Cavalia!

My Loving Husband saw an ad in the N.Y. Times this past summer for one of my favorite shows in the world to see...CAVALIA!!! Unfortunately our schedule was so jammed packed it did NOT look like we would be able squeeze in a trip to N.Y. However...where there is a will, there is a way and my Loving Husband got our airline tickets, our hotel room, the CAVALIA tickets and tickets for 2 other Broadway shows just so I could see CAVALIA again...yes it was our 3rd time to see it!!!

I wish there was a way for you to see the show because I can not describe it well enough to do it justice. The  most amazing thing about the show is the connection between the horses and the trainers. They are truly partners in their performance. Since I could not take pictures during the performance I will share some of the life size posters inside the reception hall.

All I can say is...if CAVALIA ever comes with in a 3 hours drive of your hometown...GO!!!
Your Desert Rose!

A 3 RING CIRCUS!!!

Today...after stopping at 2 feed stores over an hour from my house...in the PNW rain...I backtracked to the stables to drop off "Lunch bags...(although given at dinner)! As I arrive, the owner is bringing in the horses...I saw Jesse out in pasture as I drove in and I asked to bring him in and then Shayna Lady when it was her turn. Jesse was being a jerk...walking through his lead, head up high, neck looking like a stallions...a REAL jerk! I made him back up several times and slapped him with his lead rope. He settled down just enough to not get scolded and I took him to his stall where his food was waiting. I sat down on the aisle floor making "lunch bags" for the week and Jesse was calling and calling. It was a chilling sound...echoing through the barn and since I was just beneath him...extremely loud in my ears!!! I... of course thought he just wanted to be with me...and almost took him out to go be in the arena with me to play. Then the stables owner told me it was Shayna Lady's turn to come in. I pulled on the hood to my sweat shirt cause the drizzle was now RAIN to go out to get her. My Shayna Lady...was also being a BRAT...walking ahead of me...turning sideways, she got in trouble too...but not as bad as Jesse! As we near the barn I can hear Jesse...still calling! Shayna Lady saw her stall door...but did not argue when I asked her to walk over to Jesse's stall. There they stood...touching noses, nickering softly through Jesse's stall bars. After a bit...I turned Shayna Lady around and put her in her stall...and did not hear one more peep from Jesse!!!
Now...Jesse has watched over Shayna Lady since she was just a little filly ponying her in the desert as she grew up. I can just see him now...thinking he is her "knight in shinning armor"...her protector...calling for her if she is outta his sight, tied on the other side of the trailer...calling for her if she leaves his side on the trail....calling for her if she is unsaddled and put away first. This will NOT be acceptable behavior...!
And...in a few weeks...we are going to my Sissy's for some rides with our equicuz's Dusty and THE KING...who as many of you know...has a HUGE crush on Shayna Lady. So how will this scenario play out??? Will Jesse be happy to see his good friend and (now equicuz )THE KING??? Will THE KING ignore Jesse and only have eyes for Shayna Lady??? Will Jesse try to keep THE KING away from Shayna Lady??? Will THE KING get upset because JESSE is in front of him??? In the past IF Jesse even tried to get in front of THE KING...he would walk sideways to make sure he blocked Jesse from getting in front of him. Will Shayna Lady go into heat when she sees THE KING??? ( she kicked at him once cause he had his nose...you know where... and she got tired of it) Will Jesse and THE KING be vying for Shayna Lady's affections???

Jesse...THE PROTECTOR!

Shayna Lady...The Princess! The King...LOVER BOY!

And the poor Dustbuster...looking on at this possible 3 ring circus!
Your Desert Rose!

What's Wrong with this Picture???

This photo, courtsy of Mama H was taken on one of our ride's this past season. Can you see the bigfuckingbooboo here??? (25 cents in the cuss jar!)
Your Desert Rose!

Shedding!!!

The time of the year that we all hate...our horses look like orphans that no one loves. The hair gets all over your clothes, face, and god forbid...in your mouth!!! That is the worst,,,because you can't get it out. You try to get that one piece of hair outta your mouth and you put 5 pieces bask in beacuse it's all over your hands!!!

