Life Happens

Well, June was certainly an interesting month. It started with me in the hospital. I've never had to stay in the hospital before and suddenly I found myself there for two weeks. I was losing my mind. I missed my house, my bed, my husband, and my animals. The thought of one more night in the hospital had me in tears. I wasn't sure if I'd ever get out of there. Then, to top things off, my laptop started going down the toilet. It finally crashed on me over the weekend. Just won't turn on. My husband is going to see if he can recover my information from my hard drive, then it's off to the shop to get fixed. I'm actually rather enjoying the computer in the office though. I feel more productive. It's even motivating me to write in my blogs. Hopefully I can keep this up. Considering the amount of actual business I've been doing on the computer, I've got high hopes for my blogging success.


So on to what's new in a good way. I've taken up a new business venture. Face it, the economy sucks and we all need to find ways to make more money. Plus I have a horse in training and I need to find a way to keep her there. More on that later. So I wanted to find a home based sales company to start with because of the variety of products with a limited need for start up capital. Bascially think Avon and Mary Kay. The problem is that I'm not much of a girly girl. I live on a farm. I don't wear make-up on a daily basis. I love Pampered Chef, but my kitchen is already overflowing with gadgets. So I'm looking on the work from home websites for ideas and I found one that had a listing of all of the various party planning and home based sales companies. I had to do some research because a few of the companies had gone out of business. Then I found a couple businesses that sold pet products. Now that is something I can sell. I certainly do buy enough of it. It was easy to pick between the two companies. Company #1 didn't have squat that I would actually buy for my pets. Company #2 had a whole catalog full of stuff that I wanted to buy. So I inquired a little further and I am now a Pet Consultant for Shure Pets. Check out my website for more info: http://shurelovemypets.shopshurepets.com/ I'm excited. I got my sample kit last night and have already started playing with stuff. The kids love the toys and treats. I love how good the shampoo makes them smell. I better be careful or I'll use up all my samples before my first show.


Now on to my poor pony who's being forced to become a productive member of society. A little background first. I started riding Poco Steppin Rena when I first moved to Florida in 2005. She's only 14.1h and the owner was afraid of her. I found out why. The little snot is cutting bred and is quick as a cat. For those who don't know horses: that means she dumped me on my butt the first time I rode her....TWICE. But I figured out her trick and went on to really enjoy her. It came to the point where I actually wanted to buy her, but the owner didn't want to sell. Then I tried to convince the owner to send her to a trainer for cutting or reining, but she didn't want to ride her western. Well, time went by, two of my horses from Ohio moved down to Florida, and soon I didn't have time to ride Rena anymore. By the time the owner actually decided to sell her, I knew that I couldn't take on a third horse. Instead, I agreed to help sell her. Let me preface this by saying that I hate selling horses. People send you a million questions via e-mail, waste your time, lie about their experience, and then never call you back. That's basically what happened with both of the people who came out to see Rena. By the time the second family came out to see her, she had been on the market for a few months and I was attached to her again. This is where my wonderful husband comes in. He bought her to be a "project horse." That was a year and a half ago. Guess what, I think she's here to stay.


The problem is that she's 10 years old and never really been "finished." Plus she is a very independant thinker. In front of a cow, that's great. Riding in an arena it means that she's going to try to get out of everything you ask her to do. I was making progress with her, but I still could not get her to canter on the right lead. It got to the point that she would have a temper tantrum every time I asked for the canter. I finally had to admit that I needed professional help. I was getting no where fast with her. Plus, she's too good of a horse to go to waste. I was trying to take reining lessons on her, but we couldn't get anything accomplished because of her problems at the canter. So I saved my pennies and sent her off the end of May. She's already made a lot of progress. I was able to ride her again on Saturday. We still didn't canter but that was in part because I was coming off surgery, in part because my balance needs work, and in part because she's still very hesitant to pick up her leads. I didn't want my balance issues to throw her off. Hopefully I can get back out there this weekend and I'll be able to report that I did canter her, but right now I'm just happy to report that I saw the trainer's assistant canter her. She picked up both leads with minimal temper tantrums.