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.

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.

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 ;-)

WOW...that was fun!

Today, I had the pleasure of introducing my curly herd to a couple of professional photographers from the Seattle area. I had met Gretchen Thompson of Gretchen Thompson Photography ( see her work at www.flickr.com/gretchent) earlier this year at the Colfax Threshing Bee on Labor Day. Gretchen also brought along a friend, Bobbie Clime of www.bobbiecphotography.com Bobby is a Portrait specialist, and we asked her to do a few horse/human portraits for me.

The girls arrived at 7:30am as planned, and we began shooting and playing with the horse shortly after their arrival. The sun was just peaking the hill and the light on those early photos ought to be quite lovely. After a round of playing with the babies...our 3 weanlings and their counterpart, Princess who is a yearling...we put them up and brought out the big gun! HeartBreaker danced his way all over the pasture, showing off his love for life and open spaces. After he got the "wiggles" out, we worked on portrait shots of HB and Me......it got warm fast, and by the time we got done I was pretty sweaty.....!

We came on back inside and had some discussion, looked at a few of my photographs and Bobbie helped me with a sizing issue I have been having regarding printing 8 X 10's.....Bobbie is a Photoshop expert and her help was GREATLY appreciated ;-)

What a wonderful time we had......working on composing shots and thinking of new creative ways to pose and portray.....working with these two gals was truly an honor for me....

THANK YOU GRETCHEN AND BOBBIE !!!

A Renewal of preserving food?

Cute little jars of Blackberry syrup sit atop cute really little jars of Blackberry jelly


Recently I read an article about the renewed interest in home preservation of food ( canning ) HA ! That is something I never need renewal for, it happens here on a yearly basis and has happened here, every single year of my adult life. This year I was making a list of things I had preserved..it goes something like this....Asparagus, Cherries, Apricots, Salmon, Tuna, Tomatoes, Salsa, Soup Veggies, Peaches, Blackberry jelly, Blackberry Pancake Syrup, next in line is Pears, homemade and preserved Chili, Apples, pumpkin, squash....and we also dried a few items too, Cherries, Apricots, Tomatoes, Pears, Apples, Jerky and Pepperoni.....so, my cupboards are stuffed full, and I suddenly realize why I have been a bit strapped for time ;-) I love the knowledge I learned from "the chore of canning" when I was a kid...makes me a perfectly capable adult food preservation specialist!

It's my birthday .....more from Hattie!

Dear Diary, I am 3 months old today...My Mom says I am doing well. I enjoy my days with my brother Dark Knight, and my sister, Heartfires Spark...Mom calls her Spark. I rule the roost. DK is second in line, and poor Spark has to be in the bottom spot. Mom gives us grain everyday. I also am still getting milk, as Mom thought the recommended time frame of weaning off milk, was a bit too early for me...she did grumble something about the price though. DK likes milk too, but I make sure he only gets a slurpe after I get my belly full. Ahhhh! the life of a horse at Creekside....plenty of food ( we have our own really big bale of hay ) lots of clean water, some great attention from the humans, and my milk and grain snacks....Mom also has Darryl come over and spoil me too...she likes to read to me..is that spoiled or what ???? Life IS good!

pickin berries

Last evening I picked 3 gallons of blackberries at a spot across the road. This morning, after doing a few conformation shots of DK ( Handsome Dark Knight ) the mares came strolling by on their way to the barn....that is, all except Legacy. I walked up the draw to investigate what she was up too, and found her happily picking herself some blackberries. Normally the horses don't pick berries here...they have a good assortment of wild plums and pears from some really old pear trees, they don't waste their time on picking a hard to pick berry. When you consider that horses have a blind spot in front, and they are usually just heading for a general direction, and the fact that blackberries are a prickly thing to pick, they just leave them alone....but this year, Legacy has decided that those oh so sweet berries are worth the effort. So, I guess that spot along the road in the pasture won't be producing many berries for me now...at least not with Legacy on guard.