A few weeks ago I decided to spend some time working on this issue. We keep lightweight nylon sheet on Lady and Jesse during the winter to help keep them clean more than anything, I used to body clip Jesse but stopped doing that 2 years ago. Now both horses do get winter hair but not as much as they would if they did not have the sheets on. However that hair was so ready to come off...bunches of it had rubbed off from the blanket. I tied both horses to the rail and took off their blankets to find this!

Jesse...oh so wooley!

Lady...she is not as wooley!Watch how easy it is to shed them both out in less than an hour using my handy dandy shedding brick!

Jesse's hair lying in the sand.

Lady actually was harder to do because her coat was not as ready to come out and it is much finer strands than Jesse's.

Jesse'was dusty but now he is starting to look smooth and shinny!

Lady is not as dusty and really shinning alot!

I tell you...that little handy dandy sheddeing brick is a GEM!

Your Desert Rose!

1200 POUNDS OF LOVE... COMING RIGHT AT YA!!!

I think that most of you lunge your horses...I wish I could because I know that it is so useful in gaining respect from your equine. I remember my niece PONY GIRL doing her PONY COUSIN equine dance with "her boy" on a lunge line playing the Parelli games with him...it was very entertaining and so cute to see them play together.

However...most of you know that I am plagued by SEAHORSE SICKNESS and am unable to lunge my horses. So that means free play in the arena if I need to get them moving. Some people don't like to be in the arena with their horse free...it can be a bit un-nerving and with some horses... dangerous. You really have to know your horse to be out there with them when they are bucking, farting , and kicking, they are NOT focused on you. I have had Jesse since he was a 2 1/2 year old baby and had just come out of his 3 months training. Jesse was an "old soul" from day one. He had never had a person to be his, and had been...neglected both physically and emotionally. So it did not take him long to realize that he wanted ME to be his person and did everything he could to make sure that happened. I always turned him out before a ride when he was a baby...I wanted those bucks, farts and kicks outta the way before we hit the trail. And back then...I was NOT the Desert Rose you read about here. I also was a physical and emotional wreck. It is too long of a story to go into here...but someday I will post about it.

So I have played in the arena with Jesse for years now and a few other horses that I know and trust. One being Cowgirljlynn's Missouri Fox Trotter...The King! Then there is Little Lady...who is one that I am careful with at free play. If I am in her way as she is playing I know I had better be the one to move because she may just knock me over. Where as with Jesse...I know he will go around me...even at the last possible moment sometimes. He loves to run by me fast with his head turned sideways as if to say "nah nah na na nah you can't catch me"! He will run circles around me making the circles smaller and smaller and smaller until after about 10 circles around me...when he stops running, I can reach out and pet him!The King does the same thing and as they go by me I call them a smarty pants which I KNOW they understand!

Since I have had bronchitis now for over 2 weeks and the Bossman was gone for a week the horses have not had much out of stall time. Yesterday was quite windy here in the desert (I was not up to riding anyway)..and the Bossman got blown outta his 1st ride and did not get to Jesse and Lady...I decided to turn them both out.

Jesse was first...The wind stirs them up, so out of 60 pictures here are some of the best!

Ya... mom was right...I did NEED to run!

Just before this picture...Jesse did a perfect flying lead change!Big butt Q-horse sliding stop!

Look at how muscled up Jesse is...even after 2 months off!

I call Jesse and he knows it's time to get out now and comes to me!Then Lady's turn...she HATES wind and got very upset if I left the arena and she was all by herself. I am more cautious with her but I think by the time I come back to the desert next season that she and I will have established the rules and we will play more "safely" together! The best of Lady's pictures follow! She put her head down into the wind! She was also not looking at me cause I was making her move!

If you look at her hooves angle...she can almost see that she is gaited horse.
Wish I could of gotten the whole shot here...she had a GIANT buck/fart here!
I'm all done now MOM!

Your Desert Rose!

She's a Union Horse!

At my desert stables they have 80 head of horses on the rental string. Each one has his/her distinct personality and the wranglers have to know each and everyone of them. They have a saying there whenever a horse does something to stop working...they say "she a union horse" meaning that they belong to the "working horse union" that provides them with similar ...shall we say "entitlements" that any workers union would. When "Sally" felt she was over due for her 15 minute break...she did what she always does... she lays down on the job!When her 15 minute break is over...the guys have to encourage her to get back up on the job. This time it took 2 of them a few minutes, then she reluctantly agreed to get back on the line! Here's Spanky looking proud of the work he did just getting Sally up. She's sure got those cowboys trained!!!

