It's all about Donna

I got the call today. Ace is permanently retired.

Who is Ace? Ace is my girlfriend’s old Arabian horse. She’s been allowing me to drive him for the past 20 months, following the passing of my own Arabian horse. Ace is a spry 29 year-old, that you wouldn’t guess to be a day over 20. Lots of spring in his trot, and a twinkle in his eye. I’ve had some very enjoyable times with Ace and he has certainly helped me deal with the loss of my own horse.

Last week we had awful weather here in Texas. Temps in the 100s, high humidity; and then a slight cool down with some pretty powerful thunderstorms. With the weather, also came colic. Ace was rushed off to the vet, treated, spent a night or two and came home. He’s not out of the woods yet. My girlfriend believes it best to let him just live out however many days he has left as a pasture ornament. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to enjoy some time with Ace. He’s a good pony.

Many years ago, there were two grey Arabians that gave carriage rides through the streets of downtown Dallas. Their names were Boukie and Louie, and my girlfriend Joanne was their driver. Yes, others drove Boukie and Louie, but we all knew they were really Joanne’s horses. I always thought they were really cool. I always wanted to drive them, but never got out of driving a single. And that was OK. Read the rest of this entry »

I mourned, and am still mourning, the loss of my very dear horsey non-human friend Pharoah, who crossed over the Rainbow Bridge earlier this year. Today he got a new friend to play with.

“Hoot,” whose real name I have no clue about, crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to meet up with his former barn-mates Denver, Ari, and Mr. Gardner, as well as my Pharoah. Pharoah went to visit Hoot on more than one occassion. I am glad Hoot has friends to run and play with now.

It’s been a pretty tough year for ponies. I won’t bore you with the details. You all know the stories.

I’ll make this a celebration post for our horsey non-human friends. Me and my horsey-girlfriends love our ponies. We have fun with them… we dress them up, we play games, we give them jobs. Best of all, we all love them dearly and losing one is like losing a family member or close friend. Here we remember the happier times. Read the rest of this entry »

I got to spend a wonderful day with one of my best girlfriends recently. She was taking a carriage driving lesson, so I tagged along and played the part of a pretty useless helper. Well, I wasn’t totally useless… at least I’m not directionally challenged and got us to where the lessons were being held.

Read the rest of this entry »

Volunteering is good. It’s good for the soul. It’s good for whoever you are helping.

I volunteered recently. Granted it wasn’t for a charity, but it was for community. The carriage driving community.

Events of any kind need volunteers. If there are no volunteers, then events can’t and won’t happen. Doesn’t matter what the event is, they need help and lots of it. Some organizations have deep pockets and can pay their help; but more times than not, there is no budget for all the help necessary to make an event successful.

I have always felt strongly that you must give back to whatever community you participate in. You can’t be a participant all of the time. You can’t just take and take and take. You have to give back or you may not have a place to play later. It’s the only way to keep your community vital. My chosen community, for now, is the horse and carriage driving community. I could not participate this year, so I volunteered. I had a BLAST!

I worked alongside my parents, one of their friends, and two people I had not met before. We had a great time. We monitored an obstacle that drivers had to negotiate. I call it monitoring because contrary to the common term that you are a judge, you’re not really judging. You have sheet to guide you and what you are supposed to look for. For example, if the driver puts his whip down, he gets penalty points against his overall score. If the driver goes the wrong route through the obstacle, they can accrue more penalty points. So you’re really more like a monitor than a judge. When I recruit people and tell them they’ll be a judge, they get worried. So I tell them they will be monitoring the obstacle and then it isn’t such a big deal. This year there were 29 participants, including five pairs drivers. It was a lot of fun to watch and cheer the drivers on as they made their way through the maze of gates.

I also got involved with Sabre Airline Solutions® Give Time Together community project. It’s a wonderful projet where employees work together on community projects volunteering their time and resources for the good of the charity of their choosing. It’s pretty darn cool, really. And the event takes place all around the world. Talk about community!

What have you done lately to help your community?