Tag: #horsefriends

Weekend Coffee Share; April Fun

On By dprastkaIn Living life, weekend coffee share14 Comments
  • New blooms! So Pretty!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share! The weather has been so wonderful we can sit outside on my porch and admire my roses that are blooming. Oh how I love Spring! Can I get you some coffee or tea? I think for those who celebrate I need to say Happy Easter. I do not have any little ones around for all that usually goes with the festivities and this is the first Easter Sunday in maybe 15 years that I am not working. I am planning on riding at the stables in the morning and then I need to figure out dinner. I did not plan at all for Easter Sunday, but I will go to the store and put something together. What do you usually do for Easter dinner? Any traditions? I use to always have a ham or turkey dinner of some sort. I’m hoping to have something nice and delicious.

I have been wanting to stay positive as there is always life that pulls us this way and that. There is a sweet friend at the stables that has gone through surgery for cancer and is now going through Chemo therapy. She said the surgery went well and they believe she will be cancer free after the Chemo is completed. She is such a strong woman, horse woman are amazing as she is coming to the stables on the weekends through this tending to her horse and I think having her horse is therapy and is helping her get through it all. She had hired someone to care for her horse during the week, but this person wasn’t showing up and so she asked me if I could help her and so she is paying me to ride her horse twice a week. I figure since I just have Chloe now, it would be my pleasure to help her. I know there are others that have lost loved ones and so I try and share happy fun things, and hopefully can help people smile. Even if it’s just for a little bit, life is tough and rough but can be joyous and fun too! I feel like I am not explaining myself very well, but hopefully ya’ll get my meaning!

This is my friends horse I am riding. She is a retired Western pleasure show horse around 19 years old. She is so sweet!

I have to tell you the funny part of my good friend here at the stables, her name is Bonnie and that is my sister’s name! And even more interesting is guess what this horses name is? YES! it is Chloe! Hahaha, so there are 2 Chloe’s at the stables and now I ride both of them. My Chloe lives 2 barn stalls down from this Chloe pictured above! I am also taking care of another horse at the stables to help another friend and that horses name is Ava. So I am taking care of all girls, or mares! Let’s go girls! Haha, too cute!

I have to make sure I have the horses name next to the name Bonnie in my cell phone so I don’t text the wrong Bonnie. I actually have already done this as there was another Bonnie at our barn but she moved her horse, she is still my friend. So I have 3 Bonnie’s in my phone – popular name I think! I think Chloe is a popular name too. This mare named Chloe is very well trained and super sweet. Her owner wants her to get out on the trails and we have gone out and she is very good. I will ride her with a buddy for awhile because our trails can be scary since they are city trails. Our trails are not country trails so it takes time for the horses to get use to everything going on outside of the barn. She is easy to ride and fun in the arena. This last week I also rode my horse on the trails with my best friend.

Chloe ready to go, just need to put on her bridle and my friend on a horse from her stables. His name is Doc!

We are really warming up here as we hit 85F (29C) today. We will be in the 80’s all this next week and so I will relish this before the summer heat arrives. I have been enjoying riding the trails and am very thankful my horse will go out by herself. She is very brave, steady and a great mount traveling around the blocks knowing every turn. I call them Chloe trail rides because she will sometimes make a turn left or right ~ to her liking! She’s so smart!

Here is a short video I wanted to share of her munching away on some grass after I had her turned out. She absolutely loves the grass, they all do. She gets plenty of food and always has some hay to eat in her stall all day long. The fresh growing grass is such a treat and I don’t let her eat too much, but it is a delight to let her graze. I hope you enjoy! ❤

She just loves to graze and sometimes I wish she had a pasture to live in. But she is well taken care of here at this barn!

I Love the stables here where I board and keep Chloe. The horses are well taken care of and the facilities and people are amazing. There are like minded ladies and men (only one man here owning and riding his horse), he is outnumbered with all of us horse crazy ladies! He is such a gentleman and helps us ladies with moving that DG dirt into stalls and other chores if needed. We have a great group and I am truly thankful for all our pony friends. We all look out for each other! 😀

I wish everyone a great Easter weekend and (maybe) you’ll be able to enjoy the time with family. I know there are many areas that this is not possible and my heart goes out to you all. I know I have been able to get in some cherished family time which makes my heart full. I am sure everyone will be safe and I hope for smiles and good times. I enjoy sharing and I will include a link here if you would like to visit other coffee shares. I will thank Natalie for hosting, she is doing an awesome job and its so wonderful to read and meet up with others.

Caring Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Taking a Short Break

On By dprastkaIn Living life, weekend coffee share17 Comments

Welcome to my weekend coffee share. Can I get you a cup of Joe? or maybe some tea? Sigh, I have had a crazy couple of weeks and so I am going to take a break. I wanted to write one more coffee share this weekend and let everyone know I am doing okay. For those of you who may not have read my last post I had to euthanize one of my horses last weekend, I’ll offer you the link here. But I totally understand if this is something that may be hard to read and I respect any and all decisions. I wanted to write a respectful and thoughtful post for my sweet boy, and it has helped me process the whole event. Anyone who owns animals knows these times are difficult but happen. Now I have to take one of our dogs to the vet as she has a growth on her belly (near a mammary gland). I hope it isn’t cancer, but it is getting a little bigger and is bothering her and now has some swelling so off to the vet we go. She is a super sweet girl, so I am praying it will be benign. We have another older dog who is just about completely deaf, but doing good otherwise. It seems the circle of life continues and so I thought I would take a couple weeks off of blogging. I just want to be in a better place and so I think since I have to deal with my sweet girl, this would be a good idea to take a break.

