Sunday, January 15, 2017

New Years thoughts ,Cowgirls Ride for LIfe Youth Liasions and other Helping Hands

Now that the new year is here the amazing fact that in six months the Cowgirls Ride for Life will take place with us heading out on the Colorado Trail www.Colorado trail.org July 8th seems a bit daunting. Deb and I have talked an awful lot about this ride and now we need to put that talk into action.
We have started this month with the addition of three young women we know and love, MaKynna Reiff, Aerial Smith and Skyler Smith. They are a part of the youth attending the Wild West Cowboy church in Westcliffe www.cowboychurchwestcliffe.org. These three are pretty impressive in my eyes. All three play in the church band and are active to a level not only in the church but in the community that I don't think we often see.  Our hopes for this addition of the girls is to have them be our liaisons to the youth in our community. To help us get the word out about the Lighthouse Resource Center lighthousewestcliffe.com as a resource for any girl or boy finding themselves in need but also being an example showing other youth and adults about living a life that honors God.
A couple of the girls have assisted us this past summer by riding solid mounts during the training of our mustangs leading us through the town of Westcliffe townofwestcliffe.com even during the busy Labor day weekend. Quite the adventure for a couple of green mustangs who lived within prison walls for most their lives which is another blog sometime soon.

We have also been blessed with the addition of LiAne Schmidt who has committed to being our third Cowgirl for the entire ride. Liane became a friend shortly after my move to Westcliffe two years ago and is the owner of Rhapsody Ranch http://rhapsodyranch.com/. She has an extensive background in the horse world - riding and training horses along with a background in Wildlife Law Enforcement. Liane began to train with  Deb and I in late summer of last year with her horses Gus the mustang and Buck who has law enforcement in his background also. I like to refer to LiAne as the voice of reason when it comes to riding my mustang Ben who I adopted a almost a year ago. Nice to have this kind of experience at my fingertips for sure when I am working with Ben on new and scary things in his opinion.  I have found LiAne to be calm and patient in her encouragement of Ben and I to accomplish tasks we have no experience in.
Nice to know she handle a gun pretty darn good too just in case....

Last but not least we had Darrell Cobb from Westcliffe who we met at church volunteer to be part of our ground crew heading up the organization of all things required for food drops and tracking our progress on the trail. Darrell will assist Mike Moore , my husband and hopefully a few others supply our five required food drops and Darrell has already done some much needed research for a GPS system, Spot www.findmespot.com ,which we hope to raise enough funds to purchase prior to the ride.
All in all we are off to a roaring start for 2017 and excited about the months to come!

What is so hard about writing a blog? And the New Years commitment!

I think I have figured out what is so hard about writing a blog.  It's seems to be for me finding the time to write a blog is the hardest part. Between making a home with my husband, our dogs and horses and a full time job which I commute to with a four hour round trip three days a week. Don't get me wrong I am not complaining - far from it since this busy rich life I lead I see as a gift from God and one that provides material to write about.
I know there are a lot of blogs out there by so many people with such diverse lives - I applaud them whole heartedly!
New Years resolution- actually write the weekly blog!