This little club started the other day when we were all sitting around discussing Barb's poor old horse Smoothie. What would be the best grain to feed him, is there an affordable supplement we can come up with that would help his arthritis, and not break the bank, what can we do to help Barb with this boy. Well, I guess we came up with to keep him on the Allegra Senior grain, add rice bran and oil to keep some meat on his bones.

Nov 5th, 2006 - This weekend saddle club met to get some chores done at Laura's house. We first picked up Kathleen's new horse Sugar and brought her home, then moved the 2 old mares back to Grandpa's house for the winter. Then was rabbit cage cleaning, not a horse chore but really needed done. Fixed up the storage space at Melinda's house to store some hay I'm buying from Kristi. Sunday we went for a ride with Helga and her dog Cocoa Bean. Kathleen on Sugar, Helga rode Kayla, me on Bandit and Melinda of course on Sport. Had a nice ride, beat the rain! Melinda and I got 18 bales of hay moved to her house from Kristi's just before it started raining.

December 16, 2006 - Continued Sugar's trailer training, she got in the trailer great at the end of her lesson, but still doesn't want to stay there very long on her own. We'll work again hopefully tomorrow on that and see if we can't get her to go in on her own, and stay in willingly. PROGRESS!

.January 28, 2007 - The year is starting out great. Sugar is loading in the trailer 1st time most of the time now, except for the other night when we took Sport too. That messed her up a bit, but we got through it. Melinda went with Kathleen and I to our lesson with Helga today just to watch. She now is thinking about coming to do lessons with us after awhile, watching for a few then we'll bring Rio for her to ride. Sport was a little lame when riding him the other night, we had Keith trim his feet, so hope he will feel a bit better.

1/29/07
Hi, this is Kathleen writing. I can't express enough how so in love I am with my two horses! I am on top of the world again now that I have horses, horse chores and, most of all, consistent lessons with Helga! My goal in the next several months is to have Sugar working well and calmly, losing weight to fit in my brand new - 6 year old, never been worn, Ariat Field Boots, and getting prepared for a few shows this summer. My husband has been involved in my horse world passion by thinking ahead to trucks and trailers. He's got the truck and when I returned home after lessons on Sunday he informed me that he was looking at trailers that morning.

The most wonderful part of all is that I have three incredible friends who have helped me tremendously in aquiring and housing Kayla and Sugar. Laura has generously brought me into her horse world including introduction to Parelli training; Melinda has shared her experiences with Parelli and horses; Helga brought me back into the fold of lessons when I moved to Washington and has remainded steadfast in her training with me and now my two horses. I am indebted to them all and they are very special to me. :-)

2/8/07
Kathleen and I went to the barn for our evening ride. Decided to take little Dandy pony this time, just to see how he would do. BOY WERE WE SURPRISED. Poor little scared of everything pony was good as gold under saddle in the arena with other horses going around. Rod had ridden him a bunch before I bought him, but I hadn't ever seen him go. He was so cute and so good to ride. Looking forward to keeping up on his training, and finding him a new home this spring.

2/11/07
A FILLY is born at the Donnelson's barn! Smooch was born about 6:30 pm, her mother's name is Kiss. Cute, tiny delicate little wild colored paint filly! Way to go Kiss and Kootenai Wildfire! Will post pictures when I get some from Diane.