Cactus

If ya'll have ever been to one of the hotter western states, you'd know that there's a lot of cactus. It's one of the most troublesome things to have around. When you go on a trail ride and you're not careful and don't guide your horse, they'll get cactus all over themselves and you. It really does hurt! 


Have you ever stopped to wonder whether cactus was here before the fall? I highly doubt they were. In Genesis 3, when God is cursing Satan and condemning Adam and Eve. He says, "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field." 


I think that God made thorns and cactus after sin came into the world. Thorns and brier seem to represent sin throughout the whole bible. Look at this verse, "And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!" The thorns are a sort of representation of the wickedness that Man brought into this world and that Christ later bore and triumphed over in his death. 


This was just a thought that I had on a trail ride a few weeks ago.


Priscilla  

Goals, how we think

Westu Hal,

Abby and I spent half the day yesterday at the horse lot trimming feet. We're boarding the horses 'till we can get our facilities going. We ended up only trimming Jehu and Leah, Cricket and Brego are going to be done today. Then Abby scooped the pens, I didn't help only because theres not another rake, and I played with Cricket.

As Abby scooped and I played with Cricket and I was really realizing how Humans (as predators) can be very direct line thinkers- especially about goals. I've heard Pat talk about this multiple times, it's really true. Just set up a goal and go after it with a human mindset and you'll pretty much never reach it, or if you do it won't be nearly as awesome as you thought. If you have goals, don't let them get in the way while you play with your horse, you have to live in the moment as they do. They don't set goals like us, their goals are to survive, be comfortable, eat, and play.

Say your goal is to pass a certain level before a specific date, you tend to hurry things up as the date gets nearer and nearer. Horses get stressed out, stop coming to the gate, you spend less undemanding time with them- the relationship goes down the drain. If you put the relationship first you can do a lot more.

I set goals earlier this year, I thought them realistic, but they weren't. I wasn't starting from the beginning, I was skipping to where I thought I was. The beginning is the best place to start, so I've taped a level 1 audition and sent it in. I will be taping a level 2 Freestyle audition today, lord willing. Or maybe a online audition, it really depends how shes doing, I'm going to live in the moment.

Live, laugh, love, and ride.

Quel fara!

Elrohwen

Hello!

Suliad, westu hal!

How are you guys? Sorry I haven't posted in a while, it's been quite busy around here as you can well imagine. :D For around 2 days I was feeling a bit sick and sluggish, but it quickly passed. Thank Goodness.

I've finished painting my room and most of the other things I wanted to do, it went really fast but I'm very proud I was able to do it myself. I will need to ask for someone to help me with the electrical outlets because I'm not very savvy with those. I'll watch carefully so next time I can do it myself.

Cricket is doing very well and shes a champ in everything I ask. She trusts me a lot. Whenever we go to the round corral for some liberty she sticks to me like glue. We're boarding the horses at the moment, it's ok but I'd rather have them here. Know what I mean?

The dogs are doing quite well. We're able to bring them into the house now days 'cause we're no longer renting. Nice! So Lottie, Sandy, Molly, and Hot Chocolate are all in the house. Hot Chocolate is so excruciating, I think she barks just to hear herself. It's a yippy, silly bark. *shivers* I can't stand dogs like that. Lottie is adapting well to being back in the house in spite of not being indoors for over 2 years. Poor thing. She's really arrogant as always, but responsive and semi-obedient. She has a lot in common with me, unfortunately. Mom said we're exactly alike. Even the bad things about us seem to be the same. :)

Back to horses. Next post: Why would a prey animal come to trust a human more than the initial leader of it's herd? Please comment your answer.

Quel Fara! Yanya Sulie! Namarie!

Elrohwen

Silver Bells

We just moved in to the new house this morning. It's really cool.
Over the past 2 days, Mom and I have been coming here and I've been working on my room. It's going really well. I'm doing it all myself because I know just how I want it and the others don't.

I took off all the electrical plates, the were really ugly. I'm going to make them Aged Brass, the outlet itself is going to be replaced as well for black.

I took off the curtain rods and the hooks they were on. The hooks will be Aged Brass and in a swirling shape. The curtains were SO ugly, I couldn't bare them. They will be replaced with an elegant cheesecloth. The rod is going to be a branch from the back yard, that will be very pretty I think. Off the curtain rod, I'm going to hang small silver bells and some feathers on twine.

Instead of picture frames, I'm going to hang a strand of twine from one wall to the next and hang pictures down at different places. Off the curtain rod, I'm going to hang small silver bells and some feathers on twine. I also took out both my closet doors, they were ugly and my room is small. They will be open and organised. It's made a big difference and my rooms seems bigger.

