fun fall riding and a photo shoot with my family

If this picture doesn' t show how far we have came, nothing will! Kizz wearing a little S hack and riding out for a super short ride ( to him) with Ava lee & Dream ...and in FALL! (when he gets very hyper on trail) 

A fun trail ride with my friend  Amanda & Bronwyn for her " last ride as a free woman" before her marriage ! ;)

  

Some cute family pics that included my boy Kizz!

Oct 4 /15

All 5 of us with the 5 horses!

Dream 14, & Ava lee 6, Emma 9 & Aadon 12, Raine 6 & Alex 21, Myself & kizz 9 and hubby Chris with Coby 16

All 5 of us with 3 of our mounts :)

My family with our 2 girls, Cinna, Mini Aussie (3) and Ally the boxer (8)

with Coby & kizz in the back ground 

 

Fall arrives ! LOVE fall riding!

Enjoying getting some riding in with our new Trail partner my son Alex and his new mare Raine. I'm having a blast going with them and it makes me sooo happy. These are for sure the very best days of my life ... Riding with my kiddos, I'll never forget it!

Raine has something going on, she frequently bucks at the canter, and she's sooo sweet and quiet we KNOW it has to be pain or something. So we scheduled in a Chiro to come check her out. Fingers crossed its something easily fixed! She's sooo sweet and such a good girl! Alex and her do great other wise. We get some trotting in on the Rail way and I think they're doing great together. Kizz gets his huge extended floaty trot going and sadly I have to ask him to slow so Raine can keep up! lol! but we sure have fun!

Kizz is being his smart sweet self so far this fall! (usually fall he gets very hyper as he is fit and we slow down our amount of riding so he's a bit FRESH )

Getting ready to leave on a ride down to the rail way

my son Aadon walks down the pave with us to his buddys house

Aadon takes a couple pics :)

texting and riding  yup haha

haha Raine is such a good girl <3

Alex & I jogging down the railway :)

Kizz and I .... to be continued ???

Do I continue with our blog , our Trail to happiness ?? because I am sure we have made it here!!!
I feel so confident and happy with Kizz and doing this with him has done more for my self confidence and pride in myself than anything else ever has. I have gained new friends, strength, health, pride in myself, a closer relationship with 2 of my kids even!  I can't ask for anything more.

In August alone, I have galloped with the reins ahead on his neck down a trail neither of us had ever seen before, knowing he would take care of us!! and Crossed mud and ditches we had never seen before, him knowing I wouldn't ask him to go where he couldn't safely go...

I 've rode out alone with my 6 yr old on her mini mare, with him -his FIRST time on trail in a S hack at that!!

I've done some trails with him prancing along behind both of my kids riding in front of us, and knew he would chill and behave or at least that he wouldn't endanger them!

I've galloped along with my friend on her OTTB giving it our all!! and long trotted ahead of them even keeping pace without breaking into a canter.. I Love this horse and we are both very HAPPY!

I have trusted him to take my son out and show him the ropes of endurance and taking care of ourselves.. something I thought Kizz would NEVER do! 

and... we have even Trailered out to new trails, and went into a big lake.... and splashed!! <3

But yes I'll continue to blog.. because some day I might need to look back on all our adventures and see how far we have come.. and maybe , just maybe encourage someone else to do the same!!



                                      I have A LOT more riding to do with these 2!!!! <3

August, our first ACTRA ride of the year!

    Kizz & I have been doing very short and somewhat slow rides with my son Alex & his new mare Raine, and not much for conditioning in July, since we are only planning to do JP's with him and we have been super busy working on our new barn at home most evenings and weekends. Well just a few days before our first 15 mile JP of the year "Mcdonalds run JP" , Alex's mare comes up lame with a HUGE abscess :(

     Luckily she heals up fine, but we can not take her to any rides, So I have to decide if I want to still go. I realize I have the trailer borrowed, hubby is taking the weekend off to go ,we have already bought alot of the things we need to camp out with the horses the first time ever on our own.. So we go!! We take my daughter and her Mini mare Dream. The ride Manager says it's completely fine for Ava lee & Dream to pull at half way and only do half. So we plan for that! (7 ish miles is still a fair amount for my daughter's little mare.


     We arrive at camp and set up! So nervous!!! our first time doing this without a long time endurance rider taking charge!! We set up and the horses seem great! they settle in perfectly!! How nice! We pitch our tent and settle in as well :) Lucky a nice ACTRA member lends us her fence charger as I don't have one and I'm so worried it being our first ride that one of ours might decide to test the fence! It is Dream's First trip from home too! totally new to her!

    Not long after when we get settled in, we learn from some of Saturdays riders , that there isn't a LOT of mud, but the mud there is, is fairly deep. We decide it would probably make the 7 mile ride too much for Dream's little legs!! So She stays back at camp. I have a lady that says she doesn't mind me riding out with her!! So we tack up and get ready to go! I have a very nervous stomach!! This will be Kizz's first time going somewhere new and riding out with horses he doesn't know!!! WILL he be a nut and spin and scream, will he get racy and not listen... I have NO idea how he is going to handle this!!

Time comes for us to Mount up.. I go up 2nd to last (just ahead of the lady I am riding out with Jody and her young mare Georgia)  Kizz is yelling back and forth to Dream.. I totally wasn't thinking about how he would not only be riding out with horses he doesn't know, but leaving his buddy at camp!!! WOW so glad I didn't have time to worry over that one until the time came. He wasn't HALF as bad as he had been other years being away from his buddy or whom he trailered with.. He circled the mounting block a few times and yelled some. But certainly not spazzing like he would have at another ride! Finally he started to stand and a nice pat from the judge gave me enough time to actually mount up!! woot woot!!! He wouldn't stand and was antsy but he was still VERY manageable!!