The shep/mix is my girl which has the small growth. The border collie can’t hear so he won’t stay sitting for photos!

Haha, I caught her licking in the photo. They are the sweetest pups and Love my hubby! Not that they don’t love me too… They love my attention but the border collie is more attached to my hubby. It’s all good, it just is what it is. I can’t take dogs to the barn as they aren’t allowed. I know I don’t talk about my puppy dogs much, they are loving and are loved but you all know the center of my life is really the horses. I am surrounded by furry friends and love them all! ❤ ❤ ❤

I have been going to the stables every day to take care of Chloe. We have been going out on trail rides and I have to say she is super calm and seems very happy. Part of the reason why is because we don’t have Zack along as he was rather a bugger, nipping at her, he even use to bite my stirrup as we walked down the trail. It would be akin to an annoying brother or sister. You know, when you are young and they just don’t stop annoying or bothering you? That basically was Zack on every trail ride. I tried my best to get him to stop, but he never did and so Chloe would walk a little bit faster, sometimes moving over or nipping at him. You can totally tell how much at ease she is now. I have known this about the duo, but I couldn’t leave him at the barn alone with all his anxieties. As I write this I can say that I have felt guilty the last few days because there has been a sense of relief. I was always worried about Zack, now I don’t have to worry any more. Here is a cute photo of Zack I wanted to share!

My good friend sent me this photo. She gave us these treats that he is begging for, he was so adorable! This was some years ago.

It feels good to see him and I want to get some photos printed and framed. I may use this one but haven’t decided. Or I might just print up a photo book of all my photos of him. I think I would enjoy that too. I thought I would share some photos of Chloe and I on the trail this last week.

Me and my shadow and Miss Chloe!
Chloe has a bigger back paddock! And those are guinea hens that fly in and out of the stalls. I also am finding an egg being laid behind that black feeder in her box stall almost every day. That is from chickens, not guinea hens.
She has a double wide back paddock as you can see she can see out in two places now! She is much happier in this new stall!

I moved her over one box stall with the paddocks and Zack was to be right next to her. She has more room now and I can tell is much happier with the room and the look outs. She can see what is happening and is content. She and I are doing good, and I am so thankful I have her to focus my energy on and it has made the healing go faster. I have lost 2 horses while owning Chloe. I had a Morgan before Chloe and when Chloe was 6 years old (I bought her when she was 2 years old) my Morgan passed away. It was another rather tragic event, we found him very ill and he passed away before we could get a vet on sight. I have been told by my vet he probably had an internal rupture (a twisted gut) which can happen with these rather fragile equines. Sorry for talking about this sad stuff, obviously on my mind with all the recent events. Chloe and I moved on from that and then 5 years later adopted Zack. I don’t want another horse, it will just be Chloe and I for a long time.

I don’t know what I will do when she gets older or starts to develop medical issues. She is 17 this year. Hopefully, it will be many years before I have to worry about all of that and we can just enjoy the trails. I think for my mind, heart and soul a short break will do me some good. So I appreciate you all, I won’t be gone long and I will most likely continue to read other posts and comment when I can. I am so happy to have this lovely coffee share group of amazing people and all other blogging friends here on WordPress. Natalie is doing an awesome job hosting and I am so thankful she took on the coffee share!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and week ahead. Stay safe and healthy!

Love,

~Diana ❤

Tribute To My Sweet Boy, Zack

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Living life37 Comments
He was such a handsome, beautiful horse!

Last weekend I shared that I was feeling a bit in a funk. It was because of this big beautiful animal that had me in a worried state because he is the sweetest horse but also a bit neurotic. Zack has separation anxieties, he is what they call “herd bound” where he whinnies and calls for Chloe if she is out of sight, or too far away from him. He has always been this way and most often these horses that have these kinds of anxieties are their own worse enemies. We try and make their life less stressful and so I have tried my best over the years to keep these two horses that I own near each other so that Zack would not be living a life of anxiety.

Back to last weekend. Zack was living in a barn stall and across the aisle was Chloe. Zack’s barn stall is a box without a run. Chloe across the aisle is in a box stall with a run or paddock. My plan is to move Chloe over one stall so that I could move Zack next to her, but here lies the dilemma. Once next to her, the only way he could see her is if he walks out into the run or paddock ~ they can’t see each other if they both are in the box stall while eating or drinking. (I wish there was windows in the barn. This is an old wood barn built with no windows. Many barns do have windows with bars so horses can see each other.) So we made a plan of sorts. I bought plastic mirrors safe for animals to put up in the stall so he could see himself (another horse) which should calm him and I asked the employees of the stables if they could feed my horses out back in the paddocks so they can eat next to each other. In this way, I thought Zack would end up being more comfortable with a bigger stall and right next to Chloe, his herd mate.

One of the prettiest horses I have ever had the pleasure to call my friend! He was very spoiled and loved!

As Chloe, Zack and I figured out even more ways to ease anxiety, one of the smartest things I taught myself was to pony Zack next to me so that every single time I rode out on the trails he always came with me. I know I made his life that much better by doing this because he was very stressed out when I took Chloe off the property and left him behind. Sometimes I had friends or my sister if she was in town, ride him out with us and so that worked too. But that was not every ride, so I was very proud of us as we have had a wonderful time out on the trails. I even posted just over a week ago where we rode seven days, a whole week out on the trails! We were doing so good. I am very happy that even though Zack was declining in age, losing muscle tone which is normal, he was feeling good and his anxiety was always right there but manageable. It would never go away, hence why I was so worried about moving him to a different stall. I just figured I was in for some weeks of anxiousness and I didn’t know what to expect. But what happened next no one could ever predict!

