Diary of a Happy Appy

Bo, Beau, BoBo, Or Mr. BoJangles as I showed him under in our brief jumper stint years ago has passed on.  For the last 23 years he has been my Dad's riding horse and companion.  For the last 10 or so of those, he was mainly an opinionated old man horse that complained if his meals were later than her thought they should be.  But, he was loved and spoiled.  He was a retired 3 gaited saddle seat show horse that I tried and failed to make into a 3 day eventer.  I have learned so much since the days of Bo!  He taught me that to jump is to fly without wings.  Hang on, trust and he would land safely on the other side, no matter what the size or angle of the takeoff point.   Bo and Dad traversed the trails of Indiana and Tennessee and went places that most horses wouldn't go.  They were a fearless team.  One that had only to ask, where next?  Bo went up and down the trails of Central Tennessee with Dad on his back proudly.  There was no hesitation is his step, he knew where he was go

Christmas is days away, and I am steadily STILL working on presents!  I recently took up weaving and am weaving cotton dish towels for my dear, dear adopted Mom.  Mom in Canada is going to have to wait until after Christmas for her present, it is still on the cone, and the hot chocolate mix for my co-workers?  Still hasn't been mixed!  Eek!  But, the good thing, I know what I am doing 😆 The horses will get left over candy canes, their favorite treat ever!  plus some extra apples (Honey) and carrots (Louie) and Mom's dog, Rawley will even get a treat.  Leyna, our ever spoiled kitty will get a new Squirrel to "kill" in the front room.  That is her most favorite other than a new box and packing paper, packing paper and a box is the BEST! If you are missing the devotionals I was writing every week, never fear they will be back after Epiphany.  But right now we are in Advent season and focusing on the joy of Christmas!  If you miss your devotionals please visit us here to

  The end of November, first of December has been busy and kind of eventful!  I have been elected to be the Nebraska Dressage Association board and as such will be the incoming president.  I am also on the Region 4 USDF Nomination committee as well as being one of the Dressage Foundation's GMO's Ambassadors!  Add that in to being on the board for the Nebraska Cowboy Dressage group and work as well as my newest addiction weaving and I have a busy year in 2021!   Louie and Honey are still enjoying their long break with CoVid and hanging out at the farm getting fat and sassy.  They both have been wearing their masks and staying socially distanced as much as possible with a couple of exceptions... Louie was not as impressed with the masks as Honey was.  He is impatiently waiting for the vaccine to come out. So, for now we wait and see what 2021 will hold for us.  Hopefully it is a vaccine and more opportunities for riding and showing.

  This is going to be a griping post.  There are a couple of things I just don't like, sorry but I have to get it out there.  Certain artists should not sing Christmas songs, period.  They ruin them with doing the high pitched runs and whatnots.  I am sure some people love it and think it wonderful.  However, I don't care for it at all.  Give me a good old fashioned choir singing Away in a Manger, or Silent Night and I am a happy camper.   The other thing.... pumpkin everything???  Blech!   Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin lattes , spiced pumpkin candles, and on and on.... Not everyone loves pumpkin.  For the love of desserts, please, please do not try to hide pumpkin in a chocolate chip muffin!  😝  Now that I have gotten that out there...What are your favorite Christmas songs, customs, foods, etc?

  1 Chronicles 16:34 ~ Give thanks to the  Lord , for he is good;    his love endures forever. Friday, the day after Thanksgiving 2020.   What a weird year!   I never thought I would not be with friends and family on Thanksgiving.   That we would have to be distant when this day has always been a time to come together and give thanks as a family, as a group.   But, here we are zooming get-togethers and having pie over Facetime.   I have many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend and moving into Advent.   I am most Thankful for my family, friends, and the wonderful friends I have made at First Presbyterian Church.   They have always encouraged me to follow my heart and dreams no matter where they lead me.   I am also thankful to know that the words spoken in 1 Chronicles 16:34 are true, the Lord is good, his love does endure forever.   We do not have to do anything special to earn that love. If you have not heard it yet today, you are loved, you are special, and I am

  “It becomes a dark time when we lose faith in each other and thus lack courage.” Chogyam Trungpa, Buddhist teacher Most of you know that I am ever optimistic, “This too shall pass” and “Glass half full”. Through everything I have had two constants pushing me forward and keeping me optimistic and looking for that other side of the rain cloud.   One is my faith in God that all will be put right in time not of our choosing but of God’s choosing.   The second is I have an outlet for my stress and worry, my horses.   There have been a few over the years and you have read about the special ones.   Right now Louie, my “Happy Appy” is near and dear to my heart.   He is goofy and kind and makes me smile. A couple weeks ago I was at the farm in KS trimming their hooves.   Just like trimming our fingernails.   Louie LOVES to take my hair out of its ponytail.   I had a different hair tie in that he couldn’t figure out that weekend.   Horses like dogs or cats can tell when people are having a

