This message is from: "Karen McCarthy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I have been struggling along with my new super computer & tweaky DSL connection, and haven't been able to be in one place, or online long enuf to actually post to the List.
Phillip, I loved your sap gathering descriptions. Maple syrup is way up there on my list of food faves. Right behind marzipan... Fallis Balanced Ride saddles are pretty nice to sit, tho I think the styling is a bit dated. My friend in Idaho rides western & dressage, and she went w/ a Fallis saddle for western stuff. I rode in it and it felt right. About saddle length, my ricotti is 25" long, but the last 2" of 'jockey' (skirt) is flexible. Originally they made it 27" long overall - too long,the leather caused it to bridge, and i took it right back. The tree was custom made & I knew it wasn't the tree's fault. Everything has been fine since; but I do have a few square inches of custom tooling that were tucked up under the top skirt to shorten the length. Kind of a waste of tooling, but its a custom saddle, so that's the breaks. silly cosmetic stuff only. ... And Gail, keep your mitts offa my saddle! It's kinda gathering dust as I have been driving every spare moment...I started my two homebred girls Idelle & Alycia in a pair. I finally posted pics to my Picturetrail site (- click on link below in sig. area) I am so very proud of them: we ventured over the hill last weekend to our first "do", an Arena Driving Trial hosted by the Northern Calif. Driving Club, at the Ione arena (near Jackson). I hadn't even driven a test with them yet, just wanted them to get used to a show together, and an indoor one to boot. They were awesome! we came in 1st place out of the 12 other Training entries,( incl. 3 other pairs.) There were Morgans, minis, Haflingers, Stbs, and Welsh) It was probably the funnest test I ever drove - I didn't have a nervous bone in my body that morning. These girls are so satisfying to drive, it just makes one a very happy driver I guess! The only snafu was Idelle being slightly bent to the right through the whole test (she never quite recovered after she saw the white PVC pipe she was asked to sidle up and drive next to - she did a great right circle tho! ), it was all good, even the reinback, our hardest task. I still can't belive it but we were 2nd overall for the whole day for dressage, training & prelim. Fjordies at it again.... Later on, we drove 2 'hazards' twice each, followed by cones, all in the same arena. Again, I just wanted to have a smooth, relaxed go, and it was all that, even tho I was tempted to let them out a notch or two the second time thu the hazards. Well, I had my first lesson in how things can go wrong, very, very quickly, driving a pair. I misjudged the exit gate, and ended up putting the girls on either side of a white PVC 55 gal. drum, which was quickly sucked up underneath the pole between the girls, jammed against my front axle. OOPS!! The collective gasp emitted from the onlookers in the grandstand was pretty audible - I am sure they were expecting a spectacular wreck. I asked the girls to come to a very abrupt halt & they obliged immediately. (Idelle actually did one of her sliding stops which i have had to be careful of as she stops harder than Alycia, so when I ask for a halt, i usually don't include her name (seriously!) and we have a smoother, more together halt.) Anyway, no harm was done to the girls, barrell or vehicle, and we proceeded over to drive the cones. And the wierdest thing of all, was we actually stopped outside of the out gate, so we didn't recieve any time penalties (as if it mattered - I am a beliver that ADT hazards should NOT be timed. Perhaps they s/b scored subjectively by the judge on a scale of 1-10 ). I did learn my lesson tho, and was very happy to recive this lesson from a plastic barrell, than say, an oak tree :0 With our little snafu, Idelle was kinda wired, so we did our best to not mow every cone down. We ended up in 3rd overall, but what was more gratifying, were all the positive comments about how well they did at their 1st event, and managed the barrell incident. Big Giant Smiles all around our camp all the way home over the hill. Have a great spring everyone! Kmac Karen McCarthyGreat Basin Fjords :: Carson City, Nevadahttp://www.picturetrail.com/weegees ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out MSN PC Safety & Security to help ensure your PC is protected and safe.
