Blog Roll...

Things have been a little bit slower than usual around here and I've been spending a lot more time "browsing" for mule-related items of interest on the internet. Here are a few blogs that I have been frequenting:

http://www.braysofourlives.com/ Fenway's owner, "FarmWife," has written a couple articles for us. Fenway is quite charming. I really liked the post from a couple of days ago about how to fix a "frumpy" day.

http://mule-a-day-paintings.blogspot.com/ Sue Kroll is doing a mule painting a day and selling them on her Etsy site. I've got my eye on the one called "Being Muley." It's very pretty. From what I can tell, she must do some commissioned work, as I have seen a painting of Fenway and one of a mule baby owned by Crooked Gate Mules (the Coville's, who I am Facebook friends with).

http://badwaystosellyourhorse.blogspot.com/ This one's got screen shot's of terrible ways to sell your horse from site's like Craigslist. Whew, some of them are pretty terrible.

http://pairadicemules.blogspot.com/ (My mom's blog!)

If you have got a blog that I should add to my RSS feed, let me know!

My favorite thing about blogs from Blogger (which is the site I use) is the "Next Blog" button up on the top. It takes you to another blog that has similar content and it's a pretty cool way to find new things to read on here!

Ah, Welcome Back, Mr. Draper

Mad Men came back on last night. LOVE this show. I can't really relate to it, seeing as I am not a super serious ad man from the sixties, but I do a little advertising...so I can a little.

Also, Betty Draper needs to go away. She is terrible. What a spoiled, over-indulged women. Ugh.

So I have something exciting to do on Sunday's now. Every other season, I've just watched the episodes when they came out on Netflix. But since I have satellite now, I can watch them with the rest of the world.

Yay!

It looks like this week, we have two mule events to get ready for. We are going to the Dixon fair for a mule and horse show on Friday. Then we are headed to Jerry Rush's showdeo in Locust Grove on Saturday. The extreme trail course starts at 9 a.m. Hoosier and I will probably do the team sorting, too.

Hopefully we will be back in time to catch Mad Men again on Sunday...

Easily Distracted...

So, while I was working on some web design stuff earlier today, I came across www.thehorsetailor.com. Oh man. I'm not usually in to the costume classes, but this stuff is adorable! I'm pretty sure old Smellie Mae would look pretty dang great dressed like Harry Potter!

Both the pictures are from their photo gallery. They've got just about every horse-y costume you could think of. So cute.

Stormy Tuesday Morning

Well, when I left my house to ride this morning, the sun was shining and it was nice out. By the time I made it down to the pasture with Hoosier, it looked like this:

Then, a few minutes later, it looked like this:

So, Hoosier and I jogged back up to the house to roll the windows up in my car and wait it out in the barn:

But after a half an hour, we gave up and I put my mule away. It cleared up later this morning once I got to work. So I didn't get to ride and I am kind of a crabby patty about it today. Guess I'll try again tomorrow morning.

Camri and I did get a good ride in yesterday, so that helps. Oh! And I got my new show top in yesterday. Here's the photo from the site:

It is very pretty! I can't wait to wear it at Fort Smith!

--Cori

Road Trip

Cole and I drove to Chicago to Union Park to the Pitchfork Festival to see Modest Mouse.

We saw the wiener mobile on our way up. It was at the Taco Bell/KFC we ate lunch at:

By the way, whoever thought to combine those two fast food places was a genius.

Driving in Chicago is a lot different than driving in St. Louis, but we managed alright. We

stayed over in Romeoville, Ill., then took the train back into Chicago Saturday morning. We went to a store he wanted to visit, Threadless, (www.threadless.com) and I got a pretty awesome shirt:

Haha! They had cool shirts.

We walked around Chicago for a while, then took a bus back to Union Station and headed to St. Louis for the second show. It was packed. I weasled my way as close as I could, but it still wasn't close. Luckily, I ended up right in front of Mr. Isaac Brock. I had a decent view of him thoughout the show, which was awesome:

After all this, I was worthless on Sunday. So Cam, Coco, and I sat around and chilled. It was a pretty nice weekend.

Belle Fair Parade

Brody, Kayci and Jeff Smith in the Belle Fair Parade. (Jeff and Kayci were on the cover of Mules and More in May.)

Alex Ridenhour (Belle Fair Queen candidate) in her horse-drawn vehicle. The other girls rode in cars and trucks, and I thought this was a very cute idea!

Camri and her umbrella at Edna Mae's house.

Our town fair is this week and last night they held the parade. It was ridiculously hot! Like, make-you-sick-to-your-stomach hot. I don't know how the people who walked in the parade managed. Camri got an insane amount of candy for one little girl - two big tote bags full. She can't have any candy with red dye in it, so she said she would give the left overs to her Papa and Uncle Cole.

Rested Up

A gaited class at Shelbyville, Tenn.

Camri and Ellie Mae in front of the Great Celebration sign.

We are all just about rested up from the show this past week. I ended up with a fourth and a fifth in hunter hack and open working hunter (I can't remember which was which). I would have done a lot better in the open working hunter class had I not lost my stirrup on the third jump and had to jump the remaining five jumps with only one foot in the stirrup. It was kinda scary!

I also placed third (out of 14) in Senior Ranch Riding. I had a good trail pattern, but didn't end up placing in that class.

We finished up blue line on Monday, and now we are officially working on the September issue. Wow, that seems weird to say! I've been working on web design for the July issue today. And shopping for a new show top. I bought a green top from Rod's last year, and decided I need a black one just like it. I looked on eBay, but I couldn't find anything I liked quite as much. I looked at some of the other stores online, and found about 100 tops I would LOVE to have, but I couldn't fathom spending that much...$2,500 for a top is out of my price range.

Our town fair is this week, so it looks like tomorrow and Thursday will be spent at parades and on fair rides with Cam. It's pretty nice out right now, maybe it will stay that way for a while...

--Cori

Shelbyville - Halter Classes

We arrived in Shelbyville, Tenn., for the Great Celebration Mule and Donkey Show last night. My grandma had gotten there on Tuesday so she could set her booth up.

Camri, who has been calling this trip a "vacation," (it's 100 degrees, that's not a vacation!) has been swimming in the pool twice since we got here. She's lovin' the indoor pool.

The halter classes were held this morning. I didn't see every class this morning, but from what I did see, Jason Christ, of Greenville, Ohio, had a very good morning. He won the overall first place in every class he went in. He won 56" and under with the Golian's mule, Dora the Xplorer; 56" and over mollies with DW's Electic Zap, owned by the Dwain Francis, and 56 and over johns with Clyde's Brass Ring, also owned by Dwain. He also won Grand Champion Halter Mule. That's pretty impressive!

I have three English classes this evening at 6: Open Working Hunter, Open Hunter Hack, and Senior Hunter Under Saddle. I've never shown Hoosier in Open Working Hunter before, so this might be interesting!

The Conclusion of T-Ball

Cam's last T-Ball game was last night. She, of course, had fun playing in the dirt and batting...

We asked her if she wanted to play soccer now. "Uh, no. That's OK." Maybe we can find a couple dance classes for fall. Until then, I think she will stick to riding.

I came into work today to try to finish up the magazine. I actually think I might get done before Shelbyville. I might even have time to sneak off and celebrate the holiday tonight. Fingers crossed...

--Cori