Month: May 2021

Weekend Coffee Share; My New Horse Arrives!

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekend coffee share13 Comments
  • Welcome, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? Sit back, relax and enjoy my adventures this weekend!

I hope you have more than a few minutes to sit and chat as I have a lot to share! I know it takes me longer to write this than for ya’ll to read it so I am hoping this will be a FUN read. I am over the moon excited as my new horse arrived! I am getting chills as I write this as I cannot believe a Kentucky bred Thoroughbred is residing in Miss Chloe’s old barn stall. Please check out my last two posts (My Weekly Smile and my Weekend Coffee Share for more back story!). I received a call that Midnight Murphy was leaving Oklahoma Friday May 21st early morning 2am to be exact and he stayed true to his name as he arrived in my town just before Midnight Saturday night May 22nd! Here he is in the van, and honestly I am almost speechless how smoothly this whole entire process has been. I have to believe this was truly meant to be and for him to be my horse, without a shadow of a doubt! 😀

He was so calm. He never quivered or whinnied. He just calmly looked around and there was a lot of darkness as where I live there are no street lights. It’s a horse town remember? Its a rural setting in a city and there are only a couple of street lights near my house because there is a Junior High School across the street. Other than that we rely on our headlights, or barn lights if you must be at the barn at night.

I had a stable friend who I didn’t know extremely well stay with me as we waited and waited. We got to know each other sharing horse stories for the 5 hours we waited for the van. She owns an OTTB (Off the track thoroughbred) too, and her horse lives in the barn as well. She is 13 yrs old and raced until she was 10. She wants to use her as a hunter and jump. She is more “hot” with lots of nervous energy, which I believe comes with the territory of a long racing career. She loves her dearly though as she has the sweetest disposition. Midnight Murphy has never raced and is only 3 years old. This is what I want because he will be calm and gentle because he was not introduced to the rigors of racing. In my heart and head I felt I was looking at a very sensible, calm horse so far he is all those things!

These photos are not the greatest, all taken at night but I think totally worth sharing! This photo of him eating was after 30 minutes or so of him checking out his surrounding in his new barn stall. It does have a light, but he stayed out back with the light on in the barn. So I turned the light off, and he came inside and calmly started eating! I took this photo with my flash, and he didn’t skip a beat, spook or snort, just kept on eating like nothing happened. What a good boy!
What I did before the sun went down while I was waiting! I cleaned my saddles! I will start riding Murphy in the English one on the right. And eventually get him use to the Western saddle for trail rides. It is incredibly uncomfortable to sit in the English saddle on the trails. It isn’t made for that kind of riding, and you can see how worn in my comfy Western saddle is by the darkness where my legs reside. You can almost make out like a ghost leg! I have ridden over 100 miles in this saddle over the years!

As tired as I was feeling I was also very excited! I thought he looked comfortable and was not stressing out when I left him for the evening. He never once nickered or whinnied. They often call out when they are moved from place to place or have left herd mates behind. He was so relaxed (or stoic) and calm. He checked out his neighbors and those horses were more upset than him which is very typical. I thought I could sleep soundly knowing he would be okay in the morning. I woke up with this photo sent to me on my phone! A Happy surprise!

My boy taking a morning nap in the sun! I bet he is tired after his long travels. The caregiver at the barn was there early and when she walked into his stall he did not get up. She took the photo and then she said she slowly walked over to him and petted his head! AWW, what a sweet horse! He’s the calmest, sweetest 3 year old horse I have ever owned. Okay, Chloe is the first so he is the second! I can’t forget about Miss Chloe!

Today was get to know Midnight Murphy day! When you enter the stall he just looks at you like, hey, whatcha doing? He is so casual, just hanging out. He loves attention, loves the pets and pats and hugs. Not all horses like to be hugged, they are flight animals so with us being prey they look to see is she going to attack? Well, that’s the idea and what horses can think about but he just put his big ol’ head in the crook of my arms as I scratched his neck and I hugged his head with my left arm. He is the talk of the stables of course, so many of my horsey (pony sister’s) friends were coming and going and enjoying spending time with him as we stood in awe of his height! He is HUGE! But what FUN!! I can’t let something like height frighten me or there will be problems. I don’t let much ruffle my feathers and I have a huge amount of horse experience so I know we will be fine together. (I would never suggest I know everything, because no one knows everything about well, everything or anything they think they are an expert in so I am and always will be open to learn, learn, learn. I try to be a sponge!)

