My dad sent me a ton of pictures of their house, which just happens to have a ridiculous amount of snow. And here I am in Denver with no snow LOL. The pictures of their house is a nice sight, I miss seeing them, and it, ALOT!

Anyways, heres some snowy pictures.

Well the weather was GORGEOUS last week, got the house cleaned & the garage cleaned out. Worked with Tonka some. Really turned crappy yesterday though. Truthfully its a good thing though because we need more snow for the summer melt, so we don't have a draught.

Yesterday, my friends Moorea & Craig came over. We hung out, went to the barn and worked on Craig's truck. After that had a nice time just hanging out watching movies and talking.

Darryl only has this week left over work before his vacation. I don't know if we are going to go anywhere or not, but he needed the time off of work. If money allows we might go down to Moab just for a day & night to see the sights and get away from home. I have never been to Moab, and it is a HUGE offroading place. It's only about 5-5.5 hours from our place to Utah. Even if we don't go this vacation we will for sure go this spring or summer.

It has been snowing like mad today, but its really small powdery flakes so not a whole lot of accumulation yet. I am hoping for 4ft or something LOL. Darryl & I are going to go to Olive Garden for dinner. I cannot wait, they have AMAZING potato & sausage soup. Not to mention the rest of the food they offer.

SO I have decided that my dogs have relentless nostril decaying powers... No matter what I feed them, ONE of them gets horrid gas and completely stinks out the ENTIRE house. Its mainly the little guy, Aisin, though I think. I'm sitting here waiting for Darryl to get home from work and WOW it's hard to breathe LOL.

Tonka is gaining weight, so I'm glad with that. He seems like he will probably be easy to keep once he is back at a good weight. It's only been 2 weeks and people have told me that they even see the difference. Makes me feel really good. It was so cold today that I put both of his blankets on at once. It was only 6 degrees at about 4pm, so tonight is going to be brutal. I gave him alot of extra hay to keep his tummy warming him from the inside out. I feel bad for his paddock mate, she has no blankets what-so-ever. Shes plumper than he is though.. So at least she's got that going for her. I had to carry water buckets to fill all the water tanks for all the horses. That was tiring. The ground was too covered with snow to be able to drive the tractor out to dump the horse poop, so I had to carry the muck buckets to hand dump outside. That kinda sucked too.

I went on a job interview at a Missouri Fox Trotter breeding farm last week. The lady didn't give me a call back, which is OK. Even if she offered the job, I am not sure if I would have taken it. Her "perfectly behaved studs" were no where near even being somewhat OK behaved... And teh rest of her horses, there was something to be desired as well... So I am still without a job. I am keeping my eyes open, but will not jump into something I will be miserable in just to make money. Unless for some reason things change and Darryl & I really need the extra income.

I have been trying to sell my old wedding ring set, and wedding dress and such. To no avail. I am not willing to sell the ring set to a pawn shop though... The ring cost $1400+ new, and they only offer about $300 for it. Stupid if you ask me. So I will hold out for craigslist.org to find me a buyer. I tried EBAY, 3 times, and it didn't do me any good (even at STUPID low prices), yet I still got charged for my listings. I thought EBAY used to let you list until sold for one low low price. Doesn't seem that way anymore. I paid $30+ to NOT sell my items. Oh well. Lesson learned.

Darryl & I have been trying to clean the house out of things we no longer need. Clear up some space, and get fun money at the same time. I can't believe how much stuff I have and he has that we just don't want or need. It's bonkers. From China, to a China Hutch to extra differentials from my truck to radios and cd changers and so many other things. I can't wait till it is all gone.

Darryl's girls are taking our cat next weekend. I am pretty allergic to him, I cannot breathe at all if he gets into our bedroom when I go to bed. Darryl has asthma and with how much hair the kitty loses (he is a VERY longhair) its brutal on him too. I typically try to vacuum and shampoo the carpet every 2 weeks... if you could only imagine the amount of hair that gets laid all over the house in those 2 weeks, you would die LOL.

Well, I think that's enough of an update for now :D Hope you enjoyed! Hehe.

