01/03/2026
“You’re gonna mess up a bunch of times, but the ONLY WAY you fail is if you QUIT!” Ryan Rose
*** TONIGHT Saturday 2-28 *** See Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune. About 30–60 minutes after sunset. Look toward the western to southwestern horizon. Mercury and Venus will glow low near the horizon, while Jupiter and Saturn will shine brighter higher up. Uranus and Neptune may require binoculars or a small telescope. TOO COOL
We are not riding next week as I will be out of town. Craig will keep things rolling at home. See you all the week of 3-8. Too early for this much heat. But, fortunately, high temps each day are short lived and we don’t get as hot as the city. Spread the word and please help find a few more great volunteers and riders to join the fun. We have space both days. Please - Please - let me know if you will not be able to come and help so I can properly schedule. Thanks.
Sunday, Craig was working on “whacking” the w**ds by the horse pens, so I decided to take a hike to the power line road in preparation (and as a test) for my trip next week to Antelope Canyon. Monday Spirit and I had a good ride and workout in the arena. Craig helped with some testing to see how she responded to a horse leader while the rider was squeezing their legs and doing various balance challenges. She did very well. Jason came out and pulled the shoes off of Liber-T as they were not doing what we wanted and needed to go. She is doing very much better now. There was a nice sunset to end the day. Tuesday I prepped the arena for class. Ellie and Karen arrived and got Spirit and Liber-T out. Karen did a great job warming Spirit up and riding her. Ellie played with Liber-T, who was very happy to be barefoot once again. Dori came and mounted up - for the first time - on Spirit. They did very well together working on various riding patterns. Natalie arrived and mounted up on Liber-T. She played with stopping in the hoop, bean bag tossing, jousting and puzzles - all while working on guiding Liber-T. Meanwhile, Karen got back on Spirit for another nice ride. Cayden came and got busy doing ground games with Spirit. He then mounted up and worked on his reining skills, jousting, stopping at targets and weaving cones. Not to miss out, Ellie hopped back on Liber-T. Both enjoyed the ride. Great riding everyone. Wednesday was paperwork day, partly because it needed to be done and partly because w**d whacking was happening near horse play areas. We had a nice sunset to enjoy. Thursday Liber-T and I had a great ride. We pulled those corrective shoes on Tuesday and she is PERFECT. So I took the chance to ride my friend. Another pretty sunset ended our Thursday and still another on Friday. Saturday, Cat arrived first with her granddaughters, Bethany and Emily. Then Lisa, Saanvi and Smitha came. A full house. Chores got done, Liber-T and Spirit were prepared for class and we headed to the arena. Lisa got Spirit ready, Smitha and Cat got Liber-T ready while the rest of us set up the arena. After both horses got ridden a bit, we let the girls ride. They will have sore smiling muscles this evening. Nice job everyone. Charleigh and Rhett came for their class. Charleigh groomed Liber-T, while Rhett got Spirit all shined up. They then took their horses around to see where everything was before mounting up. Charleigh did her positions very well and Rhett wanted to do positions as well - especially backwards. Charleigh practiced using reins to stop, go over hill and jousting. Rhett also worked on his reining, hill riding and jousting. They ended with a nice trail ride. Kaleb came and got on Liber-T very easily today, requiring less and less support. He started with pushing passenger, which really gets his core loosened up. He then did arm raises. We asked for very slow, then faster and got some nice smooth movement. This was so good, we kept up on it and added clapping hands and raising both arms at once. He did the shape puzzle, used the reins well to stop Liber-T in the hoop. WOW a great ride today. The girls got a chance to learn about cleaning pens before riding, grooming after riding, putting horses away, feeding grain and setting up grain for tomorrow. COOL! Check out the planet viewing this evening. Very special ! ! !
Our horses are crucial in our mission to provide therapeutic services to our clients and to keep them healthy and happy. AND - Although hay is in for the year, we will need to purchase more again next fall - so there is always a Hay Fundraiser. Thank you to those who have donated in the past. We purchase enough each fall for the year so we can get consistent quality hay. The best time to purchase is at the end of summer when prices are lowest and the hay is freshest, so that’s when we do it. I don’t know what this year will bring, but we plan for $25 for 1 bale of hay. You can donate through Zelle to [email protected] or send a check. PayPal works through our “Donate” button, but they do charge a processing fee of almost 3%, so less than what you donated comes to us. You can make a donation any time and receive dollar for dollar tax credit on your AZ State taxes for 2025. Again, the best way is with a check or through Zelle and [email protected]. We are an Arizona Qualified Charitable Organization (QCO) and a donation will reduce your AZ State Taxes. Use QCO Code 22306 on Form 321 to receive a tax credit on your AZ State taxes - for 2025 up to $495 for a single person and $987 for couples. For all you Fry’s VIP shoppers, please sign up at Fry’s Rewards choosing Code and Fry’s will donate to Stable Influence. We get almost $400/year from Kroger each year. Shopping on the web? Go through iGive.com or GoodShop.com e-malls, choose to support Stable Influence through your on-line purchases. The e-mall merchants will donate a percentage of the purchases to us. You still get great prices, and we get a bonus. It’s a Win Win. THANKS!
The loan we had to get for a new car for Stable Influence is shrinking. But, it’s still not fully funded. So - Fundraiser - A car for Stable Influence is still out there. Anything you can donate will be much appreciated. You can donate through “Zelle” to our e-mail address - [email protected]. A big thank you to those who have made donations.