Hi--I’m Jenny Andersen from Blue Hill, Nebraska. I live on a farm (Lazy A Land and Cattle Co.) with my husband (the farmer) and my 2 sons. I have a full time job in town. My husband also runs a side business doing trenching and dirt work (Andersen Custom Services). We raise Red Angus/Red Limousine cross cattle. He is very tolerant of my 'horse addiction' but will tell me that he can have another pair for every horse that I get rid of. I keep telling him that I would consider that seriously if we ever get to stocking capacity on the pasture that we have! (not even close, buddy)
I have participated in our state’s Trail Time program to set goals for my riding and hold me accountable. I have paid my dues repeatedly and decided I may as well just make a donation to the trails committee since I never send in any logs (I think I did finally this yr send in some). I am also a member of the AQHA and APHA ride programs, and have never logged any time/miles with them either... (LAME, I know). I am hoping that using some fun tech will get me motivated and accountable. I love the idea of a New Years resolution!
I will be trying to put lots of time into several horses that I have going right now. The horse pictured is my best girl, Nutmeg. However, she is really ready for someone to back her up as my main ride and I have several good prospects. My other regular ride is now hanging out with a lovely 7 yr old daughter of a friend.
New to me this fall:
'Sedona' Star Dust is my gray AQHA/FQHA mare, she is 9 and ready to hit the trail. She is not seasoned by I think will be a solid trail partner with effort on my part.
Buddy is a chestnut TWH, he is 4 and shows signs of being a good trail partner with lots of wet blankets.
Nutmeg is my sorrel steady eddy, and goes to parades, moves cows, whatever I throw at her. She is 15 years old but is looking for a understudy.
Babe is a APHA chestnut mare, 16 yrs. She was getting a refresher to being a saddle horse but then got hurt :( last spring when things were just going so great after coming back from the trainer. She is going to work out the stiffness in her injured leg and appears that will not have any permanent joint damage. She will be a pasture ride, not looking to get her too far from home, good fence checker potential.
Roo is a miniature that is just getting going driving. We are having a lot of fun with him. Hopefully with some work he will no longer look like a Butterball--Ive been saying that for 2 yrs.
Have a few other horses that are hanging around--PR (appy) is my sons horse that he is interested in only when there are cute girls around for a trail ride; Peanuts--palomino/appy rescue that is hanging out getting some weight on; Zip--(solid Sorrel/Appy) getting sound and has super sore feet, hope she will be able to be rode soon, she is recent new guest and will see what happens for her.
I have never tracked miles, it will be interesting to see how many we can accumulate! Maybe I can lose a few pounds with these miles!
I enjoy trail riding with my friends, improving my riding with some clinics and would love to think about doing some CTR, or just volunteer at one, if my own fitness were improved! I find that making a schedule for new places I want to ride and planning my riding helps me make it a priority.
See you on the TRAILS!
Jenny
24 comments:
Miles: 7.4
Avg mph 6.4
I finally out of the starting gate.. now lets see if I can figure out how to post this...
managed to get the GPS to work, didnt accidentally turn it off, kill cell phone battery and lose what I thought I had recorded, etc..
Beautiful night with friends for the PRR Central at the Holstein Sand Roads.
Saturday 04/28/2012
6.94 Miles--Bader Park near Chapman, NE
Rode Sedona, my new to me ride I am hoping to have become my regular trail buddy. She did not want to go into the river. Actually I dont know how much I wanted to go into the river so I am thinking that I did not help that situation along. Weather was lovely. Lots of trees and wood along the river with a group. I had a great ride!
Sunday 04/29/2012
7.16--Bader Park near Chapman, NE
Rode Sedona again. We spent the night. My first camping experience with this horse. I tied her to the trailer. It was awful. She moved and messed around all night... If I become a veteran camper I will have to invest in some portable pen stuff!! She and I had colelctively almost no rest so (shock) she was a little crabby at first, but settled right in and we had a great morning ride. It was foggy and little chilly/windy but nice to be out with friends. She had ride avg of 3.6 mph and we actually loped a little bit and up to 11.6 mph. I had never loped on this horse at all so nice step for me. We still dont like water but did better walking in some mucky spots. Very pleased with our total ride experience on this mare for first 'real' ride with others.
