Hello!

Hello! Welcome to my blog! I guess I've finally given in (or sold out) and joined the Internet Age of cyber-socializing.

As you might be able to deduce from my blog name, I am very interested in horses, primarily my 6-year old BLM Mustang, Ranger. I also have a 21-year old Foundation Quarter Horse, named Beau. Beau is my nice, quiet, steady boy, with an old soul. Ranger is my firecracker--he's got loads of personality and is, by far, the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Beau was given to me at the age of 16. He had been a herd sire, out on 3000 acres, and was sold when he was retired. The woman who bought him assumed that he had been trained to ride...and he had not! This amazing horse never offered to buck, but had no idea why she was yanking on his mouth, kicking his sides, nor whipping him. She finally became frustrated because he was "stupid," and gave him to me. I contacted his former owners and discovered his history, and started him as a green colt. He's kind, gentle and willing, and is a pretty good riding horse, now. Beau's favorite gait is Whoa, and he dreams about sleeping...but he's kind and calm and will have a home with me forever.

I adopted Ranger from the Oregon BLM. He is one of America's treasures--a true wild mustang. I gentled him, and was the first person to ride him...and he was my first horse, ever. I figured--he's my first horse, I'm his first human...how far wrong can we go? ;-)

Apparently, we did pretty well. He is now 6 years of age. We compete in Versatility Ranch Horse. Ranger is very "cowy," which means that he likes to herd cattle. Heck, Ranger herds cats, dogs, little kids, big kids--anything that moves and will move at his bidding! We do pretty well in VRH; we consistently score towards the top (if we don't win) our classes.

Ranger also competes in dressage. We've been competing in schooling shows all winter, for practice. He's scored in the high 60's and low 70's at Training Level (those are GOOD scores, if you didn't know), and we just competed in our first First Level test. Dressage classes are called "tests," and there are multiple levels. Training, First through Fourth, then Grand Prix, Intermediare and FEI, which are the upper levels that you would see at the Olympics.

My other interests include flying, fishing, hiking, reading, writing, gardening, crafts and traveling. I'll probably talk about those another time.

Take care,
Karen