The view out my front window

My girls on Tuesday, it was a little rainy out. Emma is not much whiter, yet, this year.

Took the old mares blanket off today, it has been in the low 60's, supposed to reach 70 on Sunday! Its that time of year that I have to watch the temps to see if she needs her blanky or not! I figured I was peeling clothes off when I did stalls today, she probably didnt need it.
Still getting lots and lots of hair off of these three! Spring has come to the NW! Sorry for all of you still stuck in Winter!!

Bridle project

Ok my new conchos that I purchased at the Horse Expo. They are German Silver I believe, but nice and thick and a good quality. I went to the Expo with finding some conchos for my bridle, it has not just two at the brow, but two more at the bit.

 The old conchos.

 This bridle has no chicago screws, but ties all around.

 The cheek pieces taken apart. Leather rosettes under the conchos.

 This bridle is very challenging to remember how to put back together! A little trial and error.

 I use a pencil or a screwdriver to loosen the ties.

 My reins tie on too. I took the whole bridle completely into pieces and cleaned it and oiled it.

 The whole thing exploded!

 Need a new chin strap, this one is getting a little rusty. I prefer the double chain ones, but I think when I bought this one I couldnt find one. I have a new one, but I think it is to long, I will explain that when we get to the bit.

 I attended a Pat Wyse clinic with Emma when she was four. He used a bit like this, but his had a stainless mouth. I prefer a sweet iron mouth. Sooo as I was the tack buyer for a small feed store at the time I was able to find this bit, of which I bough two. Mullen mouth.

 Now the secret of Pats bit is the shanks and how the chin strap attaches. The top ring is for the headstall, the next one small one to the right side is for the chin strap. The D ring at the center and the short shank with the rein ring at the bottom. I love the drop extra ring for the chin strap, if you have ever had one pinch a horse at the lip, this prevents that. You do need a little shorter chin strap or it wont go tight enough. The D rings are great when you need to use a direct rein and not have to switch bits to a snaffle. Just run the rein (I use split reins) from the inside and out through the D, and no more leverage bit. I have used this with a running martingale while warming up my horse then taking them out later,( and out of the martingale!!) and finishing my ride with the curb. Pretty cool! I have two bits that I use, a heavy ring snaffle with a sweet iron copper inlay broken mouth, and this curb bit.

 I clean all my tack with Murphys, it is liquid glycerin which is what all your saddle soap is. Much easier to use!

Oops, trial and error, LOL, I needed to put the bit loop back under the loop that holds the concho on. Take back apart and redo.

 Here we go, don the right way.

 I am liking how they look!

 Oops, retie! See how this one is pointing forward, it needs to point backwards, had to braid it the other was. The ties have one slit each that you weave them back and forth through.No screws to come undone here!

 And put all back together! I am very happy with my purchase.

 There is a little bit of brown antiquing around the star. Finding slotted conchos is not easy, I had searched on ebay and didnt find any I liked, much less could afford!! LOL

 The bit hangers on this bridle again.

 And the brow concho.

So that was my bridle project! Brought my snaffle bridle in to clean too, will show you that one next.

2013 NW Horse Fair and Expo.

We drove down to Albany, Oregon, on Friday. For the Horse Fair and Expo. I went with Judy and Carol. We left around 8:45am, it takes about and hour and a half to get to Albany from Camas, Washington. 

We got there and there werent any clinics we wanted to watch so we went shopping!!! We shopped for like 3 hours! and then had soup in a bread bowl for lunch, had to sit outside and eat our lunch, boy it was cold and windy.  Here we sat down, inside, for a rest and had a piece of pie! I had Chocolate cream, Carol had berry, and Judy had bread pudding. It was very good! LOL

Across the aisle was this booth showing off the extreme trail course that they have, indoors, down there in Eugene, Oregon. We watched the videos playing while we sat there. Lots and lots of shopping at this show! Fun fun fun! We looked at all the horse trailers, some campers and lots of tack and clothing! We talked with the NW Parelli group, they were very nice! and we got free DVDs.

The reason I wanted to go on Friday was to see Mark Bolenders clinic. I like his style and he starts everyone on the ground with the extreme trail obstacles. He works in the Natural Horseman style and is quiet and really good with the horses. He told us a couple years ago he had only been riding for 15 years! But he is great! and funny to listen to.

 He had four people, on the ground sending their horses over or through obstacles like, the balance beam, a raised box platform, poles, scrambled poles, and a couple others. It is on my bucket list to go ride with this man! And do extreme trail.

 Then we watched the Stallion review. Friesians, Appaloosa, Quarter Horse, Welsh, Mustang, Gypsy Vanner, Paint. A lot of stallions.  I dont remember all their names! LOL I wanted to write them down, to remember them for the blog, but didnt.
The first Friesian stud. Both of these were very high scoring certified breeding stallions.

 A Kiger Mustang Stallion.

 Hard to get pics! LOL The second Freisian, one of them is Rembrant.

I think this guy is a Freisian/shire?/Paint cross, looks a little like a Vanner.

 This is the Gypsy Vanner. I still dont understand the price of these horses, as they are considered "grade" horses in Europe. They are pretty!

 We went back inside and seen this cute little girl! She is probably 5 or 6! So cute with her fuzzy chaps!! ( I didnt get her face on purpose)

 The start of the All Breed Trail Challenge.

 It didnt seem as difficult as last years.

