Brody

I have wanted a pony my whole life. I have been praying asking God for direction in what was next in our lives. I have been training to get certified in Equine Craniosacral therapy after being trained in Human CST. With Victoria's medical condition preventing her from competing in figure skating let along just skate, we have been thinking where things in her life, our life be redirected. She has been wanting to do more with animals for the past couple years but hasn't been able to due to the number of hours and focus that went into figure skating. So I guess God's plan for us involved a Welsh Pony we named Brody. 

I periodically check KSL for horses and ponies for sale and found these welsh ponies up for adoption. They were reasonably priced and the money I had set aside for Victoria's skating coach in my venmo account would cover the cost. That was the first sign. I called the breeder who was down by Kanab, 4 hours away. I started talking with this lady named Julie and we immediately hit it off. I told her all about Victoria's head injury that revealed the Chiari Malformation and then was diagnosed with Dysautonomia. And how she has about 15 minutes at a time when she can push herself to be active before having to retreat to the couch to rest for the next couple hours. We both agreed how healing horses can be to people and that any time spent with the pony would be calming and rewarding.

She then mentioned that she brands all of her ponies. I was thinking, Oh...I wonder what letter.... then she said it was a dragonfly.

Dragonflies have significance in my life. In Arizona, we rarely saw dragonflies or ladybugs. When we lost our baby Sarah, in a moment of grief, a dragonfly landed nearby and at that moment I felt like it was God telling me that she is okay....and that I am going to be okay. So everytime I say a dragonfly, I felt like it was God saying that we were going to be okay. Fast forward to the house we live in. Who knew that after losing everything in Arizona that we would even qualify to buy our 113 year old house on 1 and 1/3 acres of land, with running water at our back gate. I knew that God confirmed that we were to be living where we live when during the entire month of August, swarms of dragonflies circle our yard like little bomber planes eating the tiny bugs flying. When Julie told me that her brand was a dragonfly, I got totally choked up. I knew at that moment that this pony was meant for us and that God was saying that we were all going to be okay. And that Victoria will heal and she will again be able to be physically active again....just not right now. Julie told me that she had lost her son 5 years ago in an accident and he just loved all the horses and ponies so she made her brand a dragonfly to remember him by. It was amazing the connection we found in just talking over the phone.

Brody had just gotten a bath so he was feeling frisky. I love the look on Jacks' face as Brody comes barreling around. He actually slipped and fell onto his side but bounced back up and acted like nothing happened.

He has been a lot of fun. He starts running around and then Beau next door starts running around and then the goats start running around, there's whinning going back and forth...it's like their own little rodeo going on.

He is a perfect addition to our family.

Some might think we are crazy but we already are teaching him tricks. Eventually, I would love to do pet therapy with him and take him to retirement homes. He is almost full grown at 11 hands. 

A perfect little pony!

Personal Contractors

Jared is an official, licensed Contractor, which means we have our own contractor living in our house. I love to watch these guys work. Not only do they work really well together, but it is also sometimes entertaining listening to them talk to each other. They just installed sheet rock to the ceiling! So no more fear of plaster falling off the ceiling!

A midnight visitor. For the past two years I thought we had mouse poop on our front porch. I guess not.

They throughly enjoyed ripping out the shower/tub. I was pretty happy to see it go except for the part of not having a shower for two weeks after. We took showers at Nana's. Kirk poured a bucket of water on himself in the backyard for two weeks. 

Henry seeking peace and quiet.

Jared was plastering and dropped a humongous blob on his foot.  

 

Cache County Fair...Covid Style

I was surprised that the County Fair pushed forward in their plans and actually had their Fair. The rides didn't come because in order for them to leave the Arizona yard, they have to have three events lined up and our Fair was the only one in the area so the rides couldn't come. We were also forced to move our arena to an out of the way place that was way too small for the space we needed. The blessing in it is that we still had a very fun event for the kids, we were outside so they didn't have to wear a mask if they didn't want to, there was still shade with plush grass, and we held the shows in the morning so the dogs performed better in the cooler mornings.

We held obedience, showmanship, rally and agility. I think the kids have the most fun with the agility. I love this picture of Victoria having a chat with Jasper about the plan. She started off using his leash and found that he didn't need it.

For the FIRST TIME EVER, Jasper did the teeter! He has not liked the teeter for his whole life. Last year, Victoria made a teeter for at home that is competition height just to try to get him to go over the teeter. He performed beautifully! We all cheered when he accomplished this difficult challenge! It really made Victoria's day. With this medical condition, she hasn't been able to run or even jog, so she went first all week so her energy was fresh and then we pumped her full of electrolytes and no one would let her lift any of the equipment!!

This dog loves running the courses. Out of all the programs I have led over the years, this has to be my most favorite program to be the leader of. I have enjoyed all the kids and their dogs. I have truly loved seeing their progress through training, with amazing results. It proves that kids can do some pretty awesome things.

We had the surprise of Rachael coming down from Rockland, Idaho with her sweet baby Ren, to judge Saturday's events of Agility. With the whole Covid thing going on, we didn't have judges come for Obedience, Showmanship and Rally so it was a treat for the kids to be officially judged for the Agility courses of Standard, Jumps with Tunnels and FAST! 

