I have to say it is a b!tc# getting old and I seem to be on an accelerated trip to old land. We have been fairly busy just trying to keep up and I was having a fairly easy pace of a show at Lexington (except for the heat). Part of getting old for the females of the world is the wonderful (NOT!!!) hot flashes. Hot flashes would not be so bad if,   A) men had them not women, or   B) you would only have them when you need them…..like when you are freezing your @$$ off in the winter. BUT NOOOOOOO I get them in the heat at Lexington when I am trying to talk to someone I do not really know that well. Not only that but they happened EVERY TIME I talked to that same person. I am sure he thinks I have some awful malady called the mad woman sweating illness. OK, so part of my birthday present from Jessie was that she would put make-up on me every night so I would look a little more fancy and a little less like a homeless person (I said that not Jessie). I was actually looking forward to that, except I could NOT WEAR make-up as it would be sweated off in less than 10 minutes, so my choice was to look like a homeless sweaty woman, or a woman who was literally so HOT HER FACE WAS MELTING OFF, kind of like a bad sci-fy movie. I chose the hot homeless look. Now back to getting old.  Jessie and Sherrill were in the adult finals one evening and as I was jogging, not racing mind you, and I felt and heard my knee POP!!! Owwww,OOWWWW. OK, I thought, just get to the rail and the pain will go away. Well, it did not. Then I realized I would have to go into the ring for Jessie and I knew there was no way I could get in there and up to Jessie, at least in one night. I had to ask Stephanie S. a very good friend of ours to run in for Jessie. I hope that no one thought I was being a poor sport, but in reality I was just being old and breaking old parts left and right.

I did talk to Dr. M and she had me wrap my knee, get crutches and stay off of it until I could get home. Did that. But when I got home my knee felt somewhat better so I did not go and have an MRI as I thought I was getting better. Yeah right. In a week we took 27 horses to Children’s Benefit horse show and as the week went on not only did my knee hurt more but because I am getting older, my back went out. OMG could it get any worse?………… well, actually it could because it was sooooo hot that week and I was moving at a lame sloth’s pace and I started getting one HOT FLASH  right after another. Remember me saying hot flashes would not be so bad if men had them? Well Mark, who was running the show and wanted everything to be perfect for everyone (not possible with horse people) appeared to be also having hot flashes. You know what?  It broke my heart to see him so hot and sweating right through is shirt, his pants and the sweat was then just dripping off of him. GOD, I take back the part about it being OK for men to get the Hot Flashes, I just felt sick for Mark. Now I am a lame, old, broken, slow moving, sweaty, really sweaty sloth that is heart sick because the one person who loves her more than any, is having what looks to me to be sympathy hot flashes.

We got through the show with not only good placings, but also very happy people, that is a sign that we are doing something right. Jason was a work horse at this show, and never complained.

Now on to my other life that I do in my spare time, Saddlebred Rescue.  The good news is we having been placing our rescues (Treasures) and that means we can go out and save more. I have to say that even if I am still broken, in the old body, my  Horses, and the Treasures keep my spirit young and sound.

I wish I could have the heart to make a lifestyle change!

I wish I could save my Hot Flashes for when I need them! That could lower our heating bill in the winter.

I WANT all the people in my barn to be positive and not focus on the negative.

I am THANKFUL for the wonderful life I have!!!

How is that for my write-back? (“come-back”, only in writing)

Now that we are home it would get real hot.  OH BOY NOT!!! We have the fans going and I am sure our electric bill will make Mark pass out but what else can we do? Since we were gone for 3 weeks we had no time to clear the weeds, add to that the fact that we had just the right amount of rain and I was sure when we came home from our last show that we would not be able to see the house or the barns. This week we have had to send a man out with the weed eater and just have him go to town or at least up our driveway and around the whole 11 acres in the valley.

Mark was so happy that I blogged he just brought in a couple of Bit O Honeys as a reward for my typing. Mark goes to the school of Wife Whisperer, that is kind of like the Dog Whisperer only with wives.

I had a Birthday while we were at the last horse show and I want to thank Mark and the North Wind family for a VERY nice Birthday Party. Mark ordered a cake for all the people he THOUGHT would come to the party.  By the looks of the cake his guess was around 300 people. Well, Mark found out that I am NOT that popular as we had 3/4 of a cake left that needed to be eaten or stored in the refridge, and since we had no refridge we gave it to another party that was going on the same night. I KNOW what list I am on in the scheme of things but it seems Mark has a very high opinion of my status, so every once in awhile we have too much cake. I will say that when I got home from the show and did turn on my computer I was very pleasantly surprised at the almost 200 Happy Birthdays I got on Facebook.  It did make me feel warm and loved. Of course the warm part could have been a hot flash but I did really like the thoughts sent my way. I seem to be more popular on the Internet than in person.  Go figure.

