Ok – well, here’s the update from September, October and November….

Once we got home, we tried to enjoy the last few days with Patrick’s Dad who was flying back to Switzerland soon. The good bye for Patrick was short lived as he was soon following his dad and travelling to Switzerland to visit his family and friends.

  (Patrick’s best friend Martin and his wife Ursula)

The visit was long over due and especially his mom was giddy with excitement to see him. Patrick’s mom, for you who don’t know, has fallen ill with cancer quite a few years ago and the battle against the vicious illness has kept her from coming to visit us. It’s hard to be so far away when one of your loved ones is going through tough times, so it was great for Patrick to be able to go and visit.

(Patrick and his mom)

The first two weeks of his 4 weeks stay was filled with catching up and visiting friends and family and of course lots and lots of hospital trips to see his mom. Unfortunately enough, she had to stay in the hospital off and on during his first 2 weeks of his stay, but then got released and they all went, with grand kids, for a week to the Black Forest. Even though the illness was always present and sometimes restricted them in their activities their stay was memorable and they had a great time over all.

However her health started to deteriorate rapidly and we decided to extend his stay in Switzerland so he could be with his family in time of need. His mom has since passed away, on the day he was first scheduled to return to the US. We both feel very fortunate and blessed that Patrick got to be there and say his good bye’s and having had the opportunity to go through it all with his family at his side. Thank you all for your condolences and your phone calls and words of encouragement.

Meanwhile as it sometimes seems life stands still and the world quits turning for some, it goes into overdrive for others and with Patrick being in Switzerland and the upcoming community clinic with Pat Wyse was coming up pretty quickly. So the place wasn’t quite as groomed, the arena wasn’t dragged after every session, the home cooked meals weren’t as exquisite and the party Saturday night wasn’t going quite as long – Patrick was missed thoroughly, but with the help from everyone we got through and once again had a successful Community Clinic – thanks everyone for making it just that and for participating! I hope to see y’all next year again!!!

A couple of weeks after everything has quiet down, I finally could pick up Patrick from the airport in Gainesville! How exciting! I felt like I haven’t seen him in years! However shortly after he got home – a week later to be exact – I made the trip south to see MY parents. My mom too, is battling cancer, and is trying to recoup from chemo. So I went to help them, ease everyone’s burden just by taking over the daily chores (for everyone that knows me, knows how much THAT was just my cup of tea…. cooking (yup, ME! I was “cooking” – even made Thanksgiving dinner!!!), ironing (well, granted, it still looked like a cow chewed it up, even after I was done with it LOL), cleaning (I’m better cleaning my barn/stalls than a house), shopping (nope, not for fun, but stuff I needed to cook/prepare a meal… thank goodness there was a convenience store close by!), etc, etc, et – the week went over way to quick and it was time for me to leave again….I’m sure I’ll be headed south again before too long! Now I am/was  home this week – just in time to catch up and catch on everything and getting ready for my yearly trip to the NCHA Futurity on Monday. I didn’t think I was going to go – actually didn’t plan on it till just a few weeks ago. But circumstances have changed my mind and I booked the airplane ticket. I’ll be meeting Pat and Doreen there who have as well decided at the last minute to take the trip. So we’ll see what this year will bring!!!! I’ll be sure to let you know and keep you up to date!!!

here a few more pictures from his Swiss-Trip:

Patrick’s brother Andy (green shirt, standing) his Dad (center), his sister Sandy and her hubby Andi (blue shirt) and their two wonderful kids Lara (center) and Noemi (front, left)

Patrick and his god daughter Martina met for dinner one evening

yes, it is true – all the pictures you see of Switzerland – it REALLY is that beautiful!

Kappeler Brugg – Lucerne

“hiking the swiss way” ha, ha, ha (see the plastic bags?!)

Patrick who misses the mountains just as much as he misses his family in Switzerland, got lots of hiking done while he was there!

isn’t this a fun way to stack wood?

