ALL Good things eventually end..

It was a super busy weekend with lots to get done.

Still, I managed a ride with both horses yesterday.

We couldn't have asked for better weather.

Every time I ride Tex, I love him more and more. He has every quality I want in my next horse.

He is brave on trails...

He is brave on the road...

His only downfall is that he's not a fan of doing more than a trot. He certainly WILL canter, but it takes a lot of pushing to get him there.

With that said, I don't really care about that. I don't show. I trail ride. I don't care if he looks fancy. I want him to get me down a beautiful trail without trying to kill me.

I, myself, have physical issues that make riding a strenuous discipline nearly impossible. Having a ground covering walk and a nice (smooth) trot are important to me. While a smooth canter would be nice, it's not really necessary for what I like to do.

Tex can do everything I need and do it happily.

My lease with him will end next June.  At that time, Vickie (his owner & my friend) will either sell him or keep him as her sole riding horse. It will all depend on how things go with HER current lease horse. A horse she wants to purchase.

I would love nothing more than to become Tex's new owner if those stars were to align.  Sadly, even if I could find the $$ to buy him, I'm pretty sure I would unable to be able to afford full  board on both him and Griffin.

It's so bittersweet.  I'm having lovely rides on a horse I truly mesh with, but I know they will come to an end roughly 7 months from now.

For now all I can do is enjoy the time we have and cherish all those nice rides.

**sigh**

On Retirement and "Meandering".....

Whew!!...
Had a busy day today!!

Life moved so fast, I didn't get any pictures....

Last night, however, I had a lovely little meandering ride around the farm with Griffin.

One advantage, as I see it,  in having such a long relationship with Griffin...and given the fact that he is a retired horse...is that the time we spend together is 100% focused on enjoying each other's company and bonding.

We don't work on anything....

Aside from a few stretches here and there, "meandering" is a perfect word to describe our rides.

There is literally no pressure to do anything specific.  While I would be lying if I said there weren't times that I miss having a horse to teach things to, there's also something very refreshing on making it a point to simply enjoy each other's company and not worry about all the usual, technical aspects of training.

When given a choice about where we ride around the farm, my old man adopts the brain of an animated colt about half his age. It's an empowering feeling for him, no doubt. For me, it's pure enjoyment seeing my Grif this happy.

When you add to that some VERY NICE weather, it's a perfect recipe for enjoying horse time to the fullest!

The below pics are from our time together last night ♡♡.

My Kingdom for a few good books!...

I love to read.

It's very rare that I don't have a book that I am in the process of reading.

That means that the library is one of my favorite places to visit. I especially love the cozy quaintness of my little hometown library (I took a photo and posted it below. Unfortunately,  it's only half a picture because some teenage kids were sitting on the front steps. I didn't want to look like a weird stalker lady taking pictures of someone's teenagers).

I've never read a Kindle,  Macbook, or anything of the like....
I am old fashioned because I prefer physical pages that I can turn. I can also read in places where there is no electric (for a charger), such as when I am communing with the outdoors on a camp outing..

The book I am currently reading is Dead Wrong by J.A. Jance. It's a detective suspense novel. I love mysteries, suspense, Autobiographies, books on the Paranormal, and any novel that tells a good story.

I do NOT like Romances or love stories. I have no doubt there are some good love stories out there, it's just that most of them put me to sleep after the first few pages.

I would love to add a story telling blog to my blog list. I want to work on and expand my writing skills. Since I am fascinated by all things ghostly, this is a subject matter I would enjoy writing about.

Ideally, I would update that type of  blog weekly with a continuing storyline for anyone else out there who likes ghost stories & likes to read.  Unfortunately, at this point I need to focus on keeping this blog going well with regular updates before I take on a new, fun writing project.

Perhaps at this rate, I could part with my Television (no kidding- I have thought of doing that before)...

My Smitten Kitten

I had a nice post started this morning about my younger cat, Lukus, and it appears that the Internet thought it was a good idea to eat it.

**Sigh**
So here's a much shorter version...

Yesterday was a frustrating day and coming home to my boys waiting for me after work really seemed to soothe my aching brain.

Lukus and I had a nice little play session with the mouse toy (while Simon was off somewhere napping). My silly little dark stripey cat was really able to take the edge off my chaotic day. Cats are so good at that!! ♡♡

When I adopted Luk, I immediately dubbed him my "Smitten Kitten." This came about because I was immediately smitten with his photo & story from the shelter. I knew I had to meet him when I went!

....and he immediately stole my heart.

My good friend Sandy and I have this joke that Lukus belongs in a Popeye cartoon. When Sandy first saw his photo on the shelter's webpage, she immediately blurted out "Look at that face!! He looks like grumpy Popeye. All he needs is a pipe and a can of spinach!"  Picturing my Lukus eating a can of Spinach still makes me laugh to this day.

The truth is Lukus is anything but grumpy. He is a fun - loving, silly cat whose shy (with strangers) personality makes him all that more lovable.

I still call him my Smitten Kitten because no matter how old he gets, I can still see that 6 month old kitten I first brought home  almost 3 years ago.

I loved his photo from the shelter website so much, I asked if I could have it......It's the first picture below (my little Popeye)!
The second photo is a kitten picture from his first week at home with me. The last 2 pictures I took last night after we were done playing.. ♡♡♡

Discouraged..

