Summer Ends, Fall Training Begins...

Whew!  What a summer! I can’t believe it’s almost over already. As I was walking through the store tonight while running errands, I noticed that all of the “back to school” stuff is out. I said to myself “Where in heck did summer go?!” It feels like just yesterday it was May and now it’s the end of August. Time goes by too fast for me sometimes…

I just got home from being on the go, non-stop, for almost 6 week’s straight visiting family, traveling; it’s nice to be able to sit down for more than 10 minutes. lol

I haven’t been on this blog in forever so I have a feeling this post is going to be quite long. So grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and relax for a few.

First off, my summer was a blast! I got to spend time with lots of family and friends that are very special to me. We had lots of fun together traveling, laying on the beach, cooking out, being crazy. There’s never a dull moment when my cousins and I get together.

                       Some of my cousins and I on the rocks on Bois Blanc Island, Mi.

For sad news, my local horse club has disbanded so there were no horse shows this summer. I mainly just rode a friend’s horse and worked with my own horse when I had time. I hope to have more time to ride now that I’m home.

Me on my friend's horse, Buddy.

Now, for the dogs…

Tonight marked the start of fall training. After I threw all of my bags in my room I immediately began getting all of my dog gear out and organized. Of course I couldn’t wait to hook up the crazy fur balls, so I did!

It was a bit warm so we just went for a short run. Everything went smoothly, no tangles, no crashes; I’m quite proud of that first run!

(Although, the first run did result in a broken screen. Ellie was not happy about being left behind so she took it upon herself to make a doggy door out of the window in the feed room…)

It was so nice to be back behind a team of dogs again. It’s like being hooked up to a happy drug—you just take a deep breath and completely relax once you step on the cart/sled. Well, at least I do anyway.

I’m happy to get a bit of an early start this year as we have lots of work ahead of us this fall. Sydney and Char need to be able to lead by the time racing season comes since Jacob retired and I need to get myself in shape for canicross (haha yeah, we’ll see how that goes…the getting-myself-into-shape-to-run-two-miles part anways).

Sydney has taken to being a sled dog like a duck takes to water. All she needs to do is get some experience under her belt…err harness and to learn the commands. I’m hoping she will be my next main leader.

I also want to give Jazz a chance to try leading a few times to see if she likes it. It would be awesome if my whole racing team could lead so that way everyone could run in different spots on the team more often (I like to rotate what position each dog runs so they don’t get board of running in the same place all the time).

I also neglected some changes that need to be made to the dog yard before winter comes so I have those to keep me busy this fall also.

It never seems to be a dull moment around here either, I guess. Lol

Well I have lots of unpacking and cleaning to do so I better run.

I hope everyone had a good summer! 

     (Side Note: Unfortunately my camera broke or else I would have lots of pictures to go along with this post. I'm going to have to borrow one from somebody until I can buy my own because a photographer without a camera is pretty much a natural disaster... )