Spurs and Cowboy Christmas....

Spurs:

It's been a long time coming...For the longest time, I refused to wear spurs.  It was my feeling that "if I needed spurs to ride a particular horse, I didn't want to be on him."
But, over the years I've had many "horse people" ask me WHY I'm not riding with them and then they'd go on to tell me all the reasons I SHOULD ride with them.  example.....

1. "If the horse knows I have them, they respond better."
2. "If something were to happen I could use them"....(I always wondered what that meant?) In my way of thinking, if a horse decides to start bucking etc. I certainly wouldn't want to spur him, and REALLY piss him off!

And they always made a point to tell me it's a "safety precaution"  for me to have them.  Hmmm....?

Well, after watching my trainer use them while working with my horse, I realized she wasn't "hurting" him, she wasn't "digging her heels" into him nor was she "jabbing" him.  I realized that gentle, proper use of them CAN  get good results.  At least SHE did.

Now, most of you don't know this, but LAST YEAR for my birthday (while down in the desert) Bossman and Desert Rose gave me a picture frame with a "picture" of spurs and said that while we were at Cowboy Christmas, I could pick out my spurs!  hmmm....For a year, I kept putting it off as I was still unsure if I wanted to do this....
But, I decided to give it a try, and in true DR and BM style, they picked out a beautiful pair for me!

I just love them!  
And, here is a view of the stirrup straps we chose.  Don't know if you can see it too well, but they are brown with black inlay.  What I love about these is they match or at least have the same concho as is on the Headstall, Bridal and reins that I bought for Durango.  Whoo Hoo!

So, once at home, I had my DH help me get them on my boots.  A good amount of tugging, pulling and stretching went into this process..... Finally they were on.
I wore them to the barn the next day, and they seemed to work pretty good.  I didn't rely on them much, but I did notice quick response when I tried them with a gentle pressure.....
However, when I was finished with the workout, and was dismounting, they basically fell off, just slid right off my boot!  I guess they have to be put on MUCH tighter....I will need to punch a hole or two, and cut off some excess strap.  But they will be great when I get that completed.
And, I'm able to do that because I also bought a "very nice" (as a gentleman next to me in line said...)  leather hole puncher while at Cowboy Christmas too!

But, my largest purchase was this headstall with matching breast collar and reins.  I made the mistake of "hesitating" for a moment on it...and that dang Desert Rose said, just chomping at the bit, "Well, if you don't buy it, I'm gonna buy it for Jesse!"  Humph!  She's always snatching things from me to buy!  But, I'm glad I did buy it....

 I can't wait to show you pictures of him in it.  I keep forgetting when we are working/riding.  Oh and, don't worry about poor Jesse, he got  a gorgeous set too!

Now...you all know what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, hee! hee!  But, I just can't keep this secret!   We had a fabulous time!  I didn't win much, but didn't really lose much either, so I call that a draw.
I LOVED all the shopping, even tho my feet were screaming at the end of each day....So much so that I went up to the room, got my slippers on and went back down to the casino in those!  Ugh...I SO remember when I could do heels all day and night...."sigh"

We got to go to a "private, invitation only" cocktail party hosted by a large CA. riding group.  Well......all I can say is, this party absolutely blew us out of the water!  We were ALL impressed at everything from the FABULOUS food, to the AMAZING theme rooms!  We thought the tickets were quite pricey for a "heavy appetizers and drinks."  But, we decided to give it a go and see WHAT could be worth all that!  Let me tell you,....  IT WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY.
I'll try to condense it for you....

First:  This is who/what  greeted us when we got off the "private" elevator.   Oh yea, we had been told it was an Indian Theme.....ok!

As we walked through this BEAUTIFUL VILLA we see this....
Every kind of food you could imagine: Here is the Lobster, Crab, Shrimp and Sushi table when we first came in.

Then, while we are filling a tiny plate with a couple of these yummies, we turn around and realize the girls were all naked except for little loin cloth/G strings.  They were completely covered in body paint!

And it was beautifully done!

Well now...this is something new for me....I don't usually take pictures of girls, but my gosh, there were like works of art! And they were only too happy to oblige for picture taking....

Every booze had it's own theme table with 3 girls "in appropriate costumes" for that particular alcohol.
Such as:  The Vodka Bar (my favorite for the night...)  The entire bar was made out of ice! They poured you any kind of vodka drink you wanted, through the upper ice sculpture, it ran THROUGH the picture and out came my drink, VERY COLD....

