Fun with Friends

I had a great weekend with some of my favorite people! I think everyone that knows me either knows Kristy and Hannah (and Megan) or has heard me talk about them. A lot. They got in on Wednesday night and we took a tour of the ranch, then went to Pulaski convention, which is about two hours from me, for Thursday-Sunday. It was an awesome four days, to spend time with the girls, see my mom, who came down Friday and see a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time! I haven't seen so many people my own age in a few months; but made plans to start visiting a few people.

Megan and Hannah got some neat pictures of the ranch!

The Evolution of a Bee Sting (According to my Face)

So my weekend was super fun. It all started Friday night, when a hornet came through a hole in a gate I was opening and KAPOW!

5 minutes later

10 minutes later

The following morning. You should see the other guy.

That afternoon

Sunday morning

And today! Alll better!

I missed out on some fun yesterday due to my Benadryl induced zombie state, but got a few pics!

The Sinks Part Two

It's been too long since I've written. We've been busy. Two weeks ago, we went back to the Sinks to vaccinate calfs and ride the training horses. Lots of laughs and pranks and a whole pile of dogs.

 The calves

Mommas

Inka and Dixie

Old man Jessie Wayne

Sheepdog came to visit, making nine dogs total at camp

Twilight

Found a dead copperhead, brought him back to camp, had way to much fun with him. We named him Bernie (anyone ever see the movie Weekend at Bernie's?)

Water was poured on my face while I napped, so I made my revenge on the culprits horse, with the help of Sage's nail polish. 

"I love ponies" in pink of course

"Cowgirl Up"

Can't beat this view. The picture doesn't do it justice.

In the cave

Spit and I in the cave

So, When Are You Going to Get a Real Job?

I thought it would be interesting to poke a little fun at the well-meaning, but ignorant comments that I, and many others, receive when people find out that I work with horses, and I intend to make it a career.

1. The condescending.

 "Oh, how nice. So you just get to ride horses all day? That's not even work!"

Well actually, it is. Yes it's fun and I love it, but I also spend a big portion of my day shoveling poop.

Sometimes, to get days like THIS

You have days that go like THIS.

2. "That is SO interesting. I wish I could afford to do something like that! You are SO lucky."

I am lucky. No question about it. But also, I got off my butt and got myself here. With a lot of help, yes, but it's not luck. And you could do something like that, if you really wanted to. By the way, I can't really afford it. I just live in perpetual poverty because I love it.

3. The one that gets under my skin, just a little bit, every time.

"That's so nice that you can do something like this while you're young, before you settle down and get a real job."

I'm not saying I won't 'settle down.' I don't know where I'll be five years, or five minutes,from now. But I have every intention of doing this the rest of my life, if I can. It is a real job. I do take it seriously, it is not a phase.

4. The 100% guaranteed response.

"Oh I rode a horse once but he ran away/bucked and I'm scared of them now." OR  "I have a neighbor/granddaughter/niece who just LOVES horses."

These last two are probably the most common. It doesn't bother me at all because it's just people trying to connect the only way they know how BUT I hear it every. single. time. "Oh that's so nice" is pretty much my standard response.

Did I miss any?

Spit

Meet Spit. She is one of the Bar W horses that I started riding last week. I absolutely love her, so she should become a regular feature. We brought up the cows to practice roping on, and one of the training horses's owner came to watch- and brought his camera.

Gathering up the cows to bring them to the ring

Holding the herd

Bringing this on back to the group

While Derek and Harrison were roping, I was the ground crew (I can't rope. Yet.)