I love screw drivers. I was using a kitchen butter knife when I was taking my doors down, I told Mommy that I cut my hand and she made a run to Home Depot with me and bought a large set of Screw Drivers. :D That was fun!

I finished off all the spackling before going back to the rental, I'm ready to paint now. :D

Quel fara!

Elrohwen

How time has flown

Box of Memories

Starbucks

Dear blog readers,
The internet is down at our house so I'm at a close by Starbucks that I could've ridden my bike to. Not much is going on. All is well when you're on Starbucks internet and drinking a Strawberry-Banana Vivanno. I highly recommend it!

Have a beautiful day, I'm going to!

Elrohwen

Exercising the Mind

I'm sitting outside on my laptop and I've just finished letting the dogs run around on my long line. They all loved it, the line is 45 feet and they feel like they're off leash when they're on it. It's exercise for me and the dogs, they all look forward to it. Their particular favorite is the water trough, they gallop around me in large circles, jump the barrels in the arena and then leap into the cool water. The Labs usually get stuck half-way in. B-) The loyalty of all the dogs is incredible, they all act as though you're perfect. It's really funny, I think dogs are convicting. Heh heh. 

Dogs are really optimistic. Buddy doesn't even seem to notice how old he's getting, he ignores his arthritis as best he can at this point. Us humans start worrying about wrinkles when we're forty when dogs only notice their age when the pain in their limbs becomes to much to bare. We have a lot to learn.  

Lottie's zeal for life is inspiring. She has a real sense of humor and not a goofy bone in her body. She's incredibly smart and can learn something new in the snap of your finger. She is not high strung, she's smarter than that. She's loyal to me and accepting of others without being open. She is interested in humans, but she doesn't jump all over them, she'd rather look them over for a while and discern whether they're worth her time. I love her independence but I think that it's her real weakness. I know she thinks I'm worth her time, she gets excited when she sees me and starts wondering if I'm going on a run any time soon, usually I take her. :D 

Molly is truly not smart. She is amazingly loyal to Abby though and will do almost anything for her. She tries to be independent but she couldn't live a day in the wild without Abby. It's hilarious. She has many good things about her and it's probably good she's not smart or else she'd be Houdini's sister. She is not very graceful and get's stuck half-way when she tries to leap into the trough. Of all things, the best thing about her is her sense of Humor, she's just belly-laughingly funny-- if that's a way you can describe a dog. :D Gotta' love her! 

Hot Chocolate has to be the most annoyingly high strung dog in the universe! Yet over the months of caring for her she's kind of grown on me. I've finally learned how to get her to stop pulling on the leash and listen. She's the most obsessive animal in my acquaintance. She found a jolly ball in the arena today, I've never seen her truly love a toy, much less a horse toy. She really took to it and chased it around until she ran to the trough  with it in her mouth and jumped in, panting. All I can say is that she didn't part with it happily! :) 

All our dogs are special in their own ways but sitting on this rock and telling you about it is starting to hurt. I'll let you guys carry on with your no doubt wonderful lives that I've just been privileged to be a part of. 

The sun is on my face and theres a warm breeze blowing, it's perfect. 

Quel fara [good hunting] and Vanya sulie [fair winds]! 

~Elrohwen~  

PS. I'm sorry if I've just described Lottie in more flowery terms than the others, I'm am rather partial to her. After all, she's my dog! 

House Pictures!

These are for all you people who wanted pictures of our house to be! :D Quite a looker, huh? I think it's very pretty. ;P The pool is quite the bonus!

Vanya Sulie,

Cilla

Arizona!

Westu Hal!

How are ya'll? I've left you guys hanging for a week or so. I'm in Arizona now but not in our house. We're renting 'till the house closes. The place we're renting has a pool, thank goodness. The humidity is not so unbearable as I thought, but then I remember we're going into winter now. Tuscon doesn't have a winter, it never really gets below 50 degrees!

The drive here took 3 days. The first night the horses had to stay in the trailer, they really didn't love that. The second night they were able to spend in a large arena with plenty of room and a very generous lady to take care of them. :D

We got quite bored on the road and I ended up teaching Daddy a few songs. He learned a lot of songs sung by the Mens Naval Academy Glee Club, basically their A Capella singing group. I taught him the Banana Boat Song, Jungle Lullaby and Java Jive. He's really funny when he sings!!!  Emily called us when we were on the road and we talked to her for a short while on speaker.

:D :D :D

It's about 8:00 now, the birds are still singing. They haven't gone into the cactus' yet, do you know theres a kind of bird that lives in the tall cactus with those things that look like arms? Do you know that it takes about 60-90 years for those arms to grow? It's insane!

Well, gtg!

Vanya Sulie and toodles!

Cilla