Sunday, October 18, 2009

Training trail horses




Over the last month I have been busy training. We have all our foals weaned and enjoying life in a small herd, guided by our yearling filly "Princess"....so, it was time to change focus and start making some progress on our trail horses. Summer show season is over and we can now concentrate all my efforts on our Creekside Trail Horse Deluxe training. I will be offering our mare "Izzy" a 2005 curly mare as my first "5 star Creekside Trail Horse Deluxe" in the spring of 2010. She is currently offered for sale, and is getting lots of daily training. We will be taking Izzy and Ally on our 2009 Hells Canyon hunting/camping trip. We will spend 10 days on the rim of Hells Canyon and our mares Izzy and Ally will be used to pack elk that we harvest on this trip. Izzy has been through a regimented training schedule learning to hobble, stand tied quietly for hours on end, pack items and fresh game ( meat ) ...in our pics here, Mike is using Izzy to pack almost full water cans + fresh meat...the cans make lots and lots of noise, sloshing back and forth, he also threw in a few rocks to add to the noise factor. Izzy has handled all this training in stride. Many horses are better with one rider/handler, but Izzy handled reliably the same no matter who is at the end of the lead rope, or who is in the saddle. I have been taking a few lessons on Ally, and since my instructor does not like to teach from the ground, he has been riding Izzy. This is a real benefit to me, as I can see how Izzy does under saddle and also get more professional time on her under saddle....did I mention she is for sale? I will be keeping Izzy in training all winter...there are a couple local schooling shows, we will plan on attending those too.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Replacing the old with the new

I was sorting through some old "Country Living" magazine, when I came across some inspiration about replacing some old with some new...now you might think, lovely pictures inspired me..but no..it was the editorial, written about cleaning the editors office....she made the point that replacing the old, will make room for new and interesting things....I got to thinking about this...and it really is profound....it could be as simple as tossing out some old magazines, and replacing them with new issues...but what if...we apply it further....replacing old habits with new healthier ones, replacing old taxing relationships with new healthier ones....replacing old ideas with new more inspiring ones.....the author certainly opened up some opportunities to see ourselves in a different light ;-) Each day is a new day, and we should enjoy every single moment as well as strive to be a better self.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Dad's Birthday October 9, 1919

On October 9, 1919 my Dad, R.A. Meiling was born in Vernal, UT.....on September 20, 1958 I arrived and was introduced to my Dad.....My Dad was a quiet man, a builder with standards totally beyond what most folks would consider, a teacher, an animal lover, esp dogs..and an avid reader. He passed away on May 5th 2007. I miss my Dad dearly, esp during the time of year that we always celebrated his birthday.

A couple weeks ago, my Mom held an estate sale of my Dad's tools and stuff. As I prepared for the sale, I came across a sheet of quotes that he had thought enough of to write down...In honor of my Dad, I will share some of those quotes here. I do not know of their origin so I can only say they are quotes from my Dad..that I know for sure.

"He who is silent is strong"
"A fool speaks often and without thought" hey...this was before the internet..how appropriate is this now?
"The less people think, the more they talk"
"He who knows nothing, is confident of everything"
"Better unfed than untaught"

I really appreciate Dad dropping these quotes in my lap so to speak....and how appropriate for these quotes now...some were copied from a book that listed quotes from people that lived in the 1600's.....ironic isn't it...these quotes still apply today....
thank you Dad ;-)