Suicide is the only way out they say.

I had totally forgotten about Casey's boyfriend. When she died, I was looking at the post's on her facebook wall. There are hundreds of posts, and while reading some, I remembered her boyfriend. Turns out, they had been with eachother since the 7th grade. 4 years. I have been asking my friends about the accident and what not, but I can't stop thinking about Alex. Somebody needs to keep an eye on him. When your a teenager, and the love of your life dies, every part of you dies with them. You feel like a useless shell, all you want is to see them again. Alex is completely dillusional right now. He doesn't believe she is dead, he says she just moved away. I can't believe the pain he is going to go through when it hit's him. I hope he will be okay, I barely know him, but teenagers have been known to kill themselves over the strangest things.
This is fairly understandable though. He is going to be going through a lot of greif, and he isn't going to be thinking straight. He will feel like his whole life is over. He has really good friends though, I know they will keep an eye on him. I'm sure Casey misses him, just as much as he misses her..
God, if that ever happened to Peyton....no. I don't want to think about it.

Dusty's learning quick!!!!

Sunday I introduced Dusty to the bit for the first time. He didn't like it at first (well duh!) but after lunging for about 10 minutes at the trot he settled down and held it still in his mouth. He gave to pressure on the first try, and he was really easy to get to flex. I tied him up for about 10 minutes on each side, then lunged him for a couple minutes later.
Today, I worked on ground driving him. He was confused at first, he was like "Ugh! Mommy!!! How am I supposed to follow you if you are behind me?!" But he got a hold of it very quickly!!!!!! We walked around in random squiggles around the round pen for like 30 minutes, then for about 5 we went out in the pasture to just walk around, over logs, around barrels, yeah. He took it all in stride!!! I love this little horse. He's going to become an AMAZING horse!!!:)

Something I noticed today..I have 3 horses with dun markings!!! Dusty has all the markings; leg stripes, fask mask, dorsal stripe, etc. Rebel has a dorsal stripe, but you  can only see it when he is laying down (since he is so freaking tall!). Sassy has a very dark, almost black dorsal stripe. I have no clue where she gets it, Dream is a grey and La Roan Ranger is a red roan, he didn't have any dun markings...

Driving Dusty!!! (His dorsal stripe doesn't show up with his winter coat, so I am thinking its counter shading)

"Mom, I look silly!!!!"

Okay this picture cracks me up!!! Everything about it screams REDNECK!!! They didn't have a larger enough jack to lift up Peyton's truck correctly since the shocks were messed up, so what to they do?? They find a log. Duh!!! But what makes me laugh the hardest is Peyton's hat...thats right. "Safety First."

Sassy, come on now.

If trouble is afoot, you know one thing is for sure. Sassy will be there. I don't know if I have ever told any of you guys this, but here is Sassy's wonderful list of things she has done. Because she can.
Within hours of being out of the womb, Sassy cut her self on a barn and has a tiny scar from it.
Her first shot actually peirced her neck, she was wiggling so bad!
Sassy discovered that if she got on the flat bed, it would give her a short ride across the pasture until the tongue dragged into the dirt.
Sassy, got into the pool. The underground pool. In the middle of winter.
She got into the house.
She coliced on a tiny bit of hay.
Sassy attacks the water troughs.
Sassy attacks the sprinklers.
Sassy attacks tiny dogs.
2 days ago, she ate over 50 pounds of grain. Didn't even phase her.

Now, some say Sassy is a stupid horse. I'm not really sure how you could say that. I've never met a horse smarter than Sassy. She knows how to do things most 4 year olds would pitch a fit at. When she is in heat, she isn't kicking and squeeling. She keeps it all under control, except for flirting. She just can't help that she is beautiful!!! I love Sassy to death.


Yeah I forgot where this post was going, if you can tell.....

Always wear your seatbelt.

A girl from my school passed away last night.
She wasn't wearing her seat belt while her friend was driving and the car flipped 15 times and she got ejected and it rolled on her and they couldn't find her for a while. They mediflighted her out and she was so swollen they had to start cutting her stomach and both lungs collapsed and her heart stopped...
She never even made it to prom. Her and her boyfriend had been dating 3 years. From what I heard, she will be burried in her prom dress. :'(
I didn't know her very well, but its still terrible. I saw her in the hall all the time, and several of my friends were best friends with her.
R.I.P. Casey Hankins. <3

Please, readers, always wear your seatbelt. You may never really think you'll need it, until it hits home. There is NEVER a reason for you not to, only sheer laziness. It only takes you 5 seconds, and those 5 seconds WILL save your life.