Here are some photos of today with the Murph!

Me and my selfies! I just have to try and this one turned out pretty good! He is such a joy! And isn’t he just Beautiful!!

I have just five more minutes to complete this coffee share before the link closes! So I am rushing to finish this and so I hope you enjoyed having coffee with me for this weekend. I have to thank Natalie for hosting and I will try and visit with everyone too. I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead! ❤

Welcome to the family Murphy! ❤ ❤ ❤

Super Happy Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; May 20, 2021

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile23 Comments
  • She makes me smile! Miss Chloe looking pretty!

Welcome to my weekly smile post. It has been a crazy month and I talked about the happenings in this month on my last coffee share post. My last coffee share I missed the coffee share link up, so if you missed it you can click here. One of the most exciting news I shared was that I bought a new horse, and I’m grinning from ear to ear! I am also very EXCITED! I have some more news to share as things are just falling into place and I feel so blessed. I have to thank all my friends and family for all their wonderful support with my crazy decision to buy a Thoroughbred retired racehorse. This horse I bought never raced so I shouldn’t say he is retired, but for whatever reason the trainer/owners who bred him decided that he was not worth racing and so he was responsibly donated to an Equine Horse rescue who rehomes these beautiful animals. I am excited because a place to keep him opened up at the same ranch I keep my horse Chloe. I take this as a sign that this all was meant to be as how ironic I bought this horse and a stall became available!!

Ultimately, this is what I wanted all along but when this horse came up for adoption (the horse rescue is a non-profit, I am donating a designated amount which helps the rescue feed and take care of the horses.) I had to make a decision without having a place to keep him because there were no open stalls where I board. I reached out to a good friend and its actually the boarding facility I had Chloe and Zack at last year and she said they had openings, so I went forward with buying the horse. I was planning on having one horse at one stables, the other horse at the other stables until an opening would become available. Happily, a stall has opened up and my new horse is being picked up early Friday morning in Oklahoma and being transported to California and will arrive early Sunday morning! YAY! (I was told it could take up to 2 weeks, it only took 2 days when I got the call with a schedule for pick up!)

  • This is the only photo I have of Midnight Murphy, my new horse!

I am smiling about my horsey adventures. My girl Chloe is 17 years old this year and although she looks great, her legs are having issues. She is serviceably sound which means she can still go on walks on the trails and I give her pain meds to make her more comfortable. These pain meds are like Ibprofen to us and are easy on her stomach and I know helps with the aches and pains of the arthritis she has gotten in her joints. Since she is still able to be ridden, I have plans on using her to pony my new horse on the trails to help him get use to everything out there and that will help when I start to ride him out on trails in the future. I will then plan on reducing the trail riding as I slowly transition Chloe into retirement.

I have some time, I am thinking at least one year as I go through this transition. Mr. Murphy is 3 years old, so I do not want to rush him either. A young mind is impressionable, and he needs training so I am hoping this mix of a senior seasoned trail horse with a young (hopefully) gentlemen will work for all of us as I figure out how I will work with them individually and together! Haha, I don’t even know if what I am saying makes sense but I have lots of ideas and I can’t wait to see how this adventure evolves!!

As I put all my horse thoughts down here I wanted to share a trail ride I went on a couple of weeks ago by myself on Chloe. We were on our main street in town and it’s such a pretty street I thought I would make a little video. They are always fun to make and I just love to share and I hope you enjoy! It’s just all about the horses this week, they sure fill my heart and make me smile! 😀

I sure love the trails and my bestie girlfriend has a new horse too! Her horse Roscoe will be great to trail ride with my new horse too, once I get to that point in his training. I am just incredibly happy everything is falling into place. This will be an exciting weekend and by Sunday I will be able to share in my coffee share more photos of my new horse! I haven’t decided what I will call him, Murphy is a nice name but I might change it, however Murphy is growing on me. There is also seeing what his personality is like once you get to know him. We will see!