My insurance company decided they would not pay for my Lunesta sleeping pills so I am trying to get to sleep at night with a small overdose of Advil PMs. I just love the insurance companies don’t you?

I wish I could sleep at night like a normal person, but then, I have never been normal.

I am thinking of all the people who have lost a loved ones recently, Chris and Shirley, my prayers go out to you.

I wish I could help those families that are going through some tough times right now, Gwen you and your family are in my thoughts EVERY DAY!

I am THANKFUL for the good things in my life…Family, friends, horses, dogs and health. Although I Wish I could WISH off a bunch off pounds.

So we are back home after 2 shows, it’s late and now what to eat?  That was kind of difficult. In our town the restaurants and delis close early, so that was not an option.  Really no food in the house, so we went for the PB&J.  That has been a long time and it brought back memories of college at UofW Madison where I lived on PB.  They call it brain food right?  Not so sure it worked that way.  I think it was more that almost all my roommates became lawyers and their study ethic rubbed off on me.  Maybe a combination of the two — not sure.

While Nealia will have one day home before leaving for Syracuse, I have to get the final class list and Prize List finished for Children’s Benefit Horse Show to be held on July 22-24, 2010 at the Dream Park outside Philly.  We are late, but the pieces have been changing and with some new barns planning on attending, we are trying to accommodate everyone to make it a great show.  I didn’t feel so bad as we got home and found on our email that the Syracuse show is now changing their class schedule and that show begins this Wednesday.  Why is this happening?  Well its all because of the horse show grid lock that I mentioned earlier.  Things will get sorted out eventually and expect to get Nealia back after this coming week.

Everyone is here from NWS at this show.  So who is minding the store back at home??   Could it be June our Amish Buttwiggler?  OMG not June.  Maybe she is paying off the $700 she owes Mark for getting the porky-pine quills pulled out of her and Bibi a couple weeks ago.  Some of you may remember that June brought Mark a live possum one night when we were away at a show and he was staying home with the dogs.  Who knows what we will find in the house Sunday night.  We do have someone checking in on her and Wiley while we are away.

Who watches Oprah and has signed on to her “Don’t Drive and Text or Cellphone?  I was never a big texting person but I have done the cell phone from time to time.  After thinking about Oprah’s campaign I have caught myself on the phone and missing an exit, etc so it has made me really restrict my cell phone time in the car.  I think no matter what you do with the cell phone in the car you are distracted.  Jason was out looking at cars for Anne Butler who is in the market and he was leaving a lot and called me on the cell and inadvertently ran the truck up against a fire hydrant doing quite a bit of damage to the truck.  Could that have been averted if he wasn’t on the cell?  I think there is really something about this.  Now at intersections I look at other drivers to see who is talking and you know its pretty scary how many on on their phones.

Saddlebred Rescue has been placing quite a few of its rescues waiting for homes.  That is good news and increases our capacity to go and get more.  The adoption demand has always gone in cycles.  We are using Facebook more to get out the news on our rescues and that has helped.   Mark has been behind in getting out news through the online newsletter between working with SBR’s new accountants and lawyers as well as managing a couple of horse shows.  He needs to work on his time management I think.

Its after 11pm and we have to get up early so nighty night….

The show went very well and I was pleased with all my horses (except one in the Championship class) and all of my riders. One of my tried and true campaigners absolutely FREAKED when he saw the Budweiser Clydesdale hitch and it bothered him in the show ring.  I would say his brain just checked out!!!  We did end up taking the gate (not a common thing for my horses) but not before he bumped into two of my own horses in the same class.  I am not sure how to prepare this horse for this type of occurrence if it ever happens again.  I want to go on record by saying the Budweiser hitch stood very quietly, and WELL away from the other horses, but just the sight off them was too much for one horse’s brain!  Of course Devon was hot but I must say the new footing was the BEST I have seen in an outdoor arena.

