Grandkid Sitting - Day One

Well, we survived day one of our grandkid sitting assignment. We took Juliet and Leah to a local, indoor playground called 'Cool Beans.' It's a fun place for the kids, but it would drive me nuts to work there.

Here are some pictures from last night and our day at Cool Beans.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Headin' North

Betty and I are on I-25 heading for Fort Collins, Colorado. We're going to visit our kids and grandkids.

In fact, we're baby sitting on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Juliet and Leah's day care person is taking some days off, we're going to fill in so Wade and Marie don't have to take time away from work as they both are very busy right now.

Of course, that doesn't bother us too much. It will be tiring, but spending time with the girls will be fun.

So, be good and stay out of the cookie jar.

Posted with Blogsy

Monday Video - Olympic Trick Shots

This video may not be of the Olympics, but it has some Olympic competitors in it and is very supportive of the USA team.

Enjoy.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Sunday Reflection - Gifting in a Marriage

Each person has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. (1 Corinthians 7:7)

In the above scripture, Paul is writing about spiritual gifts that help build up the church. Over the years, Betty and I have learned how important gifting is to our marriage.

I'm not talking about physical gifts that come wrapped with a pretty bow - although I love getting those kind of gifts, especially if it involves computers or horses. Nor, am I talking about the spiritual gifts that Paul writes about.

I'm talking about the daily gifts that we give each other that come out of our time, personality, skills and energy.

We gift each other with encouragement, building each other up, love-talk, physical touch (we each love to have our backs and feet rubbed), etc. However, there are some gifts that are unique to each of us.

Betty uniquely gifts me through her skills as a cook. Man, is she a good cook. Over 45 years I can remember only one meal she ever cooked that didn't work out - a corn soufflé when we were newly married. Other than that her meals have been great ever since.

My gift to Betty is the morning. I'm a morning person. When I wake up, usually around 5:30 to 6:00 AM, I'm totally awake. Betty is a night person so her morning wake ups are usually much more prolonged. She can do the morning thing when she has to, but that's not her God-given nature.

So, I feed the horses in the morning, prepare the evening feed and clean up the manure. I fix the coffee and help her slowly wake up in a way that has worked over the years. I'm also the breakfast cook - which is about all I'm good for when it comes to food. I can fix cereal, toast, eggs (scrambled or fried), bacon, cinnamon toast and chile cheese toast. That's the extent of my morning culinary skills.

Gifting in this way is not something we do in a rote way. When Betty cooks a great meal, I know it's done with love and care for me. It truly is a gift. I believe that when I give Betty the morning, she knows that I do it because I love her beyond words.

It works for us.

Posted with Blogsy

Be Prepared

As a kid I was a Cub Scout and then a Boy Scout for a few years. I never got past Second Class - more interested in baseball and comic books. But, to this day, I still remember the Boy Scout motto - Be Prepared!

This came to my mind this morning as Betty and I worked with Sugar and Morgunn in the back using the things we learned at our riding lessons in Tennessee.

One of the things that became clear is that before we ask the horse to do something we need to prepare ourselves and them for the move. A good example of this is asking Morgunn for a turn.

Betty was having a little trouble stopping his turn as getting him to go forward out of the turn.

As we analyzed what was happening, Betty realized that she was holding her cue for the turn too long. I was doing the same with Sugar.

We both started releasing the turn cue as we progressed through the turn and prepared ourselves and the horses for straightening and going forward while still in the turn.

We realized we need to stay ahead of our horses in our thinking so that we're prepared for each cue before it's time to execute that cue.

All in all, a good morning working with the horses.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Need a Positive Pick Up Today?

If you're in need of a positive pick up today, listen to how the Piano Guys work a piano like you've never seen nor heard before.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

So What Were We Doing in Cookeville, Tennessee?

As you probably know, Betty and I just came home from a three-week driving trip that took us to Mount Vernon, Ohio to visit our youngest son and his family, then to Bowling Green, Kentucky to visit my sister and her family, then to Franklin, Tennessee to visit with Betty's stepmother and sister, and finally to Cookeville, Tennessee.

Back in early June, I took a five-day clinic with Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer. There were 7 of us in the clinic and I was the only one who didn't bring a personal horse.

Larry Whitesell is a recognized gaited horse trainer and Jennifer Bauer is his partner/protegee. Larry is a few years younger than me and Jennifer is a very young 30. It is clear that Larry is preparing Jennifer to take over most of their clinic business and all of their horse training business.

The two of them do five-day clinics together, both in Cookeville and in other cities. Separately, they each do three-day clinics. As I write this, Larry is in Oregon doing clinics and then moving on to Ohio and Canada before returning home.

Of the two, Jennifer is the one who will work with problem gaited horses and bring them back into relaxation, balance and flexion. She is in such demand that the next opening she has for another horse is next June, 2013. She will not take a horse unless the owner agrees to take a three-day course with her to be sure they can continue the work she has done. They learned from past experience that they would often bring a horse up to a high level, but the owner wasn't prepared to keep them there.

Jennifer is also the one who will do private lessons. I learned so much from the earlier clinic that I wanted Betty to share in that learning, so we arranged five private lessons with Jennifer who is both an excellent rider and excellent teacher.

Their approach is not basic foundational work, often lumped under the term 'natural horsemanship.' They believe in 'natural horsemanship,' but view it as the foundational work that a new horse or rehab horse needs. However, once the horse has that foundation, they offer training for the rider to bring him and the horse to a higher level.

Their training is classical rider training based on the Spanish School of Horsemanship. Their personal mentors are Mark Russell and Dominique Barbier, both of California. Larry and Jennifer go for a week of personal training from these men each summer to continue to hone their personal skills.

Even though we often associate classical training with Dressage, their philosophy is the concepts and skills of classical training are applicable to all forms of riding.

In a simplified form, they help the rider find balance, relaxation and lightness within themselves to help the horse find balance, relaxation and lightness. In other words, if we want our horse to be more balanced, more relaxed and lighter, then we need to improve balance, relaxation and lightness within ourselves.

We do this within ourselves and for our horse by being a balanced rider and by helping our horse find his rhythm through our balance and timing.

Over the next few days, I'll post more about the concepts that we learned that are helping us and ultimately will help Morgunn and Sugar.

If you're interested in learning more about Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer, here are the links to their websites:

Larry's site - http://whitesellgaitedhorsemanship.com/


Jennifer's site - http://www.gaitedhorsemanship.com/

Posted with Blogsy