Happy Halloweeny!

Saw this last week on the way home from horse camping. Pretty cool!

Big scary spider!

The best was the horse pulled carriage.

It was motorize, the head went up and down and the legs moved!

Here are my girls, Molly Macaroni and Lucy Bear.

Not to happy about the silly hats!

Happy Halloweeny to All!

Ice Pony Girl

Kick Ass Shoes

I love these sexy shoes, but where the hell would I wear them?



Certainly NOT while riding Huginn. HAHA!

Ice Pony Girl

PLEASE HELP! PLEASE VOTE!

My friend Judy and her daughter Olivia need your help!!

It's really simple, just a vote a day. Please help! Please vote for Hoover in the Cutest Dog contest, he could help win $1,000,000 Cash Grand Prize!!




To vote for Hoover (you may need to refresh) please click HERE !

To read more about Oliva's story please click HERE!

FROM JUDY:

Hi everyone:

I have a favor to ask of you guys. I normally don't post like this on these groups but things are down to the nitty-gritty now, so I must turn to all you guys for help. As many of you know, I have a daughter with Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS). After so many surgeries during her 15 yrs, she will be having the surgery of so far in her life on October 28th: the LeFort jaw surgery (where they break both upper and lower jaws and realign) with a few other surgeries during this surgery. I'm extremely nervous and anxiety-ridden as we head for this surgery.

Many of you also know that I have three wonderful beagles (two are beagle/basset mixes) and right now I'm in the dog contest of a lifetime (with a grand prize of a million dollars)! I've been in this contest for 10 l-o-n-g weeks and there are only 2 weeks left of the contest. Last week, Hoover made it to #11 in the Top 30 Dogs in this contest (out of 60,000 dogs), which many of you are already responsible for in helping to make that happen! Now with only two weeks left, it is urgent that Hoover and I find any and everybody we can find to vote every single day of the last two weeks. It's important to note that each week ends on a Saturday night and begins again on Sunday morning (12am PDT) so the votes are zero'ed out every Saturday night at midnight for another start on Sunday. So it's important that each Sunday begin with a bang! This is why I write to you tonight.

I am sending this to different groups that I'm on; some of you know me as an advocate for families for different reasons, like: cochlear implants and baha's, Treacher Colllins and other craniofacial syndromes, atresia/microtia, deafness, jaw surgeries, beagle and other dog rescue, etc.

I'm at the point of begging now - I need your help. Please read my story in the link below that I posted on the CNN iReport website so you can fully understand what I am asking and why. Then please help me. It's important to note that you vote each and every day that is left in the final two weeks so that Hoover can get as many votes as possible. Please read the story in full so you understand more fully what I'm trying to do in winning this contest. Thank you so very much!

To read Judy's CNN iReport, please click HERE!

A special thank-you to all the people on these groups that already support Hoover and me, and continue to vote every day. You will never know how much I appreciate all of you.

Judy, Olivia, and Hoover
ps: Hoover needs at least 1000 votes a day; we can do this with everyone's help!

PLEASE CROSS POST and THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

Ice Pony Girl

Minnesota Horse Council - Crow Hassan Trail Ride

This past weekend I drove to Crow-Hassan Park Reserve for the Minnesota Horse Council Fall Trail Ride. This was the first time I have attended this ride. What a lovely weekend I had!



The Crow Hassan horse trails are quite beautiful this time of year. The fall colors were a quilt of yellows, greens, and reds... with a dash of snow.

My friend Pat riding her cute Icelandic Horse mare named Dimmalimm.

We camped at the Blue Stem group campground, it's very nice. It's offers a handful of hitching rails, bathrooms, water and a wonderful shelter with a wood burning stove. The wood stove was greatly appreciated this weekend, since it was a very chilly weekend.

Our camping site.....early Friday evening.

Friday night, it got very cold and Saturday morning, I woke up to find snow on the ponies. And a harsh wind blowing though the campground.

