Our new Great Dan puppy, Hannah.
And here is a picture of my show donkey, Bailey:
Mostly, I just wanted to see how hard it was to post pictures. Turns out, it isn't hard at all.
Yay Me.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Adding pictures....
Yeah, so it's been a while. But I have pictures....
Our new Great Dan puppy, Hannah.
I have more recent pictures, but this is the picture from the breeder. She is reason #627 that I haven't posted in a while.
And here is a picture of my show donkey, Bailey:
She's dusty in this picture, but that's what she looks like right after she's been clipped for show.
Mostly, I just wanted to see how hard it was to post pictures. Turns out, it isn't hard at all.
Yay Me.
Our new Great Dan puppy, Hannah.
And here is a picture of my show donkey, Bailey:
Mostly, I just wanted to see how hard it was to post pictures. Turns out, it isn't hard at all.
Yay Me.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Long Time, No Write....
Yeah, so I've been busy. Work, showing my donkey, camping, and just generally living my life. As a result, I haven't really posted anything in a while, but then, I'm not sure it matters since I've only got 6 page views and most of those are probably me. Oh well. I'm still enjoying writing on this thing now and again.
So, I now owe you an accounting of my first big donkey show with my donk, Bailey. First things first though - a little background. Bailey was my very first breeding project. We aquired her mother, Fiona, as just a pet - a little donk to play with and have around because donks are probably the best equine pet ever. But it turns out that Fiona is a well built little donk and we wanted a second donkey, so we decided to cook one of our own. We did some research, looked around, found a REALLY NICE jack with a successful show record and some really nice babies on the ground, and then we put down some money for a breeding. 12 months later, RedMuleRanch Irish Coffee aka "Bailey" was born. (Donks take 12 months to hatch a baby.) Bailey is a Miniature Mediterranean Donkey. She's also evil incarnate. :-)
Bailey fears nothing. She's made a trip to the Equine Expo every year since she was a yearling. Every year, she's happy that all those people come just to see her. As far as she's concerned, the world revolves around her and I am a part of that world. I was the first person she ever met. We made it up to the barn when she was about 20 minutes old and I went into the stall first. I sat down and she got right into my lap and laid down. Bailey has been my donkey ever since. When she gets nervous about something, she'll hide behind me and look out from around my legs. She'll do anything I ask her to do and she'll definitely do anthing for a treat. Whenever I walk into the barn, she's right there waiting for me and I MUST say hello to her first or I'm in Big Trouble. She's never bitten my butt, but she's bitten other people's butts for not paying appropriate homage, so I always do hug on her first.
She's also bred to be a performance donkey, so she's athletic, intelligent, and a little bit high-strung. (Yes, donkeys can be high strung.) So, bottom line is that Bailey is a straight up Diva. But she's a Diva who will do anything for 5 kernels of grain. She's aquired a few tricks. If you present her with a box or platform of any sort and tell her "foot" she'll stand on it. She also knows "Stand" (aka Stay), Back up, Walk, Trot, she comes to her name, plus we're working on some other stuff.
She's my little girl and I love the stuffins out of her.
So that's a little intro to Bailey. Next time, I'll tell you about her first real donkey show.
So, I now owe you an accounting of my first big donkey show with my donk, Bailey. First things first though - a little background. Bailey was my very first breeding project. We aquired her mother, Fiona, as just a pet - a little donk to play with and have around because donks are probably the best equine pet ever. But it turns out that Fiona is a well built little donk and we wanted a second donkey, so we decided to cook one of our own. We did some research, looked around, found a REALLY NICE jack with a successful show record and some really nice babies on the ground, and then we put down some money for a breeding. 12 months later, RedMuleRanch Irish Coffee aka "Bailey" was born. (Donks take 12 months to hatch a baby.) Bailey is a Miniature Mediterranean Donkey. She's also evil incarnate. :-)
Bailey fears nothing. She's made a trip to the Equine Expo every year since she was a yearling. Every year, she's happy that all those people come just to see her. As far as she's concerned, the world revolves around her and I am a part of that world. I was the first person she ever met. We made it up to the barn when she was about 20 minutes old and I went into the stall first. I sat down and she got right into my lap and laid down. Bailey has been my donkey ever since. When she gets nervous about something, she'll hide behind me and look out from around my legs. She'll do anything I ask her to do and she'll definitely do anthing for a treat. Whenever I walk into the barn, she's right there waiting for me and I MUST say hello to her first or I'm in Big Trouble. She's never bitten my butt, but she's bitten other people's butts for not paying appropriate homage, so I always do hug on her first.