I'm having a hard time with motivation today.
Yesterday was a pretty busy work day...and well today looks like it will be more of the same today.
I did manage to get to the barn last night. It was Tex's night, so we had a nice ride in the woods. The photo below is him. He has such a "puppy dog" sort of face that I love. The photos don't really do him justice...
It seems Griffin is back on to the "I'm not going to finish my grain (with my medicine in it) kick again. I'm praying that it's something simple like the hot weather and that his appetite will return now that things are getting cooler temperature wise.
After he hurt himself last fall, we went through a serious bought of this MAJOR picky Eater syndrome for quite awhile. I think I tried half a dozen different feeds to see if I could find something he would happily eat. I also spent a lot of $$.
When he was diagnosed with Cushings, the medication for that did not help matters either. Prascend (drug name: Pergolide) as it is called, is known to mess with a horse's appetite when they first start it.
I thought we were on the upswing when Grif started eating good again earlier this summer. I was delighted that he was back to eating the Purina Senior which he normally does well on. I had just asked Tammy to increase his feed in an effort to get a bit more weight on him for winter.
....and now he's leaving food again.
I'm discouraged.  I don't feel like playing Russian Roulette with feed again. If his appetite doesn't improve again, I'm not sure what my next move will be....

Cat Lady?

While having 2 cats hardly makes me a cat lady, I do have all of the attributes that one generally applies to (crazy) cat ladies.

The funny thing is that if someone had said to me when I was in my 20's that I was going to fall head - over - heels in love with cats, I would have vehemently disagreed with them.

In my childhood & teen years, I was raised a dog person. My dad never liked cats (still doesn't) and my mom wouldn't have really cared if we ever really had pets.  She doesn't dislike animals, but she's not a huge animal person either.

While it's true that I love ALL animals, cats were never on my high priority list as a pet I'd like to have.

.....and now I couldn't see myself living without them.

A sweet cat named Cisco walked into my heart many years ago. I'm going to wait and do a seperate post about him in the near future as he deserves his own special place on my blog (sadly, he is now gone).

My current feline children both came from the Columbia County Humane Society. They are an amazing shelter that truly cares about each and every one of their homeless animals. You can follow this link to their website.

I adopted Lukus when he was around 6 mo's old (brown tabby). Simon (orange tabby) was approximately 2 years old when I got him. I adopted them both around the holidays a month apart. Lukus is now 3 and Simon is 5 (how time flies)!

...and now just a few words about each (you will, no doubt,  hear more about them throughout my blog as they are both very special to me ♡).

Lukus was rescued from a hoarding situation when he came to the shelter (of which I am not privy to the details). He is an anxious fellow who got passed over numerous times, living at the shelter for about 3 months. His story was one of two that pulled at my heartstrings (the other one already had an adoption pending). I knew I wanted him from the moment I first saw him. He literally reached for me the first time I spoke to him in his kennel. While he is shy with strangers, he is quite talkative with me and the birds outside my windows. He loves to chase any type of bug he comes across and is 100% addicted to soft treats ("Nummies").

Simon was at the shelter for only mere weeks before I adopted him. He was a stray Tom when the shelter acquired him. He literally has one of the cutest faces I've ever seen on a cat.....and the roundest eyes....
We introduced Lukus to 3 possible "friends" when we went back to the shelter. Si was the only one of the three that made any attempt to interact with Luk.
...and so it was Simon who came home with us ♡.
Si is my extrovert cat. He blows me away all the time with how outgoing he is. He has actually helped Luk build confidence in things that scare him and the two are best buds.
Simon is also my harness cat. He walks on a harness like a dog (no kidding). He gravitates towards any human when we are outside. He would make an amazing therapy cat if only he would sit still long enough for someone to hold him.

Stay tuned for plenty more cat pics & stories in the future....♡♡

Hot....yet again

I don't really have a whole lot to say today other than the fact that it's Labor Day....and.....well...I'm going to go provide some Labor. I'm working for the extra cash so I can (hopefully) afford a new  blanket for Griffin before winter.

Given the Cushing ' s disease and old age, I want to give him that extra help so he won't be burning valuable calories to stay warm.

Yesterday was another hot, humid, craptastic, summer day. It was worse than Saturday.

...and me....

I did virtually nothing (and the steps on my fitbit reflect that).

I went to get some groceries and then pretty much laid around with my book for three quarters of the day.

I did finally drag myself to the barn around 2:45pm. My friend, Kris was supposed to have a Dressage lesson at 3 pm and I wanted to watch (with her permission of course).

When I got to the barn, I found out that her lesson had been moved up an hour at the last minute, so I was unable to observe. :-(

At any rate, I brought Griffin into the barn for some grooming and bonding time. He enjoyed standing in front of the giant, barn fan while I brushed.

I didn't feel much like riding, but Griffin is doing so well right now with his stretches and walking rides, I decided a short ride would be good.

Since I never ride him more than 30 minutes anymore (only light exercise for my beloved retiree), a short ride for us was about 15 minutes.  We did a few laps around the indoor (to be away from the flies and baking sun), some stretches and called it a day.  As you can see in the photo, Grif looks about as enthused about the heat as I am. Griffin has always handled hot weather VERY well, but I think we are BOTH ready for some cooler temperatures!!