You Like Me, You Really Like Me...

I done won an award! A big thank you goes to In2Paints at Rlilbitofcash for selecting me.

The rules of the award are that you share seven facts about yourself, and that you give this award to 15 other bloggers. Fifteen. I dunno if I know 15 blogs...


Anyway, the lil' known facts:

1) I have heterochromia.* So does Dan Akroyd, Christopher Walken, and Keifer Sutherland. I guess that makes me speshul.
2) I love to grocery shop. Yep. I wander the aisles dreaming up yummy concoctions of interesting ingredients. I love to cook and eat, too!
3) I'm the president of our local saddle club. We manage 25 miles of bridle trails on public forest lands.
4) "I play third chair trombone in an out-of-work polka band." Actually, I play trumpet, French horn and baritone. I'm involved with the local community band and I fill in with a Bohemian polka band once in awhile. (Without googling, name the tune that line came from.)
5) I have OCD but keep it in check by practicing lazy ignorance.
6) I married into this horse thing. Sara asked me out for our first date and I was skeert to give her a g'nite kiss (trust me, I wanted to!). We went to see City Slickers. What a harbinger that was!
7) I'm the youngest of 54 first cousins, a brother to 8, and an uncle of 15.

Geesh. In review, I'm downright peculiar.

Now, who to award this to?

On the way to Critter Farm...
The 7MSN Ranch
Ride a Good Horse
Diary of the Overanxious Horse Owner
The Poor Farm
Highland Hooves
Transplanted Alaskan
Life at the Rough String
Gizzards & Calf Fries
Musings From the Judge's Box
A Horse Named Milo
Oh HorseFeathers & Related Twisted "Tails"
Between You, Me, and the Fence Post
Moondance Ranch
HorseCentric

I think that's 15!



* = left blue, right green.

The Beginning

Everything has a beginning. Here's Sara, way back in '85. This was her first show, and that is her first trophy. She caught "the bug" at the tender age of 12, and there's been no looking back.

Growing up, her family had horses. Her dad had horses on the farm when he was a kid, so he passed the bug on to her. They mainly had them as pets, and they rode them around some. Then one day her dad told her to go get Skips Mary Jayne out of the pasture and give her a good brushing. They were gonna take a ride to Zablocki Stables and see how they'd do at a show.

Everyone knew of Zablocki Stables. Just off the main road to town, kids with the bug would press their little faces to the car window as they drove by. There were always horses to look at. There was always someone riding in the huge outdoor arena.

It was that day, many years ago, that Sara got to go in that arena. Totally unprepared, not even sure what to do in a halter class, her dad stuffed a hat on her head and pointed at the gate.

They took first place in that halter class. She caught the bug hard that day, and there's no doctor in the world that can cure it.