Matthew 11:25-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light......

Revelation 21:4
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

College really isn't for everyone.

I'm thinking about finding a way to tell my parent's I don't want to college. You see, I'm a very creative minded person. I do NOT do well in math or subjects like that. I can't keep my mind on track and I find it very diffucult. If I go to college, then we will be paying for classes that I am more than likely going to fail. I don't want to gamble that much money on something that seems to be useless. What I really want to do, is work with horses for the rest of my life. I know they have equine programs at a lot of the colleges in my state, but none of them are going to help me, my mind will always be on my other classes. What I really need, is an internship. I'd really like to be able to work with different trainers, and make my living off that, along with web design and graphic design (easy stuff for me). Also, I'd like to try my hand at equine chiropractic work and even go to the Oklahoma Horseshoeing School (of course, I hate the horsemanship that they teach there, but I'll get over that haha).
Also, as soon as I would go off to college, I would need to find a place to keep my horses, more than likely 4 of them. If I went to college, I would never be able to spend time with them and a huge hole would be burned in my pocket.. My parents want to move out as soon as I am out of the house. What I am thinking is getting a job, buying about 10 acres, living in a tent, and just have a tarp tied to some trees as a lean-to for my horses LOL just kidding!!!!
I'm only a junior in highschool, so these thoughts can wait. But honestly, I wish that my aunt Christy hadn't talked my grandpa into changing his will...I'd probably have enough money to by my own place now. Ugh. All of this is just so STRESSFUL! BLAH!


BUT in good news, Peyton's step dad won their settlement (some case against the company that fired him when he got injured)!!! So far, its up to 2 MILLION!!!! Holy crap!!! Peyton is already making plans...he's planning on keeping his old truck, then buying two more exactly like it. One will be the daily driver, the other the work truck, and I forgot what the other one was. Gonna buy a new car to save money? haha HELL NO. Why would I do that?? LOL Maybe he likes his 12 mpg! I'm pretty happy with my 18mpg! But his parent's are wanting to move out of the house..like, 45 minutes away from where I live:( Not cool:( And it's not like Peyton will be able to come see me, all of his trucks will have horrible gas mileage! Haha I'm crossing my fingers that they go for the property thats only 15 minutes from my house...Actually, I'm just hoping they don't move period.

FINALLY!!! Here's my new saddle!!!

Okay, I know, its been like, a month. Sometimes my phone/computer is a jerk, and says "Noooo Pepper we don't think we shall upload your pictures today. Try again later."

YEAH. Anyways. The saddle is no Circle Y if you ask me. Its stuck somewhere between a Circle Y and a Billy Cook. Can't seem to make up its mind. Lol..it squeeks a lot, but I sit just perfectly in it. It could probably use a good cleaning, I'll work on that when I find my saddle soap and Neatsfoot oil. I mainly just use it on Sassy, I'm so used to my barrel saddle on Rosie from the past 3 years, it's impossible to switch over. I can ride on it with Dream, but my legs feel not long enough when its on her (maybe its just me, who knows). I'll also attatch photos of my new barrel racing tack!:)

Sassy, at her fist ride at an indoor arena! She was a little scared of the fence but she was okay! Also, first ride in that saddle!:)

Rosie sporting my new Circle Cook (lol). Its a 16.5" cutting saddle. Why is somebody as tiny as me riding in that big of a saddle (5'3", 125lbs)? Who knows, but it fits great!

Well the quality isn't that great for the picture:/ But this tack set SHINES!!! Its beautiful!!

I have discovered something that I love, and have forgotten about. Equine photography. For the longest time, I wanted to make a living, just professionaly taking pictures of peoples horses..of course, right now I am not that good, but who knows!

