Camping with Horses

We went camping with Charlie's 4H horse group Memorial Day weekend. The camp ground is small (40 sites), privately owned, right next to a State park so there are 25+ miles of trails for horse back riding.

Update added May 29.
I forgot to tell you that the weekend, did not start very well.
On Thursday Charlie and Kayla, had to take her horse to the vet, and ran over something that blew out a trailer tire. So they put on the spare.
The were working with horses, put one in the trailer, Kayla was driving around the block and got about a mile away when the spare blew. I mean shredded.

On Friday we were on the way to the campground with the camper when a tire blew, again shredded about 5 miles from home.
We had to buy two new tires. those were apparently dry rotted. Now we have to get the other 3 tires replaced and a spare before we go Up North in August.

The campground was full because of the holiday week-end.

There are 27 sites with electricity, and 13 rustic sites, Port-a-johns and no showers. But the port-a-johns are kept really clean.

Charlie would like to go back for a few days when there are not so many people around.

There is a pond for swimming and fishing. One of the kids caught a nice bass.

I walked some of the trails to help set up a “treasure hunt” for the kids to follow on horse back.
It took about and hour and my back did not hurt. Another plus of losing weight.

I think every one had a pretty good time, but I was amazed at how rude and disrespectful some of those kids are. Calling their parents names etc. It probably didn’t help that 3 or 4 of the eight are 13 year old girls.

Repairs, News (good and not so) and Horse Clinics.

Well, I missed posting another week, I keep saying I am going to write ever week, but nothing seems to happen to write about.

Last week-end we decided we should check out the refrigerator in the camper before we took it anywhere to make sure that it worked. The electric worked, but the propane didn't. It looked like the flame was on, but when we unplugged it, the fame went out. Charlie took it someplace on Monday, we got it back today. It works!!! We plan on going to my sisters "lot" next week-end, Labor Day.

Shonda came into Jackson and had lunch me me on Thursday, I figured when she called me to have lunch something was up. There was. She told me she had a date that night, her first since she broke up with Brian. OK so she had a date, then she tells me he's 33, and what did I think about that. I said there is not much I can do about it, she is 21 and has to make her own decisions.
While we were on the way to lunch she also told me Charlie had flipped the tractor over on top of him that morning. The kid across the road was helping him tear down an old trailer and Charlie was trying to pull the roof off, it was heavier than he thought and the tractor went up and flipped. Luckily he was not hurt, a little sore but that's all. It could have been much worse.

Saturday we went to a horse clinic that Chris Cox was giving in Paw Paw. Chris has a TV show on RFD TV, his website is here. He uses a style that Charlie has found works well for him when he is training the horses. Those of you who don't know horses might not find this interesting but we did. Even me who doesn't ride or work with them.

We watched Cox, train 21 riders ( he says he used to train horses, now he trains people). I don't ride and I probably wouldn't get the technique right if I was out there on a horse, but I could tell when somebody was not doing something properly.

One of the riders said he had a 2 year old at home that he was having trouble with, every time he tried to ride it, she would buck for 4 or 5 minutes then they would be fine. Cox told him to go get the horse, he'd look at and tell him what he was dong wrong.

After he finished the clinic for the day they brought out this horse. The first thing he did was take the bridle off, (the rope around the horsed face with a lead rope) before he put the halter (the bridle with the bit and reins) on. the horse took off and they had to chase it for a couple of minutes. Cox told the guy the horse didn't respect him and didn't think the person was boss. Within 1/2 hour that guy was not only riding the horse, the horse was standing perfectly still and the rider was standing on his back. Amazing

His big thing is that the horse has to know you are the boss and has to respect you. He trains the horse by making it work then giving it "relief" as soon as he get results.

Nature at home - birds.

As you regular readers may remember, Charlie finally got a pond dug a few months ago. See: http://jbetzblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/catching-up.html He has put in some small blue gills, and bass.
Since then we have seen a couple of ducks on it, a king fisher, trying to get some of the fish, http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/61/_/Belted_Kingfisher.aspx and some yellow warblers. http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/343/_/Yellow_Warbler.aspx. I don't know if the warblers are here because of the pond or we just never noticed them before.

I saw a hummingbird this evening, but not at the feeders,and I am not sure where it is nesting. One year we had a nest in the maple tree in the front yard.

A pair of robins have also built a nest on a fence post by the horse barn. it is only about 4 feet off the ground and has 4 blue eggs in it.

Kathy said she thought she saw an Oriole when they were here for Easter, Charlie has seen it, but I haven't yet this year.