OK – here are some video clips from our show in Great Falls, MT

ok that was Sunday (above) …. here is Saturday (below)…. well, I guess it says that on the title LOL

more updates and pics and video clips to come – PROMISE!

now I at least brought you up to speed through August ha, ha, ha – September, October and November were filled with lots of stuff going on -  some very sad and some good, so I will post them next time!

Ready for some pictures before the next update?

As you know – I have loads of news to share with you, but I thought I’d first post some pictures from our trip from Montana to Florida, before overloading your patience to read through another lengthy post…..

time to say good bye and load up the horses….

the two Pat’s going over the most scenic way to drive to Cody, WY.

Shoot-out at the “Irma” Hotel in Cody, WY

our overnight stay (well our HORSES) in Wellington, CO

dinner or cocktails? That was the big question here at the nice little Mexican Restaurant in Albuquerque, NM

Skittles and I on our little hike where dogs were allowed….

Amarillo, TX

at the Big Texan, getting ready to devour a BIG Texan steak

“ can I go to the River walk”

River Walk in San Antonio, TX

load and unload and load and unload…. what great troopers our horses were once again!

SWAMP?????

the Battleship Museum, Mobile, AL

long, long overdue!!!!

I don’t even know where to start! SCREAM! I have not ‘blogged’ for what? 3 Months???? Oh boy. So much has happened and I don’t even know where to start to bring y’all up to speed! Ok – well, let’s start from my last entry… I think I was just getting ready to pick up Patrick and his Dad from Helena airport so we all could tackle the scenic drive home. We took the longer, but more scenic route back, which we’ve taken a few years ago and were excited to show Dad. Off we went from Pat and Doreen’s Horse Wyse Ranch the back way to Wyoming, where we stayed overnight in Cody. Of course we roamed the picturesque town and had dinner at the famous Hotel “Irma”, Buffalo Bill’s Hotel in downtown Cody. The next day we drove to Wellington, Colorado, where we are pretty much regulars – mostly on our way home. It’s a great place to stay over, as it’s right off the interstate, the place is wonderfully kept up and they take great care of the horses and a nice motel is just near by. We had to leave Wellington early in the morning, so we’d get through the busy town of Denver before too much traffic. But I think no matter how early we leave, traffic just keeps getting worse with every year and it was a tough ride…. roads were in bad shape and all the lanes were almost bumper to bumper at 80 mph! Once through Denver, things started to ease up a bit and there were loooong stretches of ‘nothing’ – the vegetation sure started to change drastically the more south we got and shortly after (at least that’s how it felt) we were heading for New Mexico. Albuquerque was our next destination, where we planned to stay an extra day. We went to old town and after a short stroll found a really nice little Mexican Restaurant, where we had dinner. We have spent the night in the middle of town (well, somewhere in the middle of town LOL) – one of the few horse boarding places around the Rio Grande. The next day we went to Sandia Peak, where we had a nice little hike and a couple of drinks at the Mountain Restaurant with a fantastic view all over Albuquerque. Sadly though we couldn’t take Skittles on our little excursion, so we had to leave early to check on her – she was “watching” the truck in the meantime and we were worried that it might get too hot in the afternoon for her. However the friendly employee at Sandia Peak allowed us to park our truck at her parking spot that was nestled in the shade and has supplied us with a water bowl for Skittles…. Skittles had no clue that she got the royal treatment and was sound asleep when we came back to check on her…..So we took her to another little park, where she got to run around amongst the big cacti and got to chase all kinds of different scents…. Off we headed to Amarillo, TX, where we stayed once again at the BIG Texan. Again an interstate facility that have a great steakhouse, wonderful motel and a real nice boarding facility for the horses all under (almost) one roof. Very convenient and always our choice to stay over night if we go that route. The next day we were headed for San Antonio – what a charming town and of course we wanted to show it to Dad. So again we opted to stay an extra day and it was well worth it! We did the Alamo by night, the strolled along the River, the Imax was on the list and a great dinner by sunset in the Space Needle restaurant.  Our horses stayed with a wonderful couple that took great care of them and were hauling water buckets by hand, since they had a broken water pipe close by…… Corey and Skittles were sharing the trailer and luckily it wasn’t too terribly hot – matter in fact it was the first ‘cool’ day of the season, which was greatly welcomed by the locals. Me, having had a rather ‘cool’ Summer, just looooved the hot and humid southern air and was dreading to hear that Fall has arrived already. But it was better and easier on the critters, to travel with some cooler temps, so I wasn’t about to complain (already). Off we went after San Antonio and headed to Baton Rouge, LA. We’ve lost our ‘usual’ overnight stay, because the people have moved, but have found another nice and easy to access place to put up the horses – a country facility right next door to the college campus, 10 min off the interstate. We have stayed there a couple of times already and knew how it all worked, so we took care of the horses, Corey and Skittles and went off to find a motel to stay overnight. The next morning we left again early, so we could drive to our second to last stop in Alabama. Thanks to the navigation system we got thoroughly lost and had to call our hosts to pick us up ‘way out there’ . After we put the horses up and tried to find our way around again, we headed to the Battleship museum. Wow – that was great! I try to post some pictures, even though I don’t think that they will do our impressions justice. The self-lead tour we did was great and the documentation and information was were impressive. Well worth it! Patrick and I have been wanting to stop so many times on our way home and never did – so we finally got around to it! Well and then we tackled our last leg of the trip – the hardest, cause once you know it’s the last leg, you just want to be home! And the FL heat and humidity is greeting us way before the boarder and that makes everyone more tired as well…. but we arrived around 4pm, just ready for barn chores and while Patrick’s Dad and I unloaded truck and trailer to some extent, Patrick hurried off to do chores. Bonnie, our wonderful neighbor has once again watched our place with her eagle eye and has taken wonderful care of the horses and the people at our place. We are truly fortunate to have such great people so close to us, WILLING to step in and take over! How lucky is that, huh????

