Summer has been busy!

 Bonita, May, 2012

I haven’t blogged in ages!  This summer has been busy with horses and riding!  At the end of April, I bought 2 Rushcreek Arabian mares, to start conditioning for the Fall CTR’s.  During May, I was riding them, Shaggy and Duke, and through May and June, tried to bring in 2 4-year olds to be saddled and lunged.  This didn't happen every day, but I tried to work everyone a couple of times a week, and ride Shaggy and Allie and Bonita most of the time.  I was also riding Savannah, and did sell her in June.  The first weekend of June, I hosted a Centered Riding Clinic.  Through May-July, I was giving kid’s lessons when it wasn’t too hot and humid.  Even at 8-9 am, if I thought it would be too warm for the horses, who are lesson horses and out of shape, I cancelled lessons.  We didn’t have many July lessons, due to the extremely hot days.  I found myself inside sooner and sooner.  At least, I’m catching up on house things… some cleaning, paperwork, putting things away.  Why is it that I look at my dresser, and it keeps collecting “things” and I never get that cleaned off!  I need to put a box under my bed to put that stuff in to!

Time to take on a project!  LOL  For a few year, a different room was painted.  About 4 or 5 years ago, I finally took out 70’s kitchen cupboards and had the whole kitchen re-done, with new paint in the kitchen and eating area. Along with that major project, the tile guy finished our master bathroom tile.  This is a tiny bathroom, just big enough for shower, toilet and sink, and it had been tore up for a year!  Once we watched and saw how the tiling got done, we had the toilet and sink and vanity in within days!  Those 2 projects lasted my “let’s get something done” for a few years.

 But a few years later, the downstairs basement family room got new carpeting, as grandbabies were first starting to crawl.   The next year, the living room got new floors, and since we were down to the wood subflooring, the family room, which was directly under the upstairs living room, got some extra ceiling lights!  That room used to be so dark and 6 new lights sure made a difference.  Last year, the main bathroom was done by hubby and me. The 80’s wall paper, and underneath it the edges of the 70’s flower power wallpaper, was replaced by tile. We put in a very small jet tub that would fit and tiled the tub shower area.  And I was very pleased by how it looks!  Love it and my horsey home décor items!!!

This year, I turned to the office/exercise area. Not much exercising is getting done, but it needed organized.  Hubby has taken over some of the area too.  This room used to be the boy’s bedroom and was a great room for exercise equipment, but is too small for that and 2 office spaces. But I’m trying to make it all fit. 

But getting back to “summer has been busy” made me think about projects.  August is usually about when I start a new project, because it’s too hot to be outside.  July ended up being that month!  I still rode early mornings, but not even every week.  Hubby and I did go home the first week of July to visit parents in PA.  I did ride the 2^nd week of July, and the horses were riding great after 9 days off.  But then the 3^rd week of July, horses and I shut down.  They were hot and sticky, I was hot and sticky because they weren’t riding easy, so I decided if I had to work at riding, everyone was going to have a break!  Then my major project started.

I am, and have been, liquidating my tack store inventory for the last 2 years, since closing my store March, 2010.  I have been selling items in vendor booths at a few horse events, and reopened during the Christmas season the last few years.  I had discounted my prices and offered sales at 50-60% off.  Up until now, I had refused to offer more discount and lose money.  But I felt it was time to do just that.  I decided to sell items at 50-75% off online through Messick Tack & Feed Facebook Page. By the end of the 3^rd week of July, I had tables lining my basement walls, and laid out all my inventory.  My clothing racks were already against 2 walls, with hanging clothes on them.  So I really only had to organize the T-shirts, books, caps, jewelry, kids item, Christmas cards and Breyer ornaments, Home Décor, and jeans.  The few items I had in storage in the barn, like cinches, grooming supples, first aid supplies, and a little bit of tack, and supplements were laid out on racks and tables in a room of the barn.  I was ready to see what I could sell.  And stay out of the heat on those 100+ days.  Check out the sales under the Photo Section!