 Fun to watch for the most part, this being the second class, a lot of the horses wouldnt do some of the obstacles. They take the top 5 people out of each class. They had one class Thursday night, this one on Friday, two on Sat. then the finals on Sunday. Some of the obstacles were, enter and mount, push a large ball through cones, the half wagon wheel, the tarp and bridge, leg yield, stop and get a ball from the helper and toss it into a garbage can from horseback, back through and around 4 poles( everyone did that different, hard to tell what was wanted) carry an egg in a spoon around two poles.
For the finals they must do harder obstacles. I say that, but I know its not easy when you are doing it!
They all are doing this for time also!                                                                                                          Tarp and bridge

 This was where they threw the ball.

 Wagon wheel

 Quite a few of these young girls rode bareback. NO way could I get on bareback without something to stand on! LOL

 This is the Egg and spoon

And my big purchase of the day! I went down there, remembering there is always a booth that has thousands of conchos! (and chinks too, I so want a pair! LOL) I wanted new ones for my bridle, and it has four, two at the brow and two at the bit. So here is a preview! I will show you what they look like in the next post! The one on the right is what my bridle had on it, just plain steel ones. I like the stars and these new ones are nice quality and thick. I think they are German silver, but not the cheap Indian looking stuff. They have a little bit of brown antiquing on them too. Costed me $6 a piece. I was happy! The only other thing I bought was a cool old looking "no hunting" sign, at the same booth!

Another fun year at the Horse Expo. I have been going to this one for over 15 years!! It always has a good variety of clinicians and breeds of horses and lots and lots of shopping! Two buildings worth! LOL
We stopped at Olive Garden on the way home and had a bite to eat! Didnt get home until Midnight! Horses were hungry, Hubby was tired! (he waited up for me) Fed and then came in and went to bed.
Great day with good freinds!!!

Sorry had to turn word verify back on. Got excited to have 9 comments, only to look at them and they are all spam :O( I hate spammers.

If only I had something to block them from my Email, because they go there too.

OK changed a couple of settings, hope it takes care of the spam.

My Hubby has been in a weight loss challenge, with a friend, for 10 weeks now!
They check in and weigh every Tuesday. I is definitely a life style change! It is called "The Healthy Weigh" and you can google it if you are interested in what it is. On Tuesdays they also have a motivational talk and this challenge has a theme of, "The Travelers Gift" A motivational book.
He has done very very well! Down 45 lbs! this week, Wow!!! Great job honey!!!

When the team of two wins a weekly weigh, they bring home a suitcase. The teams make and attach "travel" stickers to the suitcase. Each team has to pick a name and since Arty, is one of Hubbys oldest friends they call themselves "Bearly Brothers".

So I designed the sticker for the first week they won. Which is.... Arty tangled up in the rope and life preserver, and Hubby saying "it was this big" LOL

They are old fishing and hunting buddies and grew up together. Thats why I chose these bears for the first sticker. Which I cut out by the way. Printed on sticker paper, since the laminated ones I made, the glue didnt hold so they were taped on. I fixed that. I hope!

They also won this weeks challenge, which I drew today and made into a sticker also.

Hubbys been wanting one with the bear holding his pants out that are to big now that he lost all the weight! LOL And the other bear holding the hole punch to fix their belts!! LOL

It was fun to do, and I am really proud of him for sticking with it!!!

This is Healthy weighs homepage  http://www.healthyweigh.com/

Hubbys only complaint is having to eat all the food!! you do not go hungry on this diet. Although it is a 1200 cal diet for the men, and a 1000 cal diet for the women!  No I havnt been doing it too. But I have been eating a lot better on it. It is all about portions, lots of vegies and small amounts of meat, chicken and fish. Rice but no potatoes. We have discovered some new favorites, like the frozen Tilapia from Costco, and we found out that we dont like brussel sprouts, LOL.  But we did try them! Two weeks until the end of the Challenge! I will go with him to the final meeting.

Here are the suitcases with all the stickers and luggage tags on them!

Some Memory Lane, and wondering what you all are paying.....

Emma at four years old, she was in the best shape here that I could get her in! Not quite as white as she is now.

 Same age, same Pat Wyse clinic I went to 2004! Ha and me about 60lbs lighter now! LOL

 My girls. One of my favorite pictures.

 My favorite picture of Meghan on Easy.

 Emma, resting while we ate lunch on a l o n g ass trail ride!! LOL (6 hrs.)

 Easy in front, and sweet Oakie. My friend just lost him last week, he was 27. She found him lying in the field, no marks around him whatsoever, looks like he passed peacefully.

 My girls, Meghan and Sara.

 The three amigos. Emma is a lot whiter now!!

 And the old mare last July, before the trail trial. She turns 28 in a few days!

 I went and picked up a few bales of hay today. I was wondering what everyone is paying for hay where you are. I am now out of the $3 a bale local hay (in the feed store $10 a bale!!!!!! these are small 50lb bales!!!) that I had about three ton of. Lasted me 7 months!!! On the list to get some more this July, until then I will be paying for hay from our local, well, not a dairy, (because of the fire early last year) now sadly. I paid $17.00 a bale today for grass/alfalfa they are heavy two string bales, probably 135-40 lbs! So from now until Summer I will buy 4-5 bales every other week. I also feed Nutrena beet pulp at $16.99 a bag and Nutrena Lifedesign Sr. at @ $22 a bag. Also every other week. Summer get here!! LOL The $330 I paid for 3 ton is looking pretty darn good right now!!

Meghan is coming out this week! Maybe we will both be able to ride! Weather permitting! Otherwise everyone is getting a good grooming!! I purchased a shedding blade this year, for the first time, LOL I have always used the small ones with three rings and a handle, this works so much easier! Old habits are hard to break! If you've been wondering  LOL I am still here! Feeding and cleaning up after husband, dogs and horses!!