Ft Howes, Montana 2010

Lots of mud but a lovely ride.An FEI ride so all the big wigs were there and the vetting was strict. Completed in top 10 on Montana Skylark (Larka) with Joe H on Saturday but was pulled for Lameness on Sunday with a bunch of other people. Very hard going in the mud. Should have known better and taken Dandy Fella on the second day. Darn it! Will learn one day. More to come

Basin May 2010

Really nice ride in Basin, WY put on by Jeanette Tolman and family of Big Horn 100 fame.
See here Mernie on Ice. She did GREAT!Her first LD completion. Yours truly on Montana Skylark (Larka) and also on Dandy Fella(Pinto Bean) for a Best Condition Award. YEE HAH!
We had gumbo mud at the end so he really earned his stripes! This is a perfect ride to go barefoot. Next ride Ashland Montana.

Beautiful horse for sale

This is Dandy Fella's Half brother Desi. Dorothy Sue will be sending him down here to OAS for me to ride and sell. She has way too many horses right now! Apparently he is a really quiet and reliable horse. He has a lot going for him so I don't think he will be hard to sell. If you are at all interested please email me at ronnie@onastring.com .I'd love to tell you more.
See here his papers. He is also registered with the American Pinto Association.
Click on images to make larger.
Oh and wasn't he a beautiful baby!!

Tristan's back

Tristan is back causing havoc. About 8 months ago he broke one of he back legs. Hard to believe now. See him here moving so fast i almost didn't catch him in the frame. Its nice to have the little guy back again. His big girlfriends think so too!

Kenlyn Urban Challenge, Spring 2010

No, this is not at the Kenlyn as I don't have a picture yet. Hey Chris send me a pic will ya. Then i wil lpost some sort of commentary about how it i escaped being snowed in in Laramie and rained out on Saturday in Denver. There's a happy ending though as the ride finally took place under blue skies on Sunday. More to come.

Color Country Hurricane Utah

After being snowed in in Laramie for a week Dorothy Sue, Timbo and I finally got away to this gorgeous ride in the Utahian Desert. I rode DS's mare 'Larka' ( Montana Skylark) on the Friday 55miles, Dandy Fella on Saturday 50 miles and Larka again on Sunday 50miles . Where did we come? Don't know don't care. This is going to be my motto for this season. I just want completions and SOUND horses. I think i might be growing up Mum!


Click the pic with the horse trailer to get an idea of why they call this color country. Thanks for the picture Tracy!






Check out the Pinto Beans foot wear. Renegades. I was impressed!





Dorothy Sue on Montana Flyer and Karl on Bubba. I can't tell you how honored i feel to ride with such wonderful Veteran riders. Good stories too!


























Good endurance horses don't care what they have to climb up on to get a well deserved drink!

We've come a long way

Here is the horse trailer (horse float) we had in Australia.It was quite a popular model over there at the time, ah due to the heat and all. Great flow through ventilation system and what's more the equines can climb in from which ever side they please. See them making their choices here. Looks much better with the horses inside as that's what actually holds the thing together as it's going down the road. This is actually the deluxe model. It is super light to save enormously on high Australia gas prices and see it's special feature ..........it has a built in window! It's hard to believe we could actually up grade from here but scroll down to see our latest purchase. ............

New Trailer with Living Quarters

This is great! We weren't planning on getting one for a while but a great deal came up and we grabbed it. Not as big and luxurious as some I've seen but to me it's an absolute palace!! Especially after years of camping in the back of a stock trailer. Thanks Mernie!!!
















Yes and LOO too!!

lyin' around

Lying around soakin' up the sun. Just another quiet day at the ranch. Photo taken from our bedroom balcony! Life is good!

....and today's forecast

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Laramie&state=WY&site=CYS&textField1=41.3109&textField2=-105.583&e=0


go to this site to see our lovely weather after the blizzard http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn96/oneicepony/December%202009%20at%20OAS/?albumview=slideshow

Oh and take a look at this slide show compliments of our cheap and much appreciated help, the lovely Chris Compton

The weather outside is fright ful!

