Cast of Characters

Featured in this blog will be, of course, me, the Original Desperate Horsewife.  I have spent the last several years navigating the exciting waters of transitioning from corporate  management to full-time horse owner and non-pro showing enthusiast, and now stay-at-home mom and blogger.  I also help to manage the business that my husband and I started in 2012.  By manage I mean trying to remember to pay the company bills and complete payroll for my husband’s assistant on time, and repeatedly asking him when the next commission check is arriving.  Last year I added the title of “Occasional Substitute Teacher” to my list of endeavors, and next to “Mom” I have to say that I think it is my favorite job yet.

My two darling kids will also be main subjects.  My daughter Annabelle, who I’ll refer to as “Horsecrazy” a lot of the time is nine going on eighteen  She is in third grade.  My baby boy Zachary, who is seven and a second grader will be called “Batman”.  He loves Batman.  Probably more than he loves me.

My husband Greg will probably inadvertently contribute material from time to time also.  He works more than full-time running our mortgage brokerage company.   Desperate Hubby Greg also plays lead guitar in a band on occasion as he has for the past 20+ years. The band is called BandCamp (yes, after the old movie scene).  I’m proud to say that I had nothing whatsoever to do with the naming of the band. But they are really good anyway.  In his other spare time, Desperate Hubby flies small airplanes, hunts and fishes as much as possible, and tries to get in a golf game now and then.  Batman loves to accompany him in these endeavors whenever he can escape to do so.

Guest appearances will no doubt be seen from time to time by my lovely and accomplished “Bonus Daughters” who don’t live with us and who we don’t see nearly enough (hint, hint girls).  The twins graduated last year from Boise State and work full-time as a middle-school teacher and in real estate, respectively.  Brainiac Sam is a junior at BSU working toward her future career as a Physicians Assistant.  The older girls are all beautiful, smart and very funny.  I was so fortunate to be able to be a small part of their life growing up, and I sure look forward to watching their fantastic odyssey as adults.  The are collectively called “Sissies” by the younger kids.

Our family also includes several animals.  We have five horses, including Reno the Little Black Pony, Freckles the Wonder Mare, and Grumpy.  Grumpy is an old man now, but he taught Annabelle a lot about the ins-and-outs of showing horses in his day.  Annabelle got a new horse this spring named Doc, and they have been a fiercely competitive team in the reining and cow horse world pretty much since day one.  Or maybe two. I got a new horse this summer too, a beautiful three year old mare name Layla.  Layla is in training right now to perfect her moves so that I can show her next year in the cow horse derbies.

We also have four dogs,  Mattie the Old Lady Dog, a miniature schnauzer that we acquired quite by accident almost sixteen years ago and have loved every moment since. Next in the line-up is Milo, a floppy black poodle-ish mutt that we got a couple of years ago so we would have a “horse-show” dog.  Milo is a well-mannered traveler, and,  in his time with us he’s become a well-traveled dog.  This summer we picked up a rat terrier from the local animal shelter named Chewie.  Chewie is a small package of the best and worst dog traits imaginable all rolled into one shiny black bundle.  He is the most loving and cuddly dog you could ever hope to meet, but when he is not showering us with affection he is chasing the horses and occasionally pooping behind Batman’s bedroom door. Last but not least is another accidental acquisition we made this summer named Hailey, or as we usually call her Hailey-Dan.  Hailey-Dan is a gorgeous mature golden retriever that we found and lost and found again.  I wrote a coupe of blogs about Hailey-Dan in August and September of 2015 that explain this a little more.

The family is rounded out by the cats.  We have three or four female barn/pet cats that mainly live on the porch but do come into the house on occasion to be dressed up as babies and put to sleep in the doll beds.  Well, that’s probably not why they come in the house, but that’s what ends up happening.  We also have Sky, the worlds coolest tomcat who lives most of the time at the end of our lane in an abandoned boat owned by the neighbors.  He apparently got really tired of wearing girl’s clothing.

The  main subjects I will pick on will probably be my family and animals, but you never know…… I have been known to wax poetic about friends too from time to time.  And total strangers.