First let me say there's darned few people I'd let train on my horses. I know quite a few "trainers", that make part of their livin training horses, that I wouldn't let clean my horse's hooves. But they talk a good game and more than enough folks fall for it. Darned shame really.

 

So when Olivia showed an interest in working with some of our horses she had a pretty tough sell to make. She's a barrel racer. Sometimes that don't set too well with me. Seen too many barrel horses in my time that been roughed up to the point all they know is run. They might win a few times but usually don't take long for them to fade away, whether it's due to a burnt out body or burnt out mind.

 

But I can usually tell in the first few minutes whether I'm gonna lead a horse up for somebody to ride or watch them walk back down the driveway. So it didn't take long to get Olivia mounted up. Didn't take long to tell I made the right decision.

 

One way to tell a good trainer is that they never look like they're doing much. To watch em is boring if you don't know what to look for. But blink your eyes and all of a sudden they got a whole lot done. If you don't know what your looking at you wonder how they did it. And if you do know what you're seeing you'll have a smile across your face.

 

Olivia doesn't really ride a horse....she glides. The horses respond and soften because they can tell they can trust her. She knows when to push them and when to give them a little time to figure things out. It doesn't take long til they're making it look easy.

 

So maybe right now you don't know who Olivia is. But you will. Especially if you have to compete against the horses she rides. So you'll want to remember her name. Cause I got a pretty good hunch that some day when folks are talking about that big name, famous trainer you'll be able to say, "I remember when she rode for the Smokin P".

 

As you look through our website you'll see pictures of horses, dogs, people, buildings, etc. Do you know the difference between them? Do you realize there's a difference?

 

That's kind of my smart alec way of saying that horses have their own special needs. For all that they can do they are somewhat fragile. Compared to dogs they are high maintenance. Seems a dog can crawl through the center of a roll of barb wire and not get a scratch. Some horses can get skinned up in a rubber padded room. A horse's digestive system is a really bad design. Their legs and feet should be 3 times the size they are.

 

We have to balance their needs with ours. We want a sparkling clean, intricately groomed show horse. They want to roll in any mud puddle they can find. We want to work on flying lead changes. They want to eat. We want to see them in a stall full of shavings. They want to figure out how to get over the fence and explore the countryside.

 

They're horses. We have to remember that. They need to live like horses as much as we can let them. Run, play and sometimes fight with each other. Roll in the dirt. Twist, turn and buck.

 

But they have needs that we have to provide. Careful feeding, worming, hoof care, wound dressing, fly control, dental work, vet visits, proper environment.and the list goes on.

 

When you take on the responsibility of owning a horse you assume some or all of these duties. When we take in a horse for boarding, training or special care we take on most of those responsibilities. They in effect become our horse and we treat them as such.

 

We run a "cowboy outfit". No long contracts with big words. No lawyers. No collections department. We believe in old fashioned business practices. Your handshake means more than your signature. We'll work with you if you'll work with us. It's all about the horses.

 

Well, summer is flying by. Pretty much August already. And like usual, most of the plans made over witer have fell by the wayside. Just always seems no matter how much you try to plan things, there's just never enough time.

 

But we got quite a bit accomplished too. A lot of work done around the property. Hauled in around 120 tons of gravel to get a drive back to the barn and get the area cleaned up. It's coming along really nice. And hopefully I won't spend near as much time getting the tractor un-stuck outta the mud next spring.

 

We haven't really done any showing this year. Yet anyway. Did one show with "Bandit" but was just a playing around thing. He's in training to run barrels and poles and I showed him in the pleasure classes. They don't give prizes for lapping the other horses.

 

I've had a few outside horses in for training this year. Have 2 here right now. One is a mare I put 30 days on earlier this year that is starting to act up some so it's sort of like warranty work. But she is a fun little girl so I don't mind at all. The other is a 4 yo quarter horse gelding that's being started. I've only ground worked him once since he just got here the other day. But he sure can move. And he's fat....I mean crease down the back fat. Gotta work some of that off of him.

 

We just got back from vacation earlier this week. Went on a road trip to Arizona and Nevada. Toured some ghost towns, old mines, and haunted places. Chris is the ghost expert of our outfit so she had all the planning arranged. But we checked out a few tack and saddle places and also toured the Desert Cablleros museum in wickenburg, Arizona. It's really cool to see the old time working gear and how things were done back then. Makes a fella wonder if all this technology is really worth a darn.

 

So I guess we'll see what al we can get done with the summer we got left. Sure dread thinking about winter coming on.