It was 24 degrees when I woke up! Brrr!

The park offers about 11 miles of the flat to gently rolling horse trails that meander through the woods and along the prairies with views of the Crow River.


The MN Horse Council treated us to a wonderful weekend of riding, friendship and oh yes.....delicious food!

On Saturday, Deb made sloppy joes for lunch and Darrel deep fried a turkey for dinner. YUMMY!

Thank you Deb, for the wonderful food and warm yummy RV baked cookies. Proud hubby Darrel in the background.

The MN Horse Council even had door prizes for all the riders who braved the winter temps and snow to attend their ride. I won a warm comfy fleece riding vest! Happy Camper!!

Thank you Deb, Linda...our faithful trail boss, and Darrel for the wonderful weekend! I will for sure attend this ride next year!

For more photos, please click HERE! Enjoy the fall beauty.


Ice Pony Girl

Better Than Sex

18 Reasons Why Riding a Horse is Better Than Sex

What is your favorite?

(Mine is #2)

18- You don't have to sneak your riding magazines into the house.

17- If you are having trouble with riding, it's perfectly acceptable to pay a professional to show you how to improve your technique.

16- The Ten Commandments don't say anything about riding.

15- If your trainer takes pictures or videotapes of you riding, you don't have to worry about them showing up on the Internet when you become famous.

14- Your horse won't keep asking questions about other horses you've ridden.

13- It's perfectly respectable to ride a horse you've never met before, just once, or, ride many horses in the same day, whether you know them or not.

12- When you see a really good horse, you don't have to feel guilty about imagining riding him.

11- If your regular horse isn't available, he/she won't object if you ride another horse.

10- Nobody will ever tell you that you can go blind if you ride by yourself.

9- When dealing with a riding trainer, you never have to wonder if they are really an undercover cop.

8- You don't have to go to a sleazy shop in a seedy neighborhood to buy riding stuff.

7- You can have a riding calendar on your wall at the office, tell riding jokes and invite co-workers to ride with you without getting sued for harassment.

6- There's no such thing as a Riding Transmitted Disease.

5- If you want to watch horses on television, you don't have to subscribe to a premium cable channel (but you might need a video tape).

4- Nobody expects you to promise to ride the same horse for the rest of your life.

3- Nobody expects you to give up riding if your equine partner loses interest in the sport.

2- You don't have to be a newlywed to plan a vacation primarily for the enjoyment of riding.

1- Your horse will never say, "What? You just rode me last week! Is that all you ever think about?"

I love my pony Huginn! He always leaves me with a smile on my face.

Ice Pony Girl

Tamarack Horse Camping Trip

This past weekend I finally made it to Tamarack Horse Campground in St. Croix State Forest, which is located in the Hinckley, Minnesota area.

The trip was amazing! I love.....LOVE the Tamarack trails.

The scenery is quite beautiful, especially near the winding rushing Tamarack River.

You will find that the terrain is varied, from flat land to steep hills with breathtaking views and of course....awesome river crossings.

The flat trails can be found on the Gandy Dancer trail system. The steep challenging trails are located in the St. Croix Forest system.

Pony view from the Tamarack Overlook.

The horse trails meander back and forth, up and down from the beautiful Tamerack River. The Tamarack slowly winds its' way through St. Croix State Forest on it's way down to the St. Croix River. I think there are about 20 miles of St. Croix State Forest trails.

There are three trail systems located in the St. Croix State Forest.

The Gandy Dancer Trail offers ATV/OVH trails, which can also be accessed on horseback. All ATV users we encounter were very respectful and courteous! This system has 31.2 miles of trails. These trails were old logging and railroad beds, so they are wide and fairly flat. Expect for the "whoops" and banks created by the ATV/OVH.

The Willard Munger State Trail, this system is a multi-use trail, it offers 80 miles of trails. These trails travel through St. Croix State Park, Chengwatana State Forest, St. Croix State Forest and Nemadji State Forest.