getting ready to go home…

well it’s hard to believe, but Summer’s almost over… but then again, did it ever get here? I don’t think I have used any of my tank tops at all this year, but got lots of wear and tear on my fleece jackets and mud boots…. but it was fun, fun, fun…. I actually concocted another long entry yesterday with pictures and everything and then got disconnected. We had a rainstorm come in and my connection was fading quicker than I could save the entry …. so I try again. By now I’m sure y’all know that Scooter and I had a great show in Great Falls. I will try to post some video later on – We had two first places, a second and a 4th place. Wow – it was way cool. The neatest thing though was to have the support and enthusiasm of Kathie, Bob and Stacy who came along to support Pat and I in the show pen. I truly enjoyed their company and their support was beyond words. Thank you guys for being there and being such great friends. How fortunate I am to have you in my life. You really made showing (and celebrating) a whole lot more fun!!!!

The second week of the clinic went over even quicker than the first – if that was even possible. I love the August Seminar – simply cause I get to see and ride with all my friends. The July is always fun, cause I get to meet so many new people! Anyhow, after the fun filled weekend with Charlie Russell Train ride and gathering cows etc we dashed into the second week with lots of enthusiasm –

here we once again enjoy a wonderful evening amongst friends – pretty tough to “rough it” like that, huh?!

Bob, grilling our steaks to perfection – thanks Bob!!!

no puppy was save of Kathie’s spoiling…. they either laid down at her feet, waiting for some “involuntary” food droppings or then they stood in front of her camper, waging their tails, waiting for some dog cookies or then the real sneaky canines figured out how to go INTO the camper and sprawling out on their bed!!!!! Thanks Kathie…. it’ll only take us 10 months to get our puppies back to reality

To Doreen’s dismay, Pat figured out the “train whistle” he’s got for watching/feeding the horses while we were off on the Charlie Russell Chew-Choo ride ….

look how GREEN it still is…. usually by August the grass is brown and burnt…. so yes, we had lots and lots of rain, but the sunny days made up for whatever bad weather we had….

This is Cory in his new outdoor cage…. sharing his food with his pet Chipmunk….

well, I hear the Kubota’s engine… so I know Pat is not too far … I best get ready…. I will continue the entry another time – more pics to come and of course more stories…. cause Summer ain’t over till it’s over

into the second week already…

well, after a fun filled week with lots of riding and visiting with friends, I had a run in with Ceena on our last run on Friday afternoon (last run on the last day of the week – go figure) – she pulled, I pulled, she tried to pull her head away and one thing led to another…. and I ended up with a big chipped tooth and a big shiner …. however I did NOT come off….