I had one bad experience at the show and of course it was with STUPID people.  I really do wish they would wear their signs so I would not waste my time talking common sense to them.  Jessie called me over and told me there were some people outside the barn reaching in our horse’s stalls through the windows and would not stop.  Jessie had asked them three times and they just ignored her and kept on doing what they wanted to do. I walked around to the back of the barn and I saw a man (stupid man) and four very small children reaching in the window to play with our horse’s mouths. I told them to stop and he told me it was OK because these horses were nice and they had been doing it off and on all day (unbeknownst to me). I asked them again to stop and told him VERY firmly that ANY horse could and would bite and the result could be a missing finger of a child. He just started yelling at me that I was being rude and IF I DID NOT WANT THEM TO PET MY HORSES I SHOULD HAVE A SIGN UP!!!!  After about 10 minutes of trying to tell this man why he should not need a sign up to stop petting the horses, I told him HE NEEDED TO WEAR A STUPID SIGN!!! I know, I was hot and I was not in a good mood.  But when he continued to harass us I finally had to go get the police and let them explain why he was wrong and what would happen if he did not leave.  Here is the real kicker, IF he had just asked me I would have had Jessie give them a tour of our stable and let the kids pet the horses in a correct way.  NO he had to sneak around to the back of the barn in a very NON PUBLIC area to pet the horses. His parting words to one of my customers, as he was leaving (when he saw the police) was I was a nasty @$$.  I may be a nasty @$$, but he is a DUMB @$$ that needs to be wearing a STUPID SIGN!  The worst part is he is teaching a whole bunch of kids how to act stupid.

I will report that other than that, all went well, and I slept all day today. Tomorrow I need to do entries and get hotel rooms and get my hair colored pretty. I sure do not want to look as old as I am going to be in a few days!!

I wish I did not have a love affair with pizza! (sorry Mark)

I wish I had 3 more days in a week that we did not go to shows so we could weed and mow.

I am THANKFUL for the cooler weather!! ( we do live in God’s country)

As I said earlier I had a sore tooth/mouth and I was hoping it would go away……….well it did not.  I am a real chicken when it comes to going to the dentist and I do not know why as the dentist I go to is very kind and never hurts me, but I still freak out anyway.  It took me two tries before I could actually go in the room to let him look at my mouth.  Before I went, I backed out the day before and boy did I pay for it that night. My mouth hurt so bad I took multiple sleeping pills, some pain relievers and I still  thought I was going to die. The cold bothered my face and mouth so I made Mark turn off the air conditioner in the house and needless to say it was hot here. I took about 15 showers through the night and let the hot water run on one side of my face, as that was the only time my face did not hurt. I took so many pills that I was knocked out the next day until my appointment at 3:30 pm. It was a good thing as I do not think I could have lived through the day with the pain I had the night before. I called Pat and ask her to bring some Advil cold/sinus medicine to me and it was like a miracle most of the pain went away. The dentist thinks I have a sinus infection and that made my teeth hurt. I am on antibiotics so we will see if I get better.

Mark and Jason went to Texas to Mark’s oldest daughter’s wedding, Jessie went to Wisconsin to a horse show and I stayed home with the dogs.  Now  every time I move I trip over a bunch of dogs. Whenever I make a move the whole lot of them jump up with me so they will not be left alone. Pat came over for a little while this afternoon and said she thought two cats following her was bad enough but a pack of dogs topped the cats. I have to say the house is REAL quiet and I have not been alone for years and years.

Tomorrow will be a busy day in the barn as Sunday will be also. We will be going to Devon next week, Jersey Classic the week after and the third week we will be in Syracuse NY. It is a good thing I love going to horse shows. There is nothing better than chasing after the points for western, so my horses can go to Louisville. Every year they change the rules and make it harder for those of us who live on the two coasts, west and east.  Because there are almost no western horses here I have to haul 6 western horses to each show, otherwise I would have to go to three times as many shows than we do now. Most of our shows are over 3 hours away and many are at least 12 hours or more.

Mark and Jason just called and said they were on their way back to the hotel so I guess I will end here.

I wish my mouth did not hurt.

I wish I was not so fearful of going to the dentist.

I am thankful Pat brought me some medicine that I think saved my life.