Wow, the sale on the FB took off!  The minute I started posting photos of what the rooms looked like, I had messages as to what I had for sale and at what price.  I realized I needed to take close ups of each area, list the items, and put info and sale prices under each photo.  Easy to do, but time consuming.  For the last 3 weeks, that is what I have been doing.  Each day, or every 2 days, I tried to post new photos with prices.  The past 2 weeks, I took individual photos of all the jewelry, tank tops and t-shirts I had, and posted them with sizes and prices.  The Montana Jewelry sold out within a day.  Trying to keep up with messages and orders made for some long days.  But this is good news.  I see the piles slowly going down, yet I have a good selection of everything.  I don’t have all sizes in everything, but if not in one style, I have it in another style.

I’m looking at the whole picture now, from start of the tack store 8 years ago, until today.  And before that, I had feed sales.  Profit is still there.  If the use of social media would have been greater 4 years ago, or if I would have started using FB more, 4 years ago, (I’m not sure when FB started), I may not have closed the store.  I know I should have liquidated more items every Jan and Feb, when sales are at a slump after Christmas.  I should have offered more items at 60-75% off, just to move them, and make room for new items. 

Hindsight is wonderful.  Along with that, comes knowledge.  I’m a better businesswoman now.  Even if my business is turning another corner.  I’ve learned quite a few things from having the tack store.  I’m not sure I’ll deal with customers any differently, but I can understand customers better.  I’ve worked hard at helping customers find what they need and not what I could sell them.  I have always held that honesty and integrity and truthfulness is a must. 

I’ve been so busy, and have had very little free time.  I think within another week, I’ll be caught up on taking and posting photos, and then I’ll have some extra time.  I want to get back to blogging and posting informative articles and tips on my Horses Are Our Lives chat group.  I need to get back to working all these horses since we are having cooler mornings.  I want to get back to reading all these books I have and talking about them.  And I need to getting back to taking more photos to post on Sunday Stills, which I haven’t done all summer!  I’m not sure when I posted there last.  I miss it!  I miss that interaction. 

I did check FB this morning, and realized that I couldn’t take the whole day off.  If I hadn’t answered some messages, tomorrow afternoon would have been terribly busy.  I organized some piles of product that people were wanting and I can start invoicing more orders. This is after invoicing a large amount of orders last week, too.  

Then I sat down to blog!  It’s amazing when you finally sit down, and do nothing, how slow time goes.  I’m liking this. And I might just do this every Sunday afternoon from now on… when I’m not riding.  Those projects and chores will wait and be there tomorrow.   Time to grab a cup of coffee, lay my head back on this lounge chair, listen to the wind and the birds, and watch my horses in their lot.

Summer is Over!

Summer is almost over! Hard to believe! Summer just didn’t seem long enough! We just didn’t have the heat that we have had most summers. Sure, we had a few hot, unbearable days, but not so many that we were counting the days until fall. And now, August is ending in near record lows. We even had days in July where we did have record lows! Isn’t that amazing? Yet, weather stations have said that July was only the 5th coldest, so there were even colder Julys sometime since the late 1800’s, when they started keeping record of the temps!

Traditionally, I don’t ride in August because of the unbearable heat. But I had no excuse with the cooler mornings. I still didn’t ride very much. After County Fair the first week of August, I spent the 2nd week in Colorado. I did ride for 4 days while I completed the Centered Riding Level 1 Instructors Course. Since coming home, I have spent the last 2 weeks not riding. I had to take a few days to recover from jet lag, then I spent the last week and a half doing odds and ends around the house.



I caught the “Organizing Bug” while my parents were here in July. My parents came for a 2 week visit to see their 2 newest, then 7 ½ month old, great-grandchildren for the 1st time! (This makes # 17 and 18 for them! Isn‘t that wonderful!). While they were here, I refinished the downstairs family room, which I love! I said good bye, no, I said good riddance, to the 70’s look. No more orange not-quite-shag carpet. No more dull walls and ceiling. Every day, we did something different in the mornings. I worked my tack store in the afternoons. The first Monday, we went carpet shopping. The rest of the 1st week, we packed up books, moved out furniture, tore up the old carpet, and repainted the walls and ceiling. The 2nd week, new carpet was laid, furniture was rearranged, bookcases were filled with books, and a toy area was established. I love my new family room!!! Nice, padded, soft carpet for the grandbabies to crawl on, and for grandpa “Pop” to lay on also!!!
Back to the present. Or at least, back to the last 2 weeks. I really had no excuse to not be riding for the last week and a half. Cooler mornings. ½ days at the store. Needing to prepare for Fall CTR’s. But I just wanted to get some odd and ends done in the house. I don’t know if I ever had the “nesting” bug when I was pregnant, but it was kind of like that. I just wanted to get some things done. Maybe because, when my parents were here, I started cleaning up the house and bedroom closets. The family room was emptied out, and the pool table was ladened down with all that stuff. One Sunday, when Sara, Jake and Makenzie were home to see grandparents, AND Jacob, Amber and Caden were here, AND Micah was home also, it was almost a free for all!!! LOL I told the kids that everything on that table was going. Take what was yours, and if there was anything left, whoever spoke up first got it! It was amazing how much stuff did go!!! But I wondered why I had some of Amber’s old stuff here, and not at her parent’s house! LOL And, no Sara, you can’t have the NEW horseshoe towel bars - they are for the bathroom! LOL