Such personality! This is his way of begging for a treat! PLEASE!
Our last ride together. How fortunate my sister came to town the week before for some fun trail rides!

As I write this I thought I would be unable to make sense of things and would be crying my eyes out. I have done plenty of that, and is partly why I waited to write this because I wanted it to be understandable, relatable. I knew this would be cathartic and this would help start to mend my heart as I honor my dear sweet boy. I can tell you it has been the most absolutely shocking weekend and my heart is broken but I know he is in a better place. You see, last Sunday I had to euthanize my sweet boy Zack. Sunday was the end of the month so the stalls were open as the other horses had moved out. I decided to put Chloe in her stall and I went and got Zack and put him in his new stall and as I did this I closed the barn door to his stall and walked over to get their Equoxx pills (horse pain pills, like Ibprofen for people) that I give them before our trail rides. That’s when I heard this banging noise, like someone was pounding the wood on the barn. I looked up and saw my pony sister coming my way, with a look of terror as she said he jumped over the door!

I walked around the corner and there he lay unable to get up. My girlfriend said he just walked up to the door with his ears up and looking straight ahead and he lifted himself up with his legs up high and tight to clear the door. What made him think he could jump out of the barn? He was in this stall for barely a minute, maybe two. He walked to the back and I walked away where he promptly walked to the front and up over the door he went. He somersaulted out and landed in a way where he basically could not move anything but his head and neck. I don’t want to be too graphic, his weight and body mostly landed on his shoulder and neck. (it was not that gruesome, no blood, its just really sad) because of his catastrophic injuries once the vet arrived it was in his best interest to be euthanized. I am so sad. He went so peacefully and I owe a huge debt of gratitude for by bestest friends (ALL OF YOU AT THE BARN) for the love, support, loving on Zack while we waited for the vet. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART! YOU ALL ARE AMAZING WOMEN! ❤

I’m going to miss you silly boy! He was so spoiled and loved! ❤ ❤ ❤

I love so hard. When you love hard it just hurts so much but that’s me. It is worth the hurt to love as much as I do and these animals, these huge giant beasts have such personalities I can only try and show through my photos! They are smart, have feelings, they play and call to you! They melt my heart! I wanted to write a tribute to him because he was such a huge part of my life, including my blog. Imagine, people from all over the world know my beautiful horse Zack and Miss Chloe!

I will be okay. This is not my first rodeo, I could write a novel on loved ones I have lost. I had been beating myself up because I thought I could have done better, that I screwed up somehow making this move with him. But it has been said to me that no sensible horse would do what he did. He use to be a jumper, so to jump like he did – well, he knew how to jump. But he is old and the door too big for him to jump. He suffered from EPM which is a protozoa living in his brain and maybe this affected his thinking. Maybe he was not with a sound mind, but no one can know what he was thinking when he jumped out of that stall.

Because this is how I roll, I would like to end this sad post with smiles. I want to remember my sweet boy with tons of SMILES! I don’t want to look at photos and cry. I am planning on getting prints of my favorite photos. I am so thankful I have a horse to Love on as Miss Chloe needs me and her and I are doing good. The vet said it can be helpful for the herd mate to see the passing, so I took her out to see Zack after he was gone. She did not want to sniff him or get too close. The vet said that’s okay, they each do their own thing. She has been nothing but stoic and strong. You would not know she lost her best friend. Definitely, I believe he was more attached to her than her to him. I am feeling better each day. The self loathing is gone (you just hate yourself for a day or two because you think what have I done!) But I am smart enough to realize that no one could have seen this coming or know he would do such a thing. My best friend said to me, he had 26 years of a beautiful life and one hour of pain. Run free my friend! ❤ ❤ ❤

With Love To You Zack!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Jan. 28, 2021

On By dprastkaIn weekend coffee share18 Comments
Our local mountains covered in snow!

Welcome to winter in my corner of the world. We get snow in our local mountains and it is a beautiful sight. I decided to drive to a street nearby my house to get this view. It’s rather pretty with the clouds I think. As I write this smile post I am listening to more rain as a big storm has arrived and we will get more snow in the mountains. The skiers and snow boarders will be in heaven. Where I live we have all these outdoor activities only an hour or so away from you in almost any direction in southern California. If you want to scuba dive, or surf, or go whale watching the pacific ocean is right here for all your fun-filled beach activities. If you love to ski or snowboard, the local mountains have plenty of ski slopes at many locations in the winter. The amazing thing is you can enjoy the snow by owning a cabin or renting one, and visit the wintery months without having to deal with commuting in snow or living in freezing cold weather. I grew up here so it is a great place to enjoy what ever is calling your name. I know you all know my outdoor activities, my horses. 😀

I am so happy with my horses as Chloe, Zack and I head down the trail!

I am REALLY SMILING BIG! I have been able to ride this last week after last weeks rain storm seven days. That just amazes me as I haven’t ridden that many days in a row in years! The shortest ride lasts about 30 minutes and I rode two rides about 45 minutes. This is the whole point of having these cute ponies is to be able to ride them out on our local trails! Not only am I enjoying this immensely, but I know the horses are enjoying our rides as well. They are eager to go out and I believe are getting some really good exercise. It’s a win, win for all of us and I have been joined by my best friends at the stables for a couple of the rides I am counting. I am a lucky gal, and am thankful that I am now at a location where I have easy access to the trails so there is no excuses not to tack up and head out for a ride! ❤

We have had many pretty days and it has been cold for our area.