Saturday 05/05/2012
Total miles: 5.16
Who knew you could ride so far just going in circles chasing kids around trying to get their horses to go when the kids cant! LOL
Had the Boy Scouts out for a rescheduled Merit Badge session. They came with their sheets all filled out about the parts of the horse and basic info about breeds, saddle parts, etc.
I had 9 boys and 4 Venture/Troop helpers that had done the Badge before. As well as 4 adult helpers. My farrier came and trimmed my horse for them as well as showed them a horse shoe and how/when/why that might be a good choice for the horse/owner. She did a great job answering questions and being kind with my kiddos. We saddled up 7 horses.. I did not have any more saddles, and borrowed 1 extra. We also had to ride 1 in a halter cause I did not have enough bridles put together.. (so much for being prepared..) All the kids traded off riding different horses. My green gray even gave some rides although I did not let any of the kids RIDE her. They had to get comfortable walking, trotting, and backing the horse. The had to turn, do a circle (loosely), and HAVE FUN! Success. My horses were all rock stars. I was so pleased with how well they did. I have some really nice horses that keep impressing me with stepping up when it really matters. These are the kind of horses I want to keep forever! This are the moments that make me not care so much that we cannot do all the patterns, leads, and shows, but some kids had a great day and may want to learn more/ride more get involved down the road.
After many of the kids left MY helpers and kids from my local group also hooked up the pony cart and drove around the yard. We confirmed the notion that if it goes badly in the cart it can happen fast (and get ugly). It is also a bad idea to just drop the driving lines... It causes Jenny to nearly have a stroke...
We then rode the horses down the edge of my field and back 3 times which is about 3 miles by itself... My mare was a star. The previously sore footed rescue mare is becoming a solid choice and trotted and even loped with one of the boys in just a halter and was fantastic. She might be a keeper or a good 4h horse for someone down the road. All in all a great day. Should have kept the GPS on for the driving! That pony put on the mileage too!
Sunday I was too tired to ride, but my saddle club did a tour of a local barn. they showed us how they collect semen, ultrasound mares, looked a beautiful babies, and saw some gorgeous yearlings!
Big Canyon near Springview, NE WOW, WOW, WOW Had some great times this weekend.
Came on thur Evening, rode Fri, Sat, had to leave Sun morning.
6.49 miles
6.6 Max speed
Moving Avg 2.6
time: 2:32
Big Canyon near Springview, YEAH, managed to get Sedona to cross water this morning without a huge JUMP! Thought we might have to rethink disciplines for a while. We did end up in a tree at one point and I had to be rescued by Lynetta because I could not even get off unassisted... I am feeling lucky that Warren was on the opposite bank and could not get close enough to get a pic cause I bet it was funny.
We did get in a nice morning ride and made some trail milestones with descents, hill climbs and elevation changes of over 3000 feet. Approx 20 plus water crossing and some amazing country
Morning Ride:
9.17 miles
Max speed 8.1 mph
Mvn Avg 2.8 mph
Time: 3:13
I meant for the afternoon ride to be shorter because I could tell I was getting tired. We explored some trails they are developing. My mare Sedona was really feeling confident and wanted to move out and lead. It was a nice feeling to feel her so comfortable after the rode we have been on. We explored some new areas and then decided we really wanted to go back to the canyon area and back to the bottom along the creek before we called it a day. Ended up being longer than we thought by the time we decided to take a diff route and saw some neat country.
