Lisa's Blog

June 19 - We are finally going to visit Motter Quarter Horses July 8th. Lindy (one of our previous lesson horses) has had a beautiful filly and I am so looking forward to seeing her. I think that she is the favorite filly at the ranch! On the field trip we will see all the other babies as well as grown horses at MQH.

June 1 - Blaze and Peanut are off at the trainers! We are so excited about this because both of the horses will be able to give riding lessons when they return. Peanut was doing really good, but he will learn so much more at the trainers and he will also keep Blaze company while she is there. They should both be back home in early July.

Welcome back: Shanna, Megan, Erin, Elizabeth, Chayla, Cierra, Dana, Libby, Grant, Alex, Claire, Heather, and Jessica.

March 1 - After the winter we had, this warm weather is really helping get me into the horse riding mode. We have a new horse, Misty, and she will be one of our lesson horses. She is really a great horse; a registered Paint with one blue or glass eye she also looks really good too. Sierra will be glad because she will have another horse out there with her for lessons. I am also planning on using Peanut for some of my lessons as well. We are all ready to get back to work!

July 20th - What a great time we had at the Pauls Valley Wild Horse Adoption Field Trip! The wild horses looked like I thought they would: small, healthy and skittish. I had no idea that there were so many states in the US that had free roaming wild horse herds. (There are 9). Tulsa has a Mustang holding facility just off of the Creek Turnpike, so the next time that you are traveling on that road look for the wild horses in the pastures...there will be many of them.

Riding lessons are in full swing this summer with most of them occurring in the early morning because of the heat. We have our new horse and I am excited about using him for lessons later this summer. Blaze, John's horse, is now being ridden and we are excited to see our "baby" finally being ridden. She is going to be a great horse!

May 2 - Thank God for the rain! Now the hay this year will be good and nutritious for the horses. We are still waiting on our new horse, Peanut. I think that he will be coming in early June. I am so excited about getting him! As for the name change, the more that I say "Peanut" the more I like it, but have not completely decided yet. Sierra is really looking good now that her winter coat is almost all gone...pretty as a gold coin. Did you know that the standard for perfect Palomino coloring is the gold coin? Sierra measures up pretty well to that. She is doing very good this year and I think that she is happy to be back to work teaching all the students how to ride.

April 7 - Flyers has started off the summer running! Already we have 7 riding students and all the afternoon spots are filled up. I am so excited about this year and what we have ahead of us. Each year students become more experienced around horses and more prepared in the world of horsemanship or even closer to their dream of having their own horse.

Welcome back: Amanda, Heather, Dana, Brooke, Christopher, Stephanie, Claire, Megan, Shanna

Some of you may be wondering whether it is cost-effective to board a horse compared to having land yourselves. There are pro's and con's to both. With boarding the cost is much more, but for the inexperienced it is definitely the way to go. The boarding barn will have many valuable resources in taking care of your horse. I would recommend any new un-experienced horse owner go this way for up to a year. Horses can be finicky creatures and like my swimming pool's water, if out of balance it costs a small fortune to bring back to par...but if the pool is kept balanced it is much less work and much, much less cost. At a boarding facility money in collected for stall use, feeding etc... each month as well as for feed, hay, vet costs and other routine expenses. Most of the cost of boarding is in the use of the facility.

If you are fortunate to have a few acres, shelter and fencing for a horse you are the envy of many people! Keeping a horse in this way is less expensive than boarding because you are not paying for the use of someone else's facility. Sometimes though the other person's facility is worth paying for!

For a more information out Investigating Horses 101 E-Book has a worksheet which has some information about owning your own horse.

Hasboro has a wonderful product! Visit their link for more information about FurReal Friends Virtual Ponies. See the "Life-size BUTTERSCOTCH Pony!"

http://www.hasbro.com/furreal/default.cfm?page=news&newsID=54D35BD3-D56F-E112-44907B77052676AE

March 15 -Well, it's finally here and it represents years of hard work and lessons here at Flyers. Can't guess what it is? Our Investigating Horses 101 New E-Book. If you've always wondered just what a Horses 101 Class is, this will tell you. I hope that none will be disappointed.

Now that we are in the beginning to prepare for our 2006 season the real fun starts! Getting horses ready for "little kiddo's" to ride is always a lot of fun and hard work. We will usually start riding them ourselves about a month before lessons start. The reason why we have to do this is because during the winter we typically put the horses out to "pasture" and just give them a vacation. After all they've earned it!

We are getting a new horse this year and we will begin to ride him halfway through the summer. His name is Peanut and I am thinking about re-naming him. Right now there is a contest to see who can come up with a better name for peanut. If you have a better name e-mail me with your suggestion. The winner will win our new Investigating Horses 101 E-Book.

Lindy, one of our other horses has another home. She is going to some good people and will be having a colt next year in February or March and I am planning on having a field trip out to see her and the baby. Her foals will be used for barrel racing events because of her racing breeding. We are all so excited to see how they will do, but it will be a long process. It takes so long for a horse to mature we are looking at 4 years at before one of her foals will be running barrels competitively. Gestation alone is about 11 1/2 months.

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Girls and Their Horses: True Stories from American Girl is a good book for girls.