The one spare bedroom is the office now, but we had set up the bunk beds again, even though the grandkids won’t be able to use them for years! A bookcase and computer hutch were taken out, but the desk and closet was the pits! I went through boxes of “stuff” and got the closet organized and now I can see the desk again.

And I put the kid's baby pictures back up on the wall. I can't wait to add Makenzie's and Caden's baby pictures above the parent's baby pics!

Then, this past week, I wanted to work on Sara’s old bedroom, which is now the spare bedroom/baby room. I needed to make more room for a crib, and still be able to walk around the room. At first, I though I would repaint. But I had repainted after Sara was in college, and the walls still looked nice. It was amazing how much bigger the room looked after I de-cluttered.

A cedar chest went to the family room to sit beside the toy area and one of the bookcases.
Breyer horses, that were still in their boxes, and that were stacked on the floor, were taken down to the family room. 3 large stuffed horses were taken to the bunk beds.
The rocking chair was taken to the family room, to a corner beside the furnace room door. (Tom said the family room is looking cluttered now, but I think it looks just fine, and horsey!)

Now, I had to get Tom help me to rearrange furniture. He loves doing this with me. Not! We do have a wall filled with a dresser and my old vanity, but that opened up a wall for the baby crib.
Now, we have a portable crib,
but I’m ready to set up my old crib when we get a new crib mattress. And I hung some of my old paintings that my mom had done for me. They are from the old, paint by number sets.





One year, both my sister and I got them as a gift. I thought they were special then, and I think they are doubly special now. I haven’t had them hanging in a long time, and now they frame the large bedroom window. I just have to hang another hook for the new curtains, that I had for about 2 years in a bag under the bed, that I found when I started de-cluttering. It's great to find things that you forgot that you had! The room is ready for family and grandbabies to come visit!

Tom and I spent the morning cleaning the large windows in the 2 bedrooms, and cleaned 4 ceiling fans throughout the house. While Tom finished putting shelf hooks and the shelves into the closet, I hung curtains that I washed a few days ago.


Tom attached a book case to the wall and I vacuumed the living room. We changed the water filter. Tom starting working on getting a larger frig to fit into the smaller frig opening in the downstairs kitchenette. I put the finishing touches on the bedrooms.

Time for chores. It was already 6. The day flew by, and still no horse time, except for feeding them their grain. Maybe tomorrow….

Come along for the ride, when I get riding! I better start riding soon…

Summer Lessons are winding down!

This week was the last scheduled lesson for the summer. Or so I thought. I have an awesome group of 5 teenagers and a few pre-teens. I have had some 10-12 year olds that have been returning every summer for a few years. I have some young 6-8 year olds that have started lessons for their first year. All of these youth have made lessons fun!

Some of the kids were brand new to horses. I even had a little girl from California, visiting grandparents here. Some of the kids didn’t know how to brush or to lead a horse. Some weren’t sure how to get the reins over the horse’s necks, let alone how to get on! Heels were up. Backs were slumping. Uncertainty showed. They just didn’t know what to expect. After the first day, they couldn’t wait to come the next day, and try a different horse! I am so lucky to have such good lesson horses, even if they have their “quirks”.

Consistency works. Dedication to weekly lesson works. Just a willing attitude! This summer, many of the kids have learned to post the trot, and even to lope! We have worked on going over logs in a trail pattern. We have worked on pivots and forehand turns and half passing. We have side passed the logs and backing through the logs, even backing in an “L”.

