2015 Ride for Life Pineville, MO

I’m getting closer to not being able to say that I can’t count the times I’ve gone trail riding on one hand… the current count is 4. Now, this doesn’t include riding all over the place at my parents/grandparents house checking for cattle, this only includes going to a place specifically for trail riding. The 4 times include once while I was dating the hubs, Trails for Kids in April and now 2 Rides for Life (One in fall 2013 and this years).

For my husband’s job, he is committed to working 2 weekends a year. This year one of those weekends happened to fall during the Ride for Life over the weekend. Because of that, Tbug and I were on our own if we wanted to go ride. We invited my dad but he had hay to mow/bale.

Earlier Friday afternoon I was texting with Karen about this, that, and everything else when I decided to see what time the ride started on Saturday morning. Initial plans were to pick Tbug up on Friday evening, she and I would get up first thing Saturday morning, load horses up and head to Pineville. When Karen said she thought it started at 8 am though, plans quickly changed.

Hubby suggested I ask if Jared & Karen had room we could sleep in their camper. They did so we decided to load up Friday evening, go down and stay the night. And then Fit hit the Shan. haha…

I quickly started packing a suitcase with clothes we’d need. That seemed like it took forever. Oy! Then we headed to my parent’s house to hook up my dad’s truck to the trailer, load horses, and then go pick Tbug up on our way to Pineville. All went fairly smoothly until pulling out of my parent’s driveway we noticed dad’s truck didn’t have ANY power. Trucks are made for hauling things and it wouldn’t pull the trailer with our 2 horses and tack in it. Something was wrong.

Hubby called Grady and asked if they had an extra truck we could borrow. He said yes so we drove to their house to switch trucks around. Then I took my dad’s truck, which now drove perfectly (not pulling anything), to go pick Tbug up. From there we went back to my parent’s house to drop the truck back off and pick up my car. Then Abug, Tbug, and I headed to Pineville.

On our drive down I happened to look up and see a guy standing on the side of the road (about halfway between home and Pineville). The more I paid attention to the man and the vehicles, I realized it was Pokey and Earl. Tbug was yakking my ear off about Kansas history, so I told her to hold that thought and quickly called Earl to see if there was anything I could do to help them. She said that Pokey had a blow out on a trailer tire and they were waiting for their brother in law to come rescue them but thanks for calling. I was like, well I know my car can’t pull a trailer but I didn’t know what was wrong so I wanted to be sure they were all A-ok.

Hubby left Deb & Grady’s house with their truck, our trailer, and horses. Deb and Grady were leaving the house at the same time so I assume he followed them. They stopped at a burger place in Pineville called Burgertime. They grabbed Tbug and me a burger and fries. We both tried sharing with Abug but she wanted no part of any of it. He also got cheesecake for dessert. There were 2 boxes so I assume one for Tbug and one for me but we were told later that we weren’t to eat them without him. lol. The burger was good. I love a good cheeseburger.

This Ride for Life we lucked out because there were pens we could put our horses in instead of them having to stand in the trailer all night and Aloha pawing at the ground and keeping everyone in camp awake. Oh and the barn… I fell IN LOVE with the old barn. It was a little messy inside but who cares, it was GORGEOUS!

Once horses were settled in, we all went back up to camp to sit around and shoot the breeze. Tbug used Abug’s chair since she wasn’t currently using it.

Nightfall hit and Colonel and his wife decided to go for a night ride. I had never seen a flashlight on a horse’s bridle before.

Around 9 pm or so hubby decided he and Abug needed to head home because they had an hour or so drive ahead of them and he had to be up early the next morning to work. Jared, Karen, Tbug, and I went into their camper and we were talking and unwinding thinking about getting ready for bed… and that’s when I got a text from hubby. He got home and realized he left his work laptop in Grady’s truck. #fail

I went out into camp where everyone was sitting and started trying to talk someone into giving me their keys so I could meet him halfway. Boy, I have the best of friends because a few different ones told me to take their trucks. I jumped in Grady’s because he handed me the keys. I told Tbug she could stay at camp or else she could go with me to meet her dad. She said she’d go with me so I told her to load up, we were headed out.

We finally got back to camp around midnight, quickly changed clothes, and jumped into bed. Now the funny thing about the bed, we shared a sofa couch. It slopes downhill. No big deal, I wasn’t sleeping on hard ground or rocks so definitely not complaining, but all night long I’d wake up at the foot of the bed and have to scootch up.

