Barrel Clinic, Family Meals, and horses, horses, horses!

Charlie and Twin Bluff

Well I cant begin to describe how much fun we had in CO! It was the vacation of a lifetime. There is nothing better than spending quality time, with wonderful friends, adorable twins, and beautiful horses. We arrived on Wednesday after a great flight, and headed to Yuma. When we got to their place, after a couple of stops, it was early afternoon. We took a tour of the house, and then immediately went out to the barn. Colleen and Mark have a very nice group of horses. We also got to see Peggy the very pregnant mare, who had decided to wait until the "twins" got there to foal!! She was about to pop and I kept telling Colleen "I hope it is a colt and has lots of chrome on it (Chrome is white, for those that don't know)." The chances of her having a foal with a lot of chrome are pretty slim, but that is the type of horse I like and have always wanted. As you can see from the pic, I got exactly what I wanted. Maybe he will come and live with me, when he turns 2!! I think Colleen and Mark are going to try to name him Twin Bluff, which I just adore.

That evening Chase and Caitlyn, Marks twins came out, they are 12 and just amazing. We had a wonderful time getting to know them. They stayed at the farm with us every night, and it was just an absolute pleasure getting to be around them. In a day and age, when kids are rowdy and have no respect for adults, these kids showed that it is still possible for children to be well behaved and respectful. They help with all the horses chores, and help clean the house, and are both so sweet.

The next day, Mark and Colleen let us sleep in for a bit! We finally made it out to the barn, and got everyone saddled and headed out to their arena. We took 5 horses out there and just had a wonderful time. We worked on the barrel pattern. Colleen is a great teacher and she had just been to a Brandi Halls clinic, so it was nice to go over those exercises. We were so lucky because Mark, who NEVER takes off work, took off while we were there, so we got to hang out with him as well. After riding all morning, we retired to the house for lunch. Then we went over to the ranch that Colleen and Mark look over. It is 4000 acres and very nice. We went through the feedlot and looked at all the ranch geldings. That evening we went in to town (30 miles) to watch the twins play in a band concert at the school. They both did a great job.

The next day, we went to an indoor arena and worked the horses. We worked the horses on the barrel pattern, then the owners of the arena came up, Craig and Katy, and they roped with Mark and Chase. It was a great day!

Saturday, we got up with all intentions of riding and it was SNOWING! That is CO for you, it was in the 70's on Thursday and snowing on Saturday, so we had a lazy day inside. We watched barrel training videos all day and really enjoyed it.

That night, we had a wonderful meal with great conversation. It was a great ending to our trip. Mark, Colleen, Chase and Caitlyn made us feel right at home, and we can't wait to go back soon!


The flight home, was not near as enjoyable as the flight out. It was HORRIBLE turbulence the entire 2 hours, so that was shitty, but we had such a wonderful trip, it was worth it, that is for sure.


Leigh and I have been catching up on stuff since we got home, we got the place mowed last night and I cleaned the entire barn and tack room. It is nice to be back home where the grass is green and the weather is good, but we cant wait to go back out west!