We also have a couple of Bluebirds nesting.

About a year ago we found this really cool bird identification website; Whatbird.com. http://www.whatbird.com/ You can search by entering the name of a bird or it will help you figure out what kind of bird it is by choosing colors, size, beak shape, location etc. It even has a bird song feature so you can hear what the birds sound like.

I don't remember if I mentioned that we took the mare down to "visit her boyfriend" a couple of weeks ago, Charlie went down to pick her up yesterday so we should have another foal about this time next year. Here is a picture of the stallion.

Charlie put our other younger mare in with our stallion, we are not sure if that "worked" yet if not we will have them try again in a few weeks.

Football, Floats and Birthdays

Another busy week: Powder Puff football, on Wednesday. The seniors won, and the girls complained about how sore they were for three days. Springport’s homecoming, the senior float placed second, but they took the little brown jug for spirit week. The theme for the floats this year was rooms in the house, the Seniors got the bathroom and did Crush ‘em and Flush ‘em. They had a Quincy player spinning in the toilet. The judges apparently didn’t like that as well as the Juniors, whose room was the kitchen, “Toast the Orioles”

The football team won the homecoming game 14-6, nobody scored until the end of the third quarter. This makes them, 5-0 in the conference and 5 -1 overall. They play Reading next week, (4-1 in the conference) and Union city 5-0. This means they have a chance at the conference title; their last Big Eight title was 1973. They also need one more came for the play-offs. GO BLUE- GO WHITE!!!
We drove to Centreville, to see a horse clinic on Saturday. Dennis Reis, who is on RFD-TV. They called Charlie a few weeks ago and asked him if he was interested in free tickets. He asked for enough for the parents of the questrian team because they all said they would like to go, but it ended up just one other family. Oh, well, that's what happens-everyone is just so busy.

Then the Senior class came here for their float burning bonfire.
Today Anna-Lena went to the Detroit Lions game, with a friend whose boss, has season tickets. If you’re watching on TV look for her ;-)
Anna made a comment a couple of days ago that she has not had a weekend- to sleep in since she has been here. It certainly isn’t my schedule that’s keeping her from sleeping late. She still has a few more weeks, before she will have the opportunity to sleep in, there is a cross country meet and horse show next weekend- and Cross Country the next week.

Today is my brother, Ed's birthday. Barry didn't like the picture I put in when it was his birthday and reminded me that Ed's was coming up so here is a picture Happy Birthday Ed, I

Charlie is leaving this afternoon for Houghton Lake fishing with his brother tomorrow, so check back to see what he catches, and maybe some good fish stories.

Did you know that this week is the 20th anniversary of the smiley face emoticon :-)
Keep smiling. J

Horses shows and what are they talking about.?

Wow, a busy week-end. A two day horse show, trying to do laundry, and grocery shop.
I just finished the laundry(9:00PM on Tuesday,) and have not done the weekly grocery shopping.
The Springport Football team, beat Concord 40-0 on Friday. Even some of the team members said the third quarter was boring. Springport played the second string and Concord still couldn’t score.
This weekend was the district horse show, the first place team advance to regionals. I think Springport was only 4 points short.
I have to say, after watching horses for out of 8 days, I don’t get it at least not the finer points. One of the girls competed in a “trail pattern,” she had to make the horse side step a pole, open a gate, step over some poles, check a mail box and back up between two poles. I didn’t see any mistakes, she came in third.
I sat in the bleachers with people talking about the horses changing leads, (which foot they lead with) I never did see it, Charlie says when they lead with one side, it reaches a little farther than the other side, I can’t see it.don't all lead with their front feet? It’s like watching skating on TV and me being able to see the difference between a sachow and a lutz or whatever they call it.
The speed events were fun to watch, even the coaches said the fitting and showing (the picture on the left) and the equitation (the picture on the right) are kind of boring.
Oh, well, the idea was for Anna, to participate and have some new experiences, and get to know some new people. We accomplished that. Here is a neat picture of one of the Springport girls jumping.

Upcoming events:
This week-end a baby Shower and YFU meeting. Next week all week. The Senior class is building the homecoming float at our house, homecoming parade and football.

Horses

Anna-Lena had her first Cross Country meet on Wednesday, she finished 19, out of about 50. She ran 3 miles in less than 30 minutes. I don't think I can walk 3 miles without resting.