I know I write a lot about my horses and I do share my rides but for this last week what was exciting was to get out there on the trails almost every single day. I mentioned that another storm is here and it will be raining all night and all day tomorrow so I won’t be able to go out again until sometime this weekend. I am so happy my horses are doing good, are in good shape and are more than happy to get out on the trails! I am smiling from ear to ear!

Thank you for visiting my smile post this week. What makes you smile? I am enjoying our weather, my horses and looking forward to working on some of my crafts with all this rain. I may pull out a gardening book I have so I can start teaching myself how to garden. I have tried a bit and posted about my teeny tiny gardens. I have been thinking I have enough room I would like to make an attempt at a bigger veggie garden this year. I want to put more effort into this and see what I can grow. I hope you have a great day in your part of the world!

Happy Trail Riding Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Rain and Smiling!

On By dprastkaIn Living life, weekend coffee share30 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekly coffee share!

Can I get you a cup of coffee? I enjoy mine with my favorite sweet Italian cream. I also have tea, hot or iced as well. I am having a nice hot cup of coffee as we have a cold storm outside and it has rained almost all day today. We are getting a ton of snow in our local mountains so when the storm blows through and the sun shines we will have beautiful snow capped mountains to admire. I am happy to see my sister and her hubby from Idaho as they are in town visiting friends and their son who lives here nearby. My sister use to own my horse Zack and I adopted him when she moved as she was unable to take him for a few reasons. One of the biggest reasons is it was in Zack’s best interest to leave him here because the stress of moving would have been hard on him because he has EPM. He is symptom free and has been after being treated five years ago. We were able to squeeze in a short trail ride this morning before the rain. It was fun to all be together again! These are my pony sister’s, two are great friends and one is my sister riding Zack. 😀

From left to right, Sally on Ava, Sharon on Zack, Jane on Irish and me on Chloe ❤ ❤ ❤
Jane on Irish took this photo of Sally, Sharon and I heading out on the trail before the rain ~ FUN Times!
A couple more photos of us on the trail 😀

We arrived to the stables with a break in the weather. We all got the horses out and ready to go (tacked up) and asked others at the stables if they could take our photos. Lucky we did this before the ride because we rode back with it drizzling. I just got my horses back in their stalls when it really started to come down. We thankfully decided to just go on our short ride as we looked up and saw many dark clouds heading our way. What a good decision. Although we wouldn’t melt in the rain, it’s just uncomfortable to get all wet. I had a big jacket on which isn’t water proof but it takes a lot of rain to soak it through, but when riding your pants can get pretty wet especially your thighs. Haha, I have been caught out on trail and have gotten pretty wet in the past!

I’m so thankful Jane took these photos as I do not have many of me riding. Thank you Jane!! I also am enjoying these photos because you can see our faces as I am the one usually taking photos and I take them from behind so often. Haha, a lot of horses butts and the backs of my friends! It’s the best I can do so many times out on the trails. These photos just make me SMILE! We will go out again tomorrow as this storm is suppose to be gone by tomorrow morning. There are more storms on the way with some pretty chilly nights. We are at 44F tonight with it dropping down to the 30F’s Monday night. With this cold front the snow levels are down near 2000ft in the local mountains so some of the high deserts are getting snow as well. With such a low snow level the mountains will just be blanketed ~ I know I’ve mentioned this already. It’s just such a beautiful sight! I can’t think of a good segue to the next couple of photos I wanted to share so I’ll just say kitties and grandkids!

  • The brothers! The one on top was my daughter’s but now lives with his brother in Arizona!
  • My daughter’s newly adopted kitty!

My son so kindly sends us these funny photos of these two brothers. They are quite the characters and as you can see love each others company. I have shared many photos of them throughout my posts and this was the latest photo. They are so beautiful and they make me smile. This beautiful black kitty my daughter adopted about a week ago which I shared last week. She finally decided on a name “Evie” which is the name of a character from the movie V for Vendetta. My son said that there is a Pokemon name Eevee (which is how you say “Evie”) and the whole family agreed it is a great name for her! When we asked my daughter how she is settling in, my daughter replied “She’s doing good, but she thinks she owns the place!” Haha, “She does own the place don’t you know?” I replied. Cats, if you’ve ever owned one I think its they own you! Dogs are the other way around and love them too!

I’ll end with saying I’m missing my grand children and thought I’d share as the last few weeks I’ve just been a bit homesick for them. That’s just the best way to explain it when you miss family. I’ll be able to visit them soon enough (I hope) but as I will never get tired of saying, I am so thankful for technology and the instant sharing and video chats. ❤

  • Teddy Loves to eat! Such a happy boy!
  • My sweet Alice, Love you baby girl!

Thank you so much for visiting my coffee share today. I enjoyed sharing my weekend and even though I have stopped and wondered if all I am doing is repeating one weekend to the next, the stories I share are often woven with different events and I sometimes get lucky to share some fun photos. I hope you all are safe and sound and enjoying your weekend. For us here, winter is truly here bringing in the much needed rain and cold weather. If you would like to read other coffee shares, the link is here. And thank you Natalie for hosting our gatherings.

Happy Cowgirl Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Early December Fun!

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, weekend coffee share19 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our world!

