Pony Cousins, Letting Go, and Cowpoke G

My weekend with my Pony Cousins plum tuckered me out. My family is simply wonderful, I can think of no better word right now. We never seem to have enough time to spend together. Luckily, we have our guest ranch trip this summer to look forward to. We spent almost 5 hours Saturday discussing plans and sharing ideas. We all did this with such honesty and openness. I think we have an organized, fun, safe, and memorable trip planned.

My Cousin K shared with us the beginnings of an amazing scrapbook she has started. It is of this journey that my family is taking, as we are all becoming bonded by our love of horses and riding. Both the older generation and the younger generation, the horsey gals and the non-horsey gals that are becoming interested in horses.....it is a blessing to see what cowgirls we are all becoming. We even had to dress up in our finest western and have some photos taken for the scrapbook. My sister snapped a few during my shoot and even though I am camera shy, I will share one with you because it was so much fun! (The pictures my cousin photographer took will not have the garage in the background.)

My Cousin K admires Doreman Burns' artwork. For each of us, she chose one a piece of his artwork that she felt kind of looked like us and embodied who we were. With this as inspiration, she created a scrapbook page with additional photos of our horses and our story. For me, she chose the piece "Letting Go." I love this piece and find it to be symbolic for me. I have added it to my sidebar. I am not sure what the cowgirl in the painting is letting go of. But I know there are things that I need to let go of. They are mostly things that I need to spend less energy worrying about. But there is one thing I will not let go of. And that is the time that I spend with my dear, dear, family.

After we said our goodbyes on Sunday, several family members headed out to the stable to see my mom's gelding, Dusty. My Cousin T picked up her little nephew Cowpoke G on the way, who is my second cousin. He had a fun time at his first visit to the stable. Here he is. Maybe he is looking for Dusty?
Dusty, are you in this stall?
No Dusty in there. But those are sure some interesting buckets and tubs. I wonder what is in them?

That's it. I'm outta this barn. Is this the way out? Maybe I'll find that Dusty Boy out here?
Hey there. Have you seen a horsey go by here? Say, about 'dis tall? And kind of orangeish? No? Well, I guess I'd better keep looking. Clippity clop, clippity clop. What? You said he's turned out in the gelding pasture? Well why didn't you tell me? There he is! There comes Grammie and Stardust! Here I come Grammie! I'm coming to help you with Dusty!
By the way, Cowpoke G had his first sit in the saddle and he burst into tears so fast I couldn't even snap a photo! I guess he still has to earn his little cowpoke spurs.....

And, uh, Mom, I know that Dusty is a gelding and all, but in that photo he looks like he is about to foal.....

All this talk about horses this past weekend made me miss My Boy dearly. I am hoping the weather holds so that I can go ride him tomorrow!