Tonight when Nealia called to fill me in on the day’s activities, she told me that the steward mentioned to her that someone made a complaint of Jessie showing our customers’ horses.  He wouldn’t say who made the compliant and apparently he didn’t go to the office to check the papers. The steward mentioned that he told the people that he was sure Nealia knew what she was doing, but then why make the comment at all to us??  Now this is not the first time this has happened as it occurred once last year from a steward who was not even working the show I believe.  So what is everyone afraid of and why don’t people check the facts before accusations are made, innocently or not?   They must think we use Jessie as a secret weapon and we unleash her to do all others in.  In fact, you would think she would be asked by many to catch ride, but that does not happen very much at all.  She rides for a couple other trainers on occasion every once in a while.  Anyone can walk into our barn and see Jessie is not riding any of the customer horses.  She does ours and the rescues.  World Cup is important to her and she has to remain an amateur.

I am not complaining as we deal with these issues, ignore them and move forward.  It is interesting though for a sport and community of people that are supposed to be having fun with their horses how many unhappy people there are.

I wish everyone could enjoy their horses and find something positive about their ride coming out of the ring.

I wish more people would appreciate that there is much more to a relationship with your horse than just blue ribbons.  There are so many life lessons we all get out of this sport.

One thing that Saddlebred Rescue will be doing in the future is working on being accredited with the  newly-formed GFAS (Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries).  The ASPCA and other funding groups say that in the near future, that is going to be one of the main ways they will choose who gets most of the funding available. I was please to find out that what we are working on now will help us get accredited (we hope).  They are hoping that this will not only weed out bad programs but also help the good ones be better in the paper work department. I will ask Mark to write on this more when he has time. I was surprised at the number of rescues that had a saddlebred or two and they also seemed surprised at how smart and friendly these horses were. I say, WELL DUH!!!  That is what the Saddlebred lovers have been saying for years.

I always thought we had a bunch of horses at SBR but let me tell you there were about four big rescues that keep about 100-150 horses all the time. OMG!!  The odd part is, we place more rescues yearly than these places did. Everyone had ideas that were different and they seemed to work for them so the whole experience was a very positive one.  Oh, and before I forget, the Lobbyist that works for HSUS used to ride and show Saddlebreds at Patty Milligan Stables. Small world wouldn’t you say?  Christine (that is the Lobbyist’s name) was shocked that I knew Patty Milligan and that is because the Saddlebred show world is a small world.

I think my talk went very well and I definitely had different ideas than the other rescues, the one thing I did talk about was, do not be negative about the trainers and breed associations when you are talking about the rescue horses. The kinder you are, the more these groups will be wanting to help you. Again maybe Mark can fill you in on my part as I was talking and not listening to my speech.  Here is a fun fact about the meeting, I got to meet none other than  the Fugly Horse creator and blogger. I am glad that SBR is on her good list. I have to say that she says a lot of what I am thinking and would love to say, but Mark tells me I should not say.

We had two days of meetings and the only thing I did not like was the VEGAN LUNCH. If I had to eat what we raised and killed I would be a Vegan, but for now I choose to believe that the food we get comes from a grocery store not a farm. I am sure Mark and I would like to go back to the Homes for Horse Coalition next year.

I will write about our trip home later.

I wish I liked Vegan food.

I wish everything would go as well as it did today, EVERYDAY.

I am THANKFUL that Pat placed a bunch of  Treasures this week and we can go get new horses tomorrow.

Our hotel was a short ride away and we were ready to check in. I think Mark was a little worried as I had done some Internet magic and got us a real bargain rate for our hotel. When we pulled up we were in an old railroad station. I must say I out did myself as the hotel was BEAUTIFUL!!! We checked in and went to our room and one of the first things I see by the bed is a sound sleep machine. I stay in A LOT of hotels and the only hotel that I have ever seen with a sound sleep machine was a hotel right next to a train tracks. OMG!!!! Maybe staying in an old train station was not a good idea! We called the front desk and found out YES we were on the corner of the building that was near the tracks!!  This is it I though no sleep for the whole time we are in Nashville.  Mark saw me have a small heart attack (really a mini melt down) called the front desk AGAIN as ask them to move us…which they did with no problem.  OK the life was good once more and the “Queen” was pleased!  Since we were in downtown Nashville it was easy to get dinner delivered to our room even though it was 11:30 at night, I know we should not be eating that late but what the ”hey”, we had two full days before we had to get back on an airplane.

I was worried about the meeting so the first night in a very quiet and wonderful hotel was marred with the fact that I had trouble falling asleep.  When I have trouble falling asleep I have trouble falling awake. But fiddle-deedee, that is a story for another day or later today since it is 12:02 am.

I wish our house would clean itself.

I wish I would wake up thin and not have to do a lifestyle change.

I am THANKFUL “Bare” has clean x-rays.!! I am glad Judy is happy!