  Proverbs 15:1 ~ A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger. I am going to share something with you, a little thing about me… I am a channel flipper! I cannot stand to listen to commercials on the radio!   I want to hear music and I really dislike car commercials.   So, what do I do… In the mornings/evenings on my way to and from work I have these handy dandy little buttons on my steering wheel that allow me to flip channels!   In my channel flipping I came across a Christian radio station that was playing the song Revolutionary by Josh Wilson.   Have you heard it?   Really listened to the lyrics?   I honestly can’t think of a more fitting song right now.   Here is the Youtube link, have a listen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6glQdaQUZ1U   (Skip the ads) Now, I know this is not the normal hymn or song that we sing in Church on Sunday. This is a make you think song.   The opening lyrics are: Maybe you're not like me Maybe we don't agree Maybe th

  Ephesians 4:2 – Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” They say that patience is a virtue, but as I sit here writing (typing) this on Wednesday, Nov. 4 waiting like the rest of you to find out which way the election results went… Patience is for the birds!   I have never really been a particularly patient person.   If there was cake or brownies in the oven, I was standing there waiting on them to come out!   Give me a warm brownie with ice cream or milk!   Yummy!!! If you really want to learn patience try loading a horse that doesn’t want to get in a trailer.   Omega was a lovely little ¾ Arabian mare that liked to do things in her own way and her own time.   A simple ride down a dirt road was an adventure some days.   The tree that was there yesterday? Today had horse eating monsters in it.   Most of the time she was very agreeable to whatever was asked of her.   With the exception of walking into a trailer.   You defiantly did not plan o

  1 Peter3:9 ~ Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. There once was a little bay horse named Asap, or Grande as I knew him.  He was a twin and he thought he was the biggest and bestest horse in all of East Texas!  He did not believe that you should not repay an insult with an insult.  Grande thought so highly of himself that he would give out punishment for the slightest of infractions against him.  Dare to forget his peppermints – then he would lead you to them and not move until he had his required quota.  Try to make him go to his room? He would reopen his door and have a nice run around the grounds while you got your exercise chasing him!  But, Grande also had a side of him where he did bestow blessings.  He could be a cuddle bug on occasion and we received several high marks in dressage.  There was that one time though that he didn’t like the judge’s hat and

  Proverbs 12:25~ Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. There have been countless references throughout scripture to the power of people’s words to either bring blessing or pain to others as well as to themselves.  What comes out of your mouth can heal a person and give life when spoken by wisdom and kindness.  Or if spoken without thinking or in haste, words can bring enormous pain.   Many Proverbs remind is the wisdom of keeping our mouths closed.  When we speak rashly we almost always regret it and may cause irreparable harm to ourselves or those close to us.  Our mouths literally have the power of life and death.  When we hear someone talking unkindly to the store clerk at the gas station, do we stand aside or do we say something?  In today’s climate how easy is it to get upset with someone that we don’t see eye to eye politically with?  I know I have been hesitant to call my Dad because we are at opposite ends of the spectrum politically.  There have been ti

  Matthew 6:34  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. “Want to make God laugh? Show God your plans.” Why do we feel the need to control every aspect of our lives at every waking moment?   We worry about everything!   No matter what it is, we fail to control 100% of every situation no matter what.   Life will always throw you a curve.   Want to plan the perfect picnic for a day outside? It rains.   Planning a surprise birthday party? Guess what, the Pastor knows what you are planning! The only thing you can control in life is you.   Your thoughts, emotions, actions, reactions, behaviors and choices.   Therefore, since the only thing I can control is my actions……   Bring on the pity party!   I had planned on several horse shows, lots of trail rides with friends, hanging out and girl time with my horse pals, and not being home bound!   Just like I know most of you were not planning on no vacations, school

  John 15:12 My command is this; Love each other as I have loved you. Some of you are looking at this picture and scratching your heads, yes that is a very old picture of me on my first horse.   His name is Blitz, my Dad got him for me when I was 8 or 9 years old and he was 2 going on 3.   Blitz was everything a first horse should not be for a young, beginning rider.   He was not really trained, he was headstrong, and he would run off if he didn’t want to do something but in my eyes he was perfect!   I learned SO much from Blitz about how to ride, balance and train a horse.   We grew up together.   While Blitz may not have been the perfect horse, he wasn’t big and flashy.   He certainly wasn’t the fastest horse on a barrel pattern, he did have heart and he tried.   He also helped me grow as a person and a horse trainer.   I am not sure I would have had the confidence to ride and work with some of the horses I did in later years if it wasn’t for Blitz’s lessons.   He taught me to fa