Have a nice one.
~Una

Well I decided since the ground had dried up really well in the front pasture area to let Tonka & Vicki out to run and play... that was uneventful LOL I had to chase them to get them to go at all, other than Tonka's first trip down the driveway to check out the horses across the street. Anywho, you get to see him run, or as he thinks, gallop in video.... and some nice pictures too :D

I still can't get over how big he looks compared to Vicki LMFAO

All the pictures in large size are here: PICTURE GALLERY 1-21-09

Video is here: TONKA & VICKI VIDEO

So I decided to saddle up Tonka to see how my tack fit... After some test fitting and stuff of all my bridles/saddles. Found the best match for the time being :) a western bridle & my dressage saddle. I started out with one of those half pads under a regular pad since he has no topline and HUGE withers... Worked him, and he was getting mad. Took out the half pad, and he was much better. And the saddle fit him pretty well considering his awesome physical stature and his HUGE withers ;) LOL...

Worked him pretty hard, poor boy was sweatin with his winter coat in the summer weather we had today. Alot of walk, trot, canter transitions instead of consistently in one gait. He's a SMART fella, picks up on everything fast. Learned he CAN buck when he wants to LOL.

Then I was feeling brave and decided to hop (more like climb a ladder) on to him. I didn't have reins hooked to the bridle so I just had Darryl hold him while I got on (he had his halter under the bridle). He stood like a gentleman. Then I had Darryl walk him around. Then I asked Darryl to let the lead really loose and basically just walk with him but don't try and control him or anything. He halted when I sat deep, went when I gave a little leg pressure, didn't freak with spurs (just wanted to see his reactions), not dead sided at all which is awesome :D

When I was all done I untacked him and left him in the roundpen to roll (he was DYIN to roll with the saddle on LOL). And he rolled like a madman :D Then spent some QT time getting scratched.

I learned that he REALLY needs work putting on the bridle... as soon as you try to put it over the ears... forget about it. He gets MAAAAD.. took someone pinching his side to get his attention off it. So that will be a daily routine, with the halter if nothing else... on & off till hes calm about it. He had no problem with the bit though.

I feel pretty accomplished, and really happy that things are going so well :D

No pics of me on him cuz my photographer was my leader LOL but some under saddle, and one other funny pic of me on the tractor for your amusement :D

Oh, and I have to say how COMFY he is :D

me and my tractor/poop spreader


with the half pad... angry "pony"










somebody likes changing directions at random.. not allowed :D




half pad coming out... so then i removed it so see if that was the problem
(and it was


MUCH happier pony

I had a job interview today at a breeding farm, as a farm manager. It was the hardest interview I've ever had. But at the same point, I got paid for it, so that was pretty cool. Basically I did 3 hours of farm labor, working with the horses & showing how I handled everything. I think I did well. There are a couple other people she is meeting with before she decides whom to hire, so I am waiting on a call back. We shall see. Whatever is meant to be, will be.
I'm pretty pooped though, because I went from there, to my barn & cleaned stalls & such. I'm sore too. If nothing else my butt is getting worked back into shape!
Wish me luck.

Well, I have settled on a name. Tonka. Hes doing great! Still need to get him to gain some weight, but hes getting really good feed now and it should be no time before hes fattened up and happy!

His personality is so amazing, he is just SOO calm, which is surprising for his age, at 4. I have a feeling he will perk up some after he gains the weight, but I think he will till be calm overall.

Enjoy a few more pictures!

Well, I have been working at a barn in the evenings, cleaning stalls & feeding, along with training the owners QH's. He is letting me keep a horse there for pretty much nothing. So I decided to adopt a new horse! I found a wonderful 4 year old Thoroughbred, he is very sweet & calm. He is 17H tall (which equates to 68 inches tall at his back). I am 5'6" (66") tall... LOL. He's built more like a warmblood than a typical Thoroughbred!
He needs some training, which is perfect for me :D, I like a good challenge. Hes pretty smart and calm, so I think it will be easy to do!
The barn I am at is great, its just a "small" private residence. 5 acres, 2 barns, outdoor arena, round pen & indoor arena.

My horse's name is "First Year", I haven't decided on what to call him yet though. Here's some pics, enjoy!