I must be getting old

Beside the fact that I have a few grey hairs and a 'laugh line' or two, I also seem to have a wonderful crop of eyebrows and nose hairs that seem to keep popping up.  The other thing that I've noticed is that I seem to get weepy for no apparent reason. 
I grew up something like the song that Brooks and Dunn did with Reba, 'Cowgirls Don't Cry', because really, cowgirls don't cry.  Not over a lost love (men are like busses, if you stand on the corner long enough, another one will come along), not over falling off your horse (get up, dust yourself off, and get back on).  But lately? 
I tear up standing in a crowd of people at a sporting event when the national anthem is playing.  To be in the middle of a crowd of 20,000 plus people all singing it with passion brings a huge lump to my throat and tears start to well up.  I was at the Stampede a couple of years ago and there was a presentation on the Born to Buck program that the Calgary Stampede runs and what the hell?  The clips of the mares running on several thousand acres with their babies made me tear up!  How much of a wuss did I look like? 
I was over at Mom's to watch the Kentucky Derby last year and when the anthem came on, I started.  To hear everyone singing the anthem and to see the military men in their uniforms, standing at attention got me going.  As the race was coming to an end, I started as I was watching the final strides of the winning horses, giving everything they had, just doing what they were bred, trained, and loved to do. 
The last part of the movie "Hidalgo" where Viggo Mortenson's little horse is 3/4 lame and cut up and giving his all for his owner makes me downright sob!
And don't, please, come over to watch Extreme Makeover, Home Edition with me.  That's usually a 2-hankie show.
I can see it with the loss of Murphy who lived with me for 18 of her 26 years, Piggy who lived with me all of her 9 years, and Butch and Harley who would have done anything for me, but a movie horse that I know wasn't hurt during the shooting of the movie, or a new house for people I don't even know?  C'mon.............

Appaloosas and an equitation class

Shortly after I graduated from high school, I went to work for a tack and feed store.  When I was there I met the local cast of characters that were in the horse business in the area.  One of our customers asked me if I would fit some yearlings for halter for him if he brought them in to town to the race track that was across the street from the feed store and I said sure (of course I did, I was young and stupid).  I told him that I would fit his horses for him but there was no way that I was going to show them for him.  Ya right.  I got the yearlings fit and then he brought me 2 - 2 year olds and a 3 year old  to fit up for him as well as starting the 2 year olds.  I got the 2 year olds started and everybody was pretty fit and he decided that we should all pile in the truck and take the whole shootin' match to a show in Prince George.  Little did I know that his wife had entered both yearlings at halter and both 2 year olds as well.  Doesn't seem to be a problem right?  All four of them were fillies and his wife had put my name down to show them.  Nice, real nice.  I had been practicing with the yearlings to get them to stand up like I was taught they should but didn't realize that I was being set up too. 
Halter classes are the first on the agenda at horse shows, and you want your horse to sparkle in the ring, so after we had pulled in to Prince George the evening before everybody got a bath and was walked until they were dry.  The next morning when we got to the barn the 3 YO had slept in her poop and had a lovely green-brown smear all across her hip in her white blanket.  So back to the wash bay for her!  Got her all cleaned up and then it was time to rush off and change into show clothes.  The one yearling took the filly class and the other one was an also-ran but that wasn't because she wasn't in shape, she was just out-classed.  It went about the same for the 2 YOs and you guessed it, the ones I got to show were the also-rans.  The owner showed the 3 YO and took the class and if I recall correctly she also went Reserve Grand Champion Mare. 
I wasn't told until we were half way to PG that the 3 YO had been entered in a couple of under saddle classes to give her some ring experience.  The owner told me he didn't feel well and could I show her?  Set up again!   Our first class was western pleasure and I think we were third.  Our next class was western equitation.  In a pleasure class your horse is judged on how much of a pleasure he is to ride.  In an equitation class it's the rider that is judged on how well they ride.  We went in to the ring along with 19 other horses and did the whole walk, trot, lope both ways on the rail and were asked to line up in the center.  Several numbers were read out over the loud speakers and mine was one of them.  I realized that they were cutting the class down to the last few contestants.  Assuming that the numbers that they had called were being excused, I headed for the out-gate when one of the other contestants told me that I was supposed to stay.  Bonus!  Now came the hard part.  Another part of an equitation class is individual tests that you do.  Ours that day was to back up 10 steps (not 9 or 12.  Some people couldn't count), ask for the left lead, and lope your horse through the line in a circle to the right (now a counter-canter) and return to your starting position, stopping where you had started..  Back up, not a problem.  Ask for the left lead?  Rika (short for Paprika, which suited her) rarely picked up the lead that I asked for.  Go through the line?  Remember her name?  She was rather cranky around other horses to begin with.  Well, we'd give it a shot.  I watched several other contestants go and most of them really had a problem with the left lead, counter-canter thing.  When it came to my turn, I backed up 10 steps, asked for a left lead and off we went.  I could have fallen off my horse right about then.  Rika picked up the correct lead the first time out.  When we rode through the lineup she never even cocked an ear and when we were headed around the circle, she held the left lead (wasn't hard for her, she'd been practicing that one at home!) and stopped precisely where we had started.  WOW!  Who taught her that?  Or was she just having a 'moment'?  After everybody had completed the pattern they started to announce the results of the class, starting with 6th place.  There were alot of happy smiling faces and when they finally got to the winner of the class I was gawking around, looking to see who the winner was.  The girl beside me finally got my attention and said 'Hey!  That's you!'  I knew that I had had a good ride, but that was totally unexpected.
I gained a whole new respect for Appaloosas in the time that I worked with them.  Man are they tough (and more than a little hard-headed).  Would I own one?  Maybe, but not to be totally descarded.