I had trouble getting to sleep but finally passed out from exhaustion I guess. Next thing I know, I woke up around 4:30-5 am by two knees jammed in my back.

Around 6:30 am I got up because I had to pee (sorry tmi but keeping it real!). I went and stood in line at the restroom and some guy cut in front of me. I finally said screw it and just went back to the camper, told Tbug we needed to go feed horses, and went down to pee in the horse trailer. Hey, I’m a farm girl, it’s all A-okay!

Then she and I went back up to get ready.

Now I’m a pretty low maintenance kinda girl, but one thing I like to do is make my eyes pop out (make-up). If I don’t, I look like death warmed over or so I feel. When we went to Mermet Springs hubby threw my travel make-up bag in with food and it got left at Deb & Grady’s all week along with my pink hat. We had Deb grab our food that was left there, which also included my make-up bag. I was digging around in the bed of Grady’s truck and just as I jumped down he was like, dang, I was going to come help you out. Whew dodged that bullet. ha!

Then I started using his mirror on his truck to put it on. As I said, it’s just eyeliner, mascara, and maybe eye shadow (not always). I had to learn as a young girl to get ready FAST.

So I was riding Blonde Barbie (aka snookums). She was just broke this spring even though I was the first one on her fall of 2013. She’s never been trail riding other than checking for cows a few times at home so I was a little nervous about how she’d act. Jared and Grady thought I might need this…

We went down and saddled horses, then Deb decided we needed breakfast so took SW, Tbug, and me back up to the camper for some Breakfast Burrito’s (she said she got them at SAMS, YUM!) and Starbucks Frappuccinos. I wasn’t sure I’d like vanilla but dang, that was good.

At 8:30 or so we were off on the trails.

Karen rode her gelding, Rogue. Rogue seems to be one of those warhorses… you know, they’ve been through it all and are very laid back and mellow. As we started down one part of the trail he started throwing his head and even started to buck. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong so Karen jumped off and we found out he’d been stung by a bee. No wonder he was upset. Then a minute later Karen got stung on her leg as well.

Further down the trail, we kicked up a nest of hornet bees. Jared and his horse Callie (Kallie? I dunno) got stung as well as other riders throughout the pack. Tbug, Aloha, Blonde Barbie, and I managed to get through all that without getting stung. Not sure how although I kept telling people it’s because I’m sour.

Finally, we hit the halfway point, so that meant lunch! We had ham sandwiches, chips, dessert, and drinks. While we were standing there we were putting hats on the horses, braiding the horse’s manes, and feeding the horses chips and sandwiches. Don’t ask, there is no explanation!

 

Toward the end of the ride, Jared took us over by the cave. I’ve only ridden at Pineville one time and never seen the cave. Obviously, this isn’t a picture of the cave, but it’s in the same area. Had I had more time you can bet your bottom dollar I’d have been taking lots and lots of pictures :). I’m just like that.

SW is a senior this year. She had asked me to take some of her senior pictures for her. She wanted some with horses in them and she also wanted them taken in a place that isn’t typically where people around home take them. Earlier in the summer we talked about doing them during the ride but were afraid we’d be pressed for time. Then about a week before we just decided to go for it.

Soooooo glad we did. It’s so gorgeous down there with the rolling Ozark Hills/Mountains, the pretty grasses because of all the rain we’ve had this summer as well as the coolest OLD barn. OMG, I fell in love with this barn. And don’t ask me what Tbug was doing. I have no idea, I was working on setting up camera settings and caught this picture.

There is also a river/spring/creek thing that runs through this place so we decided that we’d put SW out in the water. But before we did that I put her up on a bridge that lays over the body of water. I couldn’t get the right angle to her from shore so I waded out into the water. Then just as I got to a part where I either had to go back to shore or else off into the deep area of the water, Tbug yells, Mom, there’s a snake. I thought she was kidding, but in fact, there was a snake swimming in the water. I DON’T DO SNAKES! I about had a panic attack, which way do I go, George, which way do I go. It was only about as big around as a pencil and probably a foot long but I don’t do snakes. He was also striped. No Thank You! I watched him all while pondering my next move but he went off to shore so I continued shooting photos. Dedication right there folks!

After we got done at the water with the pictures we were walking back up for SW to change clothes when the ice cream truck came in. She soooooooo wanted ice cream so we stopped and waited for it to come up.

Deb got a phone call while we were out taking pictures that said that they had food out and waiting for us. They had all eaten and were going to the auction that started at 6 but they left it out for us. When we got done with pictures then we went back to camp to eat.

