The sun has been shining now for five days straight, perhaps could spring be just a few days away? Don't get too anxious as this is Nevada and you never know what the Mother Nature may bring.

Ah yes, but these are the tales of Valerie in the Country not to be confused with "Caroline in the City"! I have just celebrated my first anniversary as a country girl. I was born and raised in the city, Reno, Nevada to be exact. And it's not that some people consider Reno to be a big city full of big city folk.  It is still a city and a great place to grow up. As I look back over the last year, I have had a most incredible journey into a new world.  A world filled with lessons, tears, four pair of ruined shoes, torn jeans, broken nails and lots of laughs. I would like to share some of those experiences especially the the ones that have made me laugh. There is a happy ending for those of us that change our lives, take huge risks and scoff at our siblings and parents thinking of us as kooks!!!

I'm sure as I look in the mirror each day, I say to myself, "Self what happened to your big hair and all those different shades of lipgloss?" My answer, " I'm giving up a few things so I can buy that pretty new bleached rawhide and sterling headstall ." My horse dresses better than I do!!

And so begins the tale of Valerie in the Country, the names have not been changed, the stories are actual events and my passion and love for my children, my husband and my horses is true.

"I KILLED MY HORSE"

The alarm goes off at 4:30 every morning, it's July and summer is in full bloom. The bugs and flies are out by 9:00 a.m. so we like to be in by 9:10 a.m.! My husband and I have been taking our green horses out to the desert every morning for the past few weeks. We usually take 3 horses each day, but today was going to be a 4 horse day but sadly we only have a 3 horse slant. So we made two trips, the "senior" mare and two fillies.

On this particularly hot morning we got out to the desert about 5:00 a m. I always rode Madge, the senior mare, she's only ten and not really a senior just TMAB (top mare at the barn!) and my husband rode the green fillies. We had a great ride, everyone had a good workout in the sand, no one paid much attention to all the frogs in the water we crossed and no one even noticed the big noise the irrigation ditch was making. All in all a fine morning so far. We loaded up the first bunch, took them home and came back with the next two fillies and of course Madge came along for the second ride. I'm sure she was wondering why she hadn't had breakfast yet, "What is wrong with you people?" I started feeling sorry for the big, strong, well conditioned mare and decided that I would give her a bit of a break. I would just watch my husband do the figure eights and let her hang out at the top of the very soft, very inviting sand hill. She was sweating and making that groaning noise that let me know that she had had just about enough fun for one day.

We found a nice open area to take a break or so I thought. All of the sudden down she went, very slowly, front knees first then her back end and as I stepped off screaming to my husband, "I killed her. Oh my God I killed her."

The first thought that came to my head was, what will I tell my son?  Today is playday at the fairgrounds and he is planning on taking home a ribbon! After a few seconds I realized that the mare wasn't expiring just scratching, she needed a good roll. Would she ever do that to one of the kids? Not on a bet, just me, the soft touch.

My husband of course was speaking rather loudly by this time, "Get that horse up. Don't let her do that to you. Get her up!" She got up all right and I got a nice sand bath which is very good for the hair and scalp! Needless to say, the last ride of the day brought no breaks at the top of the hill.


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