Friday night we had a great dinner at the local Cowboy Coffee House, however we were all pretty tired and didn’t make it to the dance and the local Rodeo… Saturday morning, we worked the cowhorses and then headed out to Lewistown where we boarded the Charlie Russell Chew Choo train…..

I think we were the “hired” entertainers of the whole train and were asked to move from wagon to wagon to lighten up the other passengers LOL… needless to say we had all a good time and arrived back at the Horse Wyse Ranch way past our bedtime and of course were not all too thrilled when the alarm went off after only a short night sleep…. Sunday morning we worked the cow horses again and then changed horses to go up the hill to gather new heifers for our “fun time”…. we didn’t get home till 2pm, so we all were pretty tired by then (running on low fuel). We went down to the campground to gather the garbage, did a ‘dump run’ in town and came home for a nice get together BBQ with all the friends around here……

Today we started the week off pretty exciting, but nothing seriously happening….

now we sit down in the camp ground, having Bob grilling our steaks to perfection, before we are heading up the hill to work cows … then around 10pm it’s ‘wrapping up time’ for us….

“trying to scare the people with my shiner”

“the big glasses help”

“Stacy, Kathie and Doreen”

well, my steak is cooked, so I best go… I’ll try to check in with more pics soon….

Honey… I love you

The August Seminar has started…

After a busy weekend at the Horse Sales in Billings, we returned home to Townsend on Sunday afternoon. Our friends that arrived as early as Thursday have taken well care of our horses and Cory. All pens were cleaned and all horses seemed to have weathered well (even w/o the blankets …). Stacy and I finished putting everything away and went down the hill to say HI to everybody before heading up the hill and into the pasture to spray weeds before having to meet Sunday night for our first gathering of the August Seminar. Of course we got “stuck” with Mitch’s Bloody Mary’s… to the point where Pat was saddling up a horse, looking for us and seeing how we were doing spraying weeds…. we crossed his path as he was on his way home ha, ha, ha… Mitch, Stacy and I still got lots of spraying done and came home just in time to hurry with barn chores so we wouldn’t be late for the meeting.  The “party tent is up and we are ready to go and have another great clinic…

Sure enough with the start of the clinic, the night from Sunday to Monday we had tons and tons of rain – Mud welcome home!  So we had to ride indoors, which always makes things a bit harder as most of us are ‘roughing’ it in those two weeks and lots of stuff is being left outside… Tuesday was a gray in gray day, cold and breezy, however it was not AS rainy…. Wednesday it was nice and cool, but at least the Sun was out which brightened the mood tremendously… Tuesday night we all were supposed to meet for a get together, video and discussion…. so Stacy and I took the opportunity to do the garbage run and laundry at that night, so we wouldn’t miss a night working cows (don’t want to miss cows for laundry, do we now…. LOL) – Kris Nast pulled in Tuesday afternoon to visit the Horse Wyse crew for a few days – yahoo… we have yet another cook and a homemaker, so not to worry, Stacy and I will have plenty of GOOD and HEALTHY food to eat now  (we are notorious for eating from the fridge to the mouth – w/o hitting the stove in between LOL)

That’s Kris and her 4 wheeler…

here’s a little view or Townsend – the Townsend State Bank… one of the oldest and privately owned banks in the Nation. Has been in the family for 4 Generations….

This is Kathy Neu, who came to FL once to ride in our Fall Pat Wyse clinic. She’s holding her dark bay “Tex”, who’s a horse she’s bought from us…. then the Palomino is “Hank” who is one of my training horses for August.

Mitch and Bob (who is Kathy’s hubby) – also known as “Grasshopper” or Bobby Dick (for Robert Richard) LOL… poor thing has to put up with all of us women. But he’s a great sport and fun to ride with. Sure wished Patrick could come up here too, so he could give Bob some male support….