it's not nice to laugh at another's misfortune

Over the weekend my Part Time and I took one of our touring trips around Alberta.  So far this summer we have gone southwest toward Longview, over through Eden Valley and then north to Cochrane.  What a gorgeous drive.  We bumped in to a couple that was from Providence, Rhode Island and the first question that the lady asked us was if we had seen any elk or bear.  Not quite the season for them to be out and about, but even if I had seen any, I would definitely have left them alone.  Another trip we took was east over to Drumheller and a tour through dinosaur country.  We stopped at the Royal Tyrrell Museum for a tour through their facility which was pretty interesting and also stopped to tour an abandoned coal mine.  The conditions that the men worked in were pretty bad, but I guess you take what you can get when there's a depression on. 
This weekend we decided to go west and then north to see if there was some wildlife about and to check out the fall colors on the trees.  Ya right.  I had told Part Time that if the leaves were falling in the city, they were definitely gone in the mountains.  Of course, I was right (again).  The leaves were all down and any wildlife that may have been around must have heard that we were coming and got camera-shy.  Oh well, it was a nice day for a drive.  We had gone west to Lake Louise and after 2 cups of tea before I left home and a coffee with breakfast, it was time for a rest break.  We had pulled off the highway into Louise and then turned right toward the entrance of a gas station.  As we were going to turn right in to the station there was an older gentleman on a Harley going to turn left to get back on the road.  This guy was only going about walking speed and looked horribly wobbly and when he looked up and saw us coming he all of a sudden kinda got it together and hit the throttle.  Well hell.  He almost hit the front of the truck, went flying across the road, legs flying out the back, and right into the ditch.  I asked PT if we should go see if he was ok and he said absolutely, slammed the truck in park, hit the hazards and jumped out.  I figgered that it was probably best if the truck wasn't left in the middle of the road and got out to move it.  There was a guy in his 20s that had seen what happened and he went over to help.  I couldn't see anything other than the bike and thought that maybe the old guy had launched himself into a tree and was getting ready to call emergency services when I saw PT and the young guy lifting the bike up.  Turns out the PT had thought the same thing as I did until he heard a little voice saying 'Hurry please'.  The guy was under his bike and couldn't lift it off himself!  His leg was pinned under it at the ankle and he's pretty lucky that somebody saw him go over the edge.  After he was set free, he was rattled enough that he didn't even want to get back on and PT told him that he didn't want the girlfriend to come over and advise him about getting back on when you get bucked off, even if you are riding way too much horse for your ability.  My question is how the hell did you make it all the way out to Lake Louise from Manitoba in one piece, and how the hell are you  going to make it to Vancouver?!?!
Not nice, I know, but we giggled all the way from Lake Louise around a loop that included Rocky Mountain House, and then back to the city.