My Paint Pony

Raised on a farm 18 miles from town I had few friends, well actually no friends that lived nearby. That left me with animals as companions and I love animals. I especially love horses. My dad raised and raced Thoroughbreds as a hobby and he instilled the love of horses in me. I married, started a family, and there just wasn't much time to spend with horses, not to mention very little money and  having horses takes money. Then my dad passed away and we had to sell off all of his horses, from that point on I never got back on a horse. A back injury left me unable to ride even if I would have had the opportunity. Several years ago, when I was promoted to Superintendent for Game and Parks, my boss pretty much insisted I get back in the saddle..........so I did. Although rough on my back it only took one time sitting in the saddle and all my childhood memories of riding the pasture with my dad came back and I was hooked.

I went on several trail rides with groups that visit our park, riding a borrowed horse from my boss. Then a couple years ago my husband bought me a horse. A big ole sorrel mare who I fell in love with immediately. I said that "Nugget" would walk off a cliff for me if I asked her to. Nugget is about 17 hands tall, a big ole girl, and watching me get on her is - well a source of amusement for my co-workers. As much as I love Nugget I always wanted a paint pony, especially one that my grannies could ride. Last spring I GOT ONE! My husband bought me a 5-year old mare. Sugar was just green broke. Meaning you could get on her but she really didn't know what else to do, she wasn't a bucker thank goodness, but she also didn't know how to rein, stop, or go for that matter. My son started riding her and by the time summer rolled around the kids were able to get on and ride her. Then to give her more training I rode her for 3 days on a trail ride. Some grassland riding, some hills and butte riding and she was really getting the hang of it.



One one ride we crossed a small creek 17 times, we jumped it 11 times before we got the monkey to settle down and walk through it. The amazing thing was, I stayed on when she jumped. So here are a couple pictures of Sugar. She is kind of a flashy little thing, definitely a loving animal and is still a work in progress. But then so am I so I guess we make a good pair.

APHA Ride

And we're off!


Riders start to space out as we travel the pasture on the way to the Buttes.


Suz and Loretta - two of the gals from Lincoln


Pranksters were everywhere so if you didn't want your horse to have pink "toe nails" you needed to keep a close watch.


I have had so much fun the past two days on the trail with the APHA riders and our Fort Rob crew. The first day I didn't take my camera :( MY BAD!!) It was beautiful on the wood reserve and I could have gotten some awesome pictures of horses jumping the creek. I was riding Trevor's horse Joe and he is such a good little horse that he would have stood still for me. Today I rode Pistol and I loved riding him, however Pistol wasn't so amicable about just stopping and taking pictures plus a lot of the trail was single file and to stop in the middle meant I was holding others up. It was so beautiful up in the buttes and you could see for ever! Thanks to my boss Mike for letting me go, using his horses and taking care of all that saddling stuff!