You never realize the danger you are in

So for my 17th birthday, me, my best friend and my boyfriend all went trail riding. We had been riding for around 3 hours, when we came across the marina. Only Peyton knew where we were, he had been on the trails before. We looked down in the parking lot, a lone black and white tobiano was standing tied to a trailer. A man stood at the trailer, didn't wave or anything, talking on his phone. We didn't think anything was wrong, we moved right on a long. About 5 minutes a long, we were starting to get back into the woods, yet still in sight of the marina. Suddenly, up on the hill was a man on a sorrel Peruvian Paso. We figured he was part of a guided group, and as we got closer, he ran farther into the woods. We laughed, kept on going. We got farther into the woods, there he was again, then ran off. Then, when we were under very thick cover, he appeared once more. This time, he started talking to my friend.
"Is that a rented horse?"
"No, he's mine."
"How long have you been riding?"
"a few hours"
"have you ever riden a gaited horse"
"no I haven't"
Then he got of his horse. Sassy knew somethign wasn't right, she started getting all jittery. Peyton's horse, Repo, wouldn't stand still either. I looked at Peyton, he knew something was up and he was about to pounce at any second. He is protective over me and Kasey, were his girlfriends (lol). He started talking about his horse, how it was worth 13,000 dollars, how our quarter horses couldn't keep up with it.
"would you like to ride him?"
"no, no thank you."
Then, he started giving my friend a riding lesson. HA. Like Kasey needs a riding lesson. The girl is going to the International Finals Youth Rodeo, I don't think she is going to listen to you.
"here, I'll hold you horse and you can test him out"
"no i'm fine thank you"
"you should ride him!"
"no thank you"
"just real quick"
"no"
"come on, get on him!"
"no please"
"well, if you see me later today, or anytime at all, the offer is still there"
"okay thanks"
Then he stormed off on his horse into the woods. Needless to say, we couldn't stop talking about it. We got back onto the main road trail thing, and were riding for about 45 minutes. I turned around, and I saw him. About a quarter mile away. Moving at a fairly good clip, with 5 other, male riders behind him. Before I knew it, we were in a dead run. We lost him..we took every short cut we could, going as close to the lake as possible without sinking into mud. We were lost at that point, but had a pretty good sense on how to get back to the trailer. It took us 4 hours to get to this point, so lets hope we find another short cut. Going by the highway, we found some deer trails, and popped onto them, looking for something familiar. Suddenly, when all hope was lost, I saw tires that we had seen earlier that morning. 45 minutes later, we were safe and back at the trailer.

Why did that man wait until we were deep in the woods?
I'm glad Kasey did not get off her horse. That was something bad just waiting to happen. I know Peyton would have jumped the guy that very second. I don't want to think about what he could have done to Kasey, to any of us. 3 against 1 doesn't seem so bad, but a full grown man against two weak girls and a teenage boy seems about even. When he was talking about how his horse could out do our horses, its like he was trying to make us feel trapped. Like our horses would break down, and there he would be.

And that is why, from now on, I'm trail riding with pepper spray, maybe a tazer....hmm...yeah.

So is this what happens when your gone for a while?!!

All the blogs I was following are GONE!! UGHHHH!! WHY?!?!?!

UGH!! Sorry guys that I haven't been on..I just haven't had anything worth talking about!! For once! Lol!
Next week is spring break, YAYYY!!!!! We are going down to Texas for a few days, then on my birthday (the 18th) we are going on a trail ride!! Then, the day after that, I have rodeo queen tryouts! I'm sooo excited!!! :DDD

I've been riding A LOT recently, really getting my horses in shape. I rode Sassy all last practice, and my mom rode Rosie. Its kinda funny to watch my mom try to ride the drill...I was having to shout directions to her during the whole thing, while also focusing on my part and giving her riding lessons XD Exciting stuff!! Rosie knows how to take advantage of her..she was either going rrrrrrrreally slow or just didn't listen period lol. But Sassy was a good girl, hehe.

Everyone that has called on Rebel always want to know about riding him. DID YOU READ THE AD?!?! It clearly says CAN NO LONGER BE RIDEN. Somebody asked me if anything was wrong with him, I said yes he factured his shoulder, and the guy asks how he is as a trail horse. Ugh. Really person? If your not even going to read the ad, what makes me think your suitable to own my horse? You sound lazy if you can't even read an ad for a horse your planning on buying. I could have put "this horse has lots of cancer and is blind and deaf" and no one would have noticed.

And I am STILL working on getting pictures off my phone so you can see my saddle!!!!