Crown Royal had their own table:

All decked out in purple.....(Desert Rose's favorite corner for the night...They told her "She was their best customer".... hee! hee!)

And, Jack Daniels had their own table:

All decked out in "what else?"  Black and white....(Bossmans favorite colors and hangout....)

And Patron had their own table....

However, I didn't manage to get a picture of that table, BUT, I DID manage to get a picture of myself with the "Patron King Billionaire"  John Paul Dejoria!

For those of you who "might not know"...he is the Founder of Paul Mitchell Hair products. I happen to use "nothing but Paul Mitchell coloring" so I put Bossman up to getting us introduced.   But, Hair products are just the beginning of his works....
DeJoria is involved in a number of other business ventures. The Patrón Spirits Company he co-founded in 1989 with business partner Martin Crowley sells more than 2 million cases of tequila annually.^[9] He was a founding partner of the House of Blues nightclub chain, subsequently sold to Live Nation for $350 million in 2006, and has interests in Pyrat Rum, Ultimat Vodka, Solar Utility, Sun King Solar,Touchstone Natural Gas, Three Star Energy, Diamond Audio, a Harley Davidson dealership, a diamond company (DeJoria), mobile technology developer ROK AMERICAS and the John Paul Pet company, which does hair and personal grooming for animals. 
I have to say...this was my favorite meeting of the night.  Desert Rose introduced me to "someone" named John (supposedly one of THE best horse trainers in the world.  Very nice guy but I didn't know of him like I did John Paul when he walked into the room so...)
 Anyway,  there was much more going on with all these "theme rooms!"  Notice the blue wristband on my wrist?  Everyone who was  invited  to this  party had to get one of these prior to entering the elevator that was taking up only  guests to the "private Villa."  
As we wandered throughout.....We heard what I thought was "Doo Wap" music...Could that really be?

I could have stayed in this room all night!  I love this kind of old music....

In this room, also themed girls making "VODKA SNOWCONES, CORNDOGS AND POPCORN"  all for your trying....
Then as we move on, we find none other than a Pastry Chefs DREAM!  

You got it!  This is a tower, clear to the ceiling filled with cupcakes and caramel apples!  Not to mention every kind of pastry around the perimeter of the room!  No...I didn't eat anything!  WHAT WAS I THINKING!?  I was just so impressed that I kept wandering to see WHAT ELSE there was!  Ahem...and the drinks were flowing freely...I only had two hands!

And movin on down the road....


Next, I find "THE CHOCOLATE ROOM".....OMG, I'm dying about now...(You can come get me when you're ready to leave....)

Everything you can possibly imagine to dip into a huge chocolate fountain, every kind of chocolate decadent pastry one could want, and finally, something I've been wanting to try for a long time....(it seems to be the new "taste combination" everywhere) is CHOCOLATE DIPPED BACON.  This is where I found the Bossman....hee! hee!  We laughed over how much we liked the chocolate bacon!

Even tho, I could have stayed THERE all night too, peer pressure said...."We heard there's a Cotton Candy Room!"  

Onward!!!
It's hard to tell from this picture, but this VERY PINK room was completely done in Cotton Candy.  Even the Chandelier had it hanging from it.  There was this huge "bedsize" mound of Cotton Candy in center.....

 And all around the perimeter, were beautiful decanters filled with every kind of candy you can imagine!  I only got this one picture, and, I did taste in here,  it was just too easy to pick some off.

And what's a party without Karaoke? 
After a couple of FABULOUS singers that just got up out of the crowd, the next thing we hear is Dolly Parton!

Ok, well it was HER VOICE for sure, but this little gal even had her looks!  Hell, for all I was knowing at that time, it could've BEEN her!  She was very tiny, and I just figured this lady had surgery to look like her....but, she just began singing among those of us standing around tipping our cocktails....and we were "sorta" dancing in place to all the fun music.


So, these are the highlights of this fancy little shindig we attended.  I can honestly say, I don't think I'll ever get to go to a better party!  And the weird thing is, I didn't even know anyone!  Except for the one girl who was wandering through the very crowded room and stopped, looked right at me, squeeled "Hi! How are you!"  I smiled and said "Fine! it's been so long!"  We did that kiss on the cheek thing and I said "Well, you have a great time ok?"  She said "Oh, I will!"   DR and BM looked at me confused like and said "Who was that?"   I said..."I don't know, but I've always wanted to do that at a cocktail party,  so I just went with it!  hee! hee!
Check THAT one off the bucket list!....


I only had one regret the next morning....And that was, that I didn't eat/sample all of that food!


I hope you enjoyed this party...  ;-)