Saw a porcupine, hawks, very athletic squirrels, had a turkey fly up in some brush below us as we climbed. Never did see any deer. Rabbits in the funniest spots. They must be used to folks because it sat and looked at us... LOL
10.3 miles
max speed 11.2
movn avg 2.9 mph
time: 3.32
Rode at Liberty Cove NRD Rec Area with the PRR Wed night ride. My finger(s) are nearly healed from getting mashed/cut when the llama kicked me and my hand squished into the grooming chute. It was nice to get out and have some horse therapy
4.73 miles
max speed 8.2
movn avg 2.9
time: 1.38
52.62
4.73
Total= 57.35 miles... now to just turn the thing on so I can be officially over 100 in this lifetime!
08/04/2012--Had a scheduled ride for a charity group but it did not work out. Did periodically rememeber to turn on the GPS as I rode around my arena, drove through the pasture, alfalfa field, and then finished off the day with a horrid pasture ride and my mare was a total cow and did not want to cooperate at all.
6.69 miles over 2.33 hrs of actual time I remembered to turn on the machine
Total= 64.04
08/08/2012
Preride for the PRR Central that will be at my place next weekend. Met at 7 with a couple of friends. My horse started off pretty rough. She did not want to go into her own pasture without her buddies I dont think. SHe was a snot. Worked through it and got a path pretty much figured out for next week. Decided we wanted to head for the road and went down and crossed a creepy bridge and road a couple more miles
Miles: 6.22
Total= 70.26
08/11/2012
Kool-Aid Days parade. We stage quite a ways away so I decided to actually turn on the GPS. Drove my mini (Roo) and took my 6 yr old with me. He had a blast. Would not wave at anyone but wore his cowboy hat and thought he looked important! Roo was a Rockstar and even though it was a bit of a craazy parade and crowd was insane he handled it all like a seasoned veteran you would never have known we have only been driving this summer! This was his first parade and I think that it will not be his last!
Miles: 3.2 (amazing how far we went!)
Total= 73.46
08/15/2012
Hosted the PRR Central ride at my place tonight. At 6:30 there were only 3 of us and it was the same three that did the preride... LOL We headed off. All of our horses were full of it tonight. My horse really needs to be ridden more on my own place... She really thought about duking it out with me a couple of times to go back to her herd/barn. I talked her out of it though. Tammys horse was in heat and just not herself. At one point she lauched herself backward at my Sedona and we did not get out of the way fast enough so Sedona got nailed with both her back legs. Feel lucky none of us got hurt! Saw a horse trailer go by on the road and wondered if we had a later arrival but it was 7:10 so seemed unlikely. Got a phone call and another 2 were just arriving so did ride partially back to yard and met 4 more riders. 1 from Hastings, 1 Juniata, 2 from St Paul area. Nice group. Headed back down my west pasture and then into our fields. We skirted the fields where my husband chopped silage and went around the ends. Then we went down the pivot/engine field roads. We went right next to a running pivot, 2 engines, and the horses were amazing. We even went over some wet spots and some muddy areas. Headed into my east pasture and went around the dam. It was getting pretty dim by then. We intended to ride to another pond but we couldnt get the gate open. Bummer. Sun has been down for a while though so probably just as well and headed back to the yard. Went back through the alfalfa field and finished off the evening. Good time tonight.
Total miles 4.88
1 hr 50 min total ride. SLOW 2.7 mph
Total= 78.34
Traveled to Bessey National Forest with several other fabulous ladies for a 'Tuff Chix' weekend! Had an amazing time. Having some crummy stuff happening around our community and personally so have been pretty down and so glad I decided to go ahead and GO. So glad I did and had a great time.
Rained friday morning so we just rode in the afternoon (we are on vacation...fair weather riders here).
Added 14.30 in the afternoon. Decided to ride to the observation tower. Got a little off track, overshot it a bit and rode back to it on the road. Brenda M. says she wont follow my directions anymore... probably a good choice! LOL
Sat--rode out in the pastures. it was gorgeous. couldn't decide where we wanted to go and some of the horses (riders *wink) were timid... did a few jeep roads and stuck to the middles. Found a gorgeous place with lots of trees. I love the windmills and just a great place to ride. 7.51 in the morning
Afternoon rode off down the roads. They are sandy and horrible to drive. 4x4 only (ask Lori Werner... LOL) Then we cut back through a pasture to head back to camp 5.03 in the afternoon
Sunday morning. Everyone headed out. Just had to get one more in. Went into a pasture to the other side of camp. It was gorgeous. I got completely turned around. Thought we were somewhere totally different! LOL 6.81 decided to head home. What a great weekend.