She's also bred to be a performance donkey, so she's athletic, intelligent, and a little bit high-strung. (Yes, donkeys can be high strung.) So, bottom line is that Bailey is a straight up Diva. But she's a Diva who will do anything for 5 kernels of grain. She's aquired a few tricks. If you present her with a box or platform of any sort and tell her "foot" she'll stand on it. She also knows "Stand" (aka Stay), Back up, Walk, Trot, she comes to her name, plus we're working on some other stuff.
She's my little girl and I love the stuffins out of her.
So that's a little intro to Bailey. Next time, I'll tell you about her first real donkey show.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
OHSET State Meet Results and stuff....
So, we just got home from the OHSET state meet. I'm super proud of my girls - they took 7th place out of 20 teams. Way cool. They did what I told 'em - they rode AS A TEAM. I looked at the pictures from the event and, in almost all the pics, they are all looking at each other. Way to go!
Of course, as a result of the EVH-1 herpes outbreak, I now have a horse stranded in my barn, but that's okay. He's a good boy and he's learning how to behave himself in polite company. He wasn't horrible, but he had some respect problems, which are getting quickly resolved.
Life trundles on... Something good happens, something bad happens.
I've finished with the adult drill team for the season, mostly, which is nice because, now that OHSET is over too, I'm going to have some time for myself. I'm finally getting to projects I've been getting around to for 5 years. Holy crap!
So, now that my life is getting boring, I probably won't have anything to say, but I will try to think of something. Plus, there are pictures to post.
Of course, as a result of the EVH-1 herpes outbreak, I now have a horse stranded in my barn, but that's okay. He's a good boy and he's learning how to behave himself in polite company. He wasn't horrible, but he had some respect problems, which are getting quickly resolved.
Life trundles on... Something good happens, something bad happens.
I've finished with the adult drill team for the season, mostly, which is nice because, now that OHSET is over too, I'm going to have some time for myself. I'm finally getting to projects I've been getting around to for 5 years. Holy crap!
So, now that my life is getting boring, I probably won't have anything to say, but I will try to think of something. Plus, there are pictures to post.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Getting better all the time....
Well, I still owe you a post on Drill. Maybe tomorrow.
It's been a while since my last post. It's been a busy 3 weeks. My contract gig turned into a permanent full time job. Its pretty gratifying to receive that kind recognition so fast. It could be because, even though I'm a pretty senior geek, I'm willing to do scut work or whatever needs done. Regardless of the reason, it looks like its gonna be a good, stable job, which is really cool, given the state of the economy.
"But what about the commute?" You ask? Well, that has a couple of solutions: 1) I figured out when I need to leave the house to catch the Max at the right time. That helps. Plus, as a permanent employee, I can park in our building for free. That cuts my commute down to about an hour. That's doable. For 6 weeks of vacation a year and nice bennies, I can do a 1 hour commute. OH, and then there's the best part - they let me telecommute 2 days a week. That makes such an incredible difference! It really makes the whole thing doable.
So, that's been my life for the last month or so - go to work, come home, go to drill practice, coach OHSET practice, get up and do it all again. But the paychecks are coming in now and, with a full time job and a part time job, I am finally able to fix some things we've been putting off. Yay. We now have electricity back to the front of the house. Amazing.
And that's my life in a nutshell.
It's been a while since my last post. It's been a busy 3 weeks. My contract gig turned into a permanent full time job. Its pretty gratifying to receive that kind recognition so fast. It could be because, even though I'm a pretty senior geek, I'm willing to do scut work or whatever needs done. Regardless of the reason, it looks like its gonna be a good, stable job, which is really cool, given the state of the economy.
"But what about the commute?" You ask? Well, that has a couple of solutions: 1) I figured out when I need to leave the house to catch the Max at the right time. That helps. Plus, as a permanent employee, I can park in our building for free. That cuts my commute down to about an hour. That's doable. For 6 weeks of vacation a year and nice bennies, I can do a 1 hour commute. OH, and then there's the best part - they let me telecommute 2 days a week. That makes such an incredible difference! It really makes the whole thing doable.
So, that's been my life for the last month or so - go to work, come home, go to drill practice, coach OHSET practice, get up and do it all again. But the paychecks are coming in now and, with a full time job and a part time job, I am finally able to fix some things we've been putting off. Yay. We now have electricity back to the front of the house. Amazing.
And that's my life in a nutshell.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Miscellanous Ugh!
So I started my new contract job. Somehow, I didn't think the commute would be 2 hours!!! One way!!!
The job itself is fine. The usual sort of QA gig. They've figured out that I know what I'm doing so I'm leading a project, which is groovy. It's nice to get recognized. But the commute is sucking my will to live. I have to get up at 6:00 to get to work by 8:30. Truly. And that's when I shower the night before. I literally wake up, eat a bite, throw my clothes on and go. I miss my old commute. Wake up, put my jammie bottoms on, walk into the living room and sit down.