Super Happy Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

P.S. If you are interested, if you type in Midnight Murphy name on equibase.com you can see his breeding. If you click on his sire or dam’s name it will show you their breeding. You can then click on their sire and dam’s name and see more relatives. I did this and it went back to Secretariat, Bold Ruler and Nasrullah. (So much history! I just love it!) He has excellent bloodlines with his sire (dad) Midnight Lute winning over 2 million dollars and was trained by Bob Baffert. Bob Baffert’s horse won the Kentucky Derby this year (lots of controversy over this win and drug testing.) This is all just so much FUN!

Weekend Coffee Share; Family and Horse Fun!

On By DianaIn Barn stories, Living life, weekend coffee share27 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives with old friends and new!

Can I offer you a cup of coffee or tea? I have so much to share and I can really ramble if you get me going. Should we have some Speculoos cookies from Trader Joes that goes great with a cup of Joe? Yes, sounds yummy! I have missed a few coffee shares as I have been really busy these last few weeks. After I visited with my daughter, the following weekend I visited with my son and his family for Mother’s day. I had such a great weekend with them and it was my daughter-in-laws birthday too! What fun celebrating with them and I soaked in all the family time I could get. It was so fulfilling and I am so happy and thankful for this time with my grown children. I thought I would share a few photos from last weekend before I share some super fun horse news!

My grandkids and me. My grand daughter and her silly faces! They both melt my heart and are a handful I might add!

My grandson is walking all over the place, climbs on the couch and into everything! They just run around and wear out grandma but it’s all great FUN! Alice and I have fun coloring. When I finished up my weekend and was going about my work days this last week I came upon a video of the most beautiful horse that was being worked with a trainer I follow online. To make a long story short I thought to myself I want this horse! He is so beautiful and my sweet horse is getting older and has old injuries that she manages with but I am thinking soon I will have to retire her from trail riding. I thought to myself I think it would help if I had a project and a new horse so that I can let Chloe enjoy her retirement and I can be fulfilled by riding a new horse to train and be my next trail horse. Hmm.. I might even train him up to attend some small horse shows! Fun to dream! 😀

As I went through this process, it was fairly stressful and I thought I have to give it a try and if I am able to buy this horse then it was meant to be and if things do not work out then this horse was not meant to be owned by me and I would then have to look for another. Here he is, the stars aligned and I bought an off the track thoroughbred from a horse rescue who rehomes OTTB’s for a life after racing. He now has a new career and life with me! His registered name is Midnight Murphy and for now I will call him Murphy (but will see how that name fits him as I get to know him).

He has the sweetest face and (us) horse people LOVE their eyes! These are the only photos of him at this time. ❤

I am OVER THE MOON, EXCITED! There is a video of him that I can’t share because it isn’t my video but he is just so handsome and beautiful and all of the things we love about horses. He turned 3 years old May 1st and he never raced. He is Kentucky bred and he is very big and that could be the reason he never raced. He is 17h tall which is very tall for those non horse people. I wasn’t looking for tall or short, I was looking for temperament and he is very calm, quiet and is sensible. I told the trainer he needs a good brain to be a trail horse in my town. She said he would be perfect and that he is like an old soul in a young body. I think of these big guys as gentle giants, and so my journey begins with this beautiful registered thoroughbred!

He currently resides in Oklahoma so first thing in the morning I will be calling for horse transportation. It’s been a dream of mine to own one of these off the track thoroughbreds and as I dreamed watching video after video after video I thought it crazy that I could ever buy one then have it shipped half way across the country to California. Covid has really spurred the industry of adoptions (along with other furry friends), and with the help of this wonderful trainer who is Monty Roberts Certified, Jamie Jennings has helped retrain off the track thoroughbreds with gentle methods from her training. With the exposure with her podcast which I follow and listen too – Horses in the Morning – the rescue who normally adopts out maybe 20 – 30 horses a year, last year they adopted out more than 100! I think the number is 103 which is fantastic! I thought with all the people interested I would not have a chance to adopt, but I did! And I couldn’t be happier. 😀 😀 😀 I feel it only proper to thank Jamie from the bottom of my heart for all she does for these beautiful animals! ❤

I will keep you posted on how the next few weeks go as I get transport set up and hopefully it won’t take too long to get a hauler to ship him to his new home here. I can’t wait to meet my new boy! ❤

Enjoying the trails with my sweet Chloe!
Out on the trails with my pony sister’s! We had a wonderful ride this weekend and it was wonderful weather!

