Mares! You gotta love 'em to own 'em

Patriot learned a hard lesson last weekend. Mares are to be left alone, with a 50' radius at all times. Don't even look at them, or they will give you what for. Sigh. Poor Pate. He thought he was going to survive it. After all, he still gets it into his head from time to time that he might still be a real boy. Wrong!

Pate received the business end of one of my mares hind legs to the shoulder and is now doctoring a pretty good bruise and possibly a cracked shoulder blade. It took only a second for him to sniff her as I was walking both of them to the trailer to go for a ride. She was not interested in that, at all!

To give her credit, she ponied him for several hours that day with nary a whimper nor a swish of her tail. He must have looked at her with that gleam in his eye when he tried to nibble her rump. She set him straight and was done with the lecture.

Normally, a blow like this would be hardly noticed, but she must have nailed him at precisely the right angle. He was fine for the first two days, with just a bruise, but now he's gimping pretty bad and is on pain med's. He is on strict bed rest with a little hand walking for awhile, which is JUST fine with him!

Unfortunately, what this means is that he does not get to go to the trail clinic this weekend, as planned. Not that I don't have 4 other riding horses I could take, it's just that I really wanted to take him! This clinic only happens once a year and I am bummed. Oh well. I'm still going, but I will miss my Pate.

Jeez, the most expensive horse I have too!!

At home, doing nothing at all.

After a chaotic, whirlwind week, we are home. I turned Patriot out to pasture with another of my young mustangs, Canyon, and they are having a blast playing "boy" games and hanging out.

What a difference a week makes! We left Texas in 90 degree heat and arrived home to 40 degrees and rain, rain, rain! Needless to say, Pate is wearing a nice warm coat. He has no hair for this abrupt change in weather! I plan to continue with his riding this winter, so a short coat will be a blessing.

We have some fun events planned for the next few months, so I will update the blog as we go along.

I wanted to take the time to say thank you to my family, friends and employees that supported me through this whole event. I really appreciate your support and backing. I also want to give a shout out to all my new friends whom I met at the event and all Internet contacts that I have made. Thank you so much for all the emails and kind words you have sent my way since my return. I did not know how far and wide I reached with this blog! Your praise means more to me than you know.

A big "Hi" to Angie Keitel, Tim and Karen Noland, Jimmy Thomas, Kitty & Rick Lauman, Clifford Tipton, Dixie LaFountain, Greg Reynolds, Wolfgang Remkes, Excy Johnston, Jeremy Dunn, Ray Ariss, Kathe Smothers, Vixen Barney, Josh Appleby and all the other trainers I met and bonded with during the event. It was great fun to meet you and your horses. I hope to see you all again sometime. Please keep in touch!

And finally, to all of you that have contacted me regarding training services for your horses, I REALLY appreciate the trust you place in my abilities. I am considering hanging a shingle from the barn some day, but for now, I really need to go back to concentrating on the business that I already own. Since it affords me the luxury to keep Patriot fed and housed, it would be best to spend a bit of time there. LOL God knows I've ignored it long enough to concentrate on Patriot. A BIG thanks to my managers and employees for keeping the doors open and the lights on in my absence!! But hey, clean up the office and get the beers out of the office fridge, as I am back to work now!