, but I wanted to talk to a friend about him and decide from there. She said she would give me the 2 days to think it over. Derek and I talked a lot about him for the next hour.. I REALLY liked him as did Derek, BUT he is greener than I anticipated and he needs some work. He is unproven as a trail horse which I knew that going down and he was a little testier than I thought he would be.. but I had to keep thinking that he was ridden just 3 times in 6 months! And I was very impressed with how in-control he was at all times. He never panicked and took it all in the best he could for what I put him through.

Derek and I were an hour outside Redmond, stopping to have some lunch when I called Christy back again.. she was asking $2800 for him, but I wasnt quite willing to spend that because I knew he was going to need further training, so I offered $2500 and she accepted! :) He is worth that much to me for all that he is. I'm paying a lot for build, conformation, looks, potential and his level-headedness... a smaller portion of that pay is for the little training in him. I spoke with Shannon and she is going to put 30 days training on him for me.. she will PUSH his BUTTONS and really test him and get the time and experience on him that he needs for me. I could do it all no problem, I am not afraid of Willy but I dont have an arena or dry area to ride and she can accomplish more and much quicker than I can. If at the end of 30 days, he needs a little more time, then I will pay it because I really like this horse! He is a perfect age, best built horse I've ever owned and he's just a nice horse.

I am heading back down to OR with a friend on Thursday, will bring him home on Friday.. well not home, he's going straight to Shannon! :) I cant wait.... I have wanted a horse like him almost my entire life and I am just so hopeful that he turns out to be all I expect and more!!!!