The kids learned balanced, as well as some Centered Riding techniques. We worked on simple things, like soft eyes so we see the world around us as we ride, and each other! We learned deep breaths to help us to relax as we ride, and to exhale so the horse hears the sound and relaxes also. We grounded our feet so that we can feel the whole foot in the stirrup. We actually put a little more foot into the stirrup than we thought we would. We found our seat bones by “marching”, first one foot out of the stirrup and lifting the knee, then the other foot. We didn’t work on intent, the word, as much, but then after I thought about this, maybe we did. By the end of the summer, I talked about how the kids should know what they want their horse to do and to have their horse do what was expected! That is intent. Have a purpose. We did that by have a pattern. We practice weaving through the poles and walking and trotting over them a lot!



The kids loved trotting the barrel and poles pattern. They love weaving through things!!! Poles, cones, logs. They taught me a lesson to always keep things fun. What is amazing is that they don’t even know they are learning to guide their horses. Kids (and adults) do so much better when they don’t “”try”. When we have a set pattern, or the kids try to do something at a specific spot in the arena, things sometimes fall apart. (Same with adults).


(Chick on Working Cow, now an awesome beginner horse!)

This reminded me of what Sally Swift, coordinator of Centered Riding, said. “Work or concentrate 75% of the time on you, as the rider, and only 25% of the time on the horse”. If the rider watches where they are going, and quits watching the horse, things go better! If I gave the kids something to do, like weave these cones going this way in the arena, and on the other side of the arena, weave the barrels, they did awesome! Many of the kids wanted to trot this pattern, as the walking was too simple and easy! Imagine that!

I asked some of the older youth to keep a journal if they wanted to, and to write some thoughts down. I wanted to hear about some of their “ah ha” moments when the light bulb goes off and we “get it!” I’m excited to hear what they wrote about and to hear their thoughts. I’m most anxious to know what their light bulb moments were! We call them “LB’s”!

This morning was suppose to be the last scheduled lesson for the summer. I added next Tuesday. It looks like these kids have come along for the ride. How about you?

To Ride or Not to Ride

I just spent 3 days at our State 4-H Show in Grand Island, Nebraska. 500 kids. Over 1000 horses. I set up a tack booth. Mornings were cool. Afternoons were hot! When the sun went down, evenings were fine.

I left Grand Island Tuesday when it was 91 degrees. 2 hours later, when I arrived in Lincoln at my store, it was 93 degrees. With my husband’s help, it only took an hour to unload the trailer! We at least parked in shade to unload. But by the time I got home, and Tom and I finished chores, I was tired.

Today, the morning started out cool. I thought… today is cooler, and I can go on the Platte River Riders Ride tonight! Noon time was only 81. Looking good! I came home from the store and spent 1 ½ hours mowing. Now it’s 3, and mid 80’s. Not too bad, a little warm, but I’m sweating a little. I think the humidity is rising!

I needed to wait for the Direct TV repair man. He was suppose to be here at 3, but arrived at 3:20. OK…I can still make the ride. Temp seems to be warmer. Within minutes, the repair man determines that we are only getting 9% of the reception, when 50-60% is normal! It seems that my tree cutting happy husband has cut the wrong branches. I thought, “oh great, what is this costing me?” But we have free service. Yeah!

Temps seem warmer. Both the repairman and I are sweating. Riding doesn’t seem so great now. Repair man leaves and I call Tammy. I told her that I am wimping out and staying home.

I came into the house to cool down. Thermometer says 88 degrees! Relaxing and swimming sounds nicer than rushing to get a horse and tack loaded, trailering for 45 minutes, and sweating while I brush and saddle. I decided that I was too tired to do all the prep work to ride, haul, tack up, and ride. I wanted to relax.

So I downed a swim suit, called my son to tell him that I was home and they could come swim. I wanted to see my grandbaby, Caden. I was suppose to babysit him tonight, and that got changed to tomorrow night. So he came to swim with Grandma.

I was a lot cooler tonight than I would have been!!! Even though it seemed liked a lovely night to ride, I was just too tired to trailer. Maybe when it is cooler….like in Sept and Oct!

I missed the ride. But I had a fun time swimming and watching Caden eat his oatmeal after the swim!

Next time, I’ll ride. Come along on the ride with me.