We decided not to go Up North this weekend; Anna-Lena had a cross-country practice and some horse stuff to do. She will be riding with the Springport Equestrian team, riding the horse of a friend, who teaches riding. We spent most of yesterday doing horse stuff, took her to see a horse show in Mason, she is a little confused by some of the terms and how they do things differently here than in Germany.

The picture on the left is Anna-Lena practicing in Finney. The horse she will be riding next week-end. The picture on the left is her riding in Germany.

Anna-Lena will be riding in the Hunt seat, Saddle Seat and Bareback class. I have no idea what that means except that bareback is without a saddle, the riders yesterday were wearing, derby hats and what looked almost like tuxedos. Most of the other Springport team members ride western, I believe this is the first time Springport has had anyone ride in these classes.

Then we picked up the horse, took her to another friends house who helped Anna with the showmanship part, leading the horse around the arena. That is a little different in Germany too.

The team’s first competition of the year is next Saturday, at the Ingham county fair grounds in Mason. I think they will be taking the horses over on Friday night, and the show is on Saturday. She is excited about being able to at the fair grounds with the coaches and other girls. More later. JB

Week-end Wanderings

It has been a pretty busy week-end. It started on Friday evening when Shonda called, on her way home, from her new job, said she had had a scare when she was the only person in the office, and someone came in told them there was a tornado warning and neither of them new where to go, they finally found the rest of the staff.

Brian, Shonda’s boy friend, called in from his way home from Muskegon said there were houses with the roofs torn of in Charlotte. I called Jenn, to find out they were OK but Arthur’s cousins were not as lucky. Check out his blog at http://www.arthurandjenn.com/?page=1, As he says thank God no one was hurt.

The storm and rain stopped in time for the Football, game. We took Anna-Lena and a neighbor girl. Neither one of them were familiar with the game. It was not very exciting. The first have wasn’t too bad, 14-14., In the third quarter it was like Springport couldn’t figure out what was happening. Vandercook made a touch down in the third but after that there wasn’t much happening until late in the fourth quarter when Srpingport got the ball back and Shane Trudell made a couple of good runs. Oh for those of you who might recognize them. There is a Negus on the Vandercook football team. There were Neguses on the team when I was going to school, must be grand kids huh?

I did find out that there are probably 3 guys who have "eyes" for Anna already and school hasn't even started.

Saturday we did boring house stuff. Laundry, groceries, etc. Anna needed some things for cross country and we bought a replacement mini blind to replace a broken one, and a pay as you go cell phone so Anna has it for emergencies.

Buying that phone was annoying, I knew what I wanted, but had to have a clerk unlock the phone, Anna and Charlie were with me, someone asked a question and the clerk who had not much of an idea what he was talking about tried to sell me smoothing I didn’t want, and created a whole lot of unnecessary confusion with 4 us trying to decide. Geeze I hate that.

Got home the shade was not wide enough, and we couldn’t activate the phone (they are only open during regular Monday-Friday business hours. I have to take the blinds back today and activate the phone today too. Not a big deal, just seems like everything goes haywire at once.

Anna went to watch a member of the equestrian team take her horse to jumping lessons, the coach from the Eaton Rapids team said she really should be on the Springport team, but we don’t have horse that is trained for shows and competition. When Charlie talked to the Springport Coach last spring, she indicated that they don’t want “kids or horses that aren’t trained.” A neighbor offered one of his horses. Anna rode it but it isn’t trained for that kind of riding. We finally made a contact with someone who knew someone else that might be willing to help. Charlie and Anna talked to her last night, she has a couple of horses that may work. Now they have to see if they have “room” on the Springport team.

We attended a Lansing Lugnuts game on Sunday, a beautiful day. This was supposed to be a library employee/family outing, but there were only 6 of us total, (2 employees) Anna and her friend had never seen a baseball game, so the first few innings were spent explaining the game to them. The game was a little slow during innings 4-8 when with a seven run lead, the lugnuts almost lost the game to the loons but managed to pull of a win by 1 run. http://www.lansinglugnuts.com/press_box/press_release_archive/8_26_07.html )

One young man (no more than 6 years old) who was standing in the front row almost caught a foul ball, but missed, because it hit him in the head and bounced off to a the kids in the next seat. He went to dad, crying with a big head ache. The head ache seemed to stop when his friend gave him the ball, later he really made out when one of the players walked out and gave him a bat apparently to help him recover from the pain.

We all had an opportunity to do the chicken dance and the hokey pokey. Yeah ;-)

The weather was beautiful and we had great seats, row 11, and right at first base. a good time was had by all (see the pictures)

Like I said a busy week-end- I’ll keep you posted.