Add
14.3
7.51
5.03
6.81
Total=97.69
SOOO close to 100... I remembered to turn it on all weekend! YAH
Have you been borrowing Juanita's glasses? You are over 100, girlie! You had 78.34 before going to Halsey & you rode 33.65 at Halsey. According to my math and that of Microsoft, you are at 111.99. Congrats!
lol! awesome...i cant add!
lol! awesome...i cant add!
My favorite ride of the year was today. The Circle CTN club hosts a trail ride from Oak, NE. It is a great historical area. We rode through old Oregon Trail areas. Historical markers, gravesites, Indian raid.... etc. They give you a great map, history writeup info when you check in. There is lots of great terrain. They dont recommend for a novice due to ups/downs...etc but is the most organized well put together ride and I would use this as my standard for a great organized ride. They have trailers at intersections if there are problems and people need to trailer out. Water at those places too. They did a hot lunch of smoked brisket, beans, potato salad. Then they do door prizes and if you win they take it back to the trailhead for you. Lots of great stuff.. I did not win anything this year :(
I think that I am more tired than I was after 3 days at Halsey..
17.1 miles
3.2 avg speed. 5.18 hrs moving time
think I might be right in saying I am at 129.09... lol
Rode today with some good friends. Sedona did great although she really wanted to move out. She averaged when walking the speed she wanted about 3.9. We rode down a bunch of min maint roads and saw some cows. Black cows are much scarier than the red ones at our house. Then about 4 miles in we saw creamy white cows... they likes us and walked along the fence with us for half mile. She was not impressed.
Did 6.3 miles with the horses.
Also took Roo the mini/cart for her kiddos and gave lots of rides back at the house. restarted the GPS and monitored his speed too. He was a little ansy around all her stuff but still managed a decent 9.3 mph, then broke gate had a minor runaway moment at got up to 10.5 mph.. not as much fun as it sounds! LOL another 1.49
129.09+1.49+6.3= 136.88 yah!
09/30/2012
Had a nice day riding my main gal Sedona in the pastures with a friend. It was very nice. She has not been a fun ride at my own place so I have been working on this. Had a few little irritants but not such a big deal. Went to the neighbors place and checked out all the monster frogs! Amity couldnt believe how huge they were! Rode all over, up and down all the draws and through the trees. I am really lucky to have such a great place to ride and I do not take advantage of it at all... shame on me. Rode back and got a text from my neighbor wanting to see if I wanted to ride. So headed over to her place to pick her up. Rode around the section and came back through my place on the west side. Lots of cows in that part. Went in and out of the dry creekbeds, crossed logs, and went in and out of the trees in the bottoms. Very nice ride. Came back to the house and checked over hooves of the new draft mare. 8.2
Friend Deb loaned me her horse size harness and it is too small but I extended it out as far as possible and did hitch her up and take a small spin. Husband even got in and enjoyed it! Took her up and down the road a few times! wow she can really move. Got to be twilight and drove through the alfalfa field. it was fun... cart/carriage shopping here I come! 4.27
136.88+8.2+4.27=149.35
Had a few rides this week:
Sedona--10/17/12 rode the pastures looking for spots to have trail challenge obstacles for the saddle club ride if weather is decent. Problem is everyone that wants to come wants to ride and I cant find any 'judges'. Have been scopoing out options and getting some much needed saddle time. Had to stay down in the draws since the winds were yucky 6.8
Xena--10/19/12 rode riding on Sedona 4.3. Driving with Roo 1.9 Driving Xena 4.7 weather was gorgeous plus I have a lit arena stayed out late since the winds have dropped off!