Your Desert Rose!

Contest Winner!!!

The winner of the contest for "My Pony Ponies" question...what's wrong with this picture??? Pony Girl was the only one who gave the closest answer!

July 18, 2009 9:06 PM
Pony Girl said...
Honestly, I can't figure it out and I hid in the other room when you told everyone else...maybe the horses aren't supposed to be on opposite sides? Not sure how that works though, not enough room on one side for both? But I wouldn't want to be in the middle of two horses I was ponying! Jesse's a good boy, though!

I told my Sissy's and Nieces... who all gave up on getting the right answer, but Pony Girl still wanted to play the game so she left the room. She did not know exactly why the horses should be on the same side...but cause she was the closest...she won this!!!

Inside her gift bag was, A King Ranch tooled leather pen, A Funky Fresh car freshener, A Cowgirl Gone Wild card holder and a little snort of "Pendleton...Let her Buck" Booze!!!

Now...the correct answer is,

When Ponying more than one horse...the horse's should be on the same side so that the rider has one hand to neck rein with, keeping the "lead horse" in the lead and not crowded out by the others. Be sure to NOT let the lead rope under your horse's tail or you will have a Rodeo on your hands.

Recently at the "mini"cousin trail rides last week, we had one EQICUZ (this is what the Pony Cousin's horses are called) that was not water crossing savey. At the 1st crossing, The Desert Rose walked through the water up to her boots leading the EQICUZ. At the 2nd crossing Saddle Mt. Rider wanted to ride her Pony Skylar across the water... and against the Desert Rose's better judgement, she said, ok. However when Skylar refused to go across...Little Lady had to step up to the plate!!! Then...she was causing a stir...duh, we are in water, A DRINK PLEASE!!!

After Little Lady's drink of water...she proceeded to Pony her EQICUZ Skylar and Saddle MT. Rider safely to the other side!

The 1st crossing...Little Lady and the King with The Desert Rose and Cowgirljlynn!!!

Dusty Devoe and Cat Balou wait for Skylar to cross. If you look close you can see one of Skylar's hooves beneath the trees!This is a wide stream...but with patience Skylar relied on Little Lady and got across!

As the Pony Cousins and Eqicuz's gather for our 2nd annul Stampede...we wish you all,

Happy Trails!

Your Desert Rose!

My Pony Pony's!

Jesse has been ponying other horses since he was 3 years old! And now in the desert he almost always has one of his friends by his side. I guess that because everyone knows Jesse can do it...they just assumed that I could. Only I hadn't ever done it. Then of course we have a trail emergency...one rider picked up by ambulance and one horse to many! 2 people try to pony the extra horse but their horse will have none of it...so ya, I had to do it. 2 miles with a dancing little paint mare!!! The next year...you guessed it an ambulance takes a rider away and I have to pony another little dancing mare for about a mile.

So...the day picture was taken...no ambulance...just a rider left early and asked me to pony her horse back to the staging area. Less than 1/2 mile. Piece of carrot cake. I have even ponied 2 stable horses for about 1/4 mile to return them from a guest ride. On this day I ponied the Palomino but held the Arab while his owner got the trailer door opened. By the way...what is wrong with the picture???

Jesse and The Desert Rose with Tigger and Mystro!

All correct responses to the question will have their name put in my cowgirl hat for a drawing. The winner gets the purse of her choice from my collection! LOL NOFUCKINGWAY!!! (25 cents in the cuss jar)! Actually it will be something Cowgirl...something fun...and something just for YOU!!!

Your Desert Rose!

Clear,Cool Water!

Ah yes...the ol' watering hole! Such a beautiful sight on a hot summers day!

Or is it??? From this picture...can you guess which one is going to balk at crossing this swift, deep water ahead?

Maybe one of them is trying to hide behind the other!!!

Maybe she will protect me!

So...if you picked the white...he sure fooled you! He was actually trying to nudge Barbie into the water. Here is a short sample of the "battle". I missed of course... the really good shots...but you can see that she had to be...convinced to go in!

Everyone looks happy now!!!

Ah Auntie Rose...since I pulled their leg...I think I'll try to pull yours too!

Happy Trails,

The Desert Rose!