Welcome, can I get you a hot cup of Joe? or hot tea? I have hot cocoa too, and some mini marshmallows for the top. It’s been so chilly but I know not as cold as some places. My sister just texted me today and she is in Colorado and she said it is really cold there at 18F, brrr….. And I was complaining yesterday at 55F. I had three layers on and my hands were freezing. I did not ride yesterday but had fun visiting my bestfriend with Gracie who is now two stables down from where I board my horses. I don’t see her every day any more so it was fun to catch up with her and I spent the morning there and then tended to my horses. Gracie has settled into her new home and now has some new neighbors, horse neighbors that is and so it goes as we move into a new chapter with our horses. As Gracie is now officially retired, I am not at that point yet with my horses so I am able to ride out on the trails with other stable friends or as we fondly call each other pony sister’s! 😀

This morning when I woke up the sun was shining brightly and the gloomy clouds were all blown away. I was excited and finally went out on my walk. It is amazing how good that feels to get out and walk. It got my blood flowing and I was feeling warmed up and ready to start my day. Today I was able to get out there on the trails and I rode with another good friend, Jane. We had a wonderful ride together.

Since my ponies are serviceably sound (that means they have some issues where they may limp or have some pain which we control with pain meds, but they are still rideable and exercise is really good for many arthritic older horses.) I usually do not go out on the trail for more than an hour. We have a short trail loop that is just about 25 minutes depending on their walking speed. Today we went longer which was a perfect 45 minutes and Jane took some photos of our ride. I’m so happy she thought of taking some photos which isn’t always easy on the trail! Haha, she had to do selfie mode and try and find me behind her!

This is Janes horse, Irish. He is such a good boy! He is a Morgan and a wonderful trail pony!
Here we are on the trail! I am riding Chloe and Zack is along side as I pony him down the trail. ❤

The trails we ride on are well groomed and run through a newer housing track. All the houses here are horse property houses. Usually the trail is only on one side of the street as you can see in the photo. We are in a hilly area so if you wanted to get your horse in shape there are many hills to go up and down and the views are gorgeous. However, my horses are past their prime and like I already mentioned with their leg issues steep hill riding is not possible or not really fair to them.

We can do small inclines with no problem as it’s impossible to avoid some up and down in the course of our rides. There are some pretty flat blocks, and so I break it up and will do some very small hills one day and do flat riding blocks another. The really steep hills are left for the younger, sounder horses. I asked Jane for a recent favorite photo that she took so that I could share on my blog and she sent me this next one. Great choice Jane! It is BEAUTIFUL! 😀

Thank you Jane, my pony sister for sharing your gorgeous photo!

I thought this was at a golf course at first, but as Jane and I chatted she explained where she took this photo which was at the top of one of those steep hills in this pretty area. This is just a front yard and I love the vibrant colors with the beautiful sky, such a wonderful day out horse back riding! She rides more often than not by herself. I am so thankful when I can join her ride. We are so truly blessed to have all these wonderful trails right outside the front gate!

Can I get you a refill? I have a few giant ginger cookies to finish up and you can have one too! I want to thank you for visiting today as we wrap up this weekend. I am getting ready to go shopping as I want to finish up the Christmas gifts list. I am waiting for a package to arrive I ordered online and after my shopping today I will put a box together for my family in Arizona. We will video chat on Christmas day and watch each other open our secret Santa gifts we do each year, and the gifts sent for grand children!

They sure made my weekend special! Thank you Chloe and Zack for your gentle kindness!

I better get this published! I can’t believe this weekend is just about over. I hope you all have a great week ahead. Maybe next week I can actually complete my weekend coffee share as the weekend starts, instead of when it is ending. 😀

Happy riding these pretty horses!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Dec. 10, 2020

On By dprastkaIn weekly smile10 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekly smile! This little tree topper makes me SMILE!

I really want to participate in this weeks smiles and I have exactly 15 minutes to write this post! Haha, you would think that its easy peasy but I like to put some thought in the lay out and what photos I want to share. And then I re-read my posts over and over again for many reasons. Continuity, spelling errors and I may not be grammatically correct most of the time but I want it to sound like me! (I’m a little OCD, Lol) And sometimes I get stuck and my sentences or thoughts flowing out may not make a lot of sense so I have to rewrite the sentence so things flow like I want.

As I quickly put this together I am hoping it flows nicely and well, if there are errors then that’s what it is as I want to be spontaneous and share my happy week. Today was a beautiful day and I was able to go out on a trail ride. I share so many photos of my ponies which I will today as well. But they sure make me smile over and over again! I wish Zack was a bit more calmer in his box stall as he still gets a bit upset when he can’t see Chloe across the aisle. She will go outside her box stall in her run and stand behind the part of the box stall next to the opening to her barn stall. I took a photo of her stall so you can see the opening and she stands behind this.

  • You can see the opening to the back paddock in Chloe’s stall. She stands behind either side of the opening and Zack can’t see her!
  • Miss Chloe looking out and across the barn aisle is Zack . He can see directly in her stall until she disappears!
Zack getting a treat and he is mostly happy!

There is never an ideal situation for these ponies unless you have a lot of money and can afford your own horse property. One day there will be open paddocks where I use to keep them here as people do eventually move to either other areas or other stables. There is one woman here moving to Texas but she has a box stall with a run, which is more expensive than where Zack is currently living and if I move him he won’t be able to always be able to see into Chloe’s stall. So I think I will have to wait for open (outside) pens or paddocks.

These ponies always bring great joy to my life and now that my schedule has settled down I am able to get into a routine with them which helps them be calmer and more at home. Well, my 15 minutes are up and I have to get going to work. I hope you are all having a great week and thank you for visiting my smile today! Here is a goofy photo of Chloe and she is sending you a kiss!

Happy, trail riding Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Crazy Week, Busy, Busy!