Here’s Mitch and I… not the tank top and the polar fleece shirt? Guess who’s from Idaho and who’s from Florida????

 

Skittles is stealing everybody’s heart… she’s such a nice dog to be around and is the mascot of the campground….

Here’’s Pat, Skittles and I, saying good-bye to the July people – it’s always a sad day! So of course lots of last minute pics have been taken and I just got this one from “Fast Kathy” – Thanks Kathy for passing it on!

Another week gone by….

Time’s just flying by and we’ve been so busy around here that I have hardly found the time to boot up my computer…. the show in Hamilton was great. However the entry fees were about 100.- more per class (!!!!!) than at other shows, so it was an expensive weekend. Friday, Scooter and Yeller (Pat’s gelding) were doing great and being competitive and showing well. The cows were tough, but we were fortunate to have an early draw, so we lucked out and the cows were still good for us. Phew…. Scooter and I were leading the class for a while, however it wasn’t quite enough to win it, but we were happy to have had such a great run! The next day, wasn’t going so well… Actually Scooter worked even better, but I was in the bottom third of my class and the cows were getting tough to hold…. My poor pony tried his darnedest to hold the first cow, but she almost pulled the reins out of my hands, ducking underneath his neck… so needless to say, loosing a cow wasn’t getting us into the money this time LOL…. Sunday was our best day yet, however we had a rough first cut, that knocked us out of the $, but we had the best run yet (work wise… too bad it wasn’t enough for the big fat check) – So we drove home Sunday night… having had a great time in Hamilton. The Bitterroot Valley is just absolutely georgous – I sure wish I taken some pictures to share. But I think I just was busy enough with everything else, I never took the camera out of its case. As soon as we got home, we met Stacy, who pulled in about 15 minutes ahead of us… A big hello of course, not having seen each other for a month (she dropped two colts off for me to ride a month ago – wow, time flies!!!) – so we put all the horses up, put away the show stuff and then went on down the hill to the camp ground to have cocktails and snacks and a great chat with Karen, Pat’s neighbor …. Monday started off busy – with was going to be a non-horsey day, as we had so much stuff to do and only half a week to get it done as Stacy and I were going to the horse sales on Friday already…. So Monday we tried to get caught up with fixing the arena fence (I ran a cow through the fence, so we had to fix that before the second seminar started), working on the sprinkler system for the big roundpen and weed spraying….

 

Tuesday we worked our cow horses on fresh cattle… THAT was fun! Then off to do more farm work, weed spraying, keep working on the sprinkler system (it was getting close of being done) and then riding another set of horses in the afternoon. We were going to meet Liz and Rob in Helena for Dinner that night. Liz had a bird cage she was going to give to me for Cory – I was so excited!!! So Cory has an indoor and outdoor house now… we had a good visit with Rob and Liz … sure wish we could see more of them…. too bad they moved to the other end of town. Thursday, Stacy and I went to town to do laundry and do a dump run after we worked the cow ponies…. then coming home and hoping to finish the round pen project (which we got done) – wow… way cool. Now we have a great sprinkler system… THAT will make things easier! As soon as we were finishing up the project, Kathie and Bob were pulling in… it was so great to see them. They are such great friends and I sure wish they’d live closer or I have a chance to see them more often!!! Anyhow, I will be looking forward to see lots of them in the next two weeks…. we all met down at the campground for drinks and snacks (we never got around to actually have dinner) when Pat and Doreen showed up and joined the ‘party’….. then Kevin joined in and we had a fun little evening….except the mosquitoes put a bit of a damper on it, but coming from FL we are just not used to them at all …. Well, and here we are… Friday evening already… Sunday night the second seminar will start…. Stacy, Doreen and I are in Billings at the Livestock Horse Sales for the weekend. We hope to sell some of Stacy’s horses… today was the preview of the two- and three year old cutting horses on cattle. We decided we will NOT show them on cattle, however we still rode them around to get them used to and ready for tomorrows preworks before the sale (you get a minute and a half to show off your horse in the arena) – both our colts (only having about 45 days on them) were pretty frisky and experiencing a lot of stage fright, but worked through it just fine and by the time we were ready to put them back in their pens, were walking nice and relaxed in the warm up pen…. what troopers!!! – So tomorrow they will sell…(hopefully) – looks like they all sell tomorrow, however the two colts will sell lat at night. So we won’t make it back to the ranch before Sunday morning…..Anyhow, now I’m pretty ‘toasted’ myself… Stacy is already sound asleep and Skittles is laying at my feet, not knowing if she should ever tell her friends at home that she got to stay in the Montana Grand Hotel…..