We ride out !! and he goes off to the trails like a boss!! As much as he didn't want to leave Dream, HE LOVES endurance!!!

off we go , down the pave to the trails! 

we lead most of the trail, Kizz is SUPERB! couldn't ask for a better guy!! He's super well behaved ! We even do a nice little hand gallop down a cute twisty trail that he's never been on before, you can tell he just LOVES it!!! 

 A cute picture of Kizz and I on trail taken by Jodi ! Look at the loose rein !! What a guy!! so proud of him! He did SO well, It totally has given me the confidence to take him to a ride and ride out alone sometime!!  but hoping my son is going along with me for most of them from now on!!! 

What a great ride, great meal, great time camping! lots of nice members came and chatted with us! An all around great time with My hubby, oldest son and daughter. Wish my middle son had come too , but he's not much for horses OR camping out! haha but we missed him! 

May, June & July 2015

Kizz has been doing good this year! Much better with most things, but I have found a few old problems popped up. Like leaving others on trail and such. He has pranced and jigged whenever anyone gets too far ahead. But to be fair we have only done 2 group rides so far this year!

Kizz and I ready to go out on our 3rd ride of the year! 

this was a fun loop in May

New
for this year is, I made Kizz his first biothane set, sure he looks like Iron Man, but He likes it haha

We rode out in June and met up with local ladies, Kaaren, Robyn and Breah. Kizz for the first time splashed in the water, I think he is deciding water isn't so bad!! lol

The most exciting thing to happen so far this summer, is that my son bought his own horse!!! He has rode off and on all his life, but never had time to ride real regular. We found him the perfect horse!! She is sweet , healthy , young and super quiet !!! She will lead, follow, leave us on trail and head home alone even!! she's lovely to work with!
Here we are on one of our training rides in June! He intends to do some 30's with Kizz and I next year!

Alex  & Raine's first ride out !

His, and my daughter's first group ride ! Ava lee  & Dream have been riding 1-2 x a week out on little 5k ish rides each week and is doing well ( I ride Coby when we go , as Kizz gets pretty hyper on such short rides! and I want Ava lee to be safe ) but they are doing super awesome and I'm sooo proud!!

Alex is on his grey Arab mare on far left, my friend Amanda with Brownyn the black mare next, then Ava lee my 6 yr old on her mini mare Dream :) Kizz & I , then my friend Robyn on her bay mare Bambi, then her daughter Reagan on Bullet her pony gelding.

On the group ride , it's the first time Ava lee  & Dream have rode with Kizz & I <3

So far this year is going great! Kizz and I have been riding out with Alex and his mare, so haven't been doing very long conditioning rides since she came in June. But I am having a blast! Kizz is doing well for doing such short rides too, not too hyper coming in!  We are planning to go on a JP Aug 2 !! Hope it goes well . We will go Saturday and camp over night and see how Raine does with camping over night. She has been perfect so far, so I'm sure it'll go well!!! Wish us luck!!

Kizz in my daughter's Barefoot cheyenne ! 

Kizz & I first ride of 2015! April 13/15

 Spring finally has hit!! We thought it would never come this year! Still the banks are high and snow deep in the fields, but it's getting warm and melting quick! Can't wait to get out on the trails, but for now, we are just riding in the driveway! (just like old times huh? )

Kizz was super hyper and didn't listen very well but that was fine, (lots of taking off on me and jigging) we got in a good work out, he was sweaty by time we quit!! something funny happened, he jumped up on the high flower bed with me on.. I didn't think he would, but I asked and he did! Very out of the ordinary for Kizz to do what I ask unless he's starting to trust me maybe! ;)
Got Kizz a little S hack to try out this year.. I'm thinking when he's settled in to work and on home trails we will use it , get him going well with it :) 

and then he decided it was a good time to roll, he started pawing.. so I took of his gear so he could.. what a silly boy.

I had started playing around with biothane tack, so made my daughter a set for her mini mare! It's so cute!! Next I need to make Kizz a set next!! 

We got her a flower hack, and she does great in it!

Getting excited for ride season! I've been sick off and on every since Sept, and have been having a hard time getting in good exercise ;(  bought a treadmill so I could at least run inside during the bad weather, but only ran 3 weeks before the bad chest cold came back again! :( Planning to run 10k this year!! (Last year my goal was 5k)

Hoping once nice weather hits I will be over this and can get out and run again! Need to get back into shape.. Kizz too, he's the biggest I've ever seen him! lol

Excited for 2015!! & Ava lee's first winter trail ride with a friend!

   


   Wow, we had lots of firsts last year!! Mine & Kizz's first LD, Kizz & I ride at night first time, first time riding in a rain storm! , Ava lee's first real trail ride, Ava lee's first time riding Dream on trail not being ponied!

We got our first Horse trailer! (well not exactly our first, but our first since we started riding the horses at AWAY events! so we are pretty excited!! It's a 5 horse that we are changing to a 4 horse with a little LQ up front! We LOVE it!! We also got our first NEW vehicle !! A brand new 2015 Chev 2500 HD truck for hauling Ava lee & I to all kinds of horse events!!! Can't wait for 2015, it's going to be a lovely year........riding and working with all 3 horses :)

the boys with their mare friend here for the winter

my colorful group

Chris getting to know the new girl!

Ava lee & her friend Reagan ( my riding buddy/friend Robyn's daughter) did their first little trail ride together on their ponies.. it was sooo cute! Dream was horrible though and even bucked Ava lee off :(

She of course got back on , and has rode her even bareback since.. she's a trooper!!

Ava lee & Dream first winter ride Dec.14/14

Reagan & Bullet, and Ava lee & Dream