Clinton Anderson

So I just got back from a Clinton Anderson tour and it was amazing! I've seen a lot of his DVD's so there wasn't much new information but it has motivated me a lot!

For those of you who don't know who Clinton is, he is a world renowned horse trainer. He has won the best horse trainer in the world title a couple of times. Anyway, to get to see him live and see that horses can be trained and become very nice to be around was exciting. The other thing I really liked was that I felt like I could have fixed some of the "problem horses" that they brought in.

He also said somethings that I thought apply to all of us, horse people and non alike! The first is that to change ourselves we first have to change our attitude. If only we all realized this when we mad our New Year's Resolutions a few weeks ago, me included. No it's important that we push ourselves with goals and such but it's also important that we'll fail in our goals unless we first change our attitudes about whatever our goals are about.

The second saying was that success is just around the corner, we just need to walk a few more steps to reach it. This reminds me of something my freshman Book of Mormon teacher taught me. He always said that in astronomy that you can see the farthest on the darkest nights and said in our darkest moments if we look we can see the farthest. I've had those moments where everything seems like it's against you and you don't know what to do. If we turn towards the Lord then he can show us things that we might never had noticed during our time of plenty so to speak.

Wow, I wasn't planning on going Churchy but I guess that's what happens.

Anyway, I think this is going to be the last week of the Christmas beard. I'm helping out the YA's on Saturday and I'm sure that John won't let me go if I don't shave. It's been a lot of fun having the beard! So many people have said they really like it and a few have said I need to shave, but there will always be those trying to kill the buzz! Don't worry though, I'm planning on shaving in increments and taking pictures in between!

So until next time - peace!

New Year, New resolve

Ok so it's been awhile, I get it. I've been on tour with the Forgotten Carols and I'm claiming that is the reason I've stopped blogging. Oh well!

I feel as though I should apologize for leaving my last post up there. It was a bit bitter, ok so maybe a lot but hey, I'm a 28 year old single Mormon guy, cut me some slack. Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better and am working on being better. So with the new years comes new year resolutions. Now I use to be against resolutions cause I think you should make goals when you need to and not wait till some designated date to improve yourself. But there is something about a new year that makes me want to make a goal. And the best way to keep your goals is tell others so they keep you accountable. So here we go in no particular order.

I want to ride my horse more. This one steams from me not riding from October to January. I figure once a week is a good goal. I might have to up it come springtime but for the winter once a week would be very good. I've bought some flannel lined jeans and some other cold weather gear so I can go ride down the back road.

Ok, next is to work out more and win this years contest between my brothers. Last year if you remember we had a contest for best in shape. Well we didn't really follow through on that one but this year I feel will be different. We've changed the events to be Push ups, Pull ups, Standing Long Jump, Vertical Leap and a swimming event. This way everything can be done at the reunion and doesn't require a gym. I've got me a pull up bar and have already double the number of pull ups I could do!

Next contains a few different things but can be grouped into Church activity. I've already felt the pulls to go inactive and know that at my age a lot of single guys go inactive. I want to go to FHE every week. I know it sounds simple but lots of things pull you away so it's something to strive for. My ward is also doing a Book of Mormon Challenge again where they would like us to read cover to cover before the super activity in June. I also want to go to the temple more regularly. Once a month is the usual so I'll go for that.

The last has to do with Money. I really need to be more financially responsible. I want to track what I do with my money. I also want to just put away 10% of everything. So 10 to the Lord, 10 to savings leaving me with 80% to be responsible with. Along with this I really need to get my own place(unless my parents go on another mission...ha ha ha!) I've been looking a lot lately at homes and apartments and Condos and such. The biggest problem there is my horse. I either have to take him with me or move close by where he's at.

There you have it. Ask me about these goals and make sure I'm doing it. Also if you want to tell me your goals then I'll ask you about them too! That way we all can improve ourselves.

Anyways, here's to a fine 2009!

Oh and I need to add that today is my second anniversary of horse ownership! It's been a great two years Big Mac! Here's to many more!

The perfect music!

Ok, for all you readers out there,
I found the perfect music for my last post!

I hope you enjoy!

