Junior Volunteer Training

Betty and I volunteer at Galloping Grace Youth Ranch. Over the last two years we have had a Junior Volunteer program where kids, 12 to 18, volunteer and help out the adults. This year we decided that we would devote Mondays to working with the Junior Volunteers to help them become better horse people.

We started last Monday with the basics - catching a horse, haltering, leading, grooming and saddling.

Yesterday, we reviewed the basics. Then we took them into the round pen and worked on some basic ground work to warm up the horses. They worked on some desensitizing, flexing the neck slightly, backing the horses up and moving the hindquarters.

Then we taught them how to mount correctly, maintaining control of the horse during the mounting process. We taught them how to do an emergency dismount. We taught them how to do a one-rein stop. And finally we taught them how to maintain control while safely dismounting. They all got to practice these with the horses - wearing helmets of course.

For most of them this was a first time experience and they did pretty well. The horses did pretty well considering how windy it was - see the trees bending in the picture above.

Next week, we'll start teaching them how to ride properly at the walk and then the trot. It's a fun experience.

Monday Video - Super Moon

Saturday evening was the night of the Super Moon. It was a full moon and it was at it's closest approach to Earth which makes it 14% larger than a normal full moon.

Here's a time lapse video of the sun set reflection on the mountain and the rising of the Super Moon.

 

Sunday Reflection - Perseverance

Romans 5:3,4 - Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

This scripture has always intrigued me. In the past, I have focused on the suffering as Betty and I have both had sessions of suffering in our lives. I have also focused on the concept of hope as it's our hope in Christ that has sustained us through all the times of our lives - good and bad, joyful and suffering.

But, between suffering and hope Paul inserts perseverance. This is the element that many of us, I suspect, like to overlook - at least I do. Perseverance requires work, focus, not giving up.

Suffering comes through a lot of different avenues - accidents, disease, illness, the acts of others. Perseverance is totally ours to embrace or reject.

Hope comes not out of suffering. Suffering by itself has little or no value unless it is accompanied by perseverance - not perservering in our strength, but perservering in Christ.

When suffering comes, and it will, it's our choice to persevere in Christ through that suffering and ultimately find hope as a result of our perseverance. Or, we can wallow in our suffering, seeking someone or something to blame for the our condition.

Perseverance requires relinquishing our desire to blame someone or something and to look forward to what God will bring out of our suffering - and that knowledge that something good will come, even if we can't see any possibility of that good at the moment, - that knowledge is the seed of our hope.

 

Betty's Birthday Trip

Yesterday was Betty's birthday. I asked her where she wanted to eat her birthday lunch and, after some thought, she said the San Marcos Cafe.

If you're not familiar with the San Marcos Cafe, it's located on the Northern part of the Turquoise Trail which is Highway 14 that goes up the East side of the Sandia Mountains - the other side of the mountain from us.

So, we headed out this morning down I-25 to I-40 to go East through the Tijeras Canyon to get to the Southern end of the Turquoise Trail. Before getting to San Marcos Cafe, we stopped in Madrid, an old coal mining town that was abandoned years ago. It's come back as an arts and crafts town with a lot of little, quirky stores that are fun to visit.

The final scenes in the movie "Wild Hogs" were filmed in Madrid. This is the diner from the movie (I think it was called 'Peggy's Place') and it's now a souvenir shop. Note the neat old Ford in the left of the picture - typical of Madrid.

Here are a couple of other pictures from Madrid that highlight it's quirky charm.

After doing a little shopping in Madrid we headed North to the San Marcos Cafe. The cafe is actually part of the San Marcos Feed Store.

If you look close at the picture above you can see a blue male peacock's head sticking up behind the large railroad ties at the bottom center.

Besides the food (Betty had a carne adovada burrito and I had a Frito pie), one of the attractions of San Marcos Cafe is it's wildlife - chickens, rooster, turkeys, and peacocks roam freely around the place. While eating we watched three male turkeys go into a full display. There were several female and male peacocks - including one white male peacock. I wish I had gotten a picture of him.

On the way home we stopped at the Range Cafe in Bernalillo to get a dessert to take home for our evening snack.

All in all, a great day for Betty's birthday and a good choice for our lunch.

 

Happy Birthday Betty

In 1961 my family moved from Birmingham, Alabama to Nashville, Tennessee. That Fall I started my junior year at John Overton High School.

The first girl I dated there was Virginia Gibson and, after a short while, she dumped me.

A short time after that character building episode in my life, I was trying to stay awake in Mr. Gregory's chemistry class. I turned back and looked to my right and saw this pretty girl looking at me.

That was the first time I noticed Betty, but she says that she had noticed me before that.

In any case, we had our first real date on November 11, 1961. We went to see "Devil At Four O'Clock" starring Spencer Tracy. After the movie we went to Shoney's, a drive-in restaurant, and had a hamburger.

That was the start of our relationship. We went together for six years before we married in 1967. So, we have been together now for 51 years.

She has been the light of my life for all this time and I love her even more today, on her birthday, than any time before.

Odds N' Ends

Just a few thoughts.

Our second vet and good friend, Dr. Diana Deblanc, came for her semi-annual visit. Besides being a vet, Diana is also a trained equine chiropractor. Matt Paxton is our go-to vet for vaccinations, etc.

We get her to come out every six months to give Sugar and Morgunn a check and any needed adjustments.

Both horses needed adjustments in their necks which is not unusual this time of the year since they are ridden that much during the winter months. Morgunn also needed an adjustment at the point where his back meets his rump. Other than that she said that both horses were in good shape.

This morning, Wednesday, we had planned to trailer the horses down to Topform Arena, the public arena here in Corrales. We wanted a larger, flat arena with good footing to do some more work on their gaits.

However, we got a call this morning from Max Wade, founder of Galloping Grace Youth Ranch. He said that two horse handlers had canceled this morning and we agreed to go out to fill in. It was a nice morning with a decent breeze and we had a good time with the horses and kids. We also had several Junior Volunteers who are great help to us older folks.

They do all the physical stuff - catching and haltering the horses, grooming and saddling. We're teaching them to do some simple ground work with the horses each day which should help keep them in tune throughout the season.

Tonight we go to our church, Destiny Center, for a service and some baptisms.

 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Betty and I had a good day on Monday. In the morning, we helped Max Wade train a new group of junior volunteers for Galloping Grace Youth Ranch. We started with the basics of how to catch and halter a horse, tying them to a hitch with a slip knot, grooming and, finally, saddling. They were a great bunch of kids and it was a lot of fun.

In the evening we went to the Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game. They were playing the Oklahoma City Red Hawks.

The Isotope stadium is a great place to watch a baseball game. There's not a bad seat in the house. For families with little kids, they have tickets where you can bring a blanket and set on a hill behind right field. The kids can run around as much as they want and they even have things for them to do out there - a merry-go-round, basketball court, inflatable fun jumps and slides, etc.

It was a beautiful night with the temperature in the upper 70s and a clear sky. We watched a good game and the Isotopes won 5 - 0.

Best of all it was 50 cent hotdog night. Nothing better than a couple of hot dogs with mustard at a baseball game.

 

All in all, a good day.