A cold winter blizzard for Christmas here at OAS. Actually i think a good part of the United States was cover in snow. The temperature was in single digits ( well below O in Celsius) and the wind was blowing at over 40miles per hour! Providing the horses get plenty of hay and have fresh water they do fine. See Mernie starting one of three daily deliveries to the 62 equines on the property. See Domingo here say "bloody hurry up will ya!" And Flambeau saying " this is not happening!"
For those of you in Australia i hear it is going to be over 100 F in Adelaide on Thursday. Somewhere between the two places would be just right! We were planning on a Christmas dinner with our good friends Rod and Beth but we couldn't get there due to white out visibility and drifts of snow. They live....ACROSS THE ROAD!!!!! Happy New Year. Ronnie! ((Scroll down for an account of 2009)

New Years Roodroppings

(Click on images to make larger)



It's been a great year among the 60 horses, one mule and one mini donkey. I don't think I've ever been happier or in such good health. What ever I'm doing I'd better keep it up. Mernie is also doing just dandy. I think it has something to do with all the earth moving equipment we have here now. The little boy in him keeps youth alive. For me i think its horses, endurance riding, a little dressage and the yoga classes we have been having right here at the house under the gentle guidance of our good friend Jeanette Flaig. Good energy abounds. Also our best buddies Rod and Beth live across the road and i get to spend a few days a month with their precious little bundle of joy, Cole James Kelly. Oh and there's another little Keller on the way!
Mernie's Mom was here for the beginning of the Summer. Her memory is slipping but she still gets around well and has a delightful array of stories to share with everyone she meets. The altitude bothers her a bit however!
It was nice to have Chester, Mernie's youngest, visit again this Summer. He is becoming quite the ranch hand and is growing like a bean sprout.Oh and he can sure play a mean guitar!
Whoa ......A..C...D...C!!!
The Endurance season was a full one. I rode over 1000 miles of mainly 50 mile rides. Thanks to my super crew and much appreciated cheap help Chris Compton I lived through it. Chris has been a real help to us here on the ranch this year too. Help like hers is as scarce as rocking horse poop I'd say!
On a sad note, our lovely veterinarian, Kelly Palm lost her battle to Cancer this year and we all miss her terribly. We also lost one of our old Arabs Embassy, also to cancer. He survived with it to 26. A good innings for a horse. Kelly was only 38. Cut down in her prime.There were over 1000 people at her service!At least we know that where ever Embassy is he will be getting excellent veterinary care!
We now have Dr Ruthie Sorensen taking care of our horses. And thanks to a wonderful equine first aid course she ran here some of us are now certified in Equine First Aid. Ginny's little donkey Tristan broke his leg and we have had a few cases of pigeon fever here so we need all the knowledge we can get. Tristan is well on the way to recovery and cuter than ever in his dinosaur print cast!
In July Steve Cormey and I launched our children's book/DVD/CD The Brothers Foot in Grand County Colorado. Mernie and I turned this into a mini Vacation and I re visited my past a little. The book is getting rave reviews from all those little sprogs. Check it out at www.footfootsong.com
Speaking of Vacations Mernie actually took one. He went bird hunting with Rod and bird dog Ginger. He was like a little boy going off to camp with his best buddy, which is actually what he was doing. He had a great time and we have a lots of birds in the freezer keeping the goat, sheep and Llama company!
As for 2010, bring on more of the same please. For resolutions I'm going to try to live by the words of a song sung (don't know whether she wrote it) by Jana Stanfield called STOP LOOK AND LISTEN..........

I'm gonna stop reading other people's minds
I'm gonna look at the good that surrounds me
I'm gonna listen to my heart when it tells me what to do
I'm gonna notice every time a little dream comes true
I'll do all the livin' I've been missing
When.... I STOP LOOK AND LISTEN
STOP LOOK AND LISTEN

May you all have a happy, peaceful and safe 2010.
Cheers from Ronnie. Stay tuned to my blog!

Not your average Dressage Teacher!

