Craig and I built a storage cabinet together. I think that it turned out pretty good. My husband is great with the technical stuff - like measurements and cutting the precise lengths for things. And I'm more of the aesthetic type, decorating with wooden flourishes, staining, and applying high gloss finish for a glassy appearance. I think that we did alright for our first attempt building a piece of furniture as a team!

Yep.

"Turkmenistan and the Akhal Teke". (It takes a minute to start...)

http://vimeo.com/68020482

Another music video about the Turkmen horse:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=710971958971008

A cross-post from Facebook:

We had an EXCELLENT finish to our ride season at the Jubilee Ranch Endurance Ride on Saturday! Wahoo!!!!! I was sooooo proud of my black bombardier Octopelle. We accomplished our best time yet for a 50 miler, and he was an incredibly STRONG horse right up to the end of the ride. I'm really happy with his level of fitness and condition. The first two loops of 15 and 25 miles I had to hold him back, as he desperately wanted to catch people ahead of us so badly. (I felt like my arms were going to get pulled right out of their sockets - he wanted to argue with me the whole way and switch gears into warp speed.) But I had plans to stay conservative, so we kept it to a nice medium trot. On the last red loop he STILL really wanted to cut loose and go, so I trusted him and let him stretch out for awhile. We struck a nice easy lope and breezed right back into camp towards the finish line. Not sure if it was the smell of the apple orchards in the air or some other bizarre effect - but he's never felt better than on this ride. Plenty of go-juice left in the tank! We finished in 12th and he looked great at the final vet exam. I am a SUPER HAPPY camper!!!!!!!!

Photos are courtesy of Cassidy Rae.

At the end of August I switched feeds for Octopelle because I wasn't really liking the results that I was seeing with his conditioning and ride results in endurance.  We'd been using Nutrena Perform, but I decided to give Omolene Performance a try instead.  And boy, what a HUGE difference that made!  I haven't regretted switching at all.  We finished our last 50 mile ride of the season yesterday at Jubilee, and he finished incredibly strong with his best time yet.  I'll give Purina products a glowing review any day of the week! 
http://horse.purinamills.com/products/omolene/ECMD2-0032696.aspx

Multi-Tasking

A show horse one weekend and an endurance horse the next weekend!  Mr. Multi-Tasker!


Octopelle and I got our "spit and polish" on for the MacMurdo show this year.  We went under USEF judges Walter De La Brosse of California and Margo Hepner-Hart of Oregon.

I entered him in some of the open English pleasure, hunter under saddle, and hunter  in-hand classes.  It was a very crowded arena this year.  Seems like everybody came to the show!

There were 20+ riders in almost all of the classes that we were in, and some of the cantering classes got pretty entertaining.  It was very hard to maneuver around on the rail without getting cut off and bunched up against other people, and some of the exhibitors horses were having some real problems with the heavy fast moving traffic, (like bucking!)  There were two people that blew up beside of us at the canter and I was praying to god that Ox would behave himself  long enough to make it to the line-up.  Luckily he was pretty good about the situations and kept a level head.  We made it through the tense moments alright, much to my relief.

Open hunter in-hand halter class.

Hunter under saddle class.

Open English pleasure.  My hands were a little high but I had a reason for keeping them that way.  Ox would pop his head up and crane every once in awhile, so it helped to lift a little bit to keep him in frame.  It made my equitation look kind-of crappy, but it helped the horse to look totally fabulous!

We placed under judge De La Brosse!  Yay!  Considering there were a very large number of entrants this year, I was thrilled!

And the following weekend after the show, we drove to Brothers, OR. for the NorthPac/Oregon 100 endurance ride.   He switched gears to an endurance horse in rapid fashion.

Coming in from the second loop on the 50 miler.  A really fun ride, and Ox did great!

The photos are courtesy of: Craig Mayfield, Entirely Equine Marketing, and Out of Steam Photography.