Pat and I after working our cowhorses – talking things over….

Pat, cooling out Yeller, while I get ready and warm up my horse…

 

 

 

well, I have more pics to post, but I AM tired, so I try to not wait another week before signing in again….

call it an early night…

well, I guess y’all wonder why I don’t post for a week and then 3 times a day! Well, first I had a long lunch (very rare) and then an ‘early’ evening….

But let me tell you about the weekend a bit (sorry – no pics and no video ….)…. It was a blast to say the least. We decided to leave early in the AM to go to the show instead of the night before and staying in a crummy motel, having to eat dinner out and get a stall for the horses…. MUUUUUCH easier to put up with an early Sunday drive…. and boy was it beautiful. I packed up my trailer (my house) and stayed up at the barn overnight…. at 5am I loaded Yeller and Scooter and picked up Pat and Doreen at the house. We drove up to White Sulphur Springs (up a canyon) and had breakfast at a little tiny cafe. Then on we went through Harlowtown to Big Timber, where the cutting was. It was on the rodeo grounds… how fun. I’ve never been outside at a cutting and truly enjoyed it (I guess cause we didn’t have any rain!!!) – the loping pen was the rodeo arena – so it was nice and big. The cutting pen itself was a little catch pen to the side – it was great! Pat and Yeller did great – however the fast, rerun cattle didn’t let him score as well as he should. But Yeller was great and stayed on the cow even though she tried to jump out of the pen, hang on the side, before sliding back down into the pen. It was quite a sight (or should I say rodeo???). They ended up 4th in their class. I was first in my bunch on fresh cattle, and the gal that settle my cows told me to be careful, they are all like “Quail” – so I snuck one off right at the end, got some good licks in and then tried to do that again…. the second cow was just as good, however I didn’t ride Scooter as well as I could have or should have….so I ended up with two misses (being out of position), which cost me first place. Oh well… we take a second for not having shown since March and it being Scooter’s 5th or 6th show….! Pat was tickled the way Scooter worked, so I guess I should be too….

The way home was quite spectacular, with lightening shows all around us and we actually hit a bad rain storm (well in FL you probably wouldn’t call it bad LOL) – we ALMOST pulled over, cause the roads gotten so slick. Pat said this is the most rain he’s seen in this country at this time of the year…. the flowers are still blooming in the pasture and the grass is still green and growing!!!! Anyhow, we took care of horses, dogs and other things (unloading the trailer, putting/cleaning stuff etc) and went to bed early. (Honey you would be proud of me how I parked the rig next to the bunkhouse – one try and I got it smack in the middle… surprised myself LOL – I thought I had to sleep on uneven ground for a night ha, ha, ha).

We got an early start today and had the big help of Karen, who brought Mugzie, her horse, to stay with us in between clinics… Since the cows were all used up and stuff, we worked a couple of 3yo’s on them. Pat worked Reno and I worked my little red roan mare, Ceena. Boy is she cowy… maybe my next Scooter???? Then we went up into the pasture, to gather more fresh cows to work. As soon as we broke for lunch we had a heavy, heavy downpour… I couldn’t even see out the window to my truck … and lots of hail as well…. hooooray…. lots more mud in the forecast!!! In the afternoon, we loaded the used cattle in the trailer and hauled them out into a different pasture (we didn’t want to drive them with horses and dogs, cause we were afraid to mix them up with the fresh cows in the field…). Have way through our task, it started to pour again! It cleared up it rained, it cleared up and then it really rained…. now it’s been raining and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop…. so I have an early night… I took a hot shower, will see what I can dig out of the fridge to eat and maybe start a movie on the laptop….