OAS Christmas Party 09

Yes there were a lot more people. In fact, at one stage there was standing room only! I guess we cleared the place out when we started the the belly dancing and general silliness. Great party! Thank you Steve Cormey for the get ya goin' music.
See here Jessica Ford, life of the party and dancing queen. Not your average 'dressage teacher'!!

SOLDIER BOLD!

As my ole Dad would say in his Aussie rhyming slang " Its bloody soldier bold outside"! See above Mernie's mare living up to her name, 'ICE' !!

Moab Canyon Endurance ride

MOAB???
So much for sunny Moab. Last year heat was the problem. This year the times were fast. horses love the cold. Not so much us humans. Yes Chris and i slept in the stock trailer. Brrrrrr!
It was Halloween. Chris took shots for me as i mascaraed as sleeping beauty back in the trailer.See here Bonnie Swiatek in Pepto bismol pink with Sheik John. His wife Beth was off belly dancing somewhere!
Chris the 'cheap and much appreciated help', was supposed to ride Kip on Friday but as he was lame she got to take a jaunt on this spunky little Morgan stallion instead. As happy as a pig in Poop!
Kipling
(an aside)I guess MJ and i were the only ones brave enough to poke at the Cormous. We both agree it was fun while it lasted. Thanks MJ.Yes this is the Silver Bullet!
Now back to the Equines for a while.

Last Endurance Ride for the season.
We might have missed the storm in Laramie but it was bloody cold even in Moab. Note the layers of clothing.
The silver bullet flew for the first 25 miles. We took a wrong turn at one stage so it was more like 32 miles. Unfortunately he came up lame and we pulled him at the vet stop. He was going sooooo well but this is something in his right leg we have been seeing for a while and hopefully now we can get it fixed. Luckily the Dorothy Sue's pinto was there so i put the remaining 100 miles on him.I love riding with Dorothy sue and flyer and Kerry Greear was there too making for a really fabulous time. We truly were in 'John Wayne' country riding through red dirt, sand, towering fins and balancing rocks under a deep blue sky. Next year we plan on going early and doing some extra sight seeing around the area. R

Great moments in the life of the emormous!

Here we go!! Please feel free to comment, snicker or just fall down laughing.
Keep 'em coming. Maybe my blog will become as popular as Corm's and I'll be able to disappear to 'somewhere with a beach!' R

The missing Cormous

Ok, Steve Cormey has disappeared! His blog posting has been neglected and we are all worried sick about him. However here is where he's spending his time while we are all fretting over his disappearance from our lives! He's not going to get away with it!! I'm calling for all of his 'acquaintances' to send some dirty rotten, totally unflattering shots of him to this blog for posting. Stay tuned. This could be fun!!
( send pics to ronnie@onastring.com jpeg not too large)
R

Sangre Scenic, Westcliffe Co

Here's me mate, Timbo on Junior at the Sangre Scenic. I'm hiding behind the camera on his other T W H Trouble. We had a great ride completing the 35 on day two. Tim completed all three days on 'Junior the Wonder Walker' and I completed the other two days on 'Pinto Bean' Dandy Fella. 135 mls in all. Dorothy Sue completed 160 miles on the magnificent Montana Flyer. Flyer has over 6000 miles and DS some 15,000; so a piece of cake for them! It is truly a scenic ride but the camping fee has tipped it out of my budget for next year.
Oh and it was my b/day week end with a surprise cake and singing card plus a fun crowd to share it with.
Thanks Timbo!

Kenlyn, Fall 09

Here I am aboard the Silver Bullet, Kipling followed close behind by Joe, the Junior i was sponsoring. Joe's only 14 so legally he needs a sponsor but in reality he can ride the pants off of any of us! I love Linda Fisher's ride 'The Kenlyn Urban Challenge'. It is held twice per year in May and in September and i try to get to both events. Kip was in fine form and ploughed gallantly through all the monsters lurking in the city to win the 50 mile. Joe and i decided to tie for first and Joe's horse Scooter also earned the best condition award. That was one happy kid. Well deserved!