Tbug and I wandered over to the auction but decided we wanted to see the pictures I’d taken so we went back to the campers just as SW was sticking her head in Jared and Karen’s looking for us. I grabbed my laptop and memory card and went into Deb & Grady’s so we could all look at the pictures.

Later toward the end of the auction, we wandered back down to the tent. At the end of the auction they threw out shirts from years past so we decided Pete needed decorating. I think he felt ashamed.

And Deb dared hubby that he couldn’t get into a Medium and a Kids Small shirt. So he put both on. I had to pull him out of them though.

And a picture of Sysco (Sisco, Cysco??) because why not.

We drove home Saturday night with the horses but had planned on being back down Sunday when hubs got done working to bring Grady’s other truck back to him so they could haul the camper home. Tbug, hubby, and I were picking up all our things in the camper to take home with us. Just as I had the last load which was my laptop bag, my camera bag, and maybe one or two other things I went to go out of the camper. Tbug had just said something about falling out of the camper and you guessed it… I took like 2 steps, missed a step or my foot slid or something, and down I went off to the left side. I got pinned between steps and a lawn chair. I was so embarrassed and in shock. #fail

Yes, it hurt my sides a little bit but all I could do was laugh. I laughed and laughed because serious, who does that?

When we got there Sunday, everyone was out riding so we let the dogs out of the campers and played with them.

Abug needed a nap, BAD! but refused to take one. We took her into Jared & Karen’s camper to try though but she was more interested in wearing Jared’s Muck Boots.

Karen got back and Abug still wasn’t asleep so she took a stab at trying to get her down for a nap. She almost gave in and then saw horses and it was all lost from there. Then they decided to take Abug down and let her ride since she LOVES to ride horses! I think that is just in her blood!

They had an awards presentation at 2 as well as a raffle for a saddle and a horse so we wandered up to the tent to watch that. Abug got a hold of Pete’s leash. I’m not sure he was too keen on that idea but he tolerates her just fine :).

After the awards, we went and helped pick up/put up campers and hook up campers. There were some blocks under tires on Karen and Jared’s camper so I went to pull Jared’s truck forward because they all told me too and next thing I know I was getting screamed at. Hubby was down in front of the trailer between it and the bumper of the truck (he wasn’t when I walked by) and I about hit him in the head with the front of the camper. #fail. Don’t worry, I didn’t hit him and it just would have been his head.. ha!

Once campers were all put up I went and helped Deb & Karen load up horses. Tbug was already down helping them.

We got them all loaded up and then it was time to head out. Hubby’s truck is just a single cab and we had 4 of us so we knew one person would have to ride with someone else. Well, we had a few things left in the camper from Friday night/Saturday so there wasn’t a lot of comfortable room for 3 people in the truck so hubby rode with Grady and Tbug rode with Jared. Abug was with me.

I guess Tbug talked Jared’s ear off all the way home, but we knew she would.

Once back to Deb & Grady’s we unloaded the horses out of Karen’s trailer she was pulling, then out of Deb’s trailer. Deb opened the back door, the one-horse Bo stepped backward, pulled hard, broke the lead rope, and fell out of the trailer. I was in shock, I’d never seen a horse do that. They all told me that he does that kind of thing all the time, they just have to try and stop him.

SW took Abug from me while I helped unload trailers and so Abug got to “ride” Rogue some more.

While Karen had horses all tied up, she went and got a bale of hay to feed to the horses. She accidentally hit the gate with the front part of the tractor and the gate busted #fail. That’s okay, later they welded it back together and all was good.

After everything was unloaded They started shocking Deb’s pool to try and clear it up. Karen had been drinking Kool-Aid and Abug wanted some. Karen told her if she could figure out how to use the cup, she could have all she wanted. It was no time flat and she had it mastered, downed what was left and we went to get more. She then proceeded to drink almost 3/4 of what Karen gave her the second time around. Apparently, the kid was thirsty or really likes Kool-Aid.

We went to dinner before taking Tbug home. Then went back to Deb & Grady’s so Abug, hubby and I could get our truck and go home. By this time Abug had ditched her shoes and socks and stepped in her first horse poop barefooted. Yes, I had to document that :).

So it’s no wonder why yesterday I was so tired. Such a fun few days but I was worn the heck out.

And one last thought. I got to see a Drone for the first time this weekend. A guy had one there and he put up this video. It’s a little over 6 minutes, but it’s super awesome. Check it out!