Most of the trails there are technical and very challenging. Your horse needs to be conditioned for climbing steep grades and sure footed for working on the down grades. The trails are narrow single tracks, running along the rim.....overlooking the Tamarack River. Many are old deer trails, so this will give you an idea on the width.

Many areas are so steep, that trail maintenance consists of "wooden step boxes", and if you are riding a short horse such as my Ice Pony Huginn, you find that he needed to jump from step to step to work his way up the steep hills.


The trail may not look steep in this photo, but it was!! Huginn had to do a running jump all the way up the trail. This is one of many...many so called "boxed step trails". LOVE IT!!!!

Yes, we had rain, rain and more rain, but that didn't keep us off the trails. We were blessed with a no-rain window midday Saturday! And the temps were chilly, perfect for a furry Ice Pony.

Our guide was Bobbie and her faithful steed, Amadeus.

I so enjoyed riding with Bobbie, she rides the way I love to ride. Hard, long and fast! Thank you Bobbie for the great ride!!

The Tamerack Horse Campground is huge. It offers three loops with 55 camp sites and a large day use area. Many of which is tucked into the woods for privacy. Each camp site has high tie lines for your ponies. You will also find clean toilets! Water is available, but you will need a generator to work the water pump.

Ice Pony Girl's campsite, I shared it with Dianne. <:O]

The best part of the weekend, spending time with friends.


"Rockin' Cowgirls"
Dianne, Beth, Raven and Sherry

Oh...I wish I had spent more time exploring the trails! Next year!!

There were about 25 folks in our group, BUT....we were riding so fast and hard, I hardly had time to take my camera out to shoot everyone and everything. Darn!

For more photos, please click HERE!

Happy Trails!
Ice Pony Girl

Equestrian

Every day ... I strive to become a better equestrian and partner with my horse.

Ice Pony Girl

Satan Drives a Semi

Hum.........

Not only does Satan drive a semi, Satan also hires safe and courteous drivers!

Repeat after me....."there is no Satan, there is no Satan".

<:O]

Ice Pony Goddess

Put an End to Puppy Mills in Wisconsin

Please help put an end to puppy mills in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's state motto is "Escape to Wisconsin". But for thousands of Wisconsin dogs, there is no escape from the horrid, inhumane conditions that they are forced to endure their entire lives.

While the below video took place in Texas, please keep in mind that this also happens in the State of Wisconsin.



Life for a puppy mill dog.............

Living in wire cages, barely large enough to allow a dog to fully stand upright.

Wire cage bottoms where delicate paws and legs are trapped and ripped off.

Extreme cold and heat conditions.

Lack of food.

Lack of water.

Lack of exercise.

Lack of proper veterinary care.

Vocal cords ripped out by breeders with pipes, or other metal items.

Forced to live in overcrowded deplorable conditions.

Force to have litter, after litter, after litter, after litter, after litter, after litter, after litter, until they can no longer reproduced! Then they are dropped off at kill shelters, dumped on roadsides, left to starve to death, or taken out behind the barn to be shot.

But, worst of all, these poor dogs never know the "kind touch of a human" nor are they "loved"!!!

What can you do to help?

Do not buy your next pet. Rescue your next pet and save a life.

Do not buy from a pet store.

Contact your State Legislator and ask them to support bill AB-250/SB-208, known as Puppy Mill Law.

This is a law intended to regulate the commercial sales and raising of animals. It imposes reasonable restrictions and a licensing system for people who raise pets for a living.

Please tell a friend about the Puppy Mill Law, AB-250/SB-208. Ask your legislators to support the bill. To contact your legislator, please click HERE.

For more info on Puppy Mills, please visit the site below:

Wisconsin Puppy Mill Project

The Puppy Mill Truck

Uppity Wisconsin, has link to more puppy mill news and updates.

Please do this for the Dogs.

Ice Pony Girl