On By dprastkaIn Living life, weekend coffee share18 Comments
Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives from old friends and new! What’s been happening in your world this weekend?

I can’t wait to share a cup of coffee or tea as we catch up! I think either one will go great with the left over cake we have and it tastes wonderful! Yes, another birthday in the house. It was my youngest sons birthday on Nov. 2nd. I can’t believe how busy it’s been here with one birthday leading into the next and while all this is going on, I am trying to train my employees as I get ready to move on from one job to another. I know when I stated above crazy week, it was one of the craziest for me since add to all the pressure of quitting one job, to start a new one, add elections and all the other things life throws at you that can make you feel crazy! I am glad this week is over. Can I get you another piece of cake and refill that coffee?

I have to say that because of this crazy, busy, busy week I have fallen way behind reading all the blogs I follow. I know, no apologies needed as they are all just waiting for me to read and catch up on. Now that I think about it, it just may take me a few days to go back and get to everyone. I keep forgetting I do not need to head to bed early because I worked my last night shift last night!! WOW! Pinch me! I can’t believe it!! Maybe I will get to all the blog posts sooner than later! But I digress from birthday celebrations as I’d like to share a few more photos. 😀

Fun making and decorating this yummy cake! And birthday wishes! HAHA!

I can go through this last year with a laundry list of craziness. For the world, a pandemic that is still here and praying for all. Then I go and decide to move my horses from one barn to another only to be unhappy enough to move back. Wait what? The horses are settling in back at the old/new barn, just had to say that to keep things as confusing as possible! I’m being silly, but its true I am all over the map. The horses recognize they are back to their original barn where they have been living for at least the last five years. I am so proud of them as they settle into their new barn stalls (because I’ve lost their old stalls, they were rented out) and since it is almost winter here I am really appreciating the warmth these stalls will provide. It’s all good, but crazy days all around for my horses and my girlfriends horse Gracie!

I am not often in the photos. A good friend took these photos! We call each other Pony sister’s. Thank you pony sister for the nice photos!

I decided to buy Zack and Chloe new halters and lead ropes. It has been years since I have bought new ones and I thought how fun to get these new barn stalls with new halters and leads! I went with red for Chloe and a dark blue for Zack. You can see these halters on them in the photos above. I am feeding them horse treats!

Gracie is at a new barn too. She is a couple of houses down on the same street. She has a full roof in what we call a mare motel. She is loving her new home! My girlfriend is very happy!!
The silver roofs across the way in the photo on the left is where I keep my horses. I am at Gracie’s home looking at where my horses live. So it’s just 2 pastures away but we have to walk out front to get to each others stables. I am so happy we are still close to each other!

Zack’s photo is rather funky as the angle makes his head look big, but I still wanted to share! Haha, but this is the barn stall where he lives. I am very thankful the barn employees take Zack and Chloe out and put them together in a small pasture while they clean the stalls. It is a free turn out, I am so appreciative! Since I can breath a sigh of relief with the move of my horses, I am breathing another breath of stress. As I am sitting here writing this, my shoulders are killing me! Oh the stress! I need to let it ALL GO!!

The stress was from this job I just left. It is not an easy thing to leave a job that you have worked at for 20 years!! Oh my, it was so incredibly hard to say goodbye and since the managers said I am welcome back any time to visit (and they said they would welcome me back to work there if I so choose to go back) it made the departure a little bit easier knowing I could visit. I hate goodbyes, I am more a “see you later” type of gal and I plan on eventually making some visits.

How is your coffee or tea? do you need a refill? I know I do as I’m a bit sleepy after my night shift.

My precious granddaughter! She was Tinkerbell for Halloween. You can see how she is growing up! SHE MELTS MY HEART! Love you sweet girl! ❤

In my quest of this most crazy year, moving horses and lastly finding a new job, it is my hope that I can visit more often these sweet grand children! Isn’t she just so beautiful? but then I am prejudice. My weekends going forward will be free, something that I have not experienced in 20 years. I can’t wait to visit both my grand daughter and my grand son often. I’ll close with his cute photo!

He is so ADORABLE! Just want to kiss those sweet cheeks!!

Thanks for visiting and listening to my rambling craziness. Now that I’ve completed this last week, I know things will settle down. I just walked away from a very stressful job, that I loved and worked so hard at and I am leaving with the door open to return some day if I so choose. I am hoping the new job is all that I envision so there won’t be any changing jobs again. I also think they are in shock, as they did not see this coming and quite frankly I think I am in shock too. I can’t believe I will be working day shift starting tomorrow!

Crazy, super busy Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Oct. 28, 2020

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, weekly smile12 Comments
Welcome to my weekly smile! I have a lot to smile about this week! Let’s start with a trail ride!

What makes you smile? I am smiling because today my best friend in the whole wide world rode my horse Chloe while I rode Zack back to the stables I had been boarding at for years! I am so excited to be back as I was missing all my riding buddies. The only stalls they had open are two barn stalls. One barn stall has a run or paddock out the back which costs more money each month but gives Chloe more room. She is a big girl and needs this extra space. The other barn stall is just a box with no run. Zack will get turned out every day so he should be fine in this stall. The price is less since it doesn’t have the run and is right across the aisle from Chloe. He can see her, but not touch her but it’s all good. They will get turned out together daily with trail rides sprinkled in during the week. It’s the only stalls available and I am on a waiting list for outside pens should a couple become available. 😀

We are making our way down the trail to my original boarding facility. They were perfect!