Saddle Club fun day, various horses, riding, playing soccer, driving both Xena and Roo--7.9 (all arena or track at fairgrounds--WOW, who would have thought!
149.35+6.8+4.3+1.9+4.7+7.9=174.95
Headed to Turkey Creek next weekend. hope weather is decent enough for some riding otherwise I will just enjoy a great weekend!
I'm off on a cubscout thing with my little guy and just realized I don't think I logged my miles from tc. 9.8 ! From email from JA
Trying again....
Riding at home plus drove the mini and the percheron! Awesome day!!!!!
184.75+11.34=196.09
I am so gonna make. That 200!!!!!
Last Sat hosted a last ride of the season for our saddle club at my place. It was a great temp for November 10, although a little windy. We started out at 10 am. We decided to incorporate a few little trail challenge elements along the way and had judges staged at a few points.
My son had run all my horses up and into the pens by the house but the cows were still in the pasture so I could not send my son around on the 4wheeler to open all the gates.. yuck I hate to open gates so rider Warren was recruited for that task…
Lynetta Snellings horse fell down at the trailer somehow when she was tacking up and Warren had to cut the lead and Lynetta got a little sore muscles from trying to help, so we had already had some ‘story fodder’ for the day… but there was more, LOL
We had 10 riders plus judges out. We headed to the West pasture down the road. Warren our gate designee headed past me to get to the front and I look over and his bridle is looking funny… I get a closer look and Cody’s headstall is hanging off of her ears and he is running down the road.. Call out and he gets closer it appears that the bit has broken in 2 and the whole thing is just hanging from her browband. So he turns around and rides back to the trailer to get a different bridle… Rode her back to the trailer too… I would have gotten off, but my horse is not as solid as his. We all waited for him and Lynetta to get back and talked about that being the worst thing that better happen today…
We got into the pasture (thanks Warren) and all the cows in the pasture are right up there. They are pretty Red Angus mamas and babies. The bull is gone. (I am going to be shopping for a new one this season is anyone has a breeder they want to suggest). And the horses are at the house, but we left Carl the Llama in there. Well his effectiveness at keeping critters away from my cows will be questioned no more. We ride over by them and he comes at us at a run.
Couple of the gals horses had never seen a Llama and did an about face and left the area at high rate of speed!!!!! My horse of course is pastured with him but even she did not like him running at her. He followed us to the other side of the pasture to make sure that we didn’t try to circle back and get his herd. We rode down into the trees and did a log crossing exercise. We decided to just stay together and everyone rode around along the edges of the obstacles and we rode through the dry creek beds and around lots of timber.
We rode down by theshallow pond and over to another dry creek bed crossing with a log as well. Everyone had a good time. We went into the field and under the pivot. Everyone got a little frisky when we got into the open. Then we went in to the East pasture (gate open ) . Rode around the pen and then did a hill climbing obstacle.
We decided to do some mount switcheroo for one of the girls and I was holding her and she about took me out when her buddy went behind a tree. I genuinely thought I might lose her she also knocked me down. Had her buddy rider come back for all of our safety. The wind was coming up and this horse was getting a lot wound up. We went into my neighbors place and crossed a dry creek bed that is kind of deep and went to his pond. It always has hundreds of giant frogs in it and they are so cool to watch, but they have already gone away for the winter and all we saw were deer and coon tracks. Headed back to to yard site and went through some trees where Charlee cleared a hole with the bobcat. (I say he did it for me—even though it was so he could get the fence fixed better )
We headed back to the yard through the alfalfa field. There were about 100 telephone poles all over the ground and laying ontop of each other so I told everyone that this was the advanced log obstacle… LOL We rode around!
Made it back to the yard and enjoyed a (small) campfire because of the wind and smores and all the goodies. What a great day!
GPS showed 7.6 miles!
196.09 + 7.6 = 203.69!! YAh, 200 :)
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