So that's my life. At least for the foreseeable future. Yay.
I have to admit, this blogging thing is kinda fun. It's kinda like writing a diary that everyone can read. (Well, except without the secrets part. I subscribe to the "never post anything you wouldn't want your Mom or Boss to see" school of thought.) But it is kinda cathartic.
I owe y'all an explanation about drill. I'll get on that soon. I promise. But, in the meantime, I need a nap. I'm shot!
The job itself is fine. The usual sort of QA gig. They've figured out that I know what I'm doing so I'm leading a project, which is groovy. It's nice to get recognized. But the commute is sucking my will to live. I have to get up at 6:00 to get to work by 8:30. Truly. And that's when I shower the night before. I literally wake up, eat a bite, throw my clothes on and go. I miss my old commute. Wake up, put my jammie bottoms on, walk into the living room and sit down.
So that's my life. At least for the foreseeable future. Yay.
I have to admit, this blogging thing is kinda fun. It's kinda like writing a diary that everyone can read. (Well, except without the secrets part. I subscribe to the "never post anything you wouldn't want your Mom or Boss to see" school of thought.) But it is kinda cathartic.
I owe y'all an explanation about drill. I'll get on that soon. I promise. But, in the meantime, I need a nap. I'm shot!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
OHSET
I just spent a fair portion of the evening looking for music for my OHSET drill team. This of course allows me a nice transition into providing a quick description of OHSET.
Oregon High School Equestrian Teams is a program in the State of Oregon (WASET is in Washington) that allows high school aged kids to compete in equestrian sports. Participating schools treat OHSET like a regular team sport, so kids can "letter" in horses. Can I just say, WAY COOL. I would have given my left toe to have had this program when I was in high school. It it a pretty neat concept in that it has classes for the most common horse disciplines - gaming, dressage, jumping, cow events, drill, driving, in-hand events, trail, working rancher.... I have to say, they've done a pretty good job of setting things up so that, unlike other equestrian programs, "S(he) who has the shiniest saddle" doesn't always win. It isn't a perfect program, but it is pretty stinkin' cool.
So, anyhow, I coach the drill team for one of the OHSET participating schools. This is my fourth year with this particular school which means that kids that were freshmen when I started are graduating this year. Ugh. ( They always have a way of reminding you that you're getting older. )
As a coach, I have to say, I've been very lucky. I've gotten to work with a lot of cool kids. I've had several kids who, when they started, knew nothing about horses, horsemanship, or riding. But, they wanted to learn and were willing to work hard. The end result of that kind of dedication is that kids who started the season barely able to stay up on their horses usually finished the season carrying flags and loping around the arena full speed. It's a great thing to see.
I don't have any kids of my own, so these kids are the closest I get. I keep the senior pictures of my graduates on the refrigerator. That way, I can see and remember them.
Anyhow, I guess I would encourage anyone who is horsaii in the states of Oregon or Washington: If you have a little spare time, find yourself a team and volunteer. They can use all the help they can get and I promise that it will be a rewarding experience. Sometimes, you will want to pull your hair out, but most of the time, you will laugh and have a good time.
And yes, at some point, I will figure out how to post some pictures....
Oregon High School Equestrian Teams is a program in the State of Oregon (WASET is in Washington) that allows high school aged kids to compete in equestrian sports. Participating schools treat OHSET like a regular team sport, so kids can "letter" in horses. Can I just say, WAY COOL. I would have given my left toe to have had this program when I was in high school. It it a pretty neat concept in that it has classes for the most common horse disciplines - gaming, dressage, jumping, cow events, drill, driving, in-hand events, trail, working rancher.... I have to say, they've done a pretty good job of setting things up so that, unlike other equestrian programs, "S(he) who has the shiniest saddle" doesn't always win. It isn't a perfect program, but it is pretty stinkin' cool.
So, anyhow, I coach the drill team for one of the OHSET participating schools. This is my fourth year with this particular school which means that kids that were freshmen when I started are graduating this year. Ugh. ( They always have a way of reminding you that you're getting older. )
As a coach, I have to say, I've been very lucky. I've gotten to work with a lot of cool kids. I've had several kids who, when they started, knew nothing about horses, horsemanship, or riding. But, they wanted to learn and were willing to work hard. The end result of that kind of dedication is that kids who started the season barely able to stay up on their horses usually finished the season carrying flags and loping around the arena full speed. It's a great thing to see.
I don't have any kids of my own, so these kids are the closest I get. I keep the senior pictures of my graduates on the refrigerator. That way, I can see and remember them.
