Pages

Training the Mind of the Horse and Rider

Training the Mind of the Horse and Rider
Click on Logo (Original artwork by Lanie Frick for Messick Quarter Horses. Not permitted to be copied)

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Year



Yearly Desk Calendar



Great Website on the History of Leap Year!

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/leapyear2.html


Wow, is this confusing or what?  How long did these guys sit around and figure all of this out?  It boggles my mind that they COULD figure it out!  LOL

 

Why and when we have leap years


by Borgna Brunner

Rules for Determining a Leap Year

  1. Most years that can be divided evenly by 4 are leap years.
    (For example, 2012 divided by 4 = 503: Leap year!)
  2. Exception: Century years are NOT leap years UNLESS they can be evenly divided by 400. (For example, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600 and 2000, which are divisible by 400, were.)

Related Links

2012 is a leap year, which means that it has 366 days instead of the usual 365 days that an ordinary year has. An extra day is added in a leap year—February 29 —which is called an intercalary day or a leap day.

Why is a Leap Year Necessary?


Leap years are added to the calendar to keep it working properly. The 365 days of the annual calendar are meant to match up with the solar year. A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun — about one year. But the actual time it takes for the Earth to travel around the Sun is in fact a little longer than that—about 365 ¼ days (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be precise). So the calendar and the solar year don't completely match—the calendar year is a touch shorter than the solar year.

It may not seem like much of a difference, but after a few years those extra quarter days in the solar year begin to add up. After four years, for example, the four extra quarter days would make the calendar fall behind the solar year by about a day. Over the course of a century, the difference between the solar year and the calendar year would become 25 days! Instead of summer beginning in June, for example, it wouldn't start until nearly a month later, in July. As every kid looking forward to summer vacation knows—calendar or no calendar—that's way too late! So every four years a leap day is added to the calendar to allow it to catch up to the solar year.

 

A Quick History Lesson


The Egyptians were the first to come up with the idea of adding a leap day once every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. Later, the Romans adopted this solution for their calendar, and they became the first to designate February 29 as the leap day.

 

But Wait! It's Not Quite that Simple!


The math seems to work out beautifully when you add an extra day to the calendar every four years to compensate for the extra quarter of a day in the solar year. As we said earlier, however, the solar year is just about 365 ¼ days long, but not exactly! The exact length of a solar year is actually 11 minutes and 14 seconds less than 365 ¼ days. That means that even if you add a leap day every four years, the calendar would still overshoot the solar year by a little bit—11 minutes and 14 seconds per year. These minutes and seconds really start to add up: after 128 years, the calendar would gain an entire extra day. So, the leap year rule, "add a leap year every four years" was a good rule, but not good enough!

 

Calendar Correction, Part II


To rectify the situation, the creators of our calendar (the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582) decided to omit leap years three times every four hundred years. This would shorten the calendar every so often and rid it of the annual excess of 11 minutes and 14 seconds. So in addition to the rule that a leap year occurs every four years, a new rule was added: a century year is not a leap year unless it is evenly divisible by 400. This rule manages to eliminate three leap years every few hundred years.

 

It's Smooth Sailing for the Next 3,300 Years


This ingenious correction worked beautifully in bringing the calendar and the solar year in harmony, pretty much eliminating those pesky extra 11 minutes and 14 seconds. Now the calendar year and the solar year are just about a half a minute off. At that rate, it takes 3,300 years for the calendar year and solar year to diverge by a day.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A Visit from my Brother and SIL

Today.I had a surprise visit from my brother John and SIL, Linda. My brother is a trucker and I don't get to see him often.  I don't get to see the rest of my family either, as all of my family is in PA.


John and Linda.  John, you need to trim that moustache!


Amber brought the boys up to visit.


Amber and Tyler,

While the boys, and John, napped, we played Golf, a card game.


 Snack time after nap,


Then we went downstairs to play with the army toys, that Caden's daddy and Uncle Micah used to play with.



I put my brother to work, seeing how hard our new Elliptical maching would be to put together. He found the machine was cracked. Bummer!