Ramblings of a 28 year old Single Mormon Man

On the eve of the wedding of two really good friends I find myself reflecting on life. Life is most defiantly something that you least expect it to be. As I sit here, the last of my good friends from High School who is still single I can't help but think that in High School it was I who was thought to be the first one married. Now I have friends with two kids! I keep moving on to other single friends but they keep getting married. I guess the moral of this story is any guy that wants to get married should come be my friend and it'll happen. I've also had a good streak at dating girls who then immediately get married after dating me. This I've known about for some time now too so girls if you want to get married then come and date me :)

My second thought is that of time. What happens to it? I think to myself (cause everyone else is married) that there are 6 days in the week, leaving out Sunday as a "day of rest". Now most of us work so during 5 of those days we are at work but we have evenings. This is how my week goes most of the time...
Monday - FHE, there is some time left over here for example today I did my laundry!
Tuesday - Should be at the Family History Center since I'm over that committee, Institute is that night and now we are doing visits as a EQ presidency.
Wednesday - I claim this as my night to go ride my horse but usually have to plan HT here or other activities.
Thursday - Here we have ward visits which I should go to but we also have our EQ presidency meetings here too.
Friday - Date night, which usually turns into some sort of Ward Activity or group party or something else.
Saturday seems like it should be available to do what I want to right? But it never happens. Luckily since I have season tickets to the most Awesomeness College Football Team in the Nation, then I rearrange things to be free for these(although get in trouble cause I don't make it to all the parties).

Wow! So I apologize for this post but I think I'm just frustrated with dating and the such. It seems like I can never find a girl who likes me AND I like her. I've had many a girl express interest in me, i.e. the girl who told me if I asked her for a date she would say August after knowing each other for about two weeks! And I've liked a lot of girls but am always turned down nicely. I guess when both like each other then you get married so obviously it hasn't happened for me yet.
Anywho, though I would post cause I haven't in a really long time. But now at least you should sort of understand. Oh and the last thing is the EQ pres. just got engaged so I'm on the short list and really don't want to be. Oh well, I've got to seek the kingdom of God first and then...Jacob 2:18-19!

District Horse Show

Wow! Where did July go?
Parents came home and are gone again...to Chicago this time.
Went to Bear Lake for a week for the Reunion...Awesome (pictures later maybe)
Got called as 1st councilor in the Elders Quorum...explains why I don't have any more time!

Anyway, I do want to post about the District horse show I was in Yesterday and Friday. It was a ton of fun! I've never been to a horse show let alone competed in one so it was a great experience.

My first event, and only one on Friday, was the Pony Express. The Pony Express is a relay where your horse is unsaddled and there is a saddle in a circle out in the arena. You must lead your horse to the circle, put the saddle on, ride around a barrel at the end of the arena and come back, take the saddle off and then lead your horse back across the starting line. There are five people on one team. It took our team just under 5 min. for all five of us to go. We totally smoked everyone! The bad news was that after all the events were over with then the people in charge talked it over and said we were disqualified. Them talking it over is illegal so we should have won, but we didn't protest because we moved on to Region just because there weren't enough teams to go. The other event that I helped with was the ribbon pull. This is a race to see who can pull a ribbon off of a steers back the fastest. I was running the chutes to let the cows out. Well you have to move the steers to the front of the chute to get them to come out right and to get them to the front you grab their tails and pull the tails forward, and this gets them to move forward. Well I went to grab one of them by the tail and little did I know it had just crapped all over its tail! It was nasty!
So Saturday morning came bright and early. I was up at 5 so we could get everything ready and get there on time. This is on the ride up, my sister-in-law was caught taking a little nap!
When we got there I was informed that I was in the Potato Race! I was just an alternate but someone dropped out so I was in. In the potato race there are two barrels, one on each side of the arena. One has 12 potatoes in it and the other is empty. You ride your horse to the first one and stab a potato with this lance you have in your hand, you then ride back to the second barrel and fling the potato back into the barrel and then cross the finish line and hand off the lance to the next person in line. Well I had never done this in a cowboy hat and my horse was being stupid so we missed the potato and had to go back to pick it up. Luckily we still placed forth which is good enough to move on to region!
The last event I did is called Wild Cow Milking! This was a ton of fun. The release a bunch of wild momma cows out into the arena. Then there are two guys on a team. The first one is on horseback and has to rope one of the cows. The second guy runs up and has to "mug" the cow, which basically means he has to manhandle the cow while the first guy comes and tries to milk the cow. He just has to get enough for a drop of milk to run out of the bottle. Well I was the mugger and my brother the roper/milker. It took us about a minute and a forty five seconds to rope the cow and then we got it mugged and milked in about ten, only to run down to the circle and before we could turn the bottle and dump out the milk the time had expired. Luckily only two teams actually posted a time so they are letting us move on to region! Oh and I should mention that our cow had horns about a foot and a half long, and she wanted to use them against me!
Overall the two days was a ton of fun! I invite everyone to come to Region on Aug. 22-23 in Logan to see me wrestle a huge milk cow that has never been milked before! We will also be competing in a club drill event where we will all be wearing the same matching outfit.
I should mention, that if you see a cowboy with his hat tipped down....it means he's looking for a fight!
And if you see a cowboy with his hat tipped up...then you've got a happy cowboy!