Nana and Poppa, Daphne and Jared, hanging out watching the events.

Something that we do every year is have parents run the dogs to see if they can beat their kid's time. It is always quite comical watching parents run the dogs and listen to the kids critique their parent in their handling skills. Kaleb, a Dog 4H alumni, ran Jasper. He calls him Wigamapoo (to irritate Victoria). Half the time Jasper doesn't quite know what to do because Kaleb can be quite loud.

Kaleb is always more excited than the dog at the finish line. 

Jasper loves it though because Kaleb gives good belly rubs.

 

Preston Biathlon

From the time Kaleb was just a little preschooler, he had the endurance of a kid, 10 years older than him. He would sneak in with the big kid's PE class at Roadrunner park and run with the Highschoolers. It doesn't surprise me that he has conditioned himself to bike/run 17 miles.

Oh, and he doesn't do Spandex. He has the most hilarious interpretation of the Spandex Slap. 

It's pretty funny.

He is also the only biker/runner who lugs a daypack. He says his essentials are in there.

This guy behind him was participating in the triathlon while Kaleb was doing the biathlon. This guy pushed it the last bit and actually finished a split second before Kaleb. The bad part was this guy was hurting because of it. I was actually watching him because he didn't look too good. It took him about 5 minutes to actually move once he had stopped.

Kaleb tipped his bike for the picture to discover that his water bottle was open.

He is getting quite a collection of bike race pictures. 

He finished the race in 1 hour 10 min. Not bad for his first Biathlon!

 

Summer Rain

 

A Parade and a Remodel

Victoria and her good friends Josie and Brooklyn hung out on the tailgate with Bonnie to watch the parade, social distance style. Due to the Virus, the parade traveled right past our house. It was great because we were busy with ripping out the bathroom with our only shower.

Miss Bonnie got lots of attention. Guys would stop the parade to ask what this cute little goat's name was. Bonnie is pretty social. She was a complete bottle baby so she is people imprinted.

I turned around and saw this! Not only is he wearing his "Eat Mor Chikn" shirt that he painted as a costume that he wore for Dog 4H. Sammy was a cow with a cow bell around his neck. Anyway, I turned around to see him waving to the parade people sitting on the toilet that they just removed from the bathroom. Miss Hyde Park waved to Kaleb and yelled that she liked his seat! Kaleb, you're not going to get a girl friend this way....or maybe that is what he's trying to do.

So this took place the second week of July and we are now in September....and the bathroom is still not done. We have hit road block after road block. I won't tell you what just happened....well, lets just say that I have to order ANOTHER ceiling rod for the shower rod that Kaleb bent himself. 

I am so happy to see this bathroom go! The plaster on the walls was so thick! It was disgusting. The boys gladly took the walls down to the studs.

We have had this dump trailer parked right out front of our house quite a few weekends.

 

Camping in Idaho

Knowing that Victoria struggles up in elevation, we thought we would give it another try and attempt to camp again. This time in Idaho. She has started on a whole new handful of supplements to help her brain recover, rebuild her adrenal glands, work with an Occupational Therapist to help recover from the brain injury....we needed the weekend away from it all but unfortunately, the medical condition was still present. She stayed hydrated, took all her supplements, took naps and played games when she could.

She is pretty amazing.

And like I've said before, there is never a dull moment. Always a party!

Victoria is teaching Kaleb how to rope. 

She brought her little roping dummy along.

Look closely at these next two pictures. I was trying to get Jasper to look at me so I could get an awesome picture of him sitting in this little grassy area. We were off the trail and it was quiet. The perfect place to just sit and "be". Well, he wouldn't look at me, and then he looks at me with just his eye. He would not turn his head!

Look at his eye. I think he was annoyed that I wanted him to look at me and he KNEW it!

He finally looks at me and glares at me. He let me know that he did not want his picture taken.

Kaleb brought his nature journal that he has been working on for the past four years. Kaleb and I have had some fun times working on our journals. He is better at keeping up with entries. Lately, I haven't been so good at it but he inspired me to make an entry.

 

Rockland Idaho

The girls and I spent a wonderful afternoon in Rockland at our dear friend Rachael and her adorable little boy. It was an afternoon of dogs and horses. I love how Silas is patiently waiting for Victoria and Rachael to arrive on the ATV. Really, he is waiting so he chase them!

Rachael turned Victoria loose on the ATV. She drove it up and down their driveway, which is really a dirt road on their 40 acres of property. It worked out because if she were to walk the distance, it would have wiped her out due to the medical condition that she has.

Rachael has taught Victoria about Connection Training. So they were practicing the techniques with her horses, Rowan and Frea.

Of course her Ram, Ramses wanted to get in on all the attention too.

He looks more like a goat than a sheep to me, but he's a sheep.

I got to push little Ren around while he took a nap.

It was pure bliss.

There they go again, with Silas leading the way!

I'm in heaven.....

Victoria and Daphne were working with Rowan. I like Rachael's vest that Victoria is wearing. She has the pockets all stuffed with hay as a treat to reward him.