Tyler just laid around and chewed on toys!  And then tried to crawl towards all the fun toys that Caden was playing with.


John and Linda, thanks for coming to visit with us!
I am so glad you did.  What a special day!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Western Dressage Group

A group met on Friday evening at a local barn to watch Dressage Demos and set up a schedule to have a monthly meeting.  This is a group of Western Dressage, so you can use whatever tack is comfortable for you and your horse.  We will learn basic dressage in a fun environment!

Our fun loving, informative instructor, Dara,


my co-organizer Jennifer! Thanks so much for the wonderful idea and group gathering!


 Gathering time with Pizza,


and Introductions.


Talking about schedules and when to meet for our lessons.


Jamie's daughter, Jayda, enjoyed herself too!


 We watched demos in the arena.


and covered with blankets to stay warm!


I could not get very good action shots in the indoor arena.  Even though this is out of focus, can you see the great movement!


This was a 17.2 H horse!  Just gorgeous!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Babysitting the Boys

On Thursday, I watched Caden and Ty for a couple of hours in the morning.







Thursday, February 23, 2012

Still Muddy

Yes, Savannah, I see you are still muddy.


The morning was beautiful. 


But the sky was cloudy and dark.


 I went to babysit my 2 grandsons this moring. Caden and Tyler had fun playing!


Spring is coming.  Geese are flying!


Savannah didn't get ridden today, but Shaggy did. 


Savannah, I see you watching me.  You are getting rode tomorrow!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Muddy Horses

Did Savannah know that it was her turn for a ride yesterday?  There is a pretty palomino under that brown camouflauge.


Yes, I see you watching me. Oh, you think you are safe from being ridden?
Wait until it rains tomorrow and all that mud gets washed off!


yes, you can back to sleep?  Today you can. 



So I rode Shaggy, as he was a little bit cleaner.


Until I saw his other side of his face and neck!


These horses are shedding.  And they must be itchy.  So they roll, not in the high spots that are dry or in some of the places were the round bales were and there is no mud.  They must pick the sloppiest places!

Monday, February 20, 2012

We will not be Snowed In!


We will not be snow in again like 2 years ago!  We were actually stuck for 3 days then.
Hubby found an 8' snow blower. Bigger than the back end of our truck. 


We had to lift it off the truck with our tractor.


Look how big it is compared to Hubby!


Do you think this snowblower will move snow?


Hubby moved the snowblower with the tractor.


 Will it fit in the shed?


Now hubby tells me it needs  a little work.  It better work!


It better move snow. It's big enough to!


But we would be happy to not see any more snow this winter!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Clothing Inventory

Check out the Messick Tack & Feed Facebook page.



I started posting the Messick Tack Store tack and clothing on my Messick Tack & Feed Facebook Page.  "LIKE" that page to get all the clearance items and prices as they are posted.


Scroll down the  pages to see everything that is posted so far.
A few saddles first,


I have 3 Tex Tan Show Saddles,


and a Tex Tan Roper Saddle.

Then style by style of clothing and boots.



I posted all the Ariat Boots. 



I posted all the English clothes, a few jackets and blouses.



I moved on to all the breeches,



Kids and Ladies,



both summer and


winter styles. 





I have all the Kerrits clothing down, including jackets and vests,


Kerrits sweaters and fleece tops.



and summer blouses, both for kids and ladies.




Now I've started other long sleeve T's and sweatshirts.



 I hope to get all the winter clothing done this weekend.

Next weekend, there is a Tack Sale in Ashland.  I wonder how many clothes and boots and jeans I can fit into my SUV. 

Every day, I hope to post a new item on the Messick Tack & Feed Facebook Page.  Check it out!
Thanks!

"TRAINING THE MIND OF THE HORSE AND RIDER"

Messick Quarter Horses

Check out my website at: http://www.messickquarterhorses.com/

Lessons, Training and Horse Sales
E-mail me at messickquarterhorses@yahoo.com

Messick Tack & Feed

Messick Tack & Feed
website will be up soon! Click on logo to see current specials!