-1 hour

I love my weekends. They are what I live for. I really enjoy my schedule. Sleep in. Eat Breakfast on the couch. Go to the barn. Come home cook/eat dinner. Hang out with my hubby.

Friday night when I picked up my hubby he said he had a "present" for me. Guess what he bought me?! Horse books! I love them and can't get enough of them! He's such a sweetie!!

My hubby asked me earlier this week if I would be interested in spending quality time with him. Sure! Great! Let's go to the barn. Not exactly what he thinks of as quality time. We woke up early and went to the UW campus to take pictures of the cherry blossoms. So pretty. My picture doesn't do it justice. Then we went for a drive in the North Cascades. It was beautiful!!
I love random road trips. We were driving on the Mountain Loop Highway when we drove past a sign for Paca Pride. My poor husband. As soon as I saw the sign he knew that I'd want to go back. We decided to use the excuse of buying their farm fresh eggs as our reason to stop, but seriously who wouldn't love this face? I loved it there. The guy who showed us around was really nice, and the place is really well run and the animals are really happy. If you need a place to stay I'd definently stay there!

We then ventured up to Mt. Pilchuck. On our way up the road we got stuck behind all the "city folk" who decided that driving their Ford Thunderbird in a foot of snow would be a good idea. We stopped and helped people put on chains...well...correction, my husband helped, I made a giant snowball. We gave it to our upstairs neighbors (who are 2) and they LOVED it!! I definently filled up the truck bed with snow. I wish I would have got more. It was fun to drive back to the city with my little snowman (that's part of it above.)

After our travels we went to the barn. Ms. Denali was in one of her hyper/ I JUST WANT TO RUN moods. I can't blame her. It's pretty muddy in her paddock. I've also conditioned her with her pink bell boots. I only put them on her now when she's turned out in the arena to run. SO pink bell boots = free running in the arena.

I groomed her quickly, cleaned her feet, and threw on her boots. We walked over to the other side of the arena to check to other gate before I let her loose. As soon as we got there she decided that she should be free, and that standing still was just SO NOT OKAY.

Ophie's mom was in the corner of the arena cleaning up her lunge line, so I couldn't let Denali run free, I didn't want her to hurt anyone on accident, herself included. Ms. Denali just didn't think that was acceptable.

She had a SHIT HOLE flash back. She started to rear and buck on the end of the lunge line. I held and gave the rope a quick yank. We went back and forth for a few seconds, and then I caught her by surprise (I don't think she thought I'd actually reprimand her) and backed her quickly. She fell on her butt, flat out on her ass laying in the arena. She got up and was a perfect little pony. I walked her around on the arena and then went to take off her halter. Half way through taking off her halter she tried to take off. I HATE WHEN HORSES DO THAT!! SO, I reminded her again who was in charge, and took her halter off again. She stood there dancing in place looking at me, but not running off. I gave her a pat on the shoulder and told her to go, and off she went. She screamed, bucked and ran around the arena for about 10 minutes. She was so happy.

Today I ran out to clean out my tack locker/tack trunk. Serioulsy? I really have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!! A lot of it I bought, and realized that it was cheap for a reason, and then upgraded. I just never got ride of the old stuff. Denali's Lessee won't know what happened! It looks nice, I'm impressed.

It's 8 pm now and just got dark. I love the extra light, but HATE losing an hours sleep. Happy Monday everyone!

Funny Husband Quote

My husband was reading my blog last night and said to me, "Am I like a muggle?"

"Excuse me?"

"You know like in Harry Potter, am I like a muggle, a non-horsey person, I just don't understand?"

I had to laugh. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was hilarious. Trying to figure out what to do with my Saturday. Tomorrow is the large 4-H Sale in Monroe. Is anyone out there in the Seattle area going to the sale? I can't wait!

Sweet Hubby

So I have mentioned before that my hubby is non-horsey. He doesn't care one way or another what I do with Denali. He does care about the money that goes into the things we do, but that's about it. We currently live in the city. I need to drive 40 minutes (20 miles) to the barn to see the girl.

The other day (pre me eating dirt) he called me asking when I'd be home. I told him, and he mentioned that he had a surprise for me, but to not get too excited. When I got home he was looking on the computer, he found a barn. (it's the first one in the slide show) :) I must say he has really good taste! He's had the link open on his computer now for almost a week and I keep catching him looking at it. I must say that although he's not "in" to horses. I love that he's into keeping horses on our someday property.

I can NOT WAIT to move out of the city and somewhere that we can put up our barn and let the beast run free. We're both from Pennsylvania and all of our family is back there. I'd like go to back someday. I think Denali would like it, but then again she hates snow.

Speaking of the devil, I went out to see her last night. The farrier is coming out today so I needed to run out a check. She was super sweet and lovey. Her lessor was there to ride, so I only stayed for a short period of time. I went out, that's a step right? Also, apparently the arena footing is getting re-done next month. I guess someone bit the dust on Sunday, so the owners are going to add some nice footing to make it a softer land. :) Gee...I wonder who that was (insert sly grin here.)

SO's (Significant Others)

This isn't exactly Pony related, but kind of....

As I lay on the couch recovering from a migraine, I thought I'd talk a little bit about my husband (who ran out to get gas in my car so that I don't have to, after making me dinner.) He's such a great guy. My female friends all think he should teach their SO's how to be better husbands/boyfriends and my guy friends keep telling me they're going to throw him out of the "guy" club. :)

My Valentines day flowers, and my pre-Valentines day flowers

Reasons that my husband rocks:

1. I bought Denali while he was working at in a remote field camp in Alaska (in the arctic circle.) He had no phone, and no e-mail. I wrote him a letter explaining to him what I had done (even after we discussed NOT getting a horse due to $$$) and he didn't divorce me. :) He did go running to find a satellite phone, to call to see if I had really done what I said I did. Yep! (I won't pretend that he was totally fine with me purchasing a huge financial burden, but he didn't divorce me... :) )

2. He puts up with me smelling like horse, my car smelling like horse, my clothes all smelling like horse.

3. He puts up with the fact that I go to the barn around 3 nights a week, every weekend and I am rarely home for dinner on time.

4. He has me call when I leave the barn and has dinner waiting for me when I walk in the door.

5. He doesn't get mad at me when I willingly hop out of bed at 5am to go to a horse show, but throw a 2 year old fit if he wakes me up at 8am to go run errands with him.

6. When the vet informed me that Denali was sick, and that it would cost at least $2,000 dollars to treat her, he didn't blink an eye and questioned why I was asking him permission.

7. He's not a "horse person" but he loves Denali and she loves him. I still joke that someday I'll need to buy my own horse. Those two have the weirdest bond. He only sees her around once every two months, but she LOVES HIM!!

8. Even though I'm a teacher, and he's in grad school/researcher, he doesn't complain or make a huge deal over the fact that it costs us $450.00 a month JUST for board.

9. When Denali was a Psycho last January, I sat down and started making her an ad on dreamhorse. He informed me that I wasn't allowed to sell "Our" horse, and that I'd just need to think of something else. I told him it would cost more money to find a better barn, and he said, "So." (If you knew my husband, he's very money conscious and is always trying to save for retirement.)

10. He's my best friend. He understands how much that four legged, money burning, time stealing beast means to me. He doesn't get mad or upset with me, and I don't know if he'll ever understand how much that means to me.

If you want to hear a hilarious story, I'll need to tell you HOW I met my husband... I'll let your imaginations run wild right now...

How do your SO's deal with your horse obsession?