Anyhow, I guess I would encourage anyone who is horsaii in the states of Oregon or Washington: If you have a little spare time, find yourself a team and volunteer. They can use all the help they can get and I promise that it will be a rewarding experience. Sometimes, you will want to pull your hair out, but most of the time, you will laugh and have a good time.
And yes, at some point, I will figure out how to post some pictures....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Beginnings - Names are a pain in the %$$
I've been thinking about doing this for a while and I finally decided that, perhaps, now would be a good time. I mean, heck, I'm about to start a second job, I actively volunteer, and I have a couple super time-consuming hobbies. So why not take on blogging too?
To my mind, blogging is not something to be taken lightly. There are a lot of decisions to be made - should you have a theme? Should you stick to just one subject? Should it be funny or sad? Maybe it should be about a particular cause, like "Save the rabid squirrels!"
I finally decided, "What the heck! Just do it and see what happens!" So here it starts.
..... And it started with a name. Did you know that every cool blog name on the planet is taken? Even really obscure cool names that I thought would be totally unique were taken. There are some of the (I thought) fully awe-inspiring blog names that I tried: "A blog with no name", Blogzilla, Blogalicious, Blognasty, Blognacious, Blogacity..... Yeah, I tried a pile of them. All taken. I could have riffed on one of the names - done something clever like misspelling the name, but that just seemed lame. So finally, I tried "Heather's Homespun" and nobody has it. Yay. Not that it's brilliant or anything, but I'd like to think I'm just the littlest bit unique, even if I'm really not.
So here's the deal, as often as I can, I'll try to post something up here. Whatever happens to be on my mind. I've got some pretty varied interests. I own horses and ride "equestrian precision drill" (I'll do a post on what that is some time), I volunteer with OHSET (another explanitory post coming), I have my own alpacas and I spin wool, I own and show mini-donkeys, I work in the computer industry, I'm married to a farrier, and we are animal lovers so we have cats, dogs, and chickens to go with the horses, 'pacas, and donks. Therefore, don't be surprized if I'm talking about egg production one day and bashing the latest MicroSquish product the next. It happens.
By the way, the concept of "Heather's Homespun" is that the blog is about my own homespun thoughts. Plus, I am a spinner, so it was hard not to make a reference to one of my favorite hobbies. Like I said, all the really groovy names were taken.
Finally, since this is my first whack at the whole blog thing, I ask that you be kind. I always appreciate constructive criticism, so feel free to tell me that the blue background is really annoying and hard to read, or that you wish I would quit using ITALICS. However, if your comments start with "You're a dumb %$#&!!!!!" I'm probably not going to take you seriously.
Anyhow, enjoy!
-Heather
To my mind, blogging is not something to be taken lightly. There are a lot of decisions to be made - should you have a theme? Should you stick to just one subject? Should it be funny or sad? Maybe it should be about a particular cause, like "Save the rabid squirrels!"
I finally decided, "What the heck! Just do it and see what happens!" So here it starts.
..... And it started with a name. Did you know that every cool blog name on the planet is taken? Even really obscure cool names that I thought would be totally unique were taken. There are some of the (I thought) fully awe-inspiring blog names that I tried: "A blog with no name", Blogzilla, Blogalicious, Blognasty, Blognacious, Blogacity..... Yeah, I tried a pile of them. All taken. I could have riffed on one of the names - done something clever like misspelling the name, but that just seemed lame. So finally, I tried "Heather's Homespun" and nobody has it. Yay. Not that it's brilliant or anything, but I'd like to think I'm just the littlest bit unique, even if I'm really not.
So here's the deal, as often as I can, I'll try to post something up here. Whatever happens to be on my mind. I've got some pretty varied interests. I own horses and ride "equestrian precision drill" (I'll do a post on what that is some time), I volunteer with OHSET (another explanitory post coming), I have my own alpacas and I spin wool, I own and show mini-donkeys, I work in the computer industry, I'm married to a farrier, and we are animal lovers so we have cats, dogs, and chickens to go with the horses, 'pacas, and donks. Therefore, don't be surprized if I'm talking about egg production one day and bashing the latest MicroSquish product the next. It happens.
By the way, the concept of "Heather's Homespun" is that the blog is about my own homespun thoughts. Plus, I am a spinner, so it was hard not to make a reference to one of my favorite hobbies. Like I said, all the really groovy names were taken.
Finally, since this is my first whack at the whole blog thing, I ask that you be kind. I always appreciate constructive criticism, so feel free to tell me that the blue background is really annoying and hard to read, or that you wish I would quit using ITALICS. However, if your comments start with "You're a dumb %$#&!!!!!" I'm probably not going to take you seriously.
Anyhow, enjoy!
-Heather
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)