I sure miss the trails. I stopped going out because it isn’t as fun by myself and so my friend and I mostly ride in the arena. Her horse has been retired from trails since she has been tripping, and the trips are bad to her knees. So, it just isn’t safe for her and I was happy to oblige as I don’t mind the arena riding, I just rather enjoy the trails a bit more. I am smiling as I think my ponies made the move well, and have settled in the new stalls. I have been feeding them a calming supplement which has natural calming ingredients for the last week and will continue feeding for the next few weeks. This will help them completely settle into their new home. Even though this stable is their original home for many years, they are in completely different stalls. There will definitely be an adjustment period!

This photo is from a year ago and am sharing because of the barn in the back.

I will take more photos but the first window closest to Zack on the barn in the background is Zack’s stall. Chloe’s is across from him which you can’t see in the photo. Zack was a bit nervous as there are only two ways to see out, the back window and over the door. I am praying he will settle in and enjoy the stall until a bigger outside paddock opens up. They will stay warm and dry in these nice stalls. I am incredibly happy the move went smoothly and that all is well at the barn! 😀

Looking around and Chloe was busy eating but looked up for a quick photo!

You know I take tons of photos so I will share more this weekend. My best friend didn’t want to take the other box stall and decided to move her horse about five houses down from where I am at to a nice stables that the stalls have full roofs. They are pipe corrals with full roofs which is different than a barn. Anyways, I will probably take some photos of where Gracie is living just because that will be fun to share too! Our very tiny herd has been broken up, but it is all good. This has been such a strange year for so many reasons. And as we go through these changes I do believe they are all for the better. I have to smile at this thought as you can’t live with regret. I don’t want to be regretful and think maybe the decisions I had made had its reasons. I feel I’ve healed some emotional wounds when I left this original barn and those emotions and what it all meant at that time seems insignificant when I think of everything I have gone through getting back to where I started! Haha, talk about circle of life! I just did a circle of stable boarding. I’m excited for the future with the new job and barn! 😀

Happy smiling cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Sept. 12, 2020

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Horse stories, weekend coffee share31 Comments
Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives with old friends and new. Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I am enjoying a cold brew.

I drove in from the stables and walked into the front yard and the honeysuckle smells wonderful. I am getting so many blooms right now and even though the air quality is bad with all the smoke from the fires I can still smell the flowers! We are totally safe where we live and my heart and prayers go out to all affected. The visibility in our area is very poor. You can’t see the local mountains and when you look on the weather app on the phone instead of saying “sunshine” it says “smoke”. This morning it was not too bad outside so I will be heading to the stables. Can I get you something to go with your coffee or tea?

I rode Zack first in arena and set my timer for 20 minutes. Then I switched and got on Chloe and set the timer for another 20 minutes. Having fun with them together!

After I rode Zack mostly at a walk in the arena, I took my bareback pad and bit-less bridle and put it on Chloe for another ride. The walking and a little bit of trotting is really good for their joints and gets them limbered up. I say this because as I was riding Chloe after a few minutes she kept wanting to head to Zack. Silly pony, they love each other and she really wasn’t bad, just mostly wanted to herd him around. I decided instead of finishing up her 20 minute walk I would turn them lose together and see if they want to run around. The limbering up usually helps them really feel good. I will share a video of my ride and another video of them lose together! Such pretty ponies! 😀

Chloe and I riding around our nice big arena!
Running horses! They feel so good and I love it when Chloe runs and calls out!

Whenever they are turned out in the big arena I always try and give them the opportunity to run. If I left them alone, they may move and trot or canter around a little bit. I usually have to encourage them to move, horses unless spooked or frightened are usually pretty lazy by nature. They are older horses, so their energy levels have declined. But every month or so they get such bursts of energy and I am so thankful they have an area where they can run and stretch their legs. Today I am so happy I was able to video Chloe. So fun to watch! ❤

They are all tucked in to their stalls with a nice lunch after a nice bath!

So much fun bathing, grooming and taking care of these horses. I may have to video them getting their treats, especially Chloe who gives me kisses. They have such personalities, and of course bring me so much joy! It would be fun to share that with you all with videos.

He says, treat please? YES, I have a treat for you Zack. I have bathed Chloe and put her in her stall and forgot to take a photo. So it’s Zack at the end so nice and clean. They roll and get so dirty, as they itch and scratch from sweating from the heat of the day. When the bath is complete and they are all groomed, they don’t roll as they feel so satisfied and content. I’m a happy horse mom. Thank you so much for joining me for this coffee share! I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Obsessed with my Ponies,

~Diana ❤

Horsing Around Fun!

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Horse stories12 Comments
Miss Chloe says Hi! How are you today?

Welcome to my virtual barn where I will share photos of my barn friends Chloe, Zack and my girlfriends horse Gracie. These three ponies are the apple of our eyes. Yes, we dote on them and I have to admit I am rather obsessed with their care. I don’t often miss a day, even if it is just to check on them and make sure they have enough food and water. Even though we pay for their care at the barn we board at, we as horse owners like to check them daily if possible. I use to not go every single day, and when I was baby sitting my granddaughter I would take days off until she got big enough to go with me. I miss those days, since she now lives in Arizona. We fondly call our horses, our ponies. They are not ponies, its just a term of endearment. ❤

The last few weeks had some very hot days, although the horses didn’t seem to mind too much. We just turn them out on really hot days because it is still good to get them to stretch their legs and walking helps move their gut and keep the blood flowing. Just like for us, walking and exercise is essential for well being but when it’s over 100 degrees (38C) we do not need to over do it so we can avoid heat exhaustion. In the last couple of weeks I was able to take some videos I would like to share, along with more photos of the ponies turned out. I’m just a horse crazy gal! 😀

Zack, Chloe and I in the round pen. This is a small arena usually 24×24 round – this one I think is bigger, I’ll have to measure some day. It’s a great place to exercise them!

