Did anyone else wake up to something like this?

Thankful for the .80" of rain.

Christmas Drawing

Dreaming Of Snowflakes Christmas Card

Create beautiful photo Christmas cards at Shutterfly.com.

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Every year (except last year) since Halle was born I have drawn a picture of my girls for our Christmas card.  Some years are easier than others!!!  ENJOY!

My Foxtrotter CAN Foxtrot!

LOCATION:
Lake Cunningham.  One of my favorite places to ride.  Lots of wooded trails.  Trails are nicely groomed and trimmed.  Not many steep hills.  Great views of the lake and some very nice homes to checkout too.

WHO:
Judy on Max, Joanne on Reba, Marcel on Echo, and myself on Cassie.

WEATHER:
Weather Forecast - 61 degrees; yes, it mentioned some wind too.  We missed the 61 degrees during our ride.  Closer to upper 40's, and yes, there was wind.  Glad we bundled up!  No wind in the trees, but on top of the hills and along the dam we felt a cool breeze.

THE RIDE:
Cassie, being a Missouri Foxtrotter, isn't known for being a "fast" gaited horse.  She rides just fine with the slower quarter horses.  Max and Reba are also Foxtrotters.  Echo is a Paso.  They are "fast" gaited horses.  Worried that I would have a hard time keeping up and having to push Cassie the entire ride, I realized real quick that I wasn't going to have that problem today.  I'm assuming she was "in" during our ride and I was going to have to put up with her mare-ish ways.

For the first mile, Cassie was in the smoothest Foxtrot that I have ever had on her.  Only problem is that I didn't put her in that gait and it also felt like she was about ready to burst.  Such a high energy level.  Thought she was going to start flying along with me flying right off.  Now I need to figure out how to get her in that smooth gait when I want her to be in it.  Someday.

We did lots of circles.  Eventually I got her collected enough to move on.  She did tire out of her prancing soon and decided to walk.  Every once in a while when she caught her breath she would push a bit.

Also working on Cassie's eating habits during rides.  My goal is that she doesn't even try to snack when she has the bit in her mouth.  I can count on one hand the number of times she tried to get some grass along the way.  So much better!

I've been tracking all of my rides since I brought Cassie home on November 3.  I have ridden 57.68 miles in a time of 18:42:54 at an average speed of 3.08 mph and a max speed of 12.08 mph.  The mild fall weather has been great!!  Cooler weather is in the forecast so we'll be taking a little break.  I've decided my riding cutoff is mid 40's, with no wind.

Joanne, Marcel, & Judy.  Someday when Cassie & I turn into leaders, I will get the fronts of everyone :-)

Judy on Max.  All bundled up!

Left:  Joanne and Reba, Right:  Marcel dismounting Echo.

Cassie after the ride.

Joanne's horse Echo.

Name: 12/5/2012 12:02pm

Activity type: horseback riding
Description: Ride at Lake Cunningham
Total distance: 10.22 km (6.4 mi)
Total time: 1:57:59
Moving time: 1:56:32
Average speed: 5.20 km/h (3.2 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 5.26 km/h (3.3 mi/h)
Max speed: 13.15 km/h (8.2 mi/h)
Average pace: 11.54 min/km (18.6 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 11.40 min/km (18.4 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 4.56 min/km (7.3 min/mi)
Max elevation: 384 m (1260 ft)
Min elevation: 332 m (1090 ft)
Elevation gain: 291 m (954 ft)
Max grade: 0 %
Min grade: 0 %



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Let's Play Ball!!

It's that time of year to start basketball.  Liv has already played five games.  Unfortunately, they are defeated at 0-5.  We normally see improvement each week, but last week was a little rough.  Her team averages about 12 points per game.  We had a problem shooting at first.   Now we are shooting more, but not going in.  We've changed some things up that will hopefully allow us to get some more offensive rebounds and put those in.  Our defense is good because the other teams aren't scoring much on us either.  Hopefully we'll be able to turn things around for her 3 games this weekend.  Sorry, no pics of her team yet.

Halle had her first games on Saturday, December 1.  They won their first game 40-13.  Wow - 40 points for 4th graders!!! Seemed like everything they put up, went in.  Granted the rims are lowered a foot, but these girls are also a foot shorter.  They had a great inside game.  Halle had 4 points and 4 assists.  She does a great job handling the ball and looking inside.  Game number 2 we lost 20-13.  This team had a really good post player that took away a lot of our inside game.   Halle ended up with 2 points and 3 assists.

Our friend Molly played in the game before ours on the same court.  Her team also won their game.

Halle will be playing on Saturday's through February.  Liv will be done with this league December 16.  She'll start Junior High Basketball after the Christmas break.  Can't wait!!!