We are enjoying some really cool weather with lots of clouds and a spitter-spatter of rain here and there. I am taking in all the cool weather because the summer is around the corner and with that comes the heat. Maybe this year will be a cooler summer. We do get them sometimes. Chloe is always willing to go out on the trails and I will taper her outings a little bit to begin the process of retirement. In the meantime, my trail rides are so enjoyable and she is such a JOY!

As I share my coffee with you today I am thinking about my family and my horses. We only have this one life and I am trying to enjoy it to its fullest, the best way I know how. I hope you enjoyed your coffee and I hope you all are enjoying your life too! And if you have any dreams, don’t give up on them because you never know they just might come true!

Wolfie and Dublin aka The Brothers! My son sends me these absolutely wonderful photos and I just have to share!

As I share these two with their brotherly love it makes me think how I am sending hugs to you! Remember to stay smiling and enjoy what you can when you can and thank you for visiting with me today. 😀

Happy Excited Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

P.S. I missed the regular coffee share linkup. It’s been a very busy weekend. 🙂

My Weekly Smile; May 5, 2021 – Busy Days!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekly smile16 Comments
Look at all the buds and flowers! I couldn’t resist and had to take a photo!

Welcome to my weekly smile post and I have a lot to smile about these days. I wanted to share that I went and visited my daughter this last weekend and enjoyed some much needed mother/daughter time together. I have been wanting to go see my daughter and her kitty that she adopted at the beginning of this year. I finally got to meet Evie and I have to say she is the most friendly, lovable kitty that I have met in awhile! She walked right up to me like we have met before and meowed, so adorable!

As I visited throughout the weekend there were many times she sat with me or laid on me as we watched some TV. Haha, my daughter was getting a little jealous I think! BUT that’s exactly why we love these animals so much, right? She found the perfect kitty, so snuggly, warm, gregarious, fun to play with and is into everything but in a good way. She finds the silliest things to play with, such a cute kitty! Here is a few photos of Evie! She makes me smile! 😀

She is so black with a few white hairs on her chest. The sweetest, friendliest kitty! ❤

While visiting my daughter she took me out to dinner for Mother’s day which is this coming weekend so we celebrated early. We made reservations and arrived at Ada’s Fish House in Pismo Beach. We got there a little early and walked to the pier. It was a bit chilly with the wind coming off the ocean. It was a great evening and the food was delicious!

My daughter ordered a Lobster roll and I ordered Sand Dabs with au gratin potatoes ~ They both were scrumptious!

I so enjoyed my time with my daughter. It is so wonderful to be together and connect and enjoy each others company. One of the things we like to do together is color in our adult coloring books! Haha, I know it may sound silly but they are a great stress reliever and another fun thing to do is to shop for… try and guess? more adult coloring books! AND colored pencils and crayons which I have plenty of so I bought some colored pencils!

The next day we got up and decided to eat breakfast in Solvang. We had breakfast at Brekkie’s restaurant! I took a photo of their coffee mug which I will be sharing on my next coffee share. We forgot to take breakfast food photos, it was really good. And then we shopped a bit and if you had to guess, we went to a book store and I bought a Swedish book that is really inspiring on how the Swedes live and their philosophy of life and I couldn’t help myself, more coloring books. Haha, this one is all horses! I couldn’t resist and when I finish my first page I’ll share a photo! SMILING!

Sending HUGS AND LOVE to my daughter!! I had a great time and I know it meant a lot that we got to spend this time together. We will do it again soon!

Heading down the trail with my bestie Sally on her new horse Roscoe!

Wrapping up my smiles for this week is being able to see this view! I love the view between my horses ears! My bestie girlfriend and I had super fun trail rides. It is warming up but we ride in the mornings so we aren’t melting. Haha, it’s not that hot yet and I didn’t want to go down the rabbit hole talking about the weather. We are so lucky to have the nice weather that we do, so no complaining from me today!

Thank you so much for visiting and I thank you Trent for hosting all the smile posts and if you want to visit more click here!

Smiling Animal Loving Mom,

~Diana ❤