You might be wondering, two horses in a small arena? I wouldn’t try and do this with just any horses. It is a small enclosure to where if the two horses did not get along, there could be kicking or fighting or? but my two horses are a herd. Actually, all three horses are a herd with us humans being in the mix as well. They have been acclimated and turned out together for many years.

The funniest thing Chloe does is she will chase the other two when out in the bigger arena when these big horse fly’s are around (they are akin to deer fly’s in the East only bigger. I looked them up and horse fly’s are bigger than the common house fly, deer fly’s are in between these two for size. Both land on animals to suck their blood and only the female horse fly bite for blood to feed eggs. They are huge ranging in size from 3/4 – 1 1/4 inches long. They are not numerous thankfully!)

Anyways, Chloe will canter around (run around) the arena to escape these dreaded fly’s and when she does this she inevitably runs near Zack and Gracie which in turn run too. Some days they exercise themselves just getting away from the horse fly’s! (They are easy to kill, they are so huge you can hit them easy with your hand and they fall to the ground and then I step on them. Sorry, not sorry horse fly!)

A nice ride in the arena. It is a bit hot so we are just walking to get in our steps!

It was pretty easy to video in the arena. It is nice and safe except watch out for the tree!! Haha, I am happy they walk close to the rail (which is the fence line) and of course the tree isn’t as low as Chloe’s head as she heads near it and the branches are right at my height sitting on her back. You can see Gracie getting exercised by her Mom and Zack is next to me as I pony him to get him exercised as well. I call it killing two birds with one stone, since it’s so hot I did not want to take the time to ride them each individually. If I do ride Zack, I usually ride him in the arena unless someone wants to ride with me that needs a horse on the trail.

My girlfriend on Gracie as we head out on the trail!

I am so happy I have been riding on the trails for many years. Zack is 25 years old and Chloe is 16 years old this year. I have owned her since she was 2 so we have been together many, many years. I have had Zack for about 6 years now. He is part of the team, as they all fall in line with very FUN rides! Consistency and time in the saddle is key to calm trail rides!

They got a few baths in the last few weeks and I washed their tails and thought they looks so pretty! Zacks could use a little whitening on the bottom, but for a trail horse (not a show horse) they look pretty darn good!

I just LOVE to groom them. When I graduated from high school and before I decided to go to college I worked full-time for a horse trainer. He trained Hunter/Jumpers and I showed my horse with him all up and down Southern California. I worked for him for about 4 years, and what I learned was grooming is key to keep all the show horses coats glistening. I bring these years of grooming with me every day I’m at the barn.

I started with Chloe, I’m ending with Zack! Haha, He’s sending you a big kiss!

Love you Chloe and Zack!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Aug. 22, 2020

On By dprastkaIn blogging, weekend coffee share29 Comments
Welcome to my coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives. Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? Too hot in my neck of the woods for a hot beverage. How about a cold brew?

Welcome and come in out of the heat. We can social distance in our family room as it is miserably hot outside. We have been having such hot weather, but what makes it rather unbearable is the humidity. We are spoiled southern Californian’s and do not do humidity, we just don’t! Haha, we melt and complain and wish this would all go away ASAP! Hopefully it will and then I can stop complaining. 😀

I feel badly for my little tiny garden. I try and keep it watered in this heat. I don’t mind if the bell peppers are done, I went ahead and picked what I could and will let them ripen more on the counter. I actually have a lot and am not sure what I am going to do with them all. Funny, I picked this veggie to grow as it’s not my favorite, I can eat them but I like tomatoes better. I can just cut up a tomato and eat it with a little salt sprinkled on it, but a bell pepper? I know I can chop it up and use in my salads, I’ll have to look up some recipes! 😀

There is one very green tomato. Not sure if it will ripen up as my tomato plant I thought was done but there are a lot of new sprouts on it so maybe I will get more tomatoes. We will see!
My honeysuckle is blooming! I LOVE the smell of these tiny flowers!!

I love my honeysuckle. My hubby accidentally butchered one side of my honeysuckle plant. It is like a big bush and where he chopped it all off it has taken a long time to come back. It is finally coming around and starting to bloom. I asked him to not cut it any more and I will have to carefully prune it. It usually blooms in the summer, such a welcome beautiful blooming plant! The smell is so sweet, love me some honeysuckle!! ❤

Getting a break in the heat! Just arena turn outs this week.

It’s been so stinking hot that I was only able to trail ride once this last week. I only had one day I could get to the barn early at 8:30 am so we could try and beat the heat. My girlfriend and I rode and got these ponies some exercise and I will say by the time we got on it felt too hot, but it was under 90 degrees, just the humidity made it feel hotter. I suspect we won’t ride again until end of next week. The heat should subside soon, hopefully! (Trying not to complain too much!) 😀

This was after our ride earlier this last week! Then they got a nice bath!

Thanks for having coffee with me today. It has been a busy week with work and all the animals. I feel a bit drained because of this heat (I just can’t help myself, it does zap your energy – darn heat!) I also am covering for a vacation at work. My days off were last Monday and Tuesday, then I work Wednesday through this coming Monday. I am working this weekend, which means I need to wrap up this coffee share so I can get to bed! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I will stop by and have coffee with you if you are sharing and if not have a great week ahead!

Trying to stay cool!

~Diana ❤