  Psalm 46:10 ~ Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among nations, I will be exalted in the earth. “Be Still”, In today’s world how many of us can actually turn off everything and be still as God commands?   No phone, no smart watch, no tv, no radio, no fan for noise, nothing except you and God.   Try it.   It is harder than you might think.   We are so used to having some type of noise in the background that the absence of noise seems abnormal to us. Yet, if I am outside in a round-pen working with a horse, I want that silence.   Just me and the horse.   I can read the horses thoughts and movements and he mine.   It is so easy to be still and quiet when I am working with a horse, they are a flight animal that weighs upwards of 900 pounds easily.   If scared they can kill or disable a person without meaning to.   Just this past weekend I was at the farm with Louie (my horse) and I hopped on him with just his halter and lead rope to guide him.   No bridle, bit or sadd

  Faith isn’t a feeling.  It’s a choice to trust God even when the road ahead seems uncertain. ~ Dave Willis Faith and Trust,two words each with  5 letters. Both on the surface seem so small but yet are so big.  Have Faith and Trust you hear people say.  I myself have often said the same thing.  But what does that really mean?  How can we have faith and trust in this unprecedented times?  We are in a global pandemic, families are fighting over politics (mine included), and the world seems to be upside down right now. In working with horses I have to trust in my instincts and have faith that what I am doing is the right thing.  After working with these wonderful animals for many, many years I have learned to read their body language and subtle cues that they give me when working with them.  Some say that it is “whispering” to horses.  No, not really; I am just listening to what they are telling me as if I was having a conversation with anyone else.  The flick of an ear, the tightening o

  (Ephesians 2:3). The  grass  is truly only  greener  in Christ and not keep looking back at our old life where the  grass  is not  greener . God is enough, He is all we need. So, we’ve all heard the saying the grass is greener on the other side of the fence… Well, let me tell you a little story about Pepper the sheep!   Pepper is one of the “twins” that Mom has.   She keeps 4 to 6 lambs every summer for weed patrol around the barns and pens at the home place.   This year she has twins, Salt and Pepper.   Salt and Pepper are like two peas in a pod, except…. Pepper REALLY likes to be wherever Mom is when she is in the barn yard.   Mom is like the Pied Piper of sheep, she calls and the sheep follow.   She has a little tin bucket and the sheep know that good things are in that bucket so they learn to follow her wherever she asks them to go.   This makes it really easy to move them from pen to pen as well as into the trailer when it is time for us to sell the sheep in the late fall.  

  September 11, 2001 ~ What is now known as Patriots Day.  To some it is just a history lesson, a day when we were attacked here, at home, on our own soil.  I remember watching the towers fall on that day.  I watched in silence and in horror, wondering who would do such a thing to innocent people that went into work after kissing their loved ones goodbye that morning.  I cried as did most of our country.   We should never forget that horrible feeling of innocent lives taken, of innocence lost.  But the feeling I really am missing right now? The feeling of togetherness of a country.  We all came together as one in the aftermath of this tragic event.  Where did that America go?  I don't recognize where we are right now.  I know some of you may have seen times such as this, but where is all of the hate for other American's coming from?  John F. Kennedy said "Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer.  Let us accept our own responsibil

  Proverbs 3:5-6 5 Trust in the  Lord  with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 6  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Trust, such a simple word; yet in so many ways it carries tremendous weight.  For fun I regularly ride horses, they weigh over 1,000 pounds and have a mind of their own.  There has to be a mutual trust between us for our relationship to work.  I have to trust that they won’t plant me in the dirt and they have to trust that I won’t put them in a harmful situation.  If I had a relationship based on fear or force with my horse, I couldn’t trust that he would perform to his highest level in a tense situation.  I wouldn’t be able to ride him without the fear of him running off and brushing me under a tree or into a fence.  It would be difficult for me to calm and reassure Louie when he gets frightened of the tree that he has calmly walked by for two previous weeks… Just as Louie and I have to have a trusting relati

  Honey says "Guess What Ya'll!?!?!?"  Diary of a Happy Appy has just been added to the Top 100 Equestrian Blogs!!!  We are Beyond happy!!!  You can follow us by clicking "subscribe" at the top of our page, or clicking this link here,  https://blog.feedspot.com/ equestrian_blogs/ This page started out as a page to post about what was happening with Louie and it has turned into so much more!  I am writing devotionals once a week that are equestrian related as well as other blog posts about things that mean something to me and those I care about.  So, pull up a screen and enjoy your stay! Carrie, Louie & Honey

  John 10:9  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. One of my dear friends has a wonderful gelding named Lucky.  Lucky has always been a rather…. challenging child for lack of better terms, sort of Dennis the Mennis on 4 legs with a swishy tail.  He is very bright, very large and has a tendency to get himself into trouble if not guided in the right direction gently.  Lucky loves to open gates and doors and see what is on the other side that is yummy to eat.  Or just get to the other side of that gate or door with his buddies.  So much so that his pen has to be “Lucky proofed”.  He has child proof locks on his pasture gate, the door going into the barn, he has to be tied a certain way, etc.  But, what is lovely about Lucky is that while he does get into trouble and has his friends join in on the fun, he knows where home is.  He knows that he is safe in his pasture, barn and yard.  His Mom takes the best care of him and the

  Today we look at the “verse” of the Rider’s Prayer, For this love you have given me graces my existence.  I shall cherish it and praise you for it for all the time.    Those two simple sentences, with simple words like grace, cherish and praise for all time.   Words that we sometimes just read and glance over, but if we take a moment. Pause and think about those simple words.   God has graced me with a special love of horses, they have helped to shape who and what I am today.   If I loved the cello, I would be a different person than I am. ·          What love do you have that God has graced your existence with? ·          What has helped to shape and mold you into the person you are today? ·            Those other words “Cherish and Praise you for it for all time”.   The love and gift I have with horses is something that is God-given.   I have honed it and shaped it, but without God’s grace I would not have that gift.   I thank God every day that I have the joy horses br

  So, those of you that know me know that Louie is "the Happy Appy", he is also the very, very opinionated Appy!  With CoVid and most things being shut down right now Louie and his Mini-Me Honey are enjoying the life of country ponies in Rural KS this year.  They are watching cars go by, seeing turkeys and deer, talking to the sheep, cats and the dog (Rawley). But, Louie has a very particular way he wants things done at chore time.....  He is supposed to get fed first!  Every morning and evening!  NO EXCEPTIONS!  Well.... I decided while I was visiting and "helping" Mom with chores I would, feed the cats in the barn, get the hose out to fill the tank and THEN feed His Highness... Have you ever seen the equivalent of a 2 year old toddler wrapped in a large appaloosa body throw a temper tantrum?  😖  That's what I had on Saturday... A very unhappy toddler in the shape of a 9 year horse.  Stomping, bucking, kicking mad; everything but throw himself on the ground ma

  Above all, dear God, fill my life with them. I am not whole without them. When I pass from this world, send my soul to no heaven without them.   I can’t remember a time when I have not had horses in my life.   They have been my one constant through good times and bad.   No matter what seemed to be happening I had a friend that I could lean on when everyone else had disappeared from my life.   When Mom and Dad divorced, the horses were there, when school wasn’t going well – horses were there, boys? Didn’t need them, I had my horses and rodeo’s.   Horses help mold and make me into the person I am today.   There is a poem called “The Rainbow Bridge”   the author is unknown, it talks about a green meadow at the edge of a woods where time stands still where the friends of man and women run when their time on earth is done.   They don’t suffer in pain or sadness and all is restored and renewed until one day they whiney and sniff the air and break free from the heard to meet their

  I stand alone, forgotten, and rusting in the field along the fence line.  My tines arch gracefully behind the seat where the farmer once sat as he guided his powerful but gentle team over the hay field collecting the hay into rows so it could be picked up into the hay wagons.  The big horses have been gone now for years and I was converted to fit a tractor. My iron wheels that once glided so effortlessly are now frozen in time as I sit waiting for someone to remember the old ways from years gone by.    I sit forgotten, a reminder of a gentler time when the world moved at a slower pace when man, beast and machine worked as one to bring in the harvest from the field to the barn.

Where I’m From Carrie Cross   I am from green grass, from Arm & Hammer and the AMX. I am from the Midwest, the Deep South and the Great North. I am from the wind in my hair, sun on my face, the piney woods, endless rides on magical steeds and magnolias.   I am from Gramma’s cookie jar and flaring tempers and Carol and Chip. From Do as I say, not as I do and Get up and try again. I am from going where the wind blows you and Not having roots like trees.   I am from reading, watching, listening and Learning as I go. From everything’s ok, nothings wrong, don’t cry or I’ll give you something to cry about. From the deep, scary voice of Grampa Cross and the kind no-nonsense words of Gramma.   I am from the far reaching branches of family trees so spread out they don’t know each other. I am from picture books and photo albums, long ago lost, but the memories are still alive in my mind…