Thursday, 27 October 2005

My friend and cell member (Kelly) worked at the Scrapbook store today. She called me to see if I would go pickup lunch for her. Gave me an excuse to go see her and go by the store! (Like I needed one!) Yep, I bought something. Since Vanessa started cropping again she was using my pages from my album to put her pages in so I bought her some until she can buy the album she wants. It’s the one by Scrap Artistry that is just dogs. It’s really cute but the albums are about $32. 

 ENDURANCE SADDLE

I spent the rest of the afternoon setting up to sell some saddles I have on Ebay. I finally got boxes big enough to put them in and took them to the shipping station to see how much they weigh. I had actually been working on this for several days. It’s much easier to be a buyer than seller in my book.  Anyway, I finally got one of two up on the web.

 

I chose to sell them on Ebay because I figured I had a better chance of getting what I want for them. One is an Endurance Saddle and the other is an Australian Stock Saddle. Both were used for long distance/endurance riding. I used to do that several years ago for a couple of years. I found this description and thought it said it better than I could.

An endurance ride can best be described as a cross-country competition of 50 or more miles. It is controlled by veterinarians who monitor the horses before, during and after the event. Several times during the "ride", there will be veterinarian check points. Pulse recovery is one very important factor used to determine the condition of the horses. The ride veterinarians will set and announce the pulse rate criterion before the start of the ride. DRUGS OF ANY KIND ARE PROHIBITED!! Veterinarians will remove horses from competition if they find they are not in optimum condition to continue. The first horse to cross the finish line, that has met the completion health criteria, is the winner.

The course for an endurance ride varies with the topography of the area. When laying out the course, the ride manager attempts to avoid obvious hazards such as deep bogs and sheer cliffs, but the endurance horse is expected to take in stride most natural obstacles.

Temperature, climate and footing will determine the speed at which the horses will travel. It is both personally challenging and rewarding to ride one's mount 50/100 miles and finish with a sound, willing horse. Much of the challenge of endurance starts with preparation up to a year or more before one's first ride. This athletic competition requires both horse and rider to be physically fit, have a good sense of pace and work as a team.

I started off with a few “long distance rides” first to get my feet wet which are 25 mile rides. I never did a 100-mile ride but I did do some 50’s. I think I must have been out of my mind!

Worked at Drive Safe tonight. Wasn’t much going on. When I got home Doyle brought me about 100 pages of paper he had printed out about a potential business opportunity. I didn’t handle it very well. He is looking for something else to do before he retires from the fire department which is fine but it was obvious to me he’s been thinking about this for a while and is just now discussing it with me! He wants to open a miniature golf, driving range, batting cages place (for lack of a word to call it.). If I were going to have a business it wouldn’t be that! If he does this it will require both of us to make it happen! I’m not particularly interested in spending ALL my time at this place! That is NOT how I see my future….and I don’t see horses in it at all! He’s thinking is it will generate more income to buy me the kind of place I want to have the horses on. Granted that is true but how long is it going to take in the mean time. We’ve had the horses 10 years now. Five years at this place, 5 years at that place. Where they are now isn’t ours. How long will it be before we’re asked to leave here?! Then what?! I’m not content to wait five more years for them a place! I know I shouldn’t have overreacted but I felt like he just sprung it on me. I would have done better if he had been talking to me about it instead of asking me to read a “manual”! Can you tell I am a “little upset”?! I know he’s really trying to give me what I want. I should be more appreciative. Again, Lord change my heart and my attitude…it stinketh!

Well to get a better perspective here’s an excerpt from “God Chaser’s” by Tommy Tenney.

That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? Catching Him. Really, it’s an impossible phrase. We can no more catch Him than the east can catch the west…It’s like playing chase with my daughter. When she comes and tries to catch me, I really don’t have to run, just artfully dodge this way and that and she can’t even touch me, because six year olds can’t catch an adult. But that’s not really the purpose of the game. In a few minutes she laughingly says “Oh, daddy,” and it’s at that moment that she captures my heart. I then turn and she’s no longer chasing me but I’m chasing her, and I catch her and we tumble in the grass with hugs and kisses. The pursuer becomes the pursued. So can we catch Him? Not really, but we can catch His heart. And if we catch His heart, then He turns and chases us. That’s the beauty of begin a God chaser. You’re chasing the impossible, knowing it’